Home   About Me   Prayers   Email 

I Am The Good Shepherd

4^th Sunday of Easter - May 15th, 2011

 John 10: 11 – 18

Jesus said:  “I am the good shepherd.  A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  A hired man, who is not his own, sees a wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them.  This is because he works for pay and have no concern for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep.  I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.  There also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.  This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.  I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.  This command I have received from my Father.”

          Jesus said:  “I am the good shepherd, the only one.”  He added:  “I am the gate.  I am the door.  I am the only entrance.  I am the only exit that will lead to anything.”  Our reactions to those statements can be very different.  They can be positive, even to the point that we say:  “In that case, we should do what we can to spread that vital piece of information.”  They can be negative, especially when we think about all that has been done in his name during human history.  “I am the good shepherd.  I am the way.  I am the truth.  I am life, if anyone rejects me he will die.”

          What did he mean?  What did he want?  Did he mean what Christians mean?  Did he want what Christians want?  Did he intend what Christians so often call their “Christians ethics?”  That is a good question.

What I am about to say next some of you may not understand, but it is at the core of what we, as a Christian country, is facing today, the same like of viewpoint from those of our leaders who claim to be Christian.

In 1454, Pope Nicholas V wrote a degree Romanus Pontifex in which he blessed, in the name of Jesus, the slave trade.  In 1668, a theologian at a university wrote that the justification of slavery is a matter of faith, and he quoted, in the name of Jesus, Leviticus, the first letter of Peter, the first letter to the Corinthians, and the letter to Philemon.  In 1864, the Church still had slaves.  In fact, the first general statement against slavery dates only from the Second Vatican Council.

          Study Christian Church statements on the place and role of women in this world, even the most recent ones and you will be reminded of what an old Church father wrote:  “Women are the gateway of the devil.”

          We Christians know that those statements are wrong when we read them against Jesus’ vision.  It is that vision of Jesus we should test when we want to know what he meant, not the so-called Christian version of that outlook.

         It is in his vision that he, seeing the crowds, had pity on them because they seemed to be scattered, to be like sheep without a shepherd.  He saw in a very special way how all human beings belong together.  How we all hang together – or at least should – as one tree of life.  He expressed this in his idea about God: a Mother and a Father, and we all in the same family, brothers, and sisters.

          This he expressed when his family – his mother, his sisters, and his brothers – wanted to see him.  He did not come, because, he said, everyone is my mother, my sister, my brother.  He expressed this when he handed his bread around and said:  “This is my body, eat it, all of you.”  When he handed his cup around and said:  “This is my blood, drink it, all of you.”  Just as we are doing, being one without considering age or wealth, social groups, race, or the schools where we studied.

          He expressed this when he was interested in all the people he met during his life; the young, the old, the sick, the healthy, the dead, the sinners, the crooks, the lost girls, the runaway boys, and the saints.  It is a vision in which slavery, discrimination, bias against others are out.  It is an outlook in which the human family is really one family, in which peace will reign, conflicts will be solved; the economy will be interested in all, without a war that might destroy us.  And without political leaders who want to destroy us, who want to do away with Christianity in this country; who, without authority to express the views of the majority of the people in this country, and boldly say, “We are not a Christian nation to the rest of the world.”

When we take a closer look at the demise, the issues facing everyday, ordinary people who have always worked hard, sacrificed, and put their trust in our Lord, in light of the fact that most Americans are Christians, we just might be inclined to surmise that this whole government control thing is indeed targeted at us Christians.  It certainly does stand on solid ground as a scheme of persecution from those what a different outcome.

 We were founded as a Christian nation and our laws and rights are based on those Christian morals and values that Jesus taught all those years ago.  Anyone who doesn’t want to accept that might do well to move on to another country that is not Christian.  Unfortunately that is not going to happen.

          That is why and always has been why Jesus’ vision is the only one that can and does save us.  That is why HE, living that vision through life, passion, and death into resurrection and glory, is the only way and the only door leading in and out.  Let us never forget that twice, prophets thought we Christians had lost that vision in the practice of our lives.

          Mohammed, almost fourteen hundred hears ago, started a new human family, because the Christians he lived with did not want to associate with him or his people.  More than a hundred years ago, Karl Marx started his new “commune,” because he doubted whether Christians, with their belief in God, could do it.  They both made a mistake:  They thought Jesus was at fault.  He is not; his followers were.

          He remains the only good shepherd, the exclusive door leading in and leading out.

(C) Deacon Steve A. Politte

May 14th, 2011

The Greatest Portrait . . . !

Proudly displayed, in Art Galleries across the world -
the description of this man that many see,
on ‘holy cards’ and prayer books, His picture -
in many sizes and shapes, for all who believe.

Poses by the hundred’s, mostly of Him on the cross -
this man who suffered, and died for our sins,
painted on stained glass windows in many churches -
a reminder to us; this man who called us, ‘Friends.’

People contemplate His description in wonder -
how tall, how lean, what height was He?
this Savior of all humankind, this man -
who carried our sins on a cross to Calvary?

Sculptured figures abound, in stores across the globe -
depicting some kind of description of this man,
trying to capture His presence for all to adore -
He, who walked and preached amidst the Holy Land.

Many have described Him in drawings -
with dark skin, hair, and dark piercing eyes,
perhaps medium in stature, with a crown of thorns -
a perception, in each persons own mind, He resides.

How can we really know what he looked like -?
this carpenter, God’s only begotten Son?
this man called 'Teacher' - named Jesus of Nazareth -
who worked miracles; forgave the sins of everyone?

When I want to know what Jesus looked like -
I open my bible; for there in those pages, I recall,
in the reading of the scripture passages about Jesus -
there lies the greatest portrait of them all!



© Steve A. Politte
8/31/2006
 

TOP

Page design by Sharon Flora Creations