WEBVTT
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(quick footsteps)
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(soft music)
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(organ music)
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(choir singing off mic)
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Greetings to you from the Lord God Almighty,
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creator of earth and the heavens.
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We gather here today to worship God,
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and to that same and only God
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we present our fears and our hopes,
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regarding the boycott of the summer Olympics
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regarding the production of the MX Missile,
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regarding our concern for the studies
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in which we are again involved,
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our plans for a summer change of pace,
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our desire to hear afresh God's word of chastisement,
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forgiveness, direction, encouragement.
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Come let us eagerly worship God,
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and to God let us make our honest confession of our sin.
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(audience rustling)
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Oh God, the source of our being,
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our very destiny.
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The guide of our pilgrim days.
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By your power is Jesus raised to be Savior of all people,
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Lord of all nations,
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but now we confess other allegiances.
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Too often we give our substance
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to capture the mirage,
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our affections to things that perish.
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We are careless in our relationships with others.
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We would rather believe the rumor,
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than be set free by the truth.
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So now, we cry pardon for idolatries,
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mercy upon our failures,
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make us a people who lives to bare you,
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women and men who heed Jesus's call to lively discipleship.
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In the name of him who is the Christ,
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and brother to all, Amen.
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For this declaration is true and worthy of our acceptance.
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That Christ Jesus came into the world to redeem sinners.
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Our sin we have confessed,
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our desire to be forgiven we have acknowledged.
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Our longing to be changed we have proclaimed.
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Praise be to God for the miracles of pardon,
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of restoration, of new strength.
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Through Jesus Christ these miracles happen.
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In him and through him, we are forgiven.
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Let us give thanks for God is good,
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and God's love is everlasting.
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Thanks be to God who's love creates us.
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Thanks be to God who's mercy redeems us.
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Thanks be to God who's grace leads us into the future.
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To parents, to students returning for summer classes,
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to newlyweds, to those into their marriages for many years,
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to each of you and to all of you,
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in Christ name greeting on this fourth Sunday at Easter.
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It is good to have you worship in this place,
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to be apart of the worship of God.
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To hear God's word proclaimed.
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And a special word of welcome
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to the Immaculate Conception Ringers and Bell Choir
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and to their director.
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It is a delight to have their music
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in the chapel this morning,
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music at once grand and so very delicate.
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We thank you for being here this day.
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Let us pray.
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Oh Lord our God, open our eyes,
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that we may behold wondrous things in your word.
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And let the words of my mouth, and the mediations
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of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, oh Lord,
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our strength and our redeemer, amen.
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The Old Testament lesson is the 23rd Psalm.
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The Lord is my shepherd,
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I shall not want.
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He makes me lie down in green pastures,
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he leads me beside still waters.
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He restores my soul.
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He leads me in paths of righteousness,
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for his name's sake.
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Even though I walk through
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the valley of the shadow of death,
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I fear no evil,
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for thou art with me.
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Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
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Thou preparest a table before me
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in the presence of my enemies.
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Though anointest my head with oil,
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my cup overflows.
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Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
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all the days of my life
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and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
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Here ends the reading from the Old Testament.
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The epistle lesson is from 1 Peter 2:19-25.
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For one is approved if mindful of God
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he endures pain while suffering unjustly.
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For what credit is if when you do wrong
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and are beaten for it you take it patiently?
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But, if you right and suffer for it,
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you take it patiently,
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you have God's approval.
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For to this you have been called
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because Christ also suffered for you
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leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.
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He committed no sin, no guile was found in his lips.
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When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
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When he suffered, he did not threaten,
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but he trusted to him who judges justly.
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He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree
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that we might die to sin
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and live to righteousness.
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By his wounds you have been healed,
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for you were straying like sheep,
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but have now returned to the shepherd
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and guardian of your souls.
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Here ends the reason from the epistle lesson.
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(audience rustling)
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(soft music)
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(soft footsteps)
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Will the congregation please stand
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for the reading of the gospel lesson?
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The gospel lesson is from John 10:1-10.
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Truly, truly I say to you,
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he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door,
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but climbs in by another way,
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that man is a thief and a robber.
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But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
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To him the gatekeeper opens.
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The sheep hear his voice, and he calls
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his own sheep by name and leads them out.
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When he has brought out all his own,
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he goes before them, and the sheep follow him,
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for they know his voice.
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A stranger they will not follow,
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but they will flee from him,
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for they do not know the voice of strangers.
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This figure Jesus used with them,
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but they did not understand what he was saying,
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so Jesus again said to them,
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truly, truly I say to you I am the door of the sheep,
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all who came before me are thieves and robbers,
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but the sheep did not heed them.
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I am the door, if anyone enters by me
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he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
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The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy.
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I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
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Here ends the reading from the gospel lesson, amen.
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(organ music)
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(choir singing off mic)
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Let us pray.
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Oh Lord, may the words of my mouth
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and the meditations of our hearts
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be acceptable in your sight,
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oh Lord, our strength and our redeemer, amen.
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The time between Easter and Pentecost
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has been called the Significant Pause by Karl Barth.
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The lessons today for us,
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about the shepherd images in scripture,
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lift up an essential part of our life of faith
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together as a community.
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Together, for me, they have functioned
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like a kaleidoscope of images about Jesus,
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and hearing them anew, I hope that they can
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help us to remember who Jesus is.
