Sheep of the Shepherd - Ezekiel 34

Grace Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our Text today is the Old Testament Lesson, Ezekiel 34, especially verse 11. 

Dear friends in Christ.  When you were a child, did you ever pretend to be an animal?  What kind of animal did you want to pretend to be?  I know that we did, my brothers and I would play games and pretend to be Elephants, or talk like parrots, or maybe we would chase each other around the yard while barking at each other.  Sometimes we would argue about which animal was the coolest, you know how it goes.  I would say to my one brother, "You pretend to be a cat, and I will pretend to be a dog."  Woo ha ha ha.  Then my brother would of course argue back, because no one wants to be one of the wimpy animals, we always wanted to be the cool animals, you know with sleek coats and fangs.  Well in our Old Testament lesson today, God compares us to a group of animals.  And unfortunately, the animal that God tells us we are like is not one that my brothers and I would have considered very cool to play.  God compares people in our lesson to Sheep.  That's right, God compares us to sheep, not very smart, stinky, furry sheep.  However, sometimes we are

LOST SHEEP IN NEED OF A SHEPHERD

Lost sheep with out a shepherd?  What does this mean?  I mean, first off I am not lost, am I?  And I am obviously a little smarter than a sheep, at least better looking.  So the question is then, how am I a lost sheep?  How can God even compare me to a lost sheep? 

I.                    Like sheep we have no direction of our own and easily stray.

Well, the answer to that is pretty easy if we stop and think about it, isn't it?  We all know that sheep are herd animals, they go around in flocks, right?  Sheep follow other sheep around.  But they don't always stay where they are supposed to.  Sometimes, sheep get separated from the flock.  Perhaps they see some nice new green grass over the hill, and they pursue it.  Or perhaps they stop paying attention as the rest of the flock moves ahead to new grazing ground.  Sometimes, sheep get scared.  Whatever the case, at times sheep can become separated from the flock. 

When Ezekiel was writing our Old Testament Lesson, Israel was straying from God, and instead trusting in other Gods.  At this time, Ezekiel and the rest of his country had been taken into exile in Babylon.  It was easy for them to lose faith.  God had given them a land flowing with Milk and Honey, and now they were forcibly taken from that land.  They lost faith, because what kind of a God would allow them to suffer?  What kind of God would inflict this much pain on his chosen people?  The people had lost everything, including hope.  They strayed because they no longer believed the words of God to be truth.  They were leaving the flock of the church and being scattered throughout the world.   What's more, they began to trust in other things.  They began to trust other Gods, and they began to trust in themselves.

Well, what about you and me?  Do we always stick close to our flock, the Church?  Unfortunately, the answer is no.    At times we too lose hope in the words of God.  Perhaps we too do not trust God's Word.  No, I know that we have not lost everything as those in Ezekiel's time had.  No, we are not being carried away into exile, as the people in Ezekiel's time had.  But don't we lose hope anyway?  Don't we become complacent in our lives, and lose the hope we have in the Gospel, trusting instead in ourselves?  We are a lot like one of those sheep, who see the nicer grass over the hill and wander off to eat it, because we feel like it.  That is how we are, people who are so inwardly focused on ourselves, that we don't care about others.  We don't do our best caring for the weak and sick of the church.  We don't do these things because we are sinners.  In our sin, we daily stray from the one true faith, leaving behind the comfort of the flock, all because we are only concerned with ourselves. 

In a way, we too act like "herd animals."  We sometimes do things, not because we want to, but because other people are.  I'm sure you have heard the question asked, "If everyone was jumping off a cliff because it was cool, would you too?"  Sad to say, it appears that way occasionally.  We become more interested in what other people think than what the truth is.  This happens in our faith when we become obsessed with fads.  Whether it is the latest self help book, or the latest growth program, we get caught up in what everyone else is doing.

When this happens, we are like sheep, going astray.  We are blindly wandering about, not knowing which way to turn or where to go.  We call our wandering "freedom", but in the end we are slaves to ourselves, and little more than dead men walking. 

II.                Like sheep we have many enemies lurking around us. 

How else are we like Sheep?  As we know from fables and other children's stories, sheep have an enemy, the big bad wolf.  The big bad wolf is always sneaking into the flock, trying to devour one of the sheep.  Aesop's fables tell of a wolf who even dressed as a sheep, just so he could get into the flock and have a nice tasty snack of a lamb.  Sheep are always in danger of being eaten by some sort of enemy.

The people in Ezekiel's day also had an enemy.  The enemy that they faced was made manifest in the nation of Babylon.  Babylon had come and oppressed the people, and then defeated them in battle and led them away into exile.  Their enemy was very easy to see. 

Yes, we too, just like sheep, and just like the people from Ezekiel's day, have an enemy.  Our enemy is death and the devil.  And just like sheep have the enemy of a wolf waiting to devour them, St. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 5:8 that "our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."  In fact our enemy has us right where he wants us.  He is always lurking around us telling us one of several lies.  He is either saying to us, "You haven't done anything wrong," or "Your sin is too great, you will never be saved."  Both of these lies he whispers into our ears.  And we believe them, because we want to.  We want to believe both of them, because when we believe either one of them, we are once again in charge of our own life, and able to leave the fold of the flock. 

