Feed My Sheep

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Wednesday Lenten Series

at Trinity Episcopal Church

March 22, 2017

“Feed My Sheep”

Selected Texts from Isaiah

“Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth;

for the Lord has spoken:
I reared children and brought them up,

but they have rebelled against me.

The ox knows its owner,

and the donkey its master’s crib;

but Israel does not know,

my people do not understand.

Ah, sinful nation,

people laden with iniquity,

offspring who do evil,

children who deal corruptly,

who have forsaken the Lord,

…who are utterly estranged!

…Wash yourselves;

make yourselves clean;

…cease to do evil,

learn to do good;

Seek justice,

rescue the oppressed,

defend the orphan,

plead for the widow…

Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be like snow

though they are red like crimson,

they shall become like wool.

If you are willing and obedient…”

(Isaiah 1:1-19, selected verses)

We are indicted, you and I,

and rightly so.

The voice of God,

thundering through the prophet Isaiah,

hurling words directed at us,

as much as at our ancestors in faith

some 2700 years ago.

Do we dare deny it?

Do we dare say,

“Oh, God can’t be talking to me.

Not like that.

I may not be perfect,

but if it’s sinners God wants,

well surely there are others worse than I;

even here,

even in the pews around me,

even up in the chancel.”

But God isn’t interested in comparing.

God is not concerned with how we

stack up against our neighbors.

                 

What God cares about is,

are we—you and I, each of us—

are we each living by God’s word,

God’s will,

each of us doing our best,

striving, working to build the foundation,

the foundation of God’s kingdom?

We know God’s words to us

through the prophet Micah:

“He has told you, … what is good;

and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?”

(Micah 6:8)

Could God be any clearer?

Seek justice,

Love kindness,

walk humbly.

Rescue the oppressed,

Defend the orphan,

Plead for the widow…

Feed the hungry;

care for the sick;

welcome the alien.

“What you do to the least of these

you do also to me”

“Blessed are those who hunger

and thirst for righteousness;

Blessed are the merciful;

Blessed are the pure in heart;

Blessed are the peacemakers.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God.”

These are God’s words,

our Lord’s words,

to you, to me, to us,

each of us.

And taken together,

they help us understand God’s hope

for all God’s children,

God’s dream for all God’s children.

What God wants for us

what God wants from us,

even, what God expects from us.

But we dash God’s dreams.

We spoil and corrupt God’s vision.

To the hungry we say,

“I’ve got mine; you get yours.”

To the poor we say,

“Work harder.”

To the sick we say,

“You are not my responsibility.”

To the alien we say,

“Stay out; you are not welcome.”

To God’s creation we say,

“You are mine to do with as I please.”

“In days to come [says the Lord]

the mountain of the Lord’s house

shall be established as the highest of the mountains,

and shall be raised above the hills;

All the nations shall stream to it.

Many peoples shall come and say,

‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob;

that [the Lord] may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths.’

“…[for]He shall judge between the nations,

and shall arbitrate for many peoples;

they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more.

“On this mountain

the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples

a feast of rich food…

And he will destroy on this mountain

the shroud that is cast over all peoples,

the sheet that is spread over all nations;

he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,

and the disgrace of his people he will take away

from all the earth.”

(Isaiah 25)

Do you hear?

Do you hear God’s word to us,

God’s hope for us,

God’s vision,

God’s dream?

Here in this place our Lord Jesus Christ

is saying to us even now,

“Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”

(Mark 4:23)

Listen.

God speaks to us time and time again

through the prophets,

the psalmist,

through the apostles,

through the wind and the rain,

and of course,

through our Lord Jesus Christ.

God’s words fall down upon us like the spring rain.

But like the rain,

so many of God’s words just run off, lost.

But some get in.

We take them in,

we hear them,

and then our minds go to work

and we process God’s words;

we filter them,

we reform them,

we reshape them

to suit ourselves, our lives,

what we like,

what we don’t like.

And as we go about our reforming,

our reshaping,

the Living Word,

our Lord Jesus Christ

is just a few feet away,

quiet,

bent over,

tracing his finger in the dust and dirt on the ground,

letting us think,

letting us ponder,

letting us process,

letting us filter,

letting us reform and reformulate.

No haranguing, no shouting.

But then, our Lord stands and looks at us

and he can see it in our eyes;

we can hide nothing from him.

He knows our hearts;

He knows we resist.

And his look changes;

only a little, but it’s there.

it is now a look that mixes

sadness with hope,

heartache with love.

And then he speaks,

“Feed my lambs.”

“Tend my sheep.

“Feed my sheep.”

(John 21:15ff)

That’s all our Lord says.

And then he turns then to walk away,

down a road,

a road that leads…where?

It doesn’t matter;

it is the road our Lord walks.

Will we follow?

Why won’t we follow?

AMEN