ONE FLOCK, ONE SHEPHERD

John 10: 11-18

A man walks into a pet store and asks, “Excuse me, but I wonder if you could get me a Baptist dog.” “A Baptist dog,” the store owner said, “I don’t know. Could you give me some time to work on it?” “Sure,” the man said, left his phone number, and left. A month later, the store owner calls. “I think I’ve found the dog you want!” “Great!” the man says, “I’ll be right down.” He gets to the store and sees the store owner with a rather big dog by his side.” “I think this is the dog for you! Watch what he can do!” The store owner commanded “Bible,” and quick as a flash, the dog crossed the store, picked up a Bible in his mouth, and ran it back to the owner. “That’s pretty good!” the potential customer said. “That’s nothin’!” the owner replied, watch this! “Psalm 23” he commanded, and the dog took his paw, fanned through the pages at lightning speed, and stopped on Psalm 23! “Wow,” the customer said. “Very impressive!” “Here’s another one,” the owner said, “John 3:16!” Just as before, the dog’s paw rifled through the Bible until it stopped and pointed to John 3:16. “Amazing!” the customer said. One more thing- does the dog respond to regular commands?” “Hmm,” the store owner pondered. I don’t know. Let’s try it: “Heel!” he commanded, and the dog stood on his hind legs, put his paw on the man’s forehead, and bowed his head. “I can’t take that dog!” the customer cried out. “He’s part Pentecostal!!”

Much fodder has been made about the peculiar differences in the branches of the Church- capital “C.” Some call Presbyterians “God’s frozen chosen!” some lightheartedly call the Roman Catholic Mass the “service of bells and smells!” It makes for good humor unless hard hearts cross the line into hurtfulness. But the lines are blurring in our congregations; Presbyterians sing psalms and chant while Episcopalians play guitars and put words on screens. Some try to avoid denominations and go to so called “independent,” or “non-affiliated” congregations. There is good news and bad news about all of the different houses of worship and the way they do things: the good news is that there is a style of worship for everyone, from jumping and joyful to quiet and contemplative and everything in between. The bad news for those who toe the party line of Baptists, Charismatics, Methodists, Lutherans or Presbyterians is that we are all in this together; we are all sheep in the flock of the Good Shepherd. We do not have a Lord of the Contemporary and another Lord of Traditional; a Lord of the liturgical and another Lord of the Free-Church tradition. There are plenty of jokes about one denomination or another, believing they will be the only ones in Heaven. But the joke will be on them as, to their horror, they will witness the grace of God welcoming people in the next life to whom they hardly spoke in this one. So we might brace ourselves for what is to come: by our attitude, our next life could either be a rude awakening, or a joyful one!

Saying we are all sheep in the flock of the Good Shepherd may be unsettling- to think that we all call Jesus Christ, that we all seek to follow him, and to admit that we all need both a Shepherd and a Savior. If we need a shepherd, that of course, makes us sheep by analogy. Some find that comforting, others disconcerting. Those who are comforted know that sheep cannot protect themselves, find their own food, provide their own drinking water, or ward off pesky flies or diseases. They cannot live without a Good Shepherd; when Jesus called himself “Shepherd,” he counted on our relationship with him being just like that. Do you believe you could live life fully without Jesus? There are plenty who think they can! Yet Jesus, in using that analogy, wants to challenge our perception of independence and hopes that we see our need for dependence, at least when it comes to our salvation! Can you get to heaven by your own works! No, says Paul in the New Testament. Can we be born again without the Spirit of the Living God! No, says Jesus. Can we be like Jesus if we don’t do what he did in the world? No, says Jesus the Good Teacher. Can we be sustained in our spiritual journeys without taking Jesus into us in prayer or word; or especially today, in the sacrament of Holy Communion? No he teaches the Twelve. When he says: ‘Take, eat this is my body,” it is not a statement of cannibalism but of symbolism: we cannot know him unless he is inside of us, dwelling in the Temple of our hearts. “This cup is the New Covenant sealed in my blood. Drink ye, all, of it,” is not an invitation to vampire twistedness; it is Jesus saying “You will need my lifeblood in you; receive it, and I will give you strength.” Those who interpret literally what an allegorical teacher has taught are inevitably lead to wrong conclusions. Jesus taught with metaphor and simile; with parable and with story. So sheep, shepherd, blood, body, these are not terms of the actual but of the metaphorical.

All the words in our passage from John draw me into a pasture somewhere, or to the Upper Room in Jerusalem. I see sheep, helpless and aimless without a shepherd. I see the shepherd, guiding, protecting, and teaching. Then I hear the deliberate words of Jesus: “I have other sheep which are not of this fold.” To denominational people, those words mean there as those in other congregations he also considers to be in his flock; that is either a comforting or disconcerting thought, depending on your position! But to all of us in the great Church Universal, Jesus certainly means that he will welcome and claim the lost who seek to join his flock. Certainly in his day, even though he had the Twelve, they had no special claim to salvation; even the crowds who followed him daily- they had no special claim to salvation. We watch time and time again as the Savior on ordinary days, found and saved blind men, short selfish men, sick women, Samaritan women, and more. “I must bring them also,” he says, “and they will heed my voice.” His conclusion: “So there shall be, one flock, one shepherd.”

In ages past people have been denominationally loyal: Born Baptist, or Methodist, or Catholic, die Baptist, or Methodist, or Catholic. Many are still loyal; but plenty have found other congregations to call home, attracted to their preaching, style of worship, people, or the feeling that the Holy Spirit is working there. These days changing denominations need not draw the gasps that Arlen Specter drew when he changed political parties this week. No matter what your denomination, claim it and support it. The great news is that we all love Jesus, and that Jesus not only loves all the children of the world, but even all creatures great and small. Still, I don’t know what he would think of a Baptist dog …. Let us pray:

Dear Lord Jesus: sometimes the differences we have with other Christians are significant; sometimes they are much ado about nothing. Yet we, and they, still love you, and call you Lord, and that, it seems to us today, makes all the difference. Working to honor you today and always, we remain your faithful followers. Amen.

Jeffrey Sumner May 3, 2009