III.             Like Sheep we have a shepherd who leads us to eternal life.

But things are not hopeless.  For just as sheep have a shepherd who walks amongst them and leads them to safe pasture, so too do we.  We have a shepherd who walked in our midst.  We have a shepherd who comes to us when we have strayed and carries us on his shoulders back to the flock.  We have a shepherd who would rather die than let enemies steal us from his flock.  Ezekiel tells us about our shepherd, saying "I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd."  Our shepherd is this one, the shepherd king, Jesus Christ. 

Though we were scattered, and without hope, alone in the utter darkness of our sin, Christ came and rescued us.  It is told here in our Old Testament Lesson,   "I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness" (v. 12).  Here is the promise for us, rescue from our sin.  How are we rescued?  The Shepherd lays down his life for us. (John 10:11)   He is the one who was without sin, the one who fulfilled God's will completely, willingly suffered, and died for you.  Jesus, though He had not sinned, "became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!" as Paul says in Philippians 2:8.  Jesus was crucified, dying a criminal's death.  He came to rescue his sheep from slaughter, and instead was slaughtered himself.  Isaiah 53:7 tells us that Christ was led like a lamb to the slaughter.  The blood of the shepherd cleansed the sheep.  The blood of the shepherd cleanses you. 

Where does this happen?  In the waters of Holy Baptism, He puts His name upon us.  In the waters of baptism, He washes away all of our sin with His very own blood, and makes us a part of the flock of God.   At the font, Christ claims you for His own flock.  Ezekiel said in our lesson that we will lie down in good grazing land, and there we will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.  This means that the best food available will be ours.  We already get a taste of that glorious food, here at the Altar where we receive Christ's own body and blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins into our very mouths.  In these gifts we receive the priceless treasures of heaven.  In these holy sacraments, the Lord becomes our shepherd, as it says in Psalm 23, and he leads us beside still waters, and prepares us a feast before our enemies. 

Shepherds are interesting people, because they lead their flock while standing in the middle of the sheep.   They walk with sheep before them, and behind them, sheep to the right and to the left.  This is how they lead them.  This is how Christ leads us, from among us.  As He promises in Matthew 28, "Surely I am with you, always, even unto the end of the age."  So he is.  Christ, our Good Shepherd, has walked among us.  Christ walks with us, through the valley of the shadow of death, and we fear no evil.  Not because we are special.  Not because of anything we have done.  Not because we are without sin, but because we are His flock, and He is our shepherd who died and rose again.  Now that we are a part of his flock, we too will rise from the dead.  We too will share in eternal life, and we too, will live in heaven forever.  The hymn "I am Jesus' Little Lamb" puts it well when it says: 

Who's so happy as I am?  Even now the Shepherd's lamb,

And when my short life is ended, by His angel hosts attended,

He shall fold me to His breast, there within His arms to rest. 

Revelation 7:17 says, "For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."  This is our promise:  Jesus our Shepherd ever leading us, and God the Father wiping all tears away from our eyes.  This is our promise in Christ.

Amen.

Series B-Pentecost-2009-G- "The Holy Spirit Testifies About Jesus"

"When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

I did not tell you this at first because I was with you. "Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' Because I have said these things, you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you."

-John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

Grace Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our text today is the Gospel lesson; especially verse 26 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.” Thus far our text.

Dear friends in Christ, I like to go hunting every fall. I enjoy getting out doors and spending some time out in God’s beautiful creation. I especially enjoy it when I got to go pheasant hunting with my dad. My dad owned 2 Britney spaniels, pointing dogs. These dogs would run in huge circles wherever they wished, sniffing for birds. Upon finding some sort of bird, they would come to a perfect stop instantly, and point to where the birds were. They would stay there pointing until we could get up there to flush the birds, so that we, hopefully, could hit them. The dogs loved this, they loved the opportunity to run and to point birds. That’s all they did. They would point the birds and wait for you to flush them. And if you missed, the dogs would be sure to give you a sideways look, as if saying, “I pointed them out to you, and you couldn’t even hit them?

Friends, the Holy Spirit works the same way. The Holy Spirit is always pointing something out to us, Jesus. On this great church holiday, Pentecost, we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit, but even then, it is not just the Holy Spirit that we need to think about, but instead we need to know what the Holy Spirit does. How the Holy Spirit points not to Himself, but instead to Jesus Christ and Him crucified for all of our sins. Our text today makes that clear, as Jesus says, "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me.” The Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus, and Jesus alone. He is like a giant road sign that says “Hey Jesus is this way! Follow me to Jesus”. But sadly, we as sinful human beings sometimes struggle with this. We don’t always understand or listen to the Holy Spirit. And when we misunderstand the Holy Spirit, we misunderstand who He is testifying about, Jesus Christ.

