We are Sheep in Search of Our Shepherd

Mark 6:30-44, 53-56 - July 18th, 2021

The Lord Be With You.

A parable …

There once was a small town whose residents began to suffer from all sorts of ailments. The different types of sicknesses baffled the one local doctor as he really only attended to the occasional sniffle from a runny nose or would set a bone if someone had fallen off their horse. He didn’t have the experience of the bigger city doctors. As the months wore on and more and more people began to come down with this disease, everyone began to be afraid as those that had it eventually died. Then along came a man from the country who set up shop right in the middle of the town square and began announcing he had a cure for everything from wrinkles to stains to extending the life of those at death’s door. At first, the folks just ignored him but some of them would try his cure. Those that did found that they were relieved of the pains that accompanied the disease. Others, that took the cure this guy was selling, had some relief but not very much. This was explained away by the medicine man saying that the person hadn’t taken enough of the cure. So they took more and they seemed to get better. Soon enough though, the amount of cure the medicine man had with him ran out and he left. Soon thereafter, the people that had taken the cure found themselves back in pain. It seems that the cure was just a strong mix of alcohol and the group think caused those taking it to convince themselves that they were getting better. The truth was that the false promises of this miracle worker enriched himself but caused others more pain than they had before he came.

Here ends the parable.

We can attach ourselves to false promises too. And we do that by what we put our faith, or belief, and trust in. We put our belief on the broken promises of broken individuals all the while believing they’re working in an unbroken state for our best interests or what they want us to believe is our best interests. But because they’re as broken as we are, everything done is broken at its very core and none of what they do will satisfy us.

Verse 34 reads, in part, “they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things.” This part of the Gospel pertains to today as much as it did 2,000 plus years ago. We search around for words that ring true to our ears and hearts and fool ourselves into believing that what man has created or says or wants to spin is the truth when, in fact, it cannot possibly be because everyone’s agendas are self-motivated.

Those who spew opinion and are labeled as “fact checkers” are not telling the facts as Jesus spoke them and illustrated in our Scriptures but are really agenda driven agents that want you to believe that they have all the answers. The sad part is that many will hear them and read them and buy into the propaganda that is now labeled as narrative but in days past was simply termed a lie. You see how the phrase “A rose by any other name is still a rose” came about? Nothing is different today than it was yesterday and the yesterdays all the way to the beginning of time. The difference, I believe, is that we have the ability to ascertain from readily available information whether what you’re hearing is from the words of Jesus, the truth, or the words of Satan, the world. Whether you are hearing the good Shepherd or the big bad wolf that devours the sheep. You and me.

I’ve called this message, “We are Sheep in Search of Our Shepherd” because we should be in a constant state of questioning literally everything that we hear, read and see. It’s only through that endeavor that we’re not sold a bill of goods that turns out to be cattle fodder but allows us to ascertain if it’s the glory of the fish and loaves in this passage. And that goes double for what I speak about. Is it from the scripture that pertains to today or is it more of the narrative that is a creation from this world? I always invite everyone to question everything. Me included.

I read this passage and I think to myself, what if everyone today was as curious as they were 2,000 plus years ago to go and hear the Good News. What if people, here, told their neighbors as they did back then about the words of true life. What would it take for our community to put aside the notion that church, God’s house, is just another place to come on Sunday to meet with other people as a club and begin to come from all over in order to hear what Jesus had to say and then to take that message back and think upon it and let it live within them.

The majority of the passages in the New Testament is all about Jesus telling His followers, telling His disciples, to go and tell others. He kept telling them the way to do it but many wanted to do it their way. Jesus kept laying out parable after parable after parable illustrating to those listening that their destiny is to be the Good News bearer. But many just couldn’t resist their old ways with results that bordered, many times, on disaster. It sort of reminds me of this story …

There was this guy named Bobby Dodd who was the former great football coach of Georgia Tech. He tells the story of a game in which his team was leading 7 – 6 with just a minute to go. He instructed his quarterback not to pass the ball under any conditions. He said, “Whatever you do, hold on to that football; do not pass the ball.”

In the next ten or fifteen seconds of play, they moved the ball down the field to within ten yards of the opposing team’s goal line. As the quarterback began to execute the next play, with the seconds ticking away, he just couldn’t resist, and he threw a pass.

As it often happens, the pass was intercepted by a player on the other team. This opponent rushed toward the Georgia Tech goal line. The entire team had given up the chase – except the quarterback who had thrown the pass. He had continued to chase his opponent and somehow was able to tackle him. The ball was fumbled and the quarterback recovered the ball. Georgia Tech won the game 7 – 6.

After the game, the losing coach said to Coach Dodd, “I will never understand how that quarterback was able to do what he did.” Dodd explained, “Well, it’s actually quite simple – your boy was running for a touchdown; my boy was running for his life.”

We’re not unlike that quarterback. We think we got this but then our own actions shows we missed the end goal. We hear the news, or the instructions, from our coach, our shepherd and we put it in the back of our heads and continue down the road that we’ve been going.

But, we are in search of our shepherd because we’re always trying to get to the truth of our days and nothing has filled that need. We are in search of our shepherd because we innately have that little space that’s within our hearts that remain empty but we just know that it should be filled. We are in search of our shepherd because we’re trying our best to be good and faithful servants, good and faithful Christians, good and faithful stewards of the gifts that God has given to us but we’re continually asking is this all there is. Maybe I know better. Folks, we are in search of our shepherd because Christ has not come back and we’re impatient for that good shepherd we read about to finally lead us into the promised land.

