Shepherding Each Other

Brad Sullivan
Proper 29 (Christ the King Sunday), Year A
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
Emmanuel, Houston
Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Psalm 100
Ephesians 1:15-23
Matthew 25:31-46

Yesterday, in a wonderful, and apparently rather lengthy celebration, Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schiorri, along with our bishops and many others, ordained Andy Doyle as bishop to be the next Bishop of the Diocese of Texas after Don Wimberly retires. I’m sorry to say I couldn’t be there, I was at home with a sick son, who’s doing much better. As many times as I’ve gotten to do things and Kristin hasn’t, taking care of Noah, I figured it was high time she got to go and be at the celebration of Andy’s ordination to the Episcopate (that’s the fancy word for Bishop), but I digress.

I bring up Andy’s ordination because partly because it’s a big event in our life together, ordaining a new leader for our Diocese, and I also bring up his ordination because I think who Andy is and the kind of bishop he wants to be sheds some light on who Jesus is as our King. You may have noticed today is Christ the King Sunday. We’ve got a new frontal on our altar portraying Christ the King, and in our Gospel reading today, Jesus was the king pronouncing judgment on the people of all the nations.

Now, by saying that new Bishop, Andy Doyle, sheds some light on who Christ is as King, I don’t mean to say Andy will be pronouncing judgment on those of us in the Diocese of Texas, separating us into sheep and goats. To understand what I mean, we need first to take a look at the passage from Ezekiel which is some of the foundation for our Gospel story.

You might have noticed how similar the Matthew reading was to the Ezekiel reading. Both of them described the people as sheep and the sheep as being judged largely by how they treated one another. Both described the judge as a shepherd. In Ezekiel, we heard portions of the 34th chapter of Ezekiel, and we really need to look at those other parts to get the full meaning.

Our passage began: “For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.” (Ezekiel 34:11) We heard this very comforting image of God seeking the lost sheep who had been scattered, and judging between the strong and the week sheep, giving them justice. This sounds very much like the passage from Matthew, but if we were to read the first ten verses of Ezekiel 34, we would find that this whole chapter is in part an indicitment against the leaders of the people of Israel. Ezekiel 34 begins:

The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel: prophesy, and say to them—to the shepherds: Thus says the Lord God: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. (Ezekiel 34:1-5)

Ezekiel was prophesying in a time when the nation of Israel has been destroyed by the Babylonians, and the people of Israel had been scattered, many taken into captivity in Babylon. In this situation, then, God is indicting the shepherds of Israel, their religious and spiritual leaders for their abysmal leadership of the people. The leaders of Israel had sought their own well being at the expense of the people and ultimately to the destruction of the nation of Israel.

As we heard, therefore, God himself would be Israel’s shepherd, and he would be their judge. God would judge between the faithless shepherds of Israel, the fat sheep, and the people of Israel, the lean sheep. This prophecy was partly a historical prophecy which would be fulfilled in human history, as parts of the prophecy have been, and this prophecy was partly an eschatological prophecy, a prophecy concerning the end of time when everything will be put right.

We saw part of Ezekiel’s prophecy fulfilled in the life of Jesus. Jesus came for the lost sheep of Israel. He preached the good news of God’s kingdom to them. He bound up the injured and strengthened the weak. Jesus was the shepherd described in Ezekiel’s prophecy. We see the kind of king Jesus is, one who lives among his people. Rather than lording his throne over the people, he serves and guides his people, caring for the poor and injured, protecting them from harm. Jesus is a servant king, a king who cares so deeply for his people that he gave his life for them.

In Jesus’ life, therefore, we saw a fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophecy, and we also saw an expansion of his prophecy. While Jesus’ initial ministry was only to the lost sheep of Israel, his ministry was expanded to include the gentiles, and so we saw Jesus as king of all the nations and as shepherd of all the nations.

Then, in Matthew, we saw Jesus as judge of all the nations as well. In our passage from Matthew’s Gospel, we see the eschatological vision of Ezekiel’s prophecy fulfilled as Jesus judges between the sheep and the goats (or as Ezekiel wrote, the fat sheep and the lean sheep). The judgment, like Jesus’ ministry, was expanded to include not only the people of Israel, but all the nations. Jesus is the judge of all people, and he is also the king and shepherd of all people, who gave his life for all people.

There is comfort, therefore, when we consider the judgment at the end of time, in the fact that our judge is the one who gave his life for us. Out judge is the one who knows us intimately and continually calls us to be with him. Our judge loves us.

We can see Jesus’ love for us in the way he judges us. In our judgment, what concern does Jesus have? He is concerned with how well we served him. Like all kings, Jesus expects his subjects to serve him. Unlike most kings however, Christ wants us to serve him by serving each other, and especially by serving those who are most in need. As our King, Jesus wants us to be servants and shepherds of each other.

So finally we return to the beginning of this sermon, because a desire to serve one another and shepherd one another is the way in which our new Bishop in some ways embodies who Jesus is as our king. When Bishop Doyle preached at clergy conference, he spoke about the idea of a bishop as a shepherd. Preaching from the end of John’s Gospel, when Jesus tells Peter, “feed my sheep,” Bishop Doyle concluded his sermon by telling us that he would work to be our shepherd, and by asking us in turn to be shepherds for him.

Serving and shepherding one another is how we also get to embody Christ’s kingship. As clergy, Janie and Gill and I seek to shepherd you, and we hope to be shepherded by you. As laity, you all seek to shepherd folks beyond the church and hope to be shepherded by them, just as Christ our King shepherds us and desires to be shepherded by us.

That, my friends, is love. Christ our king desires us to serve him through love and through kind and good treatment of each other. Such is his love for us that Christ our King judges us based on how we love each other and treat each other. Christ our King loves us so much that he also shepherds us. Christ our king seeks us out, and if we will follow, leads us to green pastures where, like Ezekiel prophesied, we may lie down and rest in him. So, I’d like to conclude with a verse from Psalm 33, slightly paraphrased. As the psalmist writes, Christ our King loves righteousness and justice, and his loving-kindness fills the whole earth. (Psalm 33:5 (paraphrase)) Amen.