THE LORD IS OUR SHEPHERD

by Bishop David Chislett

“You were straying like sheep,
but have now returned
to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.”
(1 Peter 2:25)

One of my favourite pictures of Jesus is found in Saint Mark’s Gospel, Chapter 6. He is exhausted and goes to a remote place for a well earned rest. He gets there, and then discovers that a vast crowd of well over five thousand is waiting for him. His heart goes out to them because, it says, they are like “sheep without a shepherd” (Mark. 6:34).

They are not bad people, but they are trying to live out of their own resources. They think they can successfully run their own lives. In reality, without a shepherd to care for them, to lead them, to guide them, to protect them, they are starving, impoverished. And no-one seems to care - except Jesus. So he teaches them and he feeds them.

I suppose you realise that when Jesus says we are like sheep he is not paying us a compliment! I grew up in the city, but it wasn’t long into my time in sheep farming areas that I realised just how stupid sheep could be, and how in desperate need of guidance and help they are most of the time.

SHEEP ARE STUPID
In fact, as a young student helping in a country parish in the west of New South Wales, I stayed for a few nights with a local farming family. They were in the middle of a drought, and I went out each day in the ute with the farmer and his dogs to help round up the sheep and get them back to one of the few dams on the property still containing water. Now, we did this EVERY day. It seemed rather odd to me, but the farmer explained that if we didn’t, before long his sheep would end up as parched carcasses strewn from one end of the farm to the other. “These sheep,” he said, “are basically dumb. They have all the water they need right here, they have all the shade they need under those trees, and I come with extra feed regularly. But one of them gets the bright idea that there is a better supply of water somewhere else - better shade, or more feed -, and wanders off . . . and do you know what the others do? They are perfectly contented, but they still follow the first one, and for their own good we have to keep bringing them back.”

No wonder the Psalmist says: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep” (Ps. 119:176). No wonder Isaiah the prophet says in chapter 53, verse 6: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.”

And looking with a divine longing at the people of his day, and, indeed, looking at the whole of humanity across the centuries, Jesus has compassion because they - because WE - are like sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd is risen! Our choir sings this acclamation a number of times in today’s Mass. Do you know why? It’s because when he rose from the dead Jesus did the shepherd-like thing and gathered his followers together, putting new heart into them, and giving them a new purpose and a new reason for living. So, it is good for us to dwell on the idea that he is OUR Good Shepherd, and discover what this says about his way with us now.

The first thing is that . . .

THE GOOD SHEPHERD LOVES HIS SHEEP
Now, as catholic Christians we usually concentrate on the faith community as a whole when we talk about Jesus as our shepherd. We point out that the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine and goes after the one that was lost so as to make the community complete.

But I want to tell you this morning that the other reason he goes after the lost sheep is BECAUSE HE LOVES THE LOST SHEEP as an individual! This is the Good News. It doesn’t matter how lost you are, you can never stop him loving you. He knew the mess you would get into, running your life your own way.

That’s why he came from the glory of heaven - to find YOU, to love YOU, to die for YOU, to be stretched out on the cross for YOU, to bring YOU home. Nothing you have ever done can ever stop him loving you. He loves you with an everlasting love.

Whether you are a regular worshipper here, or whether you wandered in “by accident” this morning, I want to tell you that it doesn’t matter who you are, where you have come from, or what you have done, God has got you here in this church this morning so as to remind you that YOU ARE LOVED WITH AN EVERLASTING LOVE; a love so great that it doesn’t just touch everyone in general, but reaches out to you in particular. You matter to God. You always have! He lovingly knit you together in your mother’s womb. All he has ever wanted to do is to draw you to himself and bless you with his love, no matter how far away you might have strayed.

Look at him. See the wounds in his hands, his feet and his side . . . See the thorns pressed into his brow. He did that for YOU. He took the punishment for YOUR sins so that YOU could be free.

Look at those arms outstretched, nailed to the cross-beam, outstretched in an eternal embrace . . . yes, a cosmic embrace . . . reconciling all things in heaven and earth to the Father . . . but arms that reach out personally to YOU.

Jesus the Good Shepherd laid down his life for YOU. It actually cost him everything. This morning - right now - you can respond to that amazing love and let him into your life. You can start all over again, fully forgiven and fully free.

I want to read for you an old mission hymn which is not sung much these days, more's the pity, but which so powerfully says it all (no 584 in the English Hymnal):

There were ninety and nine that safely lay
in the shelter of the fold.
But one was out on the hills away,
far off from the gates of gold.
Away on the mountains wild and bare,
away from the tender Shepherd’s care.

