Acts 13:15-16,26-39

Psalm 100

Revelation 7:9-17

JOHN 10:22-30

Sermon – April 29, 2007

Jesus the Good Shepherd and Higher Power

(Let us pray: Prayer 56 p. 831)

Today is called “Good Shepherd Sunday.” Every year on the fourth Sunday of Easter Season we hear scriptures which remind us of God’s offer to be our shepherd through life and thereafter, and how Jesