Attention All Shepherds - Don't Forget About the Sheep!

If you attend a congregation that is using the Three Year Lectionary, you most likely celebrated today as Good Shepherd Sunday. Perhaps you sang a hymn or two that focused upon this shepherd type imagery, on Jesus as the Lamb of God, or some other sheep or lamb image. Perhaps Psalm 23 found its way into the service as well, coming up from its standard relegation in the funeral service to take a central position in the Divine Service. Likely, you heard a reading from John 10. In many and various ways Good Shepherd Sunday was observed. If you are in a One Year Lectionary congregation, these things happened for you last week.

In either case, last week or this week, the undershepherd charged with the Word and Sacrament Ministry in your congregation likely also preached a sermon. In many cases this sermon was no doubt focused around the theme of Good Shepherd Sunday. In many cases the sermon, like the John 10 text, probably focused upon Jesus as the Good Shepherd. It is meet, right, and salutary that it should be so.

My concern, and the basis for the rant in this post, is that too many times pastors spend all their time talking about the Good Shepherd and never giving any of the Good Shepherd's blessings to His sheep! Over the years, I have heard, and probably also even preached such a lousy sermon!

It is indeed true that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. There are many and various ways that this imagery can be unpacked and proclaimed. Many of these images are helpful and assist the people of God in gaining a fuller image of the Love of God. All too often however, there is no connection to that image. The shepherds forget about the sheep.

Sheep need food. They don't just need to hear about the One who feeds them. It is not sufficient enough to talk about Jesus as the Good Shepherd and not pass on His gifts. This is the same problem that happens when we talk about the Blessed Sacrament but don't give the Body and Blood of Christ to His people. Just as the benefits of the Sacrament are actually in the Sacrament so also that which makes the Good Shepherd - Good are the blessings that He gives to His people.

When next Good Shepherd Sunday arrives on the Liturgical Calendar, if you are called upon to proclaim the Word - I hope that you will give the gifts of the Good Shepherd to His people. Certainly speak of Jesus as the Good Shepherd but not just in mere platitudes like a greeting card. Speak of Jesus as the Good Shepherd to the people who like sheep have gone astray. Draw upon the richness of Isaiah's imagery in Isaiah 53 and proclaim how the Good Shepherd followed after His wayward sheep. Proclaim how He entered into not just the Valley of the Shadow of Death but into death itself. Proclaim that the Good Shepherd laid down His life in place of the sheep - that they might never die! Proclaim that the Good Shepherd did not remain in death but rose victorious over death (Good Shepherd Sunday is, you will recall, in the season of Easter)! Proclaim that by His death and resurrection the Good Shepherd has gathered His sheep unto Himself.

By all means, dear brother undershepherds, proclaim Jesus as the Good Shepherd but make sure that His dear sheep hear that His Shepherding has benefited them with forgiveness, life, and salvation! Don't forget about the sheep!