“THE LORD YOUR
SHEPHERD IS”
Saint Luke 15.
1-10
3rd Sunday after Trinity: 16 June Anno
Domini 2013
Fr. Jay Watson
SSP
In The Name of
The Father and of The + Son and of The Holy Ghost
“If [you] say [you] have no sin [you]
deceive [y]ourselves and the truth is not in [you]” [1 Jn. 1.8]
Repent and admit that you have sin inside
of you. Confess to the Lord and confess to yourself. Repent and be honest.
Don’t just speak the general confession. You’ve never once just “broken” the sixth, fifth, first, or
eighth commandment—there is no “generic”
number anonymity with God. You sin actual sins in thought, word and deed not
systematic categories. You have lusted, cheated, or looked at pornography; you
have hated, loathed, mocked, or eye-rolled with contempt; you have put your
time and energy into things above and instead of the Lord or refrained from
assembling here to receive His gifts; you have gossiped, slandered or spoken
ill of your neighbor and friend as often as your enemy. Repent. Strike your breast and say “my fault, my fault, my most grievous fault; Lord have mercy upon me a
miserable sinner!”
“I
say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner
that repenteth.”
Where are you right now at this very
moment? You ARE in the presence of angels and archangels and the host of
heaven. They are rejoicing for you and with you. There joy is yours and will
soon be yours as you are ushered to the high table of joy! Rejoice!
Don’t worry and fret about animal husbandry
and agricultural knowledge. You don’t need to pull out your I-phone or Bible
atlas & commentary to “study up” on lambs, shepherds and flock dynamics.
You don’t presume to criticize God the 1st Person—The FATHER—based
upon your understanding of your own Dad or other Fathers. The fact that earthly
Fathers can beat their wives, neglect their children, or drink and gamble does
not affect the perfect nature of the Loving Father Who art in heaven. One is
a distorted and fallen image, an imperfect reflection in a cracked surface the
other is SOURCE and TRUTH. So too it is
with lambs, sheepfolds and Shepherds. Do not judge Jesus and “The”
eternal flock by the apparent “results”
of your cracked and ugly pastors and your smelling and dysfunctional fellow
sheep.
The fact that in the Lord’s parable, the
Good Shepherd HIMSELF does the rescue…means that here, in His actual earthly,
incarnational, real-world, “means-of-grace”
approach…it’s still HIM (the Good Shepherd) actually doing the... “doing!”
So you don’t have to fret that your friend
who raises sheep over in Missouri tells you one thing about how actual sheep
behave or that you have countless anecdotes about how actual pastors let you
down know this: THE 99 ARE SAFE! The
Good Shepherd says in John 17 “…I guarded
them. I kept them safe through the Name You gave Me. None of them has been
lost.” To be sure, breath and mouth
contrition for your OWN trespasses, but breathe easy about the flock and
do not be consumed with angst and panic over the lost. The wandering, hiding,
trapped, deaf & dumb, as well as the ignorant, mean, cussed, deliberately
hiding and rebelling sheep…that is, the sheep that are part of The Good
Shepherd’s family of wooly whiteness…simply CANNOT thwart the will of the Good
Shepherd!
Again the Good Shepherd says: “I am praying for those You have given Me,
because they are Yours” [Jn. 17.9] and “My
sheep listen to My voice. I know them and they follow Me.” [Jn. 10.27]
Is this parable about evangelism and mission
work? Well, yes.
Is this parable about reclaiming the
delinquents and sinful erring? Well, yes, such is always the joyful communion
of the Church.
But, is this parable MOST CERTAINLY TRUE
about your own birth-rite, biography, and personal history? Oh yes, O joyfully
YES!
The sheep, the Lamb, away from the flock is
dead. The Good Shepherd is not a Gideon Bible linked up to a solo recluse (you
know, the “I find churches filled with
hypocrites…and I can worship God in nature” crap) but an organic flock, ALL
feeding together on the same green grass of Gospel purely preached and
Eucharist rightly administered.
Not acting like a sheep in the pasture?
Well, then, be aware of the eyes, feculent breath, and glistening teeth of the
circling wolves—the demons.
Now rejoice with your Shepherd for He has
called together all His friends (Adam, Noah, Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
Joseph, Moses and David) and neighbors (Gentiles by the myriads) and says “Rejoice with Me; for I have found my sheep
which was lost!” He’s talking about
you!
But not just found. The Good Shepherd became
a replacement sheep for you. His death in the wilderness of sin was what bought
your rescue. His surrender to the wolves—to the dragon—is what freed you from
the murderous maw of evil. His Blood, not gold, not ten pieces of silver, was
shed so that yours would not be; He Body was bit into and His heel punctured
(His life given) so that your body would rise again glorified.
And mysteriously, sacramentally, what was
poison for the wolves and the serpent, for He defeated death and Satan when He
rose again, now becomes the medicine of immortality and the everlasting life
meal for you: His Body and Blood as your food and drink.
As the mother pelican vulns herself to feed
her young chicks on her own blood; as an earthly Mother and Father will give up
their own meals and sustenance to feed their beloved children, THIS Shepherd is
Good incarnate as He feeds His flock Himself—The Shepherd for the Sheep!
The world will murmur and gnash its teeth;
nothing you can do about that. The Pharisee and scribe in your heart will
mutter and curse; REPENT in the presence of angels, and of The Good Shepherd’s
appointed angel, at this font and rail! And joy now in peace and mercy as He
brings you the restored flock to the table-trough as forgiven sinners…and you
eat with Him, you eat Him and He embraces you on His shoulders---in His arms
and heart forever!
In The Name of
The Father and of + The Son and of The Holy Ghost
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