To know how we misunderstand who the Holy Spirit is testifying about, we have to know how it works. Jesus promises in today’s text that He would send a helper, a counselor, who when He comes will guide you in all truth. This promised helper is the Holy Spirit, and even today He does the will of Jesus. He convicts of our sin as we hear God’s word, and He pours out forgiveness through both Word and Sacraments. We call these the Means of Grace, where God works with us poor sinners today. These are the ways that we get the forgiveness of sins earned for us by Jesus on the cross.

But often times today, we ignore the work of the Holy Spirit. We ignore the means by which He is a helper and counselor to us. Instead we neglect and ignore His work, and end up looking for God in all the wrong places.

Take the first of the means of grace, God’s word. How often in our lives do we neglect hearing God’s word. Yes, we come to church, but do we always pay attention to God’s Word outside of Church? I know that for myself, a vicar at a church getting ready to return to studies at the Seminary, it is very difficult to keep in God’s word every day. Sure I look at it, and I study it for sermons, but it is difficult to get into God’s word for the purpose of devotion. There is always something else to do, rather than read a few chapters of scripture. I can watch the television. I can clan the house. I can go for a jog, or a walk. I can find hundreds of different things to do to avoid God’s word, to ignore the work of the Holy Spirit pointing me towards Jesus.

What about you? Do you sufferer from the same excuses that I have? Do you too avoid God’s word? Even today, people struggle to believe whether or not the Bible is the truth, or if it really means what it says. When this happens, we begin to doubt God’s word itself, and when we doubt God’s word, we doubt whether or not the Holy Spirit works through that word or not.

With this the other two means of grace, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper also suffer. It is the very word and promises of God themselves that make those two things so valuable to us as Christians. In Baptism we believe that we are connected to the death and resurrection of Jesus. But if we doubt God’s Word, we can’t really believe that to be true. If we doubt God’s word, Baptism becomes just a nice symbolic act. And the Lords’ Supper is where we eat the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, but if we doubt God’s word, it is a nice little post sermon snack.

With these doubts, the Counselor, the Holy Spirit who Jesus sent, is no longer connected to God’s word. And if it is not connected to God’s word, it isn’t really a help at all. Yes, we may look for the Holy Spirit elsewhere. Perhaps we try to find him in other places, maybe in how we feel, maybe in how we think, maybe in what we “do” for Jesus. But He has not promised to be there. The Holy Spirit promises to work through God’s word, and so it is there that we must find him, even though, that is not where we often times look for Him.

If we ignore the Holy Spirit, it would be like hunting with my dad’s pointers and when they went on point by a bird, searching the next field over looking to scare up the birds. No longer would we actually find any birds to even shoot at. No longer would we be trusting our helper, or our counselor. In the same way, when we ignore the means of grace by which the Holy Spirit work, we ignore who they point to.

But that is not the way we hunt, and it is not the way that Christians find the Holy Spirit. Today on Pentecost, we heard in the Epistle lesson how the Holy Spirit was poured upon the apostles like tongues of flame. How the Holy Spirit came upon them and caused them to go out and testify that day, not about themselves, but instead about Jesus Christ. You see the Holy Spirit isn’t out there pointing at himself, but instead is always telling us about Jesus.

It is the work of the Holy Spirit that tells us today, “Even though you are a sinner, even though you are guilty, Jesus has died for you.” Jesus was beaten and bloodied, for you. Jesus was mocked and ridiculed, for you. Jesus was nailed upon a cross and left to suffer there until death, for you. And then Jesus raised from the dead on the third day and now lives and reigns for all eternity, for you. All of these things were done for you and for your sin. This is the message of the Holy Spirit. And it doesn’t end there. Instead there is more good news in the message of the Holy Spirit. He proclaims now that you are directly connected to that suffering and death.

How? Through those means mentioned above. It is in these means that God gives by the work of the Holy Spirit we are brought to and sustained in faith. In these things, the Holy Spirit shouts, “Jesus died for you,” and now you hear that message with your ears. The Holy Spirit shouts, “You have died and risen with Jesus, because you are washed in the waters of Holy Baptism.” You now partake in that very body and blood of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ at the Lord’s Supper. These things all point us directly to Jesus Christ.

Yes sometimes in our lives we struggle with what we believe about them. Yes sometimes we even ignore them, or mistreat them, but they are always there pointing and directing us back to the cross. Even when we turn and stray away, the Holy Spirit returns us to the correct path.

On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out, and now He testifies about Jesus Christ crucified.

Because of the Holy Spirit’s testimony, the apostles testified about Christ Jesus, and that message through the Holy Spirit has come down over thousands of years, and now the Holy Spirit testifies that same message to you. Jesus Christ has died for your sins. Jesus Christ suffered for you. Jesus Christ loves you, and will be with you always, even to the very end of the age. “There He is in the hearing and study of God’s Word. There He is in the receiving of the Sacraments.” The Holy Spirit is there to point and guide us, so that we cannot miss Jesus.

Friends, the Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus, and how Jesus saves you from your sin. You are now forgiven, because Jesus died for you, and the Holy Spirit tells us about it. That is what Pentecost is all about. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which far surpasses all human understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord unto Life everlasting. Amen.