May 11th 2003

Pastor Christa von Zychlin

Our Savior’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

Hartland, WI.  53029

Mother’s Day

4^th Sunday of Easter

Happy Mother's Day!
Happy Good Shepherd Sunday!
I’ve shared with many of you

MANY years ago (I was in my early 20's!) I took a trip to Israel, where I met several real live shepherds.  The first was a grizzled (gray-bearded) old man who walked with his flock through the rocky grounds of the hill country surrounding the University of Jerusalem, where I was studying.    I was struck by the gentleness of this tough old man with his sheep.  Even though we did not speak each other's language, he smiled a toothy smile at me, and held up his shepherd's crook as if to say, "This is my flock!  Isn't it a good one? Do you see the lambs and how the flock is growing?"  Then he would walk with them to the water, through the grazing fields, under the few shade trees, until it was nearly night, when he would return again by a path near my dorm room.  If I was out and about, he would flash his smile again, and hold up his shepherd's crook.  I loved that old man, and his faithfulness with his flock.  I wanted to ask him if he knew that the King of the Universe had once compared Himself to a simple shepherd, so that he, an old gray Muslim, was the  picture of the tender faithfulness of God for me.

My second encounter with a shepherd was out in the Sinai peninsula, the desert land where they say that Moses & the children of Israel wandered for 40 years.  Now it is semi-nomadic Bedouin tribes live there.  And among the Bedouins, guess what, it is the young WOMEN who are the shepherds!  And do you know how they call their sheep into the fold at night?  They sing to them!

This Sunday is both Mother's Day and "Good Shepherd Sunday”.

I’m always glad when “Good Shepherd” Sunday falls on mother’s day.  It seems to me there are a lot of interesting comparisons with Jesus the good shepherd and mothers.

Jesus compared himself to a mother – did you know that?  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” he said, “how often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not…”

And don’t forget… Since God in God’s self is neither male nor female, God the Father is known as God the Mother in parts of the Old Testament, too:

For example the prophet Hosea compares God to…A mother bear defending her cubs (Hosea 13:8)

A strong, fierce, determinedly loving mother.

Today’s Psalm and Gospel tell us of another very deep very personal and let’s be honest, very complicated relationship:  that between our Lord Jesus Christ and ourselves.  Jesus compares himself to the shepherd, and we are his sheep.

You think about it - These two images:  mother and shepherd have quite a bit in common.

First of all, both are easily sentimentalized.  You know the picture of the mother is usually one of a young mother with flawless skin holding a peacefully sleeping baby as sunlight streams in the window next to the old rocker.

Well, anyone who’s ever had a baby knows THAT’S a bunch of sentimental fluff.  

Same with Jesus the Good Shepherd… we have a picture of him in our minds and in our Sunday school books walking along a sunny lane with all the sheep obediently trotting after him.

 Well to sentimentalize the relationship is to trivialize it.  Mothering is infinitely more complex  than the cover of Parents magazine would lead you to believe: it has to do with the stomach piercing clutch of fear of your babies first fever the hot slivers of fury when your kid’s class-mates or teacher or bus-driver hurts him, the ridiculous joy at your daughter’s first home-run the alternating current of gnawing  doubt and huge hope of the turbulent teenage  years.  Oh, motherhood is not something to be sentimentalized.  That makes it less than what it is.

It’s the same with the picture of Jesus the good shepherd.  Is your image of Jesus the good shepherd a pastel painting in your mind or is it a living, breathing, sometimes complicated relationship with the Lord of the universe who calls you by name?  And the truth is, you and I don’t always want to come when he calls, do we? 

It’s like my brother’s childhood friend Stevie whose mother had a strong German accent.  One day she called him in from outside “Shtevie come in here right now.  Shtevie!!!” 

And he didn’t come & didn’t come, till finally she went out and got him, furiously dragging him inside.  “Shtevie, how come you didn’t come when I called you?”… “Oh” he said, matter of factly, “You were saying ‘Shtevie’, not Stevie & I thought you were talking to somebody else.

Hmmm could it be that you and I sometimes pretend not to recognize our Lord’s voice?  Or do we truly not hear it?

University studies show that human infants respond more to female voices than to male voices in the first weeks after birth.  Do you know why?  Because for 9 months they’ve heard their mother’s voice all day long;  they’re used to it!!

How do we get to know our Lord’s voice?  Really in the same way. By listening to it.  A lot.  By practicing the presence of God every day.  By spending time with His word, alone, in Bible studies, and weekly in God’s assembly, the church.

How could we know God’s voice if the verses and phrases and pleas and commands and comfort & warnings of the Bible are unfamiliar to us?

How does God’s voice become as recognizable to us as our mother’s voice if we have never learned to pray and so to listen for his voice? 

Sometimes people say they believe in God, but then rarely come to church.  Well, they may believe, but there’s more to living as a Christian than to believe with your mind & even with your heart.  It’s as if I would say oh yes, I believe in my mother who lives up in Door County…and I love her very much!  Just thinking about her brings tears to my eyes when I think of all she’s done for me…. but then I never write or call or visit or invite her over, I never introduce her to any of my friends or neighbors…

(Had a boyfriend like that once)   Hmmm odd sort of belief & a thin sort of love that would be.

Today Jesus not only assures us but he insists on his relationship with us:  God is our shepherd & he does speak to us –

Usually not in angel song, but in the ways of a real shepherd, (and in the way of a real mother) calling scolding yanking, tending , midwifing, prodding, leading and calling, calling calling us by name.

That’s our shepherd, the one who knows us and wants us to know him. 

Thank God for His coming to us his people, faithful and tender as an old man with his sheep, vibrant and courageous as a young woman with her lambs.

AMEN.  

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