Sermon for May 11th
Sermon for May 11th
Of late, I have found myself watching hoof trimming videos. Maybe it makes me nostalgic for when my parents had cattle. I spent many years helping care for those animals, including my 4-H calves. I remember the hoof trimming days.
But there is also something satisfying about watching the hoof trimmer clean up a hoof that is in really bad condition. It’s often really gross, but when the hoof has been trimmed back and the trouble area exposed, there is something satisfying about the fact that the animal has been treated and the rot and filth has been cleaned up.
Of course, these videos take me to videos of horses in a similar situation and then on to sheep who haven’t been sheered for years. To watch the animals go from suffering to relief is deeply satisfying.
It was like that when we raised cattle too. Any time there was a sick calf, and we were able to treat it, it would be a real joy to watch the calf spring back to life once the treatment did its work.
When I see these animals in such distress, especially when it is a result of neglect, it breaks my heart. The sheep video I watched featured an animal who had not been sheered for six years. The animal couldn’t see, it could barely move and when its vision was restored and the weight of the wool came off, it literally bounced around the pen in joy.
It hurts to see animals in pain. No one likes to see something suffering and it is worse when it comes through neglect.
Of course, that same pain is felt, but on a far greater scale, when we watch our fellow human beings suffer. (At least I hope that is the case). And like with animals, it feels even worse when we come to know that it is through neglect that our fellow human beings suffer. That neglect can come through the government, at various levels, community organizations…. Or us. That may be the hardest pill to swallow and why, at times, it is easier to vilify those who suffer rather than try and be there for them in their suffering. It indicts us. It puts us on the hook. So, we turn it back on others or even on the one who suffers rather than acknowledge our own part in the tragedy.
Maybe that’s why these videos on YouTube offer some real joy. Whether it is the hoof doctor helping to restore health to an ailing cow or some random Samaritan who offers hope to someone is down on their luck, we want to know that there is still hope despite the suffering around us. We don’t know what to do about any of this suffering, not really. But someone does, even if what they do is to restore joy to a single animal’s life or hope to one person who has fallen into hopelessness., and that gives us some measure of comfort.
Yet, even as we look to YouTube or some other venue to find some measure of hope, we celebrate today, as we do ever Sunday, our good Shepherd. That Shepherd who, in his own words, never lets us go. Unlike the negligent ranchers on the hoof trimming videos, the Good Shepherd never leaves us alone, adrift and consumed by the pressures and stresses of the world. Our Good Shepherd is the one who will leave the 99 and go to find the lost 1. This the Shepherd who will actually give his life for the sheep. This is the shepherd who values the flock in his charge more than anything. This our Good Shepherd. This is the Christ, who we celebrate and give praise to every Sunday and hopefully throughout our days. This is the great shepherd who did indeed lay his life down so we could have life.
It is interesting to see the juxtaposition that occurs in our own life. We can become so jaded and bitter when we are faced by the news every day. Rhetoric of separation and annexation haunt our news feeds. The great experiment of globalization seems to be collapsing down around our ears and no one really knows what that collapse will mean. It’s easier to watch Price is Right and forget the world. Or watch a Scottish hoof trimmer fix the hoof of an ailing cow. And that’s where the juxtaposition lies. We still crave for goodness. Our hearts still yearn for joy and true expressions of love. When we encounter these expressions, whatever the venue, we are deeply touched by it, because it proves to us there is still love in the world. We dearly long for it but sometimes fail to see it in our lives. We want to have hope but fail sometimes to see that the hope giver is right in our midst. The God of hope is right there with us, now and always.
Perhaps, more than anything, that is my job, from the pulpit. Perhaps my job is as simple as reminding you about what life as God’s children is all about and then offering you ways to remember that through out your week. I can easily name how we fall short and how the world around us falls short. That is also a necessary part of preaching. But it is the hope that gives us life and it is the hope that I stand here today to remind you of. The Good Shepherd has not let us go. The Good Shepherd will never let us go and we are never neglected by the Shepherd. If you can hear that from this pulpit, each and every time, then I have done my job. If that song becomes the song your heart sings, then I have done my job, because not only does that truth of the Shepherd’s care offer comfort and peace in an often-difficult world, but it also shapes us and makes us people who want to share that same love to the world around us. This is what we give praise for every time we gather.
As we celebrate our Good Shepherd today, we also remember another who offers us care. Today is Mother’s Day and while I recognize that we can sometimes have very complicated relationships with our biological mothers, we will have someone in our life who fills that mothering role in our life. And with that mothering role comes another way in which we can come to understand the nature of God’s love. A mother’s love sa beautiful and fierce thing. It helps shape a child’s life and it helps the child to know just how much they are loved. It shapes them to be the people they have the potential to be. It is tender, it can be ferocious, when a child in under threat. It is the kind of love that ensures us all that we can grow up safe and protected and cared for.
In many ways, it is like the love of the Good Shepherd. As we honor the Good Shepherd, so we can honor those in our life who have acted as our mothers. They have been and will continue to be powerful examples of God’s love in our life. And just as I hope that you hear from this pulpit how much you are loved and how much you are needed in this world, I believe that same message is passed on to us by our mother figures in our life. For it is from their unconditional love that we may first begin to understand what love is all about. It is in their all-encompassing love that we can come to know the love of God and see the love of a mother as a bright reflection of God’s Holy love. It is in their place as our protector that we can know what it means to be embraced in the love and care of the Good Shepherd.
We may find momentary relief of comfort in a video demonstrating legitimate human kindness. But it is in our Good Shepherd’s love and all the ways that such love is reflected that we find lasting, real hope and the ability to carry on.
So for Christ our Shepherd and for all the mother figures in our life, we give God thanks and praise forever.
Amen