“Lord, thou hast here thy ninety and nine;
are they not enough for thee?”
But the Shepherd made answer:“
this of mine has wandered away from me;
and although the road be rough and steep,
I go to the desert to find my sheep.”

But none of the ransomed ever knew
how deep were the waters crossed;
nor how dark was the night the Lord passed through
ere he found his sheep that was lost.
Out in the desert he heard its cry,
sick and helpless and ready to die;

“Lord, whence are those blood drops all the way
that mark out the mountain’s track?”
“They were shed for one who had gone astray
ere the Shepherd could bring him back.”
“Lord, whence are thy hands so rent and torn?”
“They are pierced tonight by many a thorn.”

And all through the mountains, thunder riven,
and up from the rocky steep,
there arose a glad cry to the gate of heaven,
“Rejoice! I have found My sheep!”
And the angels echoed around the throne,
“Rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own!”

Praise his holy name!

The second thing I want to share with you is that . . .


THE GOOD SHEPHERD GUIDES HIS SHEEP
In today’s Gospel reading there are two references to the fact that the sheep hear the Good Shepherd’s voice and follow him. Then, later on in the same chapter we read: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life.” (John 10:27-28)

The Book of Proverbs says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

We need guidance in our lives. We need to know the way we should go. And not just in the little things. We need guidance in working out what God wants us to do with our lives - especially you young people who have your whole lives in front of you.

MY SHEEP HEAR MY VOICE
“Guidance” is usually seen as a difficult area for Christians. But - and I’m not being trite here - Jesus simply says “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me.” The Lord seems much more confident that his sheep hear his voice than his sheep usually are!

How do we hear him speaking to us? Here are some principles:

FIRST, by immersing ourselves prayerfully in the Scriptures, for God speaks to all of us in his Word. Soaking in the Scriptures we become conscious of being part of that flow of history in which God’s people are being led by his hand. Most of the time we don’t need mystical experiences or warm fuzzies to tell us which bits of our lives should change in order for us to be living God’s way. We simply consult his Word, and there, in black and white, we can see how we are to live, where we fall short, and what we should do to change things. Sometimes the Holy Spirit shows us things in the Word that we had never seen there before. Often we need the help of the church community - and our spiritual director - in applying the principles of God’s Word to complicated real life situations. But there really is no substitute for getting into the Bible for ourselves, and spending time in prayer about what we have read.

SECOND, by staying with the company of those who are responding to Jesus. Those of you who have travelled a lot will know what it’s like getting off a bus or a train in some strange city and trying to work out from the map where you are and where you are going. This happened to me in the middle of Vienna. Fortunately there was a group of American tourists nearby with their own tour guide, and I was able to smuggle myself onto the edge of the group without being noticed. We all had our maps, but together as a community we kept an eye on the guide, and we saw all the things people go to Vienna to see. For as long as I stayed with the community that was being guided, the guidance took care of itself.

That’s why Christians don’t just read the Bible alone and then try to work everything out in isolation from others. We actually NEED our brothers and sisters in Christ (the great Saints of the “past” as well as our brothers and sisters of the “present”); we need the wider discernment of the community that is being guided as together we keep our Guide in sight. Recognising that is what makes us “catholic” Christians.

THIRD, by making sure that we really want to do his will, whatever it is. It’s no good asking for God’s guidance if you have already made up your mind about what you are prepared to do and what you are not prepared to do. But if you can sincerely say “Lord, what will you have me to do?”, and you are truly open to whatever his will might be, then the next few steps will become plain, one way or another.

FOURTH, by daring to believe that we are in his will until he shows us that we should be doing something else. This is important, and it is connected to our first point. It really is “living by faith”. We should say to the Lord, “Lord I am going to believe that I am right in the centre of your will for my life until you show me clearly that I am not.” Sometimes things get difficult; sometimes we need just to “hang in there” by God’s grace, encouraging ourselves, perhaps by reading the Psalms, to continue trusting in his goodness and love in the darkest of days. You know how it is!

But many of us spend our prayer time complaining to God about how we don’t like where we are. We tell ourselves that “the grass is greener on the other side of the hill”. Well, I was a bush priest for a long time, and I can assure you that even though the grass does look greener over there, when you actually get to the other side of the hill you find that the lumps of manure in the grass are just as big as the ones where you came from! We can be so impatient. We need to affirm that we are right where God wants us to be for the present, that his grace is sufficient for us, that he has us where we are so as to help others with their burdens, and that he will lead us on in his own good time.

