CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH
Rev. Fred Weimert
November
23, 2008
"Ezekiel 34: 11-24"
In
the final years and days of the
In that time
before the
Babylonians were to take
Ezekiel wrote a message…
or spoke a message…
a prophecy…
to the leaders of
It is found here in the 34th
chapter of Ezekiel,
and his opening words were…
To the Shepherds,
thus
says the Lord God, (34: 2b)
And it continues…
Ah, you shepherds of
who
have been feeding yourselves!
Should
not shepherds feed the sheep? (34: 2b)
The message was similar to some of the
words of Jeremiah
as he wrote at about the same
time… (23:1-4)
to the same
shepherds as well.
In both places the only solution
viewed with any hope of
saving the sheep
was for God to act
on behalf of the sheep…
in the
shepherd’s stead.
The solution
portion of the prophecy
is the reading from Ezekiel for today.
And it is a totally
appropriate reading
for this Sunday which
the church calls
Christ the King
Sunday…
the last Sunday of the Church year…
The Sunday when we
are reminded
that Jesus is to reign in our hearts…
and maybe Jesus should also
rein in our hearts.
Ezekiel 34: 11-24
For thus says the
Lord GOD:
I myself will
search for my sheep,
and will seek them out.
As shepherds seek
out their flocks
when they are among their scattered sheep,
so I will seek
out my sheep.
I will rescue them from all the places
to which they have been scattered
on a day of clouds and thick darkness.
I will bring them
out from the peoples
and gather them from the countries,
and will bring
them into their own land;
and I will feed them on the mountains of
by the watercourses,
and in all the inhabited parts of the land.
I will feed them with good pasture,
and the mountain heights of
there they shall lie down in good grazing land,
and they shall feed on rich pasture
on the mountains of
I myself will be
the shepherd of my sheep,
and I will make them lie down,
says the Lord GOD.
I will seek the
lost,
and I will bring back the strayed,
and I will bind up the injured,
and I will strengthen the weak,
but the fat and the strong I will destroy.
I will feed them with justice.
As for you, my
flock, thus says the Lord GOD:
I shall judge
between sheep and sheep,
between rams and goats:
Is it not enough
for you to feed on the good pasture,
but you must tread down with your feet the rest of
your pasture?
When you drink of clear water,
must you foul the rest with your feet?
And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your
feet,
and drink what you have fouled with your feet?
Therefore, thus
says the Lord GOD to them:
I myself will judge
between the fat sheep
and the lean sheep.
Because you
pushed with flank and shoulder,
and butted at all the weak animals with your horns
until you scattered them far and wide,
I will save my
flock,
and they shall no longer be ravaged;
and I will judge between sheep and sheep.
I will set up
over them one shepherd,
my servant David,
and he shall feed them:
he shall feed them
and be their shepherd.
And I, the LORD,
will be their God,
and my servant David shall be prince among them;
I, the LORD, have spoken.
Here ends the reading.
I
would say all well and good…
I
think all the sheep would say all well and good…
Hosannah!
Save us we pray….
Let Jesus come and rule…
Let him rule our country…
our corporations…
our world…
Is that what we want to do
today…
In our nation…
In our world…
which is
wracked by such a crisis in leadership…
surrounded
by corporate and political leaders
who
have fed themselves…
Fat
cats…
fat
sheep…
Come
Lord Jesus!
It
is a tempting cheer…
Should we give into
and be caught up by
its obviously Messianic fervor?
Or is Barak Obama somehow…
this new David?
Has God raised him up?
Is he to be a
shepherd/king
or
prophet/judge…
And was the new
David to come from Harvard?
I thought
the messiah
was going to come
from the “Bible Belt”
be
from a southern school…
maybe
Duke, Emory or SMU.
Maybe we are
just suppose to sit
and wait
until Jesus comes back…
and separates the sheep
from the goats…
elections
are such a bad way to do
do the dividing.
But
what do we really do until Jesus comes?
