On Being Looked After

Maybe you remember this experience as well: I can remember what a scary and uncertain time it was when my parents would go out for the night. I could distract myself for a little while. Generally they would leave while it was still light outside. And they would usually leave us with TV dinners which we loved, though for the life of me I don’t know why. Some of you will remember those things. It was the days before microwave ovens and the meals were frozen foods - usually Salisbury steak that never got warmed all the way through, mashed potatoes and gravy that got cooked way too much, and some sort of apple dessert – all of which you only got to eat about half of because it would stick to the foil when you peeled it off. And just for good measure there would be strawberry flavoring you could put in your milk. It was disgusting and we LOVED those things.

So, OK, there was that. Good distraction for a little while. Then there was a favorite TV program like Green Acres or Emergency. That would work for awhile, too. But Emergency was not a great thing to watch when you had this nervous feeling in the pit of your stomach. It was the 1970s version of ER so it had lots of car crashes and heart attacks and life-threatening illnesses. Somewhere about halfway through Emergency I’d start to think, “Mom and Dad ought to be back by now.”

By the time Emergency was over it would be worse. “It’s 9 o’clock. They’ve never been out later than 9 o’clock before, have they? Why haven’t they called to tell us that they’ll be late? I knew the air pressure in the back tire on the car looked low. They probably had a flat tire. Or, no, worse! They had a blowout and crashed through the guardrail on the big curve going into town and the car flipped, went down the embankment, hit a tree and caught fire and nobody saw any of it and they dragged themselves from the burning wreckage and then they were assaulted by robbers who took everything they had and then kidnapped them and carried them off to Culpeper (bad things always happen in Culpeper) and they’re being held for ransom until their eldest son can collect a million dollars in unmarked bills and can exchange himself and the money for their lives.” Sometimes it was aliens from outer space, but that’s generally how my mind worked.

I outgrew all of this eventually. I think I was 23. There was one thing that worked against all these scary thoughts. That was when Ms. Virginia would come and look after us. Ms. Virginia lived by herself around the corner from our house and as I think back on her, I realize she must have had the patience of Job. For many years she had to put up with all the exuberance and anxiety of the three Joyner children and she did it with joy and the most reassuring calm. When my parents told us that they were going out and that Ms. Virginia was going to look after us, we knew that whatever the night would be, it would ultimately be all right because Ms. Virginia was going to be there.

“I will look after my sheep,” the Lord God said in the reading from Ezekiel for today. “I will look after them. When they are lost I will search for them. When they are scattered I will seek them out. When it is dark and cloudy and they have wandered far from the flock, I will rescue them. I will bring them back from the foreign lands where they have been sent.” (You can tell here that we aren’t just talking about sheep any more. It’s God’s people we’re talking about.)

“I will gather them from the nations. I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel. I will feed them with good pasture by the riverside. I will give them rest. I will bring back those who have strayed. I will bind up the injured. I will strengthen the weak.”

“Those sheep that have made themselves fat and strong at the expense of my flock I will destroy. I will judge between the fat and the lean and bring justice to the world. I will set up a shepherd, David, who will feed the sheep and be their shepherd. I will look after them.”

This is the promise of God to all who are scared and uncertain. It is a promise to make things right. It is a word of judgment on those who think they can make their own way at the expense of others. It is a word of hope that in the end, God’s will finds a way – God’s people find their back home – God’s love and justice have no enemy that can stand.

If that’s all we had to say on this day – this Christ the King Sunday, this Sunday before Thanksgiving, this day in the period before a new presidency begins, this day in the wake of economic distress, this day that feels like winter far from the fresh breath of spring – if that is all we had to say – it would be worth saying. After all, we have cause to be scared and uncertain and we need the blessed assurance that Jesus is mine. O do we need a foretaste of glory divine! We need the calm assurance that we can face uncertain days because He lives.

But somehow I think we need to hear something more as well. We need to hear, not only that the future is in God’s hands and that God has come in Jesus to be the shepherd, but that we have something to do BECAUSE the future is in God’s hands and BECAUSE Jesus is the shepherd. What do we DO in uncertain times?

Thomas Cahill makes a bold claim for what the Irish did in the uncertain times that are sometimes called the Dark Ages. The Roman Empire had fallen. All over Europe the structures that had supported Christianity and Latin civilization were disappearing. New pagan rulers were taking over large areas of the countryside. All the books and learning that the Christians and Romans had brought were vanishing.