The next thing I want to tell you is that


THE GOOD SHEPHERD FEEDS HIS SHEEP
He doesn’t want them to be thin and scrawny, spiritually speaking; he wants them to be nourished, he wants them to be strong. That’s why he leads them to fresh pastures. If he doesn’t they eventually die.

There is so much starvation in the world. We only have to pay attention when World Vision and other international aid agencies fill our TV screens with gut-wrenching pictures of starving children in Africa and other places. They have to do it to shock us into giving generously from our affluence to alleviate the misery of others.

But I want to tell you today that there is a much more widespread starvation than physical starvation - and that is SPIRITUAL starvation. It’s all around us. It leads to a sense of futility, emptiness, aimlessness and despair - indeed the feeling of being dead on the inside. It is responsible for the breakdown of community and the alarming rise in youth suicide throughout the western world in general and Australia in particular.

It’s not just those outside the Church who are starving. So many Christians are malnourished. Sometimes that’s the fault of those clergy who proclaim every personal opinion from the pulpit, but never teach the Bible. Other times it’s the fault of us ordinary everyday Christians for not availing ourselves of the food God has so generously provided for us.

THE TABLE OF HIS WORD
The Documents of the Second Vatican Council, talk about how we are nourished at two tables when we come to Mass - the “table of God’s Word” and the “table of the Lord’s Body”. Where this has been understood it has led to a renewed emphasis on the reading and preaching of the Word of God Sunday by Sunday, as we try to do in our parish. If the Word of God is not being proclaimed in the power of the Holy Spirit within the Eucharistic Assembly, the people of God are being denied the food they need in order to grow into personal, spiritual and emotional maturity.

Every one of us needs to be nourished by the Word of God. The pulpit is not the place for the priest to promote his favourite political party, engage in theological speculation, cast doubt on the Christian Faith or demonstrate how clever he is. The pulpit is for the feeding of the people with the words of life, and every sermon, whatever its theme, must have the same goal: to move the hearts and minds of the people to honour Jesus Christ as Lord and to respond to his love so that they might have life in all its fulness.

The same Vatican Council said that because (in the words of Saint Jerome) “ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ”, the people ought to read and ponder the Scriptures frequently. We’ve already spoken about the Scriptures today. But I want to tell you about “Bible Alive” - a daily Bible reading program for catholic Christians. A growing number of people in this parish are committed to Bible Alive. They receive their guidebooks monthly, read a short passage from the Bible each day and reflect on its meaning - what God is saying through the passage and how the passage applies to their daily lives.

Bible Alive is a wonderful means by which our Good Shepherd can feed and nourish us daily. It is EVANGELICAL and CATHOLIC at the same time! As the advertising brochure says: “Five minutes a day can transform your life.” Many people around here have a real excitement about the things God has been doing in their lives since they started on this simple program. They are fed. They are nourished. They are spiritually fit. Speak to one of us after Mass if you want to find out more details.

THE TABLE OF HIS BODY
The second way that the Good Shepherd feeds us is, of course, at the table of his Body, where in the Blessed Sacrament he comes to us under the veils of bread and wine to fill us with his own risen life.

Brothers and sisters, you come here week by week (some of you travelling vast distances) not because nibbling bread and sipping wine helps you to remember something that happened a long time ago. (If that’s all it was, if it was just jogging our memories about a past event, you’d be better off prayerfully watching a “Jesus” video at home!) You come here because you believe with the vast majority of Christians who have ever lived, as well as with most Christians in the world today, that by the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, at the hands of a priest ordained in the Apostolic Succession, the bread and wine on this altar are transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. Kneeling there we receive HIM! The smallest fragment of that Sacred Host is the Body of Jesus before whom the angels of heaven veil their faces.

In case you think that this is some sentimental medieval idea, I remind you that writing between 80 AD and 110 AD, - that is, while the Apostle John is still alive - Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, calls the Blessed Sacrament

“the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, the flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His graciousness, raised from the dead.”

S. Justin Martyr says the same kind of thing a little later on - around 150 AD:

“We do not consume the eucharistic bread and wine as if it were ordinary food and drink, for we have been taught that as Jesus Christ our Saviour became a man of flesh and blood by the power of the Word of God, so also the food that our flesh and blood assimilates for its nourishment becomes the Flesh and Blood of the incarnate Jesus by the power of His own words contained in the prayer of thanksgiving.”

