Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from John 10:11-18
at St. John's Presbyterian Church on May 3, 2009
My granddaddy kept cows on his land in Harrisville, Mississippi. To get to the cow pasture you walked through the small back yard and then through a narrow gate into the expansive pastures ringed with large pin oak trees. Beyond the trees was a creek with a brown mud bed. I walked into the cow pastures with Granddaddy and followed him as he made his rounds. He knew each cow by name. "Good evening, Sandy. Hope you had a pleasant day," He'd say. "Hey now, Brownie, did you behave today? There's little Stump," he said to me as he pointed to a little calf. "Just born three days ago. Hasn't missed a meal since then." I was listening to my granddaddy and looking at his cows. And in the back of my mind I was repeating a psalm I had recently memorized. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want ..."
As a child I memorized Psalm 23 ... "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." And I came to know Jesus as the good shepherd of the sheep. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. So we sang at church school and Vacation Bible School. I understood myself and the other children as persons who were loved by Jesus. Jesus took care of us. Jesus protected us from harm. Jesus fed us with spiritual food and drink. But I didn't understand then that the other children and I, the spiritual sheep, were also an investment. We, God's children, all of us, are, in a sense, God's investment. God made the payment for our salvation through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is indeed our good shepherd. What I did not comprehend as a child is that I was an investment. Christ had made an investment in me.
It is small wonder that the image of the shepherd was frequently upon the lips of the savior. It was a part of his heritage and culture. Abraham, the father of the nation, was the keeper of great flocks. Moses was tending the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro, when God called him into a special service. David was a shepherd boy called in from the fields to be the King of Israel.
The imagery of the shepherd was also imprinted upon the literature of the day. The 23rd Psalm is frequently referred to as the shepherd psalm. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters."
When Isaiah spoke of the coming of the Messiah he worded it by saying: "He will feed his flock like a shepherd! He will gather his lambs into his arms." Yes, the tradition of the shepherd was very much a part of the heritage of Christ.
This picture comes more clearly into focus in the New Testament. Jesus once told a story about a shepherd who had 100 sheep, but one of them went astray. In our way of thinking a 99% return on our investment would be most desirable, but not this shepherd. He left the 99 to go in search of that one lost sheep. Later, when Jesus was speaking to a great throng of people, Mark tells us that he had compassion upon them because they were "as sheep without a shepherd."
Think of Jesus initial investment in his twelve disciples. Contrary to the message of the recently uncovered Gospel of Judas, I think Judas was a washout. Judas was in a sense a bad investment. But all in all Jesus did very well in terms of return on investment in his disciples. For those first dozen disciples have multiplied into an estimated 2.1 billion adherents alive on planet earth today, making Christianity the world's largest religion. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChristianIty]
And the estimated 2.1 billion Christians alive today do not include a multitude of Christians who have lived in other times and other places in our world over the past 2000 years. According to my calculations, if we estimate there have been 3 billion Christians since Jesus ascended into heaven 2000 years ago, and we divide those 3 billion Christians by the original 12 disciples whom Jesus shepherded while on this earth, then Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has realized a return of over 250 million percent return on investment. These are amazing returns.
But the real power of Christianity is not in the macro-economics but in the micro-economics. The real power of Christianity is the way the Holy Spirit works in the hearts and minds of each Christian. Changing us for the good. Making us more compassionate. Making us less self-centered. Making us more focused on the common good. We hear a great deal from some quarters about the harmful effects the Christian religion has had over the history of humanity but I must politely disagree. Christianity has a positive force for humanity for the past 2000 years. Yes, we have sinned. The Crusades were inexcusable. The Conquistadors and their missionaries brought deadly pestilence to the native peoples. But the overall effect of the Christian faith has been overwhelmingly positive throughout human history.
Speaking of God's economy, we are God's investment, dear people. God has adopted into God's own family. Someone once asked me why Psalm 23 is so often said at funerals. It is true that the 23rd Psalm is a common reading at funerals. Perhaps we turn to the 23rd Psalm because it familiar to us from our childhood. Or we may use it because of the way it own up to the reality of death. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and they staff they comfort me." But overarching image of Psalm 23 is the image of a wandering journey with the Lord through the green pasture of life on this good earth. We are Christ's sheep and Christ walks through life with us, managing us like a stock broker manages his client's investment. Keeping a close eye out to make sure we are growing and increasing in all good things.
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, made an initial investment in his twelve disciples. He taught them about God, showed them how to live, loved them with all his heart, invested himself in them. Then he let them go. And they did remarkably well. Today there are over 2.1 billion Christians. Each of them is a return on Jesus' initial investment in his twelve disciples. Perhaps we should examine the balance sheet of our lives. Find out how we are adding to God's bottom line. Discover ways we may be having a positive or a negative impact on God's investment in us.
We are God's investment. God made the payment for our salvation through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd. Let us live as sheep live. Secure in the love of our Good Shepherd. Safe. Warm. Fed. Loved. And let us not consider it a crime when the time comes for us to be sheared. For us to contribute. For us to give something back to the Good Shepherd for the excellent care he provides.
There are many ways we express good stewardship. Last August we had a "Blessing of the Backpacks" service for children and teachers who were returning to school. We started the school year off by renewing our covenant to be supportive shepherds for our children and youth. As the school year ends, we have focused on "Justice for all Children" and have learned some disturbing facts such as these:
Texas is #1 in the USA in uninsured children.
The USA ranks 29th in the world on infant mortality - tied with Poland and Slovakia, and behind Cuba.
Houston is the hub for human trafficking in the USA.
Being a shepherd means we get our hands dirty in the nitty gritty issues of people's lives. Some of our folks did that yesterday when they spent some time working to beautify Shearn Elementary School. We have many opportunities to be good shepherds. A couple of weeks from now, on May 17, we will have a "Stewardship of Time and Talents" volunteer sign up opportunity after worship. You
Stewardship is something we do in the Fall with our money and in the Spring with our time and talents survey. Stewardship is something we do every year, every month, every week, every day, every minute, every second. Every single choice we make has implications for our stewardship. Let us learn the secret of the shepherd which is the secret of letting go. Letting go of pride. Letting go of control. Letting go of money. Stewardship is the secret of the shepherd. We know it. We live it. We give it.
