The Shepherd’s Voice

Readings for March 22^nd
Nu 21:4-9
Ps 107:1-3, 17-22
Eph 2:1-10
Jn 3:14-21

The Shepherd’s Voice – Sermon Audio

Sure, I felt a little desperate, they were plotting against me. They would meet in the shadows, out of sight. They would gather in groups to make themselves seem tougher. They were talking about how they were going to take me down.

You know the kind, people who love the darkness because their deeds where evil. I wanted to expose them, but what could I do? However, I knew something they did not know. Next year was going to be different, next year was going to be better and nothing they did to me now was going to stop that. All the plotting, the secrets, the harassment, yes, it was all going to end, abruptly.

You see next year I was going into third grade and I would be going to a different school. And best of all, in my new class at the new school, I was the only boy.

People in this world seem to love darkness, even in second grade, Jesus knew it. Our Gospel lesson is a continuation of Jesus talking to a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a religious leader in the Jewish community. Nicodemus had come to Jesus by night and acknowledged that Jesus was a “teacher who has come from God.” He had seen the signs and wonders that Jesus had done and was amazed, but he didn’t quite understand everything Jesus was talking about in this text.

Jesus talked to Nicodemus about being born of water and the spirit, but Nicodemus could not understand how that could happen. He says how can anyone who is old be born a second time? He continued to question Jesus, but Jesus must have found his questions lacking because Jesus asked him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?”

There are certainly times in life when we don’t understand things. Carroll K. reminded me in our Worship Committee meeting of a story about a daughter who was about to cut the end off a roast before putting it in the oven. Her mom happened to be there and she stopped for a minute and asked her mom, why do we cut the end off the roast before we cook it? Her mom looked at her, kind of stunned, and said well my mom used to cut the end off the roast each time before she cooked it because her grandma did it. Finally one day her mom had an opportunity to ask her grandmother, “Why do we cut the end off the roast before we cook it.” The grandmother said, “Well my mom never had a pan big enough to cook the whole thing at once.”

It’s good to know a little history along with some of our traditions that we follow. Jesus in our Gospel story uses a little history with Nicodemus to help explain more clearly what Jesus purpose for coming was all about. Jesus said, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so to must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Lifting up of the snake in the desert was a well known Jewish idea. Everyone knew the story of God’s deliverance of the people of Israel from Egypt. This picture is something Nicodemus could relate to as a Jew.

Jesus was stressing the Son of Man being lifted up. The symbolism here of the Son of man being lifted up on the cross as a provision of God’s deliverance was strong, eye opening. Our focus during this season of Lent is the cross and the work of Christ on the cross on our behalf. It’s significant, it’s mind blowing for some, it was unexpected for Nicodemus as well as it is for some of us.

The next verse says Martin Luther encapsulates the whole Gospel message. It’s a verse we have all likely memorized (John 3:16) from childhood so I’m not going to spend a time on it because it’s easy to understand, familiar to most, and is very clear, but for many of us it’s still hard to accept.

The hard to accept part can be understood in light of what Jesus said, “the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” When I was in second grade some of my friends treated me and others badly. I’m using the term “badly” here because if I would have said their deeds were evil you would have said how can a bunch of second graders be evil? Well, I asked that question myself, but then I have to continue with the rest of the story. In my new school things were different as I mentioned earlier I was the only boy in my class.

However, what changed when I went to this new school. I laid pretty low certainly in the beginning, but as I got older, when I was in the 7th and 8th grade I became one of the larger boys in the school. In fact I used to play center on the school basketball team. Yes, things have changed on that front.

Well, as I got older in this school I learned that I could protect myself pretty well so I sort of had a following. Then I got the bright idea to start a gang in the 7th grade to act as sort of the equalizer on the playground. Nothing like what we think of today in terms of gangs, however, as we exerted influence on the playground and the bus that took us back and forth to school a slight reputation developed. Pretty soon people were intimidated enough so it was brought to the attention of the principal and my parents were called.

It was probably the most or the deepest hot water I was in in my junior high years. It was either breakup the gang or get kicked out of school.

The contrast here should be obvious. Being picked on in second grade led to someone operating not in the light, but in darkness in my own life. People love darkness because their deeds are evil.

Jesus said, “For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may be exposed.” These are words we in this church need to take to heart.

You’ve heard me talk about working on Mission and Vision. Going through this exercise is about exposing our own thinking, our own traditions, our own prejudices, our own desires under the scrutiny of a body of believers. If we as a church embrace what Jesus is saying here than we need, we must constantly look at ourselves and ask questions about why we do what we do.

Jesus said, “Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” Jesus said God didn’t send the Son of Man into the world to condemn it, but in order that the world might be saved through him, the Christ. All we do must be to glorify God, to worship God.

Our vision, if we use Jesus as our guide must be what Jesus said a number of times. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

God’s law tells us, and Jesus told his followers what they needed to do in this world. When Jesus was preparing his disciples for the betrayal that was going to occur he told them, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

After Jesus’ betrayal Jesus knew it would be easy to look at one another with suspicion. He knew that some would be thinking to worst when it came to areas of questioning, but Jesus said love one another as I have loved you.

In order to love one another we must learn how to operate as a congregation, as a body of believers in the light. We must not be afraid of the light. We must not be afraid of questions about why we do things this way or that. Even the church at times is afraid to ask the tough questions and also operates in the dark. Whenever we do that it’s wrong.

One pretty common understanding, accepted practice during Lent is denying ourselves something like not eating meat. Well, where did this idea come from? Perhaps there are some good reasons for this, but listen to what took place during the Middle Ages.

Thomas Aquinas said that meat, eggs, and dairy products were generally proscribed (forbidden). The thinking was that they afford greater pleasure as food than fish, and greater nourishment to the human body, so that from their consumption there results a greater surplus available for seminal matter, which when abundant becomes a great incentive to lust. So during the middle ages there was great stress put on people to not eat meat, eggs, and dairy products during Lent.

This seemed logical, but questions were not asked or even entertained because of course lusting after someone was evil. The church in that era, 12th, – 15th centuries was not exactly operating in the light either because their idea was to grant a dispensation so these things could be consumed. The solution – you guessed it, a donation of course.

As people of God we have been given some very clear direction, love God and love our neighbor. That’s not a suggestion, it’s not something to contemplate, it’s a command. It’s not gospel, it’s all law. If you are unclear about who is your neighbor, we need to spend some time talking about the Good Samaritan, but I suspect you already know the story.

The whole point of this gospel, the point of our Lenten journey together, the whole point of Christ dying on the cross is that God has given us a clear command. Love God and love one another.

From my experience in life as a second and third grader, as a 7th and 8th grader, and certainly as an adult, I can’t do what God requires of me in the flesh, I’m imperfect. I’m a sinner and as such it’s only God’s love through the death and resurrection of Christ that provides a way out.

When God calls, we must respond. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say no to God we operate in the darkness. When we say yes to God’s grace, to God’s wondrous love we receive the power to experience the light of Christ.

Say yes, once again as God calls you to operate in the light.

Amen.

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