Easter IV B We Like Sheep Go Astray

I’ve always had a little problem with being called a sheep.  For one thing, I don’t go along with all the others, even when they wander off.  I am not one to get lost easily, or so I think.  I don’t just follow my nose while chewing on the grass and wander away, so when Jesus tells us he’s the good shepherd, I wonder, why am I supposedly one of the sheep?

In Handel’s Messiah, there is a wonderful aria that says, We like sheep have gone astray.  It tells of the wandering we do away from God, away from the path of righteousness, peace and justice, away from the narrow way of discipline in Christ.

Aha, so yes, I am a pretty good sheep if that’s the type of wandering Christ hopes to shepherd.

For I make lots of mistakes.  Mistakes of patience—not being patient enough, mostly with myself, which makes me rush to judgment about myself and make me feel bad about who I am. Mistakes of forgiveness—not being able to see what others have done or what I have done and forgive and then go on with my life. I sometimes hold on to what was said or done to me.  Or, more often, I hold onto those things I did or said, should have done or said, and especially those things that spread the love of God for myself and others. 

I make other mistakes, too numerous to count in a short sermon, but I’m sure some of you could come up with a good list without too much trouble.  In short, I expect a lot of myself and mostly fall short.  I don’t think I am alone today.

We all fall short of the love of God, we stray from being loving towards ourselves and others; and in this way, we are like those sheep who chew on the grass and keep wandering where the grass leads, not looking around perhaps until it’s too late to see how far away we’ve wandered.

What does having Christ as our shepherd mean at these times?

The Good Shepherd leads us to forgiveness, first of ourselves, so that in finding our own forgiveness, we are able to pass this forgiveness on to those around us, both those we love and especially the ones we don’t.  Christ’s love for us fills us with the sense that we like are tended so that we have a leader, a loving presence to guide us when we look up from our grass.

Being led is not forgetting that we have been given free will as God’s creation.  We do not put on blinders or put our intellect on the shelf. Our minds are given to us for thinking, for reasoning out the decisions we make every day, and are God’s gift of creativity to us.  Being led by our Good Shepherd is putting that intellect in God’s path, allowing our decisions to be influenced by the Holy Spirit and the love of Christ. It’s keeping in mind our inheritance as God’s people and our baptism into the peace and justice the world craves so much.

When we know we are like sheep, we can allow ourselves to be forgiven, to accept the love of a God who brings a tender shepherd to look out for us.  Psalm 23, so beloved a piece of Hebrew poetry, makes it known that we are not alone, but always under the loving guidance of the shepherd sent to be our touchstone to our loving God.

When we accept that we are like sheep who mindlessly go wherever we want, who disregard the presence of God in our lives, then we can accept that the means for turning around is to notice where the Shepherd is giving us a path to follow. We can notice where the Shepherd is present in times of challenge, times of celebration, times of change in our lives.  The presence of the Shepherd to tend us with his presence comforts us, brings us a sense of how loved we are, how much God wants to have a relationship with us and be near us.

Being like a sheep then becomes a special way we can let ourselves be cared for. It becomes a special way we can acknowledge God’s presence leading us closer in love.  When we know we are not totally in charge of the world, or even our own life, we can relax and let the love of God lead us.  We can give up our anxiety about getting it right, getting it all done, getting our way, getting the prize we thought was so important, and we can rest in the path the Shepherd is giving us.

Being a sheep for Christ is relaxing in God’s loving and tender care.  Can you be a sheep today? Can you be led into love?