I saw a letter in the newspaper
yesterday
complaining about some Roman
Catholic Church leaders
who had said
“church members who voted for Mr. Obama
have
put their quest for salvation in jeopardy.”
The writer
continued:
“Sanctity of life
is a core principle
of the Roman Catholic Church.
But
we must remember
it applies to both born and unborn.”
(Sun, Saturday 11/22/08, pg. 13, letter Nonso Umunna)
All
religious people have “litmus” test issues
which candidates must past,
but
we need to ask ourselves…
Can
one pass all the litmus tests
and
fail as a shepherd?
Obviously
Monarchy,
and the notion of the divine right of
Kings…
doesn’t necessarily assure
that we will have
the Good Shepherd…
or even the best
shepherd…
And
Democracy
doesn’t always choose wisely…
I
think it’s ironic that Jewish people chose to use this image
of shepherd
to describe their leaders at
all…
and
even more ironic
That they chose to use it
in speaking of their God…
the Lord is my shepherd.
It’s
ironic because shepherds weren’t always trusted in
Indeed the root of the Hebrew word
shepherd (resh ayn)
is also the root of the word
for evil.
Sure we think of David,
as the shepherd king,
but he was a son in
the family…
and he wasn’t
always good.
Most often shepherds were hired
workers…
remember John 10’s Good
Shepherd passage?
where it says:
“The good shepherd lays down his life for
the sheep.
The hired hand,
who is not the shepherd
and
does not own the sheep,
sees the wolf coming
and leaves the sheep
and runs away—“
Most shepherds are hired hands…
and that is the problem with
human shepherds…
indeed all
shepherds,
except for
Jesus…
who
John’s Gospel
envisions
as the creator…
therefore
the owner of the sheep.
Jesus is
the good shepherd,
but human
beings are hirelings.
So
what do we do about our shepherding until Jesus comes?
Because we definitely need shepherds…
If we don’t have them
we do have a
tendency
as Isaiah
recognized…
to: “Turn everyone into their own way.”
As
I thought about this subject…
I found myself looking again
at Dietrich
Bonhoeffer book Ethics.
Ethics is the subject of doing what is
right.
Bonhoeffer wrote that book in the late
1930’s
as he watched his native
under the
leadership of the National Socialists.
The
Nazi’s.
He wrote of how the Reformation
had broken the unity of
faith…
separating Church
and word
from State and
Sword…
which in a way had radically
removed God from
the world…
at least
the world of political rule.
The reformation opened the way
for reason and the right of
man
to seize and hold
sway in the West.
“Emancipated reason acquired mastery
over creation
and so led to the triumph of technical science.” p.99
It paved the way, he wrote,
for the French
revolution…
and for Technology,
Mass movement
and Nationalism
Three serious dangers in
And probably in
Bonhoeffer continued to write of thee
three dangers…
Technology,
Mass movement, and Nationalism
as he spoke of the
French Revolution
in the
quotation in the bulletin:
“The new unity
which the French Revolution brought to
Luther’s great discovery of the
freedom of the Christian man and the Catholic heresy of the essential good in
man combined to produce the deification of man.” pgs. 102-103
There
is something quite sheepish about humanity…
Even if Nietzsche thought that an
“uberman”
an overman…
a superman…
would arise…
Even thought Ann Rand believed
in altruistic,
heroic, corporate leaders…
At best
our shepherds
will have feet of
clay…
All our leaders…
whether corporate,
political
or even religious
And our solutions
no matter
how magnificent
will
be marred by human sin,
which
doesn’t mean we should scatter,
and
set off on our own.
No,
instead we should pull together.
into stronger communities…
places where there are
regulations and laws…
as well as checks
and balances…
Places
where we do wait for Jesus,
for the truly ‘Good Shepherd,”
but in waiting we remember his way…
his love for the creator and
creation…
and we in the
community of faith
are to
reflect on that example…
on how we
believe God created us to be.
And
live in repentant faithfulness,
constantly
striving to love our neighbors.
So
may we live. Amen.