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I'm struck by the fact that Jesus had a way with language.
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It seemed in his hand,
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figures of speech exploded into new meaning.
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Just when we think we can predict
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a conclusion from Jesus' words,
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the meaning itself shifts, and the image,
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like the colors and patterns of a kaleidoscope.
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And like the original hearers,
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just when we feel like we have grasped the true meaning,
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Jesus seems to break it open, turn it over for us,
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and it explodes again for us in his careful hand.
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He took the objects that were most familiar
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in his listeners lives,
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and he gave them new depth of meaning.
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This is exactly what happens as Jesus shares his insight
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on the familiar figures of sheep and shepherds.
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In John's gospel we are shepherds,
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and yet we are also sheep, Jesus is gate,
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and Jesus is shepherd,
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Jesus is shepherd and lamb.
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The sheep are guarded, and yet they are led to slaughter.
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Jesus makes it clear to us that there is simply no imagery
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that can satisfy either the glory or the anguish
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that he has for his people.
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According to John, the images that Jesus presents of himself
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are the door and the shepherd.
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Now they are both characteristic in our ears
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of biblical language.
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Long before the time of Jesus,
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King David was himself described
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as the shepherd ruler of his nation.
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Moses too was acclaimed in pastoral language
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in the Old Testament as shepherding a flock,
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the children of God.
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But primarily for Israel, the God Yahweh
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had been the true shepherd of his people,
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portrayed unforgettably in the shepherd's Psalm
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which we heard read for us this morning.
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But in the New Testament then it is Christ himself
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who becomes identified as the good shepherd,
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the one who finally gave his life for the sheep.
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The parable that Jesus speaks,
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seems to me to contain some acid criticisms
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of false shepherds, or what he called thieves and robbers.
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It reminds of similar prophetic indictments
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of incompetent leadership.
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The evangelist John probably had in mind
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both the bogus messiahs of his time,
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and some of the more headstrong leaders
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of the church in his day.
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Perhaps they fulfilled in the original hearing,
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the warning words of our Lord,
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beware of false prophets
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who come to you in sheep's clothing,
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but inwardly are ravenous as wolves.
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Today I'm aware that a rural Appalachian town in Kentucky
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is still reeling from the shock
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of discovering that a man without a license
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has been practicing medicine in their community now
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at their mission hospital for a year and a half.
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This particular man had worked
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for another doctor in another state,
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and upon the death of that physician,
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he forged his own medical credentials.
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These simple mountain people had placed their faith in him,
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had taken him at his word,
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and indeed had entrusted their lives to him,
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and now they are stunned and crushed.
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It seems that society is never
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without it's messianic pretenders,
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and salvation hucksters.
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The scriptures remind us
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that only Christ is the good shepherd.
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He alone will lay down his life for the sheep,
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and this he does in the eyes of John,
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willingly and gladly.
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For his only concern is their welfare.
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The true leader among us must share
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that spirit of sacrificial service,
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concerned for the welfare of all those in his or her care,
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rather than for personal safety or prestige.
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I'm reminded that on the occasion of my ordination
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a favorite aunt of mine gave me a present of a statue.
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The statue is a shepherdess
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enfolding a lamb to her breast,
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and in that image for me says that always
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it is the servants role and that of a shepherd
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to be in ministry,
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and I hope that I shall never forget that image.
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Alternating with this appealing figure
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of the good shepherd for us in the scriptures
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is yet another figure,
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for to speak of Christ as the door to the sheepfold
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begins to sound rather strange to our ears,
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but in a simple agrarian society
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this was also a familiar word picture.
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To speak of Christ as the door is also
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a striking way of describing
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the gathering of the people of God.
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And the church itself, within the security of this fold,
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is under God's and Christ's protection.
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What Jesus was trying to say
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in even using this language though,
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is that the door is also a means of exit,
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as well as entrance.
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For the sheep go in and they come out.
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The church and this chapel too,
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whose doors only open inward and not outward,
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will become an insulated ghetto.
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That kind of church will simply be a refuge from the world,
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rather than an entrance into it.
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The people of God must not only be called together
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to worship in the community of the church,
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but somehow we must also be involved in a society
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where the good shepherd is abundantly at work.
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Now for many of us I'm aware that sheep and shepherds
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are not familiar images for us out of our own experience.
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If you are anything like me,
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most of my contact with sheep has occurred
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in petting zoos in different communities across our country,
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and I'm aware then for many of us it is quite possible
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to end up with a romanticized view
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of what life must have been like
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for the Palestinian shepherd and the wooly lambs.
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I remember distinctly, being in a classroom one day
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where a group of us were trying in vain to relate,
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to really experience the shepherd image of scripture.
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Our professor was attempting mightily
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to open our eyes and minds to a new experience,
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but then something else happened.
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A quiet voice spoke from the back row of the room,
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"I was a shepherd boy while growing up".
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It was the voice of Henry Mizerewah,
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who was an exchange student to us from Zimbabwe.
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Henry began talking, and he filled us
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with stories from his childhood
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of what it meant to be a shepherd.
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He talked to us about being alone at a young age,
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of tending his flock,
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of providing and finding their pasture,
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of leading them through dangers and storms,
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of clearing away endlessly poisonous plants
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so that they could graze on safe pasture,
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of nursing and binding up their wounds,
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of delivering their lambs.