Fourth Sunday of Easter
John 10:1-10
Sermon Nuggets by Lindy
April 13, 2008
SCRIPTURES
SCRIPTURES (Psalm and John scripture)
- ...we miss one crucial assertion of Jesus in verse 15: “I have other sheep that are not of this fold.”
- Because David is able to say the Lord is my Shepherd, he can also say "I shall not want"
- All the power evil has, it has not the power to make me afraid
- Today is the fourth Sunday of Easter. It is better known as Good Shepherd Sunday
- In the Gospel of John Jesus says “ I Am The Way, The Truth, and The Life. I Am the Light of the World.” And today, “I Am The Door
- Saying "I am the door" is similar to saying "I am the way"...the way to God.
- God helps those who help themselves but David saw God helping the helpless.
- Maybe Jesus is better thought of as the way God gets to us! Willimon
- While we should be uneasy with these passages, knowing that they have been taken out of their early church context and used through history against women and enslaved persons, we also need to think about what texts we use in the same way and ask ourselves, “What will we regret in the future?” Laurel Dykstra
- One commentator wrote that this passage “is theological, Christological, soteriological, eschatological, ecclesiological and ethical.” In sermon
-Open the door!
SHEEP
- Sheep were used as sacrifices in the temple, and for meat in the feasts and festivals. But as a business they were grown mostly for their wool. Because of that the sheep would often be with their shepherds for years and the shepherds would call them by name. Often the name would be descriptive like Brown-leg or Black-ear.
- How humans are like sheep: Have a strong herding instinct, (follow); we need a shepherd, we wander away from the shepherd, we are vulnerable, we are
easily lost, we live a full life because of the shepherd,
-Sheep are not dumb, only willing to be led
- "They nibble themselves lost. "
SHEPHERD
- Jesus was a shepherd and a lamb!
- Shepherd is a symbol of love
- Shepherd is symbol of: caring, love, courage, sacrifice, patience, vigilance, fearlessness.
- The shepherd leads us where we've never been before,
- There is much today that reminds us of bleating sheep rather than the voice of a shepherd.
-Shepherds, at the time of the writing of this Psalm, were marginalized people--needed, but not always respected, for the work they had to do. Most likely they were pretty dirty and smelly, too. The job required leading the flock to pasture, seeking strays before they fell victim to predators, and accounting for the well-being of the whole flock to the owner at the appointed de jong
- Shepherd is one who leads you where you've never been before.
-You cannot follow the shepherd all by yourself…you are stuck with the flock. BB Taylor
SERMON: GET OUT OF THE WAY (Get out of God's way; get out of my way; get out of your own way) Lindy
- “Our thoughts are not Your thoughts/our ways are not Your ways.” (Isaiah 53: 1-3) We open our hearts and minds to your spirit that we might get out of our own way! Lindy
-Our desires are not too strong but too weak. We are far too easily pleased C.S. Lewis
- Easier to make lesser choices. Hate than love; false than truth, denial than reality.
- We are the choices we make.
-Jesus did not take something out of us to make us good. He put something in.....truth, love, forgiveness, etc.
-The Way: Tao (Lao-tzn); The eight fold path (Buddha); The narrow way (Jesus); The road less traveled (Frost) ...
“You will not find wisdom if you look only through human eyes…you must look God’s eyes. Gibran
-Religion is the means not ends. We are called not to be religious which is easy but to be spiritual people Gomes
-Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried. Gilbert K. Chesterton
- If they don't deepen, faith and relationships both will die.
-Too often we have faith in our answers rather than faith in God
-Godly power depends on INSIDE things, (love, faith, truth, etc.)
-Religion is about ritual, Faith is about relationships. Gandhi
-Illusions keep us from becoming fully human. They are comfortable Craddock
-I do not want the peace that passeth understanding. I want the understanding which bringeth peace. Helen Keller
-We can't produce our own value
-for God is always future needing to be born." Meister Eckhart
-"I do not seek to follow in the footsteps of those of old. I seek the things they sought." Basho
QUOTES
- We are shepherds, not saviors Lindy
- All sunshine makes a desert. (There are times we will need this psalm!)
