If you ask me, my parents are some of the best. 😊 We always had food on our table, a roof over our heads, and books and prayers at bedtime. Every summer, we vacationed with six other families, all of them my parents’ friends from seminary, a group affectionately known as our “Okoboji family” because we vacationed in Okoboji, Iowa. My parents went to my sister’s every track and cross country meet and my concerts, shows, and recitals. As my sister and I grew older, my parents were always there, if asked, to help us move, to pick us up when stranded, and to babysit their grandchildren (my niece and nephew), even if doing so required a cross-country flight. As a now-retired social worker working in foster care, my mother literally taught the class on how to parent, and her boundaries are beautiful. Never does advice leave my mother’s mouth unless specifically asked for, and when I, while weeping, told my mother I felt called by God to Minnesota—my parents and my sister firmly entrenched in Phoenix, my mother said, “Sarah, I understand. When God calls, you gotta go!” They’re the best, like I said. Still, it was embarrassingly recently that I realized how deeply my parents love me and how much caring for me has shaped their lives. I can see now that, for at least two decades, my parents made most decisions based on what was best for me and my sister. They waited to move so we could finish high school. They saved so they could help us pay for college. We could afford only one vacation a year, and because my sister and I insisted, it was always to Okoboji with our Okoboji family, never to any place more exotic. They have, in many ways, laid down their lives for us. Laid down their needs. Laid down their own interests and activities. Laid down their expectations of what we would do, where we would live, or who we would marry. Laid down their opinions.
In today’s gospel, Jesus teaches the disciples, Pharisees, and all those gathered round, “I am the good shepherd.” Instead of a morally “good” shepherd, the Greek word used in this passage indicates Jesus is calling himself a “true” or “real” shepherd. Unlike the hired hand who leaves the sheep vulnerable when trouble comes, the good or “true” shepherd protects the sheep and is willing to put his body in harm’s way for the sake of the sheep. The goal of the true shepherd’s work is to give the sheep abundant life—as Jesus says just prior to today’s reading. Whatever the sheep need for abundant life, the true shepherd is willing to give. Contemplating how the true shepherd is willing to give, our minds may immediately jump to Jesus’ crucifixion and death, the way Jesus lays down his life, but the gospel of John tells a larger story: that of a God who lays down heaven to enter earth. A God who lays down power. A God who lays down might. A God who lays down majesty. God enters the world in Jesus, enters the world as a baby, makes Godself vulnerable to hunger and thirst, to everyday aches and pains, to the sorrows and joys of being human. God lays down what makes God-God. In order to share our humanity. In order to preach and teach, heal and forgive, feed and befriend. In order to die, yes, but also to rise. In order to ascend and send us the Holy Spirit. In order to plant the church—that we might share in the abundant life of the Spirit. This is the work of the true shepherd. For us, Jesus’ sheep. At that embarrassingly recent moment that I realized how deeply my parents love me and how significantly caring for me has shaped their lives, I realized something else: They have never asked me to love them back. They have never asked me to sacrifice for them. Their love for me has never been contingent on my love for them. And so, I am free—to love my parents or ignore them. I am free to call them regularly or never call them. I am free to figure out how to spend holidays with them or just let the holidays pass without mention. My parents will love me, regardless. Amazingly. The same, dear people, is true in our relationship with God. God’s love for us has never been contingent on our love for God. So we are free—to love God or ignore God. We are free to share in Christian community or never darken the door of a church. We are free to serve all people and strive for justice and peace in all the earth or to spend our lives serving only our own interests. God will love us, regardless. Amazingly. The day I realized I could freely love my parents—or not, I decided I wanted to. Not because I was obligated to. Not because of a threat of losing their love. But because I wish to be a loving person, because my parents are deserving of love, and especially because loving them brings joy to me. We who are called by God to “love the Lord” as our mission statement says do so freely. We get to love God back and in so doing, we know the joy of loving. We know the joy found in a life of loving God. This is a life on which Audrianna, Trevor, and Riley are about to embark, a life summed up in the promises they will make today, promises each of us who are confirmed made: To live among God’s faithful people To hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper To proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed To serve all people, following the example of Jesus and To strive for justice and peace in all the earth Loving God is less a warm feeling about God or even what we believe in our heads about God and more about sharing in Christian community, serving all people, and striving for justice and peace in all the earth. Loving God is less a discernment of right or wrong belief and more about getting out in the ditch and picking up trash, serving the community meal, mentoring confirmation students, teaching Sunday school or Vacation Bible school, and listening with an open heart to someone in distress and especially keeping that conversation to ourselves. Whether we respond—or not—to God’s call to love the Lord, Jesus, our true shepherd, loves us with an everlasting love. He’s the best. Thanks be to God! Amen.
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AuthorPastor Sarah Stadler shares her sermons from the previous Sunday. Archives
May 2024
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