Holy Communion is the miracle in which our union with the Lord is supernaturally deepened. The greatness of this mystery of Divine Love is the reason for incense and bells, vestments, candles, wonderful music, fervent prayer, passionate hymn singing and all the other apparent excesses for which we are sometimes noted. The Blessed Sacrament is Jesus. Did you hear what I just said? THE BLESSED SACRAMENT IS JESUS . . . Jesus our Good Shepherd feeding us with himself - Jesus, God and man, gloriously risen from the dead and truly present on this altar.

We need to feed on Jesus in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving. We need the blessings he gives us in Holy Communion. We can’t get through all that we face in our day to day lives in our own strength. We need the spiritual resources, the grace, the love and the power that Jesus gives in the Holy Sacrament of his Body and Blood. In our own strength we end up just trudging from one crisis to another. Let’s make sure that we never stay away from Mass. Let’s trust in him, receiving from him the free gift of his life and love; let’s feed on him and be strong.

Now, I want to assure you that . . .

THE GOOD SHEPHERD PROTECTS HIS SHEEP
In today’s Gospel reading Jesus says:

“My sheep . . . follow me and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand”.

It was important that the shepherd protect his sheep from their natural enemies. You must remember the Old Testament story of David and Goliath, in which David explains to King Saul that like all shepherds of his time, he had frequently risked his life to protect the sheep from wild animals such as lions and bears.

I don’t want to sound gloomy this morning, but I have to remind you that in our baptism we embarked on a lifelong conflict with sin, the world, and the devil. So, at the very beginning of our Christian lives we know that at least some of the time it’s going to be a struggle! On top of that, we face tragedies and traumas that shake our lives to their foundations, that challenge our faith to the point where we wonder how long we can hold on without giving up or going insane. Some people face deep depression on a daily basis, and are dogged with fears and complexes. Do you know that sinking feeling . . . as if everything you have done amounts to nothing, as if there is no more point in your life, and you feel like giving up in despair?

STAYING COOL
In those moments we need to remember - and perhaps even speak out aloud so as to counter our depression and fear - the wonderful promises God makes in his Word about his presence and support. Now, please don’t think I am being simplistic; and, whatever you do, don’t think that I am not speaking from my own experience. I know about those times when all the counselling and help have failed, and God’s promises are all we have left. But what a resource! Deliberately reminding ourselves of God’s promises is how so many have survived the deepest traumas. It’s the only way to be still and know that he is God (Psalm 46:10) and not to do anything stupid. Believing his promises, (often tenaciously and falteringly at the same time!) helps us to keep our cool long enough to see how God is working in the situation. We calm down, and remind ourselves that he really IS sovereign. We “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 20:17).

This is how all those persecuted brothers and sisters have coped through 2,000 years of savage treatment and even martyrdom. In times of darkness and suffering they remembered God’s promises and his faithfulness, and they knew that they were under his protection.

Think of Polycarp, the old Bishop of Smyrna in what is now Turkey, a man who had learnt the Faith at the feet of the Apostle John. In 166 AD he was under incredible pressure to deny Christ. Do you know what he said?

“Eighty-six years have I served him and he has done me no wrong, how then can I blaspheme my king who has saved me?” Polycarp was put to death, “praying for the world-wide Catholic Church.”

Closer to our own time we marvel at the courage of our World War II saints - Maximilian Kolbe at Auschwitz, and the New Guinea martyrs. They were frightened. But they were bold. They knew that God was watching over them; they remembered what Jesus said about no-one being able to pluck them out of the Father’s hand no matter how difficult things are. They remembered the promises of God. They remembered Isaiah 43:1-3 (the most amazing beautiful, and powerful promise he could possibly give to the sheep of his pasture):

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters
I will be with you;
and through the rivers,
they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire
you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God . . .”

They remembered what the apostle Paul said in his Letter to that tiny persecuted community of believers in Ancient Rome:

“If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? . . . Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For thy sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”. (Romans 8:31-39).

Finally, my brothers and sisters,

THE GOOD SHEPHERD HEALS HIS SHEEP
One of God’s complaints with the leaders of Israel of old was that they failed to bind up the wounded and care for those who were hurting. So great is his love for the suffering and wounded that through the prophet Ezekiel he says:

“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak.” (Ezekiel 34:12-16).

When he brought Israel out of Egypt, the Lord spoke of his relationship with the people and said: “I am the Lord your healer” (Exodus 15:26) Centuries later, the Psalmist refers to this period of the Exodus and the journey into the Promised Land:

“. . . they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress; he sent out his word, and healed them, and delivered them from destruction”. (Psalm 107:19-20)

Psalm 147:3 says that the Lord “heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds”.

