Goodness

John 10:11-18

 

        There aren’t many poems more beloved than Psalm 23. Metaphorically the Psalmist responds to the trials and tribulations of the human condition through the eyes of one who has found comfort in the everlasting presence of God. When Jesus declared, “I am the good shepherd”, the members of the early church and those of us who still claim the Bible as our holy testament, substitute Jesus as the shepherd beautifully described in David’s poem.

The Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

This morning, I want us to look at two words, hesed and halos, both translated to mean good or goodness. We often understand the word “good” to simply be the opposite of bad.  The Greek and Hebrew offer a much more glorious understanding of this not so simple word.

The Hebrew word Hesed is a claim of enduring fidelity. Hesed is frequently found in the Psalms and the writings of Isaiah. God will not just bring goodness. God will remember us, rescue us, and restore us. The fidelity of God last forever. Even if we should forget God, the goodness, and mercy of God shall continue. It is an unconditional contract by the creator toward the created. God’s goodness, God’s love is not just for a moment. It is steadfast and everlasting.

The concept of good shepherd found in both the Old and New Testament retains that fidelity. The Greek word Halos is defined as being noble, competent, faithful, moral, and praiseworthy. No sacrifice is too great. The shepherd knows the cost of protecting the sheep and is willing to pay it. The fidelity of God and the integrity of the shepherd transcend our notion of just being good. God will act morally and faithfully, an action applauded by our praise.

I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to be God. Using the analogy of shepherd gives us a glimpse into this complicated dilemma. Not long after I moved to West Texas I was invited to visit a working sheep ranch.  The first thing I learned was sheep are completely self-absorbed. Their primary motivation in life is the grass under their nose. They have to be prodded from spot A to spot B. They seldom follow directions and are prone to wander off looking for the greener grass anywhere outside the pasture. They are easy targets for predators because they never seem to be concerned with their environment. Getting them home is a difficult task because the sheep has no desire to move from where they sit.  A good shepherd is caretaker, motivator, and deliverer. The farmer told me, “You have to love sheep to be a shepherd because every other thing a sheep does is self-destructive. No one wants to admit they raise sheep. It is an all day job. I spend more time with my sheep than I do with people. Folks find me to be a bit odd.”

I innocently asked, “So why don’t you hire someone to watch them?”

He laughed, “Can’t keep anyone. After a week they see how hard the job is and quit.”

The writer of John has expanded the OT image of fidelity by insisting the Good Shepherd not only cares for his sheep but will lay down his life on their behalf. Jesus is no hired hand. Jesus doesn’t leave when we stumble into a briar patch. Jesus stands beside us even when we walk through the dark valleys. Furthermore, Jesus is not only competent but faithful. Jesus acts with moral integrity. Jesus will not leave us alone. Jesus has loved us to point of laying down his life. This is the personification of goodness as seen through the eyes of God. So how are we being asked to respond to this goodness?

We don’t know who wrote the Letters of John but we know they are commentaries on John’s gospel. The author of these epistles confronts us with the complex question concerning our covenant relationship with God. We could say, “Why ask us? We are just sheep. We are too stupid to understand.” That is a convenient response, but not one any of us really wants to claim. In John’s epistle the writer believes we have the capacity to choose to be good. But with this choice comes a responsibility toward the person walking beside us. The writer of the epistle encourages us, “to love, not in word or speech, but in truth and in action.”

I see examples of this every day.  I am overwhelmed by the goodness that abounds within this congregation. Tuesday night many of us were fortunate enough to be sitting in a session meeting as Jerry Wrenn delivered our opening devotion. He began by stating the obvious, “God is love.” Jerry suggested those are no more than words unless love is practiced. He told us that he was suffering from AFib,  a heart condition many of us will inherit as we grow older. His heart beat is not as consistent as it was when he was 25. He was given medication and some advice. “Don’t climb ladders, watch what you eat, and don’t watch the news.”

Jerry said giving up ladders was easy. He has not been so successful with the other two suggestions. Jerry suggested we are living is a culture of rumors and half-truths. Often there seems  little room for communication. He then reminded each session members that we each have experienced the love of God. This alone should inspire us to reach out in love rather than anger to those with which we disagree. Then he read I Corinthians 13.

The best sermons in our congregation don’t come from this pulpit. They emerge when each of you has the courage to love another as Christ has loved you. As Jerry reminded us, “We can’t shut down the noise, we can’t change the message but we are responsible for how we respond.”  When we act lovingly, we can be assured that nothing less than the love of Jesus is pulsating through our hearts and through our hands.  Through our goodness we become the shepherds of our community. Through our fidelity we become the standard bearers for our nation.  Through acts of moral courage we become a shining example for not only our friends and neighbors, but for those with whom we disagree.

As hard as that seems I would remind you that self-sacrifice, for Christians, should be ordinary, not extraordinary. Let me give you some examples. We lay down our lives when we put others first. We lay down our lives when we live for the good of others. We lay down our lives when we make time for others. How heroic would it just to listen rather than rant and rave? Is truth only unique to us? I wish I would practice that sermon more often.

Eugene Peterson suggests, “Love is the most context-specific act in the spectrum of human behavior. Acts of love cannot be canned and delivered off the shelf. Every act of love requires a creative and personal investment.” He continues by stating what should be obvious. “Love is not built into our genes. A lot of essentials in human life take place without being learned or practiced. We breathe, our hearts pump, we come out of the womb kicking and screaming and eventually we fall asleep, all without prior training. But we learn how to love by being loved.”

Some things we just don’t get instantly. I read about Dick and Jane before I tackled Dostoevsky. I caught a 1,000 groundballs before it became as natural as breathing. I experienced love through the actions of my parents and a group of adults who names I can longer remember.  Then it came my turn to reciprocate. I have stumbled and failed. I still do. None of us get it right the first time. But the words of Christ remain in our soul. “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Those are hard words to implement yet Christ pleads with us to keep trying despite the results. The good news is God will never give up on us because we are more than just God’s sheep. We are shepherds in training. We are called the practice the art of loving, and loving, and loving even if we don’t always get it right.

I read somewhere that a glacier is the most powerful force in the world today. It forms by the accumulation of snow over a very long periods. An inch at a time the snow deepens, the weight compresses, forming ice. This continues year after year. Nothing happens until the glacier becomes sixty four feet thick. Then it starts to slide, and once it starts, nothing can stop it.

The shepherd loves us each moment, each day for a lifetime. Then the shepherd encourages us to slowly, consistently, sometimes even painfully, love each other. That might take a lot of trust in God’s grace, yet I suspect each of you can tell the story of a heart of ice that encountered so much love it eventually it began to slide. It might even have been your own.                           

To God be the Glory.                                Amen.