Imagine that between 5,000 to 19,000 people gathered from throughout the land into one place to hear this Galilean talk about what comes next. What if 5,000 to 19,000 people today came to hear what Jesus said? What about 100 to 300? What had to be said from one person to another then to get those people there is probably the same as today. I mean, these folks stayed and listened all day without having to look at their watch to see how long Jesus spoke. They didn’t have watches then. These folks came and sat around and listened without once wondering what’s being served for pot luck. They didn’t have potlucks there, then. At least not until the end. These folks put everything on hold for the whole day and didn’t once skip out for youth sports. They didn’t have any of that either.

The point is that the folks that came to hear Jesus didn’t know He was the Son of God. They didn’t know He was the one sent from God. They didn’t know much about Him except that what He said struck a chord in their souls that spoke the truth. They were hungry for the truth that He had to spill out. They were aching for the relieving words that He had to give. They may not have known this guy personally but literally everyone around them said they had to go and go now. Imagine that. They were the sheep looking, yearning, for their true shepherd. Is there gonna be a time, in our time, where folks have that yearning once again?

Now, you can bet that what Jesus told them went straight to the core of their very souls. It probably wasn’t politically correct. It surely wasn’t about what they wanted to believe that every road leads to Heaven. I can bet it wasn’t about how we can work our way to God by going through first communion or catechism or being baptized either. It was purely the truth of God that ran deep within their souls so much so that it must’ve filled their hearts with a satisfaction for the longing they all had that there was more than what their rulers were telling them.

It had to be an acceptance as children and creations of God almighty that those sitting on the knolls just knew that it was something they could finally take to the bank and keep them secure that there really was hope after all. There was an old farmer who once said to a preacher, “I see at the Minister’s Seminar you discussed how to get people to attend church. I’ve been to a lot of meetings for farmers, but I have never heard a single speech on how to get the cattle to the feeding trough. We spend our time discussing the right kind of feed.”

We listen and read every day about how this race or that race is systemically abused and taken advantage of. The remarkable thing is that people buy into this mantra. I say this because if what these race baiters were saying was true then when did it start? 200 years ago? 100 years ago? 50 years ago?

The truth is that these race baiters have just latched on to the tune of the day because these same people have been in power a long, long time. Where have they been all that time? That and if what they’re saying is true then why would there be 1,000s on our border committing criminal acts to get in? Why would the poor in this hemisphere and other parts of the world want to come here if we’re that systemically evil? It just doesn’t pass the sane logic test. Doesn’t pass the smell test and I say it’s a lie. Jesus would also look at these folks and condemn them to the place they don’t want to end up and whether they think about it or not, they’re trading earthly pleasures for eternal condemnation. These guys are not the shepherds but the wolves. We’re the sheep that are relying on the truth from our shepherds so that we can exist in the safety without the prey of those wolves. Too bad many of our supposed shepherds are the wolves.

The feeding miracle written about here is not the first. But the feeding and the subsequent left overs tells us that we’re the ones that are the broken pieces of fish and loaves and it’s Jesus that puts us back together to be put into those lifesaving baskets that are then spread around so that others can taste of the miracle too. People were hungry for Jesus’ words then and they’re just as hungry today. That’s the great part of this. Most people know that what they hear on mainstream media is bull but they then can come to the book of life, the bible, if they will, and see how Jesus tells the real truth, always.

The mission of the church is to feed the people in all aspects. The mission of the church is to allow and make available Jesus’ cloak so that those who are searching in some fashion can touch it and be fed themselves. The mission of the church is to always cut through the brokenness of the messaging that we hear on a day to day basis and give back the lifesaving truth of Jesus no matter how comfortable or uncomfortable it may seem.

People hunger for the truth they know is real. People should question everything and hold those who are spreading the narrative of lies to account. We’re disciples of the one true God. We’re the apostles in our task and duty to spread the good word. An apostle is defined as the official agent or emissary of God, Himself. As such we’re directed to take the truth of the word that plays out in our current world and spread that around because the light of the Gospel will always overshadow the darkness of evil. As long as there is light, darkness always will cower in the shadows.

Let us go forth and see if this community can connect with communities everywhere so that all can come as they did 2,000 plus years ago and be enveloped in the desire to hear something that reaches deep down into their souls to brighten their lives in the only way that the truth can. We’re called to do it. We’re called by God to do it. We’re ordained by Christ to do it. When we do it will be our choice. God said tonight. Jesus said today. When do you say? Something to think about! Something to pray about?

Can we pray? …

Father, we pray for your strength and your guidance so that we can overcome any hesitancy on our part in telling your Good News. Father keep us from harm and allow us to be bold in our proclamations. Help us with our belief on the faith that you’ve instilled in us so that we can rest on that belief to give us courage and comfort. Father, we follow in your path. We follow in the words of your Son, Jesus the Christ. We pray for the Holy Spirit to come into our hearts to give us the words so others can experience your light. We pray for your grace and your mercy in the name of your Son, Jesus the Christ.

And all God’s people said – Amen?!

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