Of Sheep and the Shepherd's Song

 

Monday, May 9, 2022

Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!  Worship the Lord with gladness.  Come before him, singing with joy.  Acknowledge that the Lord is God!  He made us, and we are his.  We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  Psalm 100:1-3

I saw before me what seemed to be a glass sea mixed with fire. And on it stood all the people who had been victorious over the beast and his statue and the number representing his name.  They were all holding harps that God had given them.  And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb:  “Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty.  Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations.  Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name?  For you alone are holy.  All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed.”  Revelation 15:2-4

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  John 10:27

The imagery of God’s people as sheep is plentiful in Scripture, and a common metaphor for those who follow the Shepherd.  Less on the front burner is that of a Chief Shepherd who is also a sheep.  Yet, the connection is unmistakeable.  In any account of the Incarnation of Christ, He is the Lamb, who will be slain – a sacrifice for sins.  The Shepherd is also a sheep. 

Leaping from the Incarnation to the eschaton, the last days, and of Christ’s coming, and our gathering ‘round the throne of God to worship the Ancient of Days, the meaning of my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me is Revelation’s flock singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.  It is here we see that glorious condescension of the Christ of eternal glory stooped to enter the manger.  He became one of us, that we might recognize Him, and hear his voice.

While in seminary in the port city of New Orleans, our family hosted two Japanese officer trainees for a day.  They spoke no English, and we were clueless as to their language.  We all pointed, gestured, and did whatever possible to convey meaning to our conversation.  In the end, all we could do is smile and misunderstand. 

In Eden, God spoke human language, and Adam and Eve understood.  By the time of the tower of Babel[1] humankind had gotten far enough away from God to not listen for His voice.  They lost the sound of their Master, like wandering sheep straying from their shepherd.  That is, by the way, the story of most sin…selfish wandering, mindlessly grazing on whatever satisfies a momentary appetite.  God sent prophets to remind them of what the Shepherd’s voice sounded like; one after another the prophets were ignored, and eventually slaughtered to stop their bleating.  The wandering continued, unhearing.  

Finally, God sent his son to be a sheep…some heard, others prepared a cross.

In the final account of Revelation, the continuing, eternal story of after the end, the restored Eden will be filled with the sound of God’s flock, singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.  Even those who have died will hear his voice, and follow Him.  The sheep will hear the Lamb, one who became one of us, to speak clearly the love of God.

For You Today

One day our journey will be complete, and the flock will lie down together in perfect harmony with all creation.  And we’ll sing.  We’ll sing the song of the Lamb throughout eternity.  And we’ll be on key, in perfect harmony!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road with Jesus; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] See Genesis 11

God's Different Way

 

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him.  He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.  But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.  They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.  So the Word became human and made his home among us.  He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.  And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.  John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’”  From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.  For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God.  But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart.   He has revealed God to us.  John 1:10-18

Elsewhere in Scripture God tells us His ways are different than anything we can imagine: 

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:9 

John the Baptist understood that about God, at least to the point that even though Jesus was chronologically born after John, his cousin existed long before John.  That is a kind of “math” that defies our human explanation.  And that is precisely why God had to appear in flesh-and-blood in a manger.  Even then, God’s own creation didn’t get it; God revealed God, and we rejected Him.

In hindsight, we humans can do things one of two ways with the stuff that confuses us…especially those things about God’s different way of doing the math.

1.    We can distort truth and reconcile it to our way of thinking, or

2.    We can live more honestly, see more clearly, accept our limitations, and bow before Heaven’s throne.

Those are our choices.  However, humanity’s “normal” way of dealing with God-truth is so abnormal to the way humankind were created, it is absurd to imagine.  It is as if Nimrod, builder of Babel’s tower ^{(see Genesis 11)} completed his work, like a mouse having ascended his mountain, (sitting on an elephant’s head), assumes he rules all he can see.  

  

Such is limited human thinking, merely scraping the bottom of Creation’s barrel.  What is so amazing about God is, despite our mouse-on-an-elephant’s-head caricature of mankind’s foolishness, that of denying our Godly heritage – a descent into delusion – God still chose gracious condescension to lift-up the very species which rejected His gift.