It is against the backdrop of these Old Testament passages that Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd and says to his wounded sheep “I have come to bring you life in all its fulness” (John 10:10), or, in the words of the Authorised Version, “that you may have life more abundantly”.

The miracles and healings performed by Jesus during the time of his earthly ministry proclaimed that in him God’s kingdom had arrived. The blind received their sight, the deaf were made to hear, the dumb spoke, and the lame leapt for joy. Dramatic healings continued in the life of the early Church, and from time to time they occur even today, for “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). Sometimes they take place through the sacramental ministry of the Church; sometimes through those to whom the Lord has given special “gifts of healing” (1 Corinthians 12:9). And, as we know, they happen through intercessory prayer at the healing shrines of Our Lady, like Lourdes and Walsingham.

THE HEALING POWER OF HIS LOVE
But it’s not just those with broken legs or heart conditions who need healing. Did you know that, depending on the particular research you study, between 50 and 90 per cent of all physical sickness originates in the mind or emotions. In other words, it is psychosomatic or stress related. Depression, fear, anxiety, bitterness, guilt, unforgiveness, lack of self esteem, loneliness, vengefulness - all the hurts and wounds we have accumulated on the inside sooner or later manifest themselves in physical illness. It is obvious, then, that if it were possible to embark upon a journey of “inner healing”, even our physical health would improve.

Well, the good news is that if you look at depression, fear, anxiety, bitterness, guilt, unforgiveness, lack of self esteem, loneliness, vengefulness and the wounded-ness we have sometimes known since childhood - you’ll notice that they are the very areas in which Jesus our Good Shepherd longs to touch our lives and set us free.

As we pray, as we grow in faith, as we invite the Lord into every area of our lives, as we allow him to walk with us down our particular memory lane and bring his healing to bear on all sorts of areas where we have been crushed, wounded and broken, we enter into a new sense of personal freedom.

So many people who come here to Mass know the healing power of Jesus’ love. They have experienced heartbreak and tragedy, in some cases the collapse of their lives. But someone told them about Jesus - the risen Jesus who reaches out to them in love, and they allowed him to touch them at the point of their need. They testify to the freedom they have found in him. Do you know he wants to touch YOUR life with his healing power today? He wants YOU to be free from the negative impact of the hurtful things that you have experienced. Jesus himself said in John 8:36: “If the Son makes you free, then you will be free indeed.” Did you hear that? Free indeed”!

MY SOUL SHALL BE HEALED
In a little while, after the Consecration, it will be my awesome privilege to hold up the Holy Bread, the Blessed Sacrament and say: “Behold the Lamb of God; behold him that taketh away the sins of the world” And we will all respond:

“Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof,
but speak the word only, and my soul shall be healed.”

What a moment! What a wonderful and powerful affirmation to have on our lips just before receiving Jesus as the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation.

Sometimes when I am in the congregation somewhere else and the time comes for Holy Communion, and I need to draw on the healing power of Jesus for some aspect of my life, do you know what I do? I keep saying that affirmation under my breath while I’m standing in line, and while I’m kneeling at the altar rail: “my soul SHALL be healed”... “my soul SHALL be healed”. After all, the greatest healing service we have is the Mass. Our faith does not create the Lord’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament. He is objectively present in all his divinity and his humanity. But by faith we DRAW on the blessing - the healing blessing - that he wants us to have, just as they did in the days of his earthly ministry. “. . . My soul SHALL be healed”.

Have YOU heard the voice of the Good Shepherd calling you today, calling you back to himself?

Come home. Let Jesus bind up your wounds. Let him pour his healing oil on the hurts and wounds of the past, and you will find rest for your soul.

He is calling you because he loves you.

If you respond, if you open up to his love, if you surrender to him, your life will be changed.

The Good Shepherd is gloriously risen. As you go home today I want you to remember and cherish the points I have shared with you:

* that Jesus LOVES his sheep,

* he GUIDES his sheep,

* he FEEDS his sheep,

* he PROTECTS his sheep

and

* he HEALS his sheep.

Then, in the words of the well-known song, you will be able to say:

“Because he lives I can face tomorrow,
Because he lives all fear is gone,
Because I know - yes I know - he holds the future,
And life is worth the living, just because he lives.“

This is an edited transcript of a teaching sermon given at All Saints' Wickham Terrace
in Eastertide 2002