The Good Shepherd

John 10:11-18  (and I John 3:16-24 / Psalm 23)

May 3, 2009  --   Sermons to myself

The Good Shepherd

What makes the Good Shepherd good?

The G.S. is good because he lays down his life for the sheep.

                   It says so 5 times in today’s gospel passage.

 I remember Leonard Nemoy as “Spock” in the Star Trek movie where he willingly went into the radio active engineer room to do what was necessary to save the Starship Enterprise, to save the rest of the crew. His final words to Kirk were:

 “The needs of the many out weigh the needs of the one.”

He willingly laid down his life for the many on the ship.

Endless stories and films have that heroic act of the one willing to place themselves in harm’s way or to offer their life through death in order for others to live.  (In SciFi, action movies, tear-jerkers, Westerns, children’s book - you name it and chances are there is a hero laying aside their life in behalf of another.)

Aslan, the Lion, in the Chronicles of Narnia does this.  (If you have not read the book or seen the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, you are missing God’s word for the day.)  Aslan, the Christ figure, the Good Shepherd, is not a tame lion, but is “good”, as told by the Beavers. The Good Lion, like the Good Shepherd, lays down his life in behalf of those in his care. 

Edmund has betrayed his own brother and sisters in order to meet his own selfish desire for candy, independence, and feeling important.  His betrayal, however, means death according to the law of Narnia.  Aslan, the Good Lion, knows deeper magic than the law of the land, however.  Aslan knows grace.  The deeper magic of grace is the willingness to lay one’s own life down in behalf of another in order to save the other from death, despair, guilt.  Aslan not only saves Edmund’s life by taking his place, but reinstates him in a place of honor, of service for others.  Aslan saves Edmund’s self esteem, his family place, his life.

Aslan knows the deep magic that when one willingly offers one’s self in place of another, grace is engaged, and death has no power.  The Good Shepherd willing lays himself aside in behalf of the sheep, so the sheep can live, thrive, be and do what sheep need to be and do.  The Good Shepherd lives for the sheep and sets himself aside for the sheep.  Good shepherding is not about the shepherd.  It is about the sheep.  This is what numerous writers (Borysenko, Chittister, Tolle, Rohr) have been teachng about letting go of ego, the lower self, becoming more engaged with the higher self, where its not about me and my needs, wants, desires.  There is a deeper magic, a higher good.  The Good Lion and the Good Shepherd set themselves aside and give away their lives, give up their lives, lay down their egos, their lives, for the sheep.  Its all about not clinging to what we perceive to be our security needs, but giving ourselves away in love, living in behalf of love and life for all.

The Good Shepherd leads beside quiet water and in still places and even in dark scary places or in the presence of the enemy - just like Edmund in Narnia, the Good Shepherd/Lion prepares a table of grace, a table of love.  Aslan lays himself down on that stone table of grace, the table of love, the act of selflessness.

 And then the epistle lesson says

“We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.  How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help? 

Little children, let us love, not in words or speech, but in truth and  action.”  I Jn 3:16-18

I am not Aslan, or the Good Shepherd, but if God’s love is to abide and live in me, then I need to be like Christ, following Jesus' directive, and lay down my life as well.

How do I do that?  Die?  I don’t think so.

I might start by looking at my ego; myself, my agenda, my self-driven ways of being, my meeting my own needs as if I was “a world unto myself” (Chittister).  If I “practice” my faith I need to listen to Borysenko encouragement regarding the ego and higher self.  

To what am I clinging for security?

What am I being and doing for my family?  for others/  for the world?  

I am caught up in “a world unto myself”?

To what degree do I indeed find my life when I lose my life?

To what degree in setting myself aside do I actually find myself?

 Yes, I get angry when others/family members disregard my needs or live as if the world revolves around THEM….   I can get hooked into wanting everyone else to see things from MY perspective, and then, am I not being the center of the world again?

If we willingly give ourselves away, not to be door mats, but to be love, to offer life, to give encouragement to others regardless of what the return is for ME, isn’t that the bigger mind…the mind of Christ who though he was in the form of God did not regard equality with God something to be exploited…took the form of a servant…became obedient to the point of death… (Phil 2:1-11)  

Phil 2 also has that “regard others as better than yourself” if we are to have the mind of Christ.

So Miriam, how do you lay down your life for your family?

How do you lay down your life for your friends? neighbors?  not in word or speech, but in truth and action?

How are you setting yourself aside in behalf of others, aware of the deeper magic at work?

Or are you so caught up in your own world of “wondering”, waiting, discerning that you have become a world to yourself?

Practically speaking now, what does it mean to lay down your life? set your life aside?  Who are the sheep in your life?  Individual family members, friends, colleagues, neighbors, even unnamed strangers who are met daily?

I think there is a key here to laying down one's life.  TAKING another's life is imposed on that other, there is no restorative value.  When life is offered up willingly, that changes everything.  When the kids/others expect and assume parents/me to lay myself aside for their needs, that is "taking" life, I get irritated. They are imposing and demanding and I respond in defensive ways. But when I do the same act, laying aside by my own choice, my willingness before the “demand” or “imposition” comes with the same result for another, it changes the whole dynamic.

If I give up my time or money or hopes or dreams, because another insists that I give it up, I may feel victimized.  If I willingly give up my time, money, or hopes so that another might have time, money, hope, or dreams, it is a gift of my living, my laying myself down --- it changes everything.  So it becomes a matter of perspective.   Is this something imposed upon me, or something I willingly do.

The Good Shepherd willingly sets his own life agenda aside.  The hireling feels threatened and imposed upon and so runs away and avoids demanding situations.  The Good Shepherd, and Aslan, willingly steps into that place of setting self aside, takes up the higher self, steps into the bigger mind, to offer self up in behalf of others.   This is the way of selflessness.  This is the way of Christ.  This is the way of love.  This is the way.  Give yourself away.  Let it go.  Let it be a choice of love.

A musing from poem of a woman poet read by Garrison Keillor on the Writer's Almanac, Sunday, May 5, 2009:

Love what is mortal

Cling to it as your life depends upon it.

When it is time, let it go.  Let it go.