Sermon for April 26th

Sermon for April 26th

We often refer to Jesus as a shepherd, and it serves as a good image for Christ. He leads and guides us. He protects us and comes to seek out us out when we have strayed. It is also a good image because it resonated with the people of Jesus’ day and age. They were, amongst other things, shepherds. It was one of the main economic institutions of that time and so people would understand the image of the shepherd and all it entailed. Shepherds were, after all, the first to come and witness the newborn Christ. The fact that Jesus was also a carpenter made his connection to the surrounding context all the deeper. Add to that the fact that many of his disciples were fishermen, and Jesus’ connection to the people of that day became quite profound. He was a man of the people, a man who came from their very ranks and who understood them. They, in turn, understood him better because of this. It would have been far different had he come from an upper or even noble class. His connection with the people would not have been as deep. There would always have been a barrier between himself and those he encountered.

These are images of their time and while we have adopted the image of Jesus as a shepherd through its inclusion in scripture, it doesn’t mean that the image itself is somehow Holy. It is the same with the bread and wine during communion. It isn’t the bread and wine that are somehow holy. It is the promise of God’s grace given and the commandment found in scripture for the Eucharist to be observed, in conjunction with some earthly sign, that is important. Jesus used the elements he had at hand and because of tradition, we do the same. But the bread and wine are not holy in and of themselves. They only become holy when the word of promise is spoken over them and we come to understand that Christ is present, in our midst, in those elements. If Jesus had walked the earth in Japan, for instance, the elements may well be saki and rice. Again, it was the magnificent promises of God linked to a common element such as the bread and the wine, that made the elements holy.

The image of the Shepherd is similar. It was meant, as I said, to connect people to the person of Jesus. It was an image that they understood. But the image itself is not holy. It becomes meaningful when it is associated with Jesus.

I wonder, for the sake of creating a more contextually modern image, how Jesus may be thought of today, if we, for the moment, let go of the image of the Shepherd. This is not to say that we should jettison this image. I think that it has come to mean a great deal to many of us. But if Jesus were to show up now, in central Alberta, what would be an image that would help connect us with the Christ in our midst.

A few images come to mind for me. It might be a fun exercise for you to dream up a few that are meaningful to you. For now, let me offer a couple that come to mind.

I could see Jesus as a cattle man. Jesus the rancher. I say this not because it would be a unique image of Jesus riding a horse, sporting a cowboy hat, but because like the image of the Shepherd, it speaks to some fundamental truths about who Jesus is.

I remember when we had cattle. They were messy, selfish, obstinate beasts that could drive a person around the bend. We had cattle run through fences to comingle with other herds. We had steers disappear, only to be found in the oddest places, like down an abandoned well shaft. We had two cattle tumble out of a moving trailer and out on to the road because someone had forgotten to secure the latch. It took hours and many kilometers of tracking to bring them home. Even though we had their best interest at heart, they fought us and ran away from us and tried everything they could to go the opposite way from where we were leading them. But we didn’t give up on them. We fought with them, chased after them, went down well shafts and into deep forests to bring them home. They kicked us, charged us, broke our bones, and we never gave up on them. We kept trying to do what was best for the entire herd.

Sound familiar? We are like cattle. Messy, obstinate, and selfish…. that characterizes us quite well. We fight what is best for us. We kick and scream when God breaks in and sets us back on the path we need to take. We are angry and sometimes aggressive with God. We have even hurt the one who came to save us all by putting him on a cross and watching him die.

But as with a rancher, God never gives up on us. God dives down well and hunts through the heavy bush on a hot summer day and stays up to midnight looking for us. God never gives up. Even the cross did not stop God. God simply used that as another way to reach out and offer God’s hand in helping us find our way home.

Or perhaps Jesus could be seen as a grain farmer. He tends his crop faithfully, doing all he can to nourish the grain, living in faith that the rains will come and the grain will germinate. And when the time comes, Jesus the grain farmer will spend endless hours bringing in the sheaves, making sure he doesn’t leave anything behind as he does so. Just as he does with us. Just as he always does with us.

There are so many other images we could use. As the child of two parents who have done organic market gardening for 40 years, I can see a parallel between Jesus and the organic vegetable farmer. The careful care, the hard, endless hours of work to bring forward a crop. I remember so many summers on my knees, weeding out a crop of peas or carrots, careful to protect the crop that we were excavating from the weeds so that they could have a real chance to grow and flourish. I could imagine Jesus, carefully extracting the weeds from our life, nurturing us through our days, making sure the powers and principalities of the world would not swallow us up and choke out our life. Jesus the organic vegetable gardener, caring for his crop and protecting it from the ravages of the world.

We celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday for a good reason. It is an image for Jesus that has drawn us closer to Jesus over the many centuries of Christian history. But I think that there is room for other images too. Yes, we will always hold on to the images given to us by scripture. Likely, they will continue to be the most important images we associate with Jesus. But I think there is also room for our own images, images that connect to the divine in real, personal ways. Personally, I think that Jesus the rancher makes a lot of sense. And if he did wear a cowboy hat, it would definitely be pure white.

Amen

Side note: If anyone reading this is particularly artistic, I would love to see your image for Christ. What image resonates with you, either biblical or personal? And if you would, could you please share it? It would be great to see.