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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!)
A blessed Mother’s Day to all mothers present: mothers by conception and birth, mothers by formal and informal adoption, and any who have shown another person a mother’s love! You may know that generally I am loath to focus too much on such secular observances and not preach on the Gospel Reading appointed for the day on the Church calendar. But, today I think I found a way to take a little more note of Mother’s Day and still focus on the Fourth Sunday after Easter, which is also known as “Good Shepherd Sunday”. For the sermon this morning I have selected what is called a “free text”, but the verse both complements the appointed Readings of the day and includes mothers. Isaiah chapter 40 verse 11 is part of the Old Testament Reading appointed for the Second Sunday of Advent in the “B” year of our three-year series of Readings, but today we can consider that verse both more-closely than we usually do and apart from its usual liturgical context centered on the John the Baptizer. So, hear now this prophecy of the Lord through the Divinely-inspired prophet Isaiah:
[The Lord] will tend His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs in His arms;
He will carry them in His bosom,
and [He will] gently lead those that are with young.
Considering this verse this morning we direct our thoughts to the theme, “The Lord tends His flock like a Shepherd”.
As one commentator says, through Isaiah the Lord gives unhappy people “a most winsome and impressive picture of the blessed work of the Good Shepherd” (A. Pieper, ad loc Isaiah 40:11, p.106). Notably, this “most winsome and impressive picture of the blessed work of the Good Shepherd” immediately follows a description of the Lord’s coming with might and His arm’s ruling for Him (Isaiah 40:10), making an abrupt change from a military description to a pastoral description, an abrupt change arguably found elsewhere in Holy Scripture, such as in David’s going from being a leader of Israel’s army to being a leader over all of Israel’s people (2 Samuel 5:2). The Lord’s coming in strength brings condemnation to some but salvation to others (confer Micah 5:4). Jerusalem is to announce this future coming of the Lord (Isaiah 40:9), Who will lovingly tend (that is, “pasture” or “herd”) His flock like a shepherd (that is, like one who pastures or herds). As an example of His tending, the Lord will gather the lambs (that is, those who are hardly able to walk) in His arms; He will carry those lambs (who cannot keep pace with the rest of the flock) in His bosom (that is, in the fold of His robe or cloak above His sash or girdle), and He will gently lead (that is, not over-drive but lead with care, guide to water, and give rest to) those that are with young (that is, those who are nursing, arguably the lambs that He is carryings’ mothers). This announcement of the good news of God’s coming means comfort and restoration not only for the exiles in Babylon, who would return to the pastures of Israel’s land and the sheepfolds of Israel’s cities, but it also means comfort and restoration for all people enslaved by sin, including you and me, who return to the Lord, the Shepherd of our souls (1 Peter 2:25).
In the Gospel Reading (John 10:22-30), Jesus, the Good Shepherd, says that His sheep hear His voice, He knows them, and they follow Him. Of course, on our own, we do not listen to His voice or follow Him, but, as the Lord says elsewhere through Isaiah, we all like sheep go astray and turn to our own ways (Isaiah 53:6). We all need His shepherding, but we all reject and resist His shepherding. We see that rejection and resistance in the anarchy of the world and our country; in the anarchy of our workplaces and schools; in the anarchy of our church body; in the anarchy of our families; and in the anarchy of our own lives. As believers, we may not be able to be snatched from Jesus’s or the Father’s hand (confer Deuteronomy 32:39), but at times we may try to pry open His fingers and jump out of His hand. War between nations; national conflict over the murder of unborn babies, with protests even in churches on Mother’s Day; ridiculous talk about and emojis of not mothers but “birthing people”; and the idea that people choose their own gender and sexual orientation instead of recognizing that God created them male or female to be paired with the opposite sex (Genesis 1:27)—all of those are easy, good examples of other people’s rejecting and resisting Jesus’s shepherding, but God wants us to also consider our own rejection and resistance, such as our rejecting and resisting all the shepherd-like authorities whom He places over us, whether in society, church, or home, fathers and mothers, as well as others.
The rod of the Lord’s law shows us our sinful nature and all our actual sins, on account of which we deserve both death here and now and torment in hell for eternity. He calls and so enables us to turn away from our sin, and the staff of the Good Shepherd’s Gospel reaches out and rescues us by showing us Himself as our Savior from sin (confer Ezekiel 34:11-16). Jesus is, as He said in today’s Gospel Reading, the Christ, the Son of God in human flesh, Who shares the same Divine substance with the Father and the Holy Spirit and yet is a distinct Person of the Blessed Trinity. And, on Him, as Isaiah says elsewhere, the Lord has laid the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus our Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep and takes it back up again (John 10:11, 17-18). As we heard in the Second Reading (Revelation 7:9-17) salvation is from our God Who sits on the throne and from the Lamb, Who once was slain, but now stands again and is our Shepherd: our Prophet, Priest, and King (confer Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:6). When we in faith receive the forgiveness that He won for us by His death on the cross in our place, then God not only forgives us but also so saves us and gives us eternal life.
As Moses once sang, the Lord leads, in His steadfast love, the people He has redeemed; He guides them by His strength to His holy abode (Exodus 15:13). Here He gives us rest by guiding us by springs of living water (confer Isaiah 49:10): in the water and the Word of Holy Baptism we receive forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil, and eternal salvation. Here He prepares a table before us: in the Sacrament of the Altar giving us to eat with bread His Body given for us and giving us to drink with wine His Blood shed for us and so also giving us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. Our Good Shepherd tends us not only by giving us water and food but also by every other necessary activity. We are His flock, as described in the First Reading (Acts 20:17-35), the Church of God, which He obtained with His own blood.
Especially for those with certain medical needs or tolerance issues, the United States is experiencing a worsening shortage of baby-formula—due in part to a recall earlier this year and issues with the supplies of ingredients to make more, of packaging, and of labor—and so some stores now are limiting formula sales. Nursing mothers also at times can have trouble producing breast milk, but, as the Lord provides rest for the nursing ewes and their lambs in the text, so He provides the pure spiritual milk that we all should long for and by which we grow up into salvation (1 Peter 2:2), and then He provides the solid food, for the mature, those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14). Each of us who repent, believe, and are forgiven does good works according to our various callings in life. For example, mothers bring their children to the font, raise them in the faith, see that they are confirmed and receive the Lord’s Supper, and maybe also see them graduate from high school and perhaps even college, and maybe also get married and perhaps have children, but they never stop being their children’s mothers. Pastors, as St. Paul told the elders, or “pastors”, from Ephesus in today’s First Reading, pay careful attention to themselves and to all the flock, pasturing or feeding them and guarding against external and even internal wolves (confer Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Rule and Norm, 14, citing Luther, ad loc 1 Peter 5:2, AE 30:135).
Whether Mother’s Day, Good Shepherd Sunday, or any other day of any other year, “The Lord tends His flock like a Shepherd”. We are faith-less, but God is faith-ful. We wander, but the Good Shepherd gathers us and cares for us, especially through His under-shepherds. We are help‑less and weak, but He is help‑ful and strong. The Good Shepherd gives us eternal life, and we never perish. Even now the souls of those believers whom we might think of as dead live with Him and will be united with their resurrected bodies and with us on the Last Day. Already now we have peace and joy, but all the more will we have peace and joy then, when He will wipe away every tear from our eye, and we will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +