Sermon at Parish Mass and Baptism Trinity 7 2012

Jeremiah 23:1-6

Ephesians 2:13-18

Mark 6:30-34

“He had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m very much a town person, unfamiliar with the ways of the countryside, although of course acknowledging like all of us our dependence on farming and agriculture. 

But the image of sheep is a very familiar one to all of us in the Bible. It is an image of the people of God, and in the Old Testament that meant the people of Israel. Sheep go around in flocks, they are not isolated individuals, so this tells us that the people of God belong together. Unity is part of what it means to belong to God as his people.

But sheep also need quite a bit of looking after. They need a shepherd to keep them together and stop them from wandering off. And they also need to be protected from predators and thieves. Sheep are not terribly resourceful. They are dependent, and need to be able to trust their shepherd. They need a good shepherd.

In the Old Testament, the metaphor of a shepherd is used of God himself: God watches over and looks after his people. But the Kings and rulers of Israel were regarded as holding their authority from God, and so they also were described as shepherds of the people. They ruled on behalf of God, and had the duty to guide the people in the right ways, to keep them together, and to protect them from aggressors. 

But sadly, and often, the people of Israel didn’t have good shepherds. As in this morning’s reading from Jeremiah. The prophet is speaking just before the people of Judah were invaded by Babylon and carried off into exile. The kings of Judah have behaved stupidly and selfishly, they have not listened to the prophets, they have not seen the threat coming and have not responded appropriately. So the people are doomed. They are going to be scattered and driven away like a flock of sheep without a shepherd.

But, Jeremiah says, there is still hope. God has not forgotten his people. In the future he will give his people shepherds who will look after them, and more than that, a mysterious figure, “the Righteous Branch of David”, the Messiah, God’s anointed ruler. And the scattered people of God will once again be gathered together and live in safety.

So when in the Gospels we have references to sheep and shepherds all of that is in the background. Jesus sees the people and has compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. This is the scattered people of God, at the mercy of predators, not knowing what way to turn, and they are waiting for what Jeremiah promised: the Good Shepherd, the Righteous Branch of David, who will restore God’s people. 

And the gospel writer is saying that the Good Shepherd has now come. In Jesus, God is bringing his people back together in unity and guiding and protecting them. Which is why the first thing that Jesus does is to start teaching them. As in the Old Testament, the sheep have wandered off because they haven’t been taught the ways of the Lord, the paths of righteousness and peace. And it is Jesus who announces the Good News of God, to draw his people back together into God’s Kingdom.

The image of Jesus as shepherd runs through the gospel reading this morning. We can see it when the apostles gather round Jesus to tell him about all they’ve been doing. And when he wants them to come away and rest a while we’re reminded of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd... fresh and green are the pastures where he gives me repose, near restful waters he leads me to revive my drooping spirit”.

Jesus is not like the kings of ancient Israel, who ruled on behalf of God, but mostly not very well. Jesus is enacting Psalm 23 in which the Lord is my shepherd. He is fulfilling Jeremiah who promised that the future shepherd of God’s people will be “The Lord our Righteousness”. So Jesus is not a substitute shepherd, he is the Lord himself restoring his people.

Sheep are pretty helpless, really. So in Jesus, God is taking the initiative to gather his sheep back to himself, to guide them gently into pastures where they can rest, to guide them under God’s rule, into God’s kingdom.

And the sheep that Jesus has come to gather are not only the ancient people of Israel. As our reading from the letter to the Ephesians tells us, in Jesus God has drawn into one both Jew and Gentile. Jesus has broken down all the divisions which keep human beings apart, making one new humanity and creating peace. God’s choice of the people of Israel has never been taken away, his promises to Israel have never been cancelled. But, through Jesus, that choice and those promises have been extended to all people. 

This morning we celebrate the sacrament of Baptism, welcoming William as the latest member of God’s people in his church. Baptism is the sign of dying and rising with Christ. It is the sign by which we become part of the one new humanity which Jesus has created, overcoming all divisions.

And it is Jesus himself who does this. It is Jesus who works through the sacraments of his Church. We cannot make ourselves members of God’s people; Jesus the Good Shepherd seeks us out and joins us to his flock. Which is why we baptise children, who aren’t yet old enough to understand, because for all of us what matters is that God has chosen us and made us part of his redeemed people.

Most of us, probably, don’t remember our baptism. But we do know that we are baptised. We know that Christ has claimed us for his own. And he never takes back his choice.

We do not make ourselves members of the people of God. It doesn’t depend on us. And our faith, our relationship with Christ, is not an individual thing or a private hobby. We are members of a people. We, like sheep, are gathered together in unity by Christ our Good Shepherd. 

And the promise of God, for us, as well as for William, is that he will guide and protect us and bring us into his Kingdom. That Kingdom is righteousness and peace for all people, in which all divisions and injustice have been overcome. It is the new humanity, made one in the body of Christ. Through Baptism and the Eucharist that new humanity becomes real in us, in our lives, and in the world. This is what Christ does for us, for William, and for all his people. And in Christ we have a sure and certain hope.

This is why we study his teachings, not just as individuals but when we come together to celebrate the Eucharist. Christ teaches us as a people, guiding us through the scriptures into the ways of God’s kingdom of justice and peace. Jesus is the good shepherd who teaches his people the good news of God. And because there is one flock of Christ, one new humanity, we need also to reflect on the insights of our brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world. For example, Christians praying alongside other faith communities in India, or struggling against injustice in the Philippines, have their own insights to share into how Christ is leading all his people.

And we make those teachings real in our lives, and carry them into the world, spreading the good news of God’s kingdom. Now we don’t follow the teachings of Christ to try and earn God’s favour. We are not trying to make the grade as the people of God. God in Jesus has already chosen us and made us part of his people. That is his free act of grace, and he will not take back his choice. So we can truly say, with William and all God’s people, that the Lord is our shepherd, and that he guides us along the right pathways for his name’s sake.