Our Need for a Good Shepherd

Joining the flock

May 3, 2020

Father David Jones

Reflections

The people needed a Good Shepherd. And so, Jesus came from heaven to earth. If you want to live right you have to always put God in the picture. Today is Sunday and this particular Sunday is a chance to put God in your fourth week of Easter.

For some people today is just another day

But for those whose eyes are watching God

Today is a day to greet God with a rousing Happy Easter

A day to celebrate that He would not come down off the cross

Just to save himself,

But he rose from the dead just to save me.

Put God in the picture

And today is not just Sunday

Rather it is the first day of a brand-new week

Where God has given some a moment, some 604,800 seconds

to live. Sunday tells us just focus on this week.

Just try to walk with Jesus

And talk with Jesus

Moment by moment

One day at a time

And let God lead your life this week.

The hard part is letting go and letting God.

Truth be told, we want to do what we want to do

And more grandly, we don’t want to do, what we don’t want to do.

And then comes God, always asking us to do something.

Even as we stay at home on a Sunday

The church is open and God is asking us to do something.

This is the invitation that Jesus is extending to the Pharisees.

But they do not receive the Body of Christ.

He is a stranger to them

They do not recognize his voice

They will run away from him.

Jesus tells them there are thieves and robbers.

There are those who climb over the wall

And those who come in through the gate.

There is a shepherd

And there is a gatekeeper

There are those who recognize

And those who cannot see

And cannot hear on this glorious Sunday morning.

There are those who hear

And one who calls

And the one who calls, leads those who hear and recognize out

And the one who calls drives them out

He drives out all who are his own.

Jesus tells them all this Good News

But some don’t get it.

For them it’s just another week

But for the ones who receive the Good News

It’s a brand-new week

A fresh start to a bright future.

Take the fresh start church

Let the Lord use you

And receive a better week this week.

Because the Pharisees only wanted to do what they wanted to do

They missed the invitation that God in the person of Jesus

Extends to each one of us every day.

We are invited into the fold

We are invited into the community

And when we accept this invitation

We are invited to be led out and do the work of the Lord.

Not led out to the bank

Not led out to the grocery store

Not led out to the doctor

The flock is the church

And those who recognize His voice

And follow His lead

Are being led out into the world

To bring the invitation and the blessing of God

To those who need to be saved from their sins.

If you want to live right

Put God in your picture frame and your door frame

And let him forgive your sin

So he can lead His church.

Eye has not seen, ear has not heard

What God has ready for those who are waiting on the Lord.

There is a movie called The Shack

And in The Shack

God is a Black woman

And she cooks!

And one day a man who has suffered a great loss

The loss of a child

Gets up the courage to confront this woman while she is in her kitchen cooking.

And he goes up and goes off

How in the world can you be stirring a pot?

When my child needed you

And when things kept getting worse

And bad stuff was happening to good people

And you are just standing there stirring a pot!

He yelled and screamed

And the woman kept stirring and smiled slightly

And said child, you have no idea how much I am doing right now.

Church, don’t ever underestimate God

God is always doing something

And when it feels like we have too much to bear

God is doing something extra special,

Extra good.

We may not know the details

But as long as we know the God,

We don’t have to worry about the devil in the details.

God is inviting the Pharisees, all of those who want to do what they want to do on their own

To join the flock.

Being in the flock is our blessing

Keeping in the flock is our work

Staying in the flock is our sacrament

Life is more abundant when it is life

Lived, shared and loved

With sisters and brothers in Christ Jesus

In the house of the Lord

And the heaven of our Father

That’s not about the after life

That’s about the life that begins when we

Reserve the right to serve

On the first day of a brand-new week

With an old time and on time God.

Be a better you this week than you were last week,

Meaning give God a little more time

And when God leads us out

We will be read, not for the troubles of the world

But rather for the goodness of the Lord.