The Good Shepherd is Still at Work
Kenneth Bailey, a Bible scholar who spent most of his life in Israel and Palestine , points out that most of the psalms use “Homeland Security” language when talking about God.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:1
The amazing thing, he says, is that none of this language made it into the New Testament even though the New Testament quotes Psalms repeatedly. The images the New Testament uses, however, are the images of a God who is like a shepherd; the One who Jesus says doesn’t miss the fall of the sparrow is also the one who knows “our going out and coming in”.
This Sunday is called “Shepherd Sunday”. The Christ we meet in the gospels before his resurrection is sent to the “lost sheep of Israel ”, welcoming sinners into his company. And, after the resurrection, he comes looking for his frightened disciples. He still does.
That’s the fundamental message of the Easter Season – He still does the things we see Him do in the gospels.
I am old enough to have seen the drama of a lot of people’s lives lived out before me. One of the most amazing things about my high school class’s 25th reunion (which was a long time ago, now) were the stories of redemption that I heard my classmates tell me. I had known many of these people since kindergarten. When we left high school there were doubts in my mind whether some of them would survive the next five years – to say nothing of 25. Several of them fit the description of “prostitutes and sinners” quite literally in the years immediately after high school. One told me that he had not drawn a sober breath from the day he left Vietnam until he was about a year into his fourth marriage. Then, miraculously, through the faith of this fourth wife and the grace of God, he started going to AA. Another classmate, whose promiscuity was legendary even in high school, sent a letter in which she talked about moving to Florida , undergoing a conversion experience, becoming a member of an evangelical church, and talked about her gratitude for a loving and faithful marriage. We often think that God is dead when God doesn’t protect us like some kind of fortress. The proof that God is alive is that Jesus keeps doing what he does in the gospels. He keeps going out looking for those lost sheep and he rejoices when he finds them.
I am old enough to have seen the drama of a lot of people’s lives lived out before me. One of the most amazing things about my high school class’s 25th reunion (which was a long time ago, now) were the stories of redemption that I heard my classmates tell me. I had known many of these people since kindergarten. When we left high school there were doubts in my mind whether some of them would survive the next five years – to say nothing of 25. Several of them fit the description of “prostitutes and sinners” quite literally in the years immediately after high school. One told me that he had not drawn a sober breath from the day he left Vietnam until he was about a year into his fourth marriage. Then, miraculously, through the faith of this fourth wife and the grace of God, he started going to AA. Another classmate, whose promiscuity was legendary even in high school, sent a letter in which she talked about moving to Florida , undergoing a conversion experience, becoming a member of an evangelical church, and talked about her gratitude for a loving and faithful marriage. We often think that God is dead when God doesn’t protect us like some kind of fortress. The proof that God is alive is that Jesus keeps doing what he does in the gospels. He keeps going out looking for those lost sheep and he rejoices when he finds them.