Ireland, however, was on the edge of the world as they knew it then. In the midst of the darkness of the times, the Irish were becoming Christian and establishing monasteries and keeping alive the culture and faith they had been given. There were many people throughout Europe who thought they were seeing the end of the world. It was certainly the end of the world as they had known it. They were scary and uncertain times.

So the Irish set sail. Some of those crazy Irish monks who had been formed in the faith of Jesus set off in coracles, small boats made of timber and animal skins, and took to the wild Irish Sea. They were called White Martyrs – martyrs because they gave their lives to be a witness to what God was doing in Jesus. White because they set off to travel into the white light of the morning.

One of them was Columba, who set off from Ireland because he had gotten into some trouble with his superiors. He left in one of these small boats with 11 of his disciples and sailed until he could no longer see Ireland. He had arrived at Iona, a small island off the coast of what is now Scotland. Coming ashore, he burned his boat and began a monastery which would bring Christianity back to Britain. Columba established 60 monasteries before he died.

Another was Columbanus, who went to the continent of Europe and challenged popes and bishops to leave the cities to which they had retreated and take the gospel back to the people. They walked into dangerous situations with books tied to their waists like swords. Cahill says, “What is certain is that the White Martyrs, clothed like druids in distinctive white wool robes, fanned out cheerfully across Europe, founding monasteries that would become in time” familiar cities like Salzburg and Vienna.[i] In uncertain times, Thomas Cahill says, the Irish didn’t just get looked after. They trusted that they were looked after, so they saved civilization.

What do Christians do when the world is threatening and the times are uncertain? They set sail. They go back to the faith that told them who they were…to the savior who makes all other claims to who they are irrelevant. They go back to the Bible with its stories of peoples who knew their own times of fear and uncertainty and who prayed for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. And they sail into the future to work for that kingdom in this place and every place.

The gospel parable for today is one of those scary parables we talked about last week. It is part of a series of stories that Jesus tells about groups of people who were not ready for some major event. In the first case they are bridesmaids who had not brought enough oil for the groom watch and are locked out of the wedding feast. In the second case there is a servant who takes the money his master has entrusted to him and buries it in the ground, much to his master’s displeasure. Finally there are the people who, when brought before the throne of Jesus at the Last Judgment, are told that when they had the opportunity to put their love and faith into action they failed.

Of course, in each of these stories there are also characters who are prepared, who do have oil, who do invest the money they’ve been given, who do serve Jesus in the form of their brothers and sisters in need. But what makes me anxious about these stories is that all of the characters think their doing fine. None of those who end up on the outside assume at the outset that that is where they will be. They are just not very conscious of the bridegroom or master or king and what the coming will mean for them.

God will establish a shepherd to look after the sheep. Jesus is the King who will come again in glory. The Spirit is moving across the face of the waters bringing new life. All of that is happening but it does not mean that there are not adventures for us to be about. It doesn’t mean that there are not hands to hold and mouths to feed and lost folks to bring home and injured folks who need to healing and weak folks who need strengthening. Sometimes those folks are us and we are the ones who are lifted up. At other times we are the ones who take our cue from the Great Shepherd and offer ourselves to the kingdom work.

There is another passage that should echo in your head as you hear these passages about sheep and goats. It comes at the end of John’s gospel as the disciples are having breakfast with the resurrected Jesus by the shores of the lake. Jesus calls to Peter and asks him a question: “Peter, do you love me more than these?”

Peter says to Jesus, “Yes, Lord. You know that I love you.”

What does Jesus then say to Peter? “Feed my lambs.” Again he asks Peter, “Do you love me?”

“Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

“Tend my sheep.” But Jesus wasn’t done. A third time he asks, “Do you love me?”

Peter is hurt. But surely somewhere he must have remembered the three times that he had denied Jesus before his trial and crucifixion. “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.”

“Feed my sheep.”

What is it that we are called to do? If we are followers of Jesus there is no need for us to be anxious about who we are or where we are headed. We are being looked after by the Great Shepherd. But we are also told to be like the shepherd. We are told to tend the lambs, to feed the sheep, to conform our lives to the model of the one who gave us life.

All around us there are sheep to tend. What are we going to do? It’s great to be looked after. Like Ms. Virginia looking after us kids, God is looking after us like a shepherd tending a flock. And because of that, we’ve got some looking after to do. Thanks be to God.

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24(NRSV)
For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice...

Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.

[i] Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization, [New York: Doubleday, 1995], p. 194.