-God, is far more interested in our salvation on earth than we are
-He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end. Fosdick
-“comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. No handle on door....must be opened from inside. Christ at Heart's Door
2. Church growth experts, speak of the "back door syndrome." They say that churches do a good job of attracting people in but not such a good job of managing the back door. We get them to join but never really integrate them into the church. Then there are revolving doors...a necessary part of skyscrapers. When building are over a few stories high, the interior drafts can mean that the air pressure is such that it is impossible to open the front door. When the drafts are working, the air sweeps in the front door, slamming the door shut and making it difficult to open. The revolving door controls the updraft within the building. One has to know when to let go, and get in the building, without being pushed out!. Willmon
3 A famous actor was once the guest of honor at a social gathering where he received many requests to recite favorite excerpts from various literary works. An old preacher who happened to be there asked the actor to recite the twenty-third Psalm. The actor agreed on the condition that the preacher would also recite it. The actor's recitation was beautifully intoned with great dramatic emphasis for which he received lengthy applause. The preacher's voice was rough and broken from many years of preaching, and his diction was anything but polished. But when he finished there was not a dry eye in the room. When someone asked the actor what made the difference, he replied, "I know the psalm, but he knows the Shepherd."
4. Several years ago a local woman awoke in the middle of the night to desperate, cries of "Help! Help!" Thinking that her husband was in distress, she shook him violently. Then, realizing that he was asleep,. she got out of bed, headed into the living room where the shouting intensified. "Where are you?" she called out. "In the fireplace," was the reply. There, dangling in the fireplace flue, was a burglar stuck upside down. Police and firefighters eventually freed the would-be thief, but only after dismembering some brickwork and ripping out the mantle. The best part of the story may be what the homeowner did while waiting for help. She turned on the living room lights and sat down to record the sight with her video camera. Who knows what the two discussed at 2 A.M.? Perhaps she gave him a stem reading of John 10.--"Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, is a thief and "a bandit."
5. I have a Sheltie dog, Dutchy. She's always there for me, sort of like my parents, G'parents and best friend were. Where ever I go Dutchy is there. When I look down she's there, when I look behind she's there. No matter where I go in the house or yard, she's there. I usually don't think about her being there all the time but when I read the 23rd Psalm this week I was reminded how much like David's Lord, Dutchy is. Always there with me and for me....I can depend on it!!!. How lost I would be without her!!! Lindy
HUMOR
-A cartoon that shows two sheep looking at a crowd of people and one of the sheep is saying, "All we like people have gone astray."
{Isaiah 53:6a, All we like sheep have gone astray....}
-Why did the shepherd count his sheep each night as they went into fold?" Caleb, about 6 years old, said, "So he could go to sleep."
-Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties. Jules Renard
-The best way to make God laugh is to tell Him your plans
CHILDREN
. Talk about shepherds: A shepherd was the door!! he slept at the narrow opening of the sheepfold and any wild animal would have to walk over the shepherd. Jesus was the living door to God. It is through the "door" that you come into the safety of the sheepfold . For very young children you could have some of them form a circle representing the sheepfold leaving a gap representing the gate or door.
- Talk about mascots and animals used for mascots like tiger, raven, bulldog, etc. Discuss why Jesus made the sheep the mascot of human beings.
-Making choices: Aesop's fable about the donkey that starved to death between two stacks of hay because he was unable to chose between them ..
- Talk about Sallman's painting. Illustration #1
PRAYER PHRASE
- .....give us the grace to move closer to the God, who in your love, has moved closer to us.
- Lord, I am so dumb, I don't know when to rest or even eat, I forget how good your comfort is, I forget that you will guide me aright. Thank you for being so gracious and kind. Thank You for loving me. Thank you for bringing me into your home. I don't understand, but thank you Lord. Arthur E. Parry.
- Prayer from 5th century.
O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou Good Shepherd of the sheep,
who camest to seek the lost, and to gather them into Thy fold,
have compassion upon those who have wandered from Thee,
feed those who hunger,
cause the weary to lie in Thy pastures,
bind up those who are with broken heart,
and strengthen those who are weak,
that we, relying on Thy care
and being comforted by Thy love,
may abide in Thy guidance to our lives' end. Amen.
-Keep us from getting in our own way when it comes to simplicity. May our love be as simple as being what You made us to be.
May our knowledge be as simple as the wisdom that comes from our hearts. May our religion be as simple as
“Doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with You, oh God.” Lindy
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