For You Today

Delusional mouse or child of a gracious king…what a choice!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

For other posts on this text see Catch and The Fullness of Time

 

Violence in the Land - Part 2

 

Wednesday, June 3, 2020

The captain went with his Temple guards and arrested the apostles, but without violence, for they were afraid the people would stone them.  Then they brought the apostles before the high council, where the high priest confronted them.  “We gave you strict orders never again to teach in this man’s name!” he said.  “Instead, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death!”  But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.  Acts 5:26-29They called in the apostles and had them flogged.  Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go.  The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.  And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message:  “Jesus is the Messiah.”  Acts 5:40b-42

As the disciples are busy going about doing what Jesus had given them to do, spread the Good News of resurrection, salvation, and God’s great love, the ruling elders in Jerusalem are plotting.  They come off as Wile E. Coyote chasing after the Road Runner, constantly pursuing after Peter and the others, but never quite able to get a firm grip, or hold them in prison for long.  Court appearances, flogging, warnings, and political wranglings all come to nothing.  The very thing they tried to prevent (the disciples getting their message out about Jesus) is how this chapter ends…with the apostles teaching and preaching every day in the Temple and from house to house.  Beep, Beep!

There are some things that, despite man’s best efforts, are just not going to stop or be controlled in any way; tsunamis are that kind of thing, along with climate shifts, hurricanes and, especially, a movement orchestrated by the Spirit of God. 

Often in the Scriptures we see God moving at a time when God has picked.  Moses had that discussion with God at the burning bush; God had chosen that moment, and that man, to set God’s chosen free.  Pharoah found out how unwise it was to fight against the hand of Yahweh.  It cost him the life of his own firstborn son, as well as his entire army drowned in the Red Sea[1].  Earlier, another leader, Nimrod decided he wanted to be god over this earth, so he constructed a tower to declare his strength against all who would dispute him.  His tower came down in a crumbling mess because God decided otherwise.

I see the same kind of extraordinary thing happening currently in our land.  There are those who are trying desperately to hold onto the evil of past ways; specifically the notion that we are somehow different from each other.  It’s easy to see how that idea perpetuates itself, with different bone structures, skin colors, or facial appearance.  But, underneath, as we said yesterday, we are all siblings, offspring of Adam and Eve (or Lucy for you diehard evolutionists).   Our DNA may be distinct, alerting us to our individuality, but it is also the link that charts our connectedness, all the way back to our Creator.

Cutting to the chase…the event in Minneapolis that took George Floyd’s life and put Derek Chauvin behind bars, was another stain on the DNA of all of us.  And God is watching.  We should remember that when God sent Moses to set his people free, it was in response to 400 years of oppression.  It turned Egypt’s apple cart on its ear. 

America has made great progress, outlawing slavery in the 19^th century, standing for freedom around the world, and fiercely protecting human rights.  We have moved quantum-leapwise in the last decade, moving forward to electing an African American man president twice.  However, the seed of oppression still raises sprouts in the culture of 2020.  We have not quite divested ourselves of oppression in the dark places of the spirit, the place where only God can see, but is the place where it counts the most.  Every soul, no matter it’s outward appearance, or actions is created in the image of God; Derek Chauvin and George Floyd included.  And, on the other hand, there is still a frightening bit of Pharisee in us all. 

Progress, yes…victory…not quite. 

Let’s Pray Together:

Father, save us from our fear of each other.  As we trust in You, surrender to Your will, and listen for the soft sounds of sandled feet, help us to heed what you say to us deep down, and take off our soiled inner garments.  Let us be cleansed of madness.

For You Today

It does little to keep this to yourself.  It’s time to enter the discussion about what we can do…and even past time to do it.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today.  Have a blessed day!

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Title Image:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For another post on Racism see When Evil Speaks and When Saying Nothing Isn't an Option

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[1] Read the entire story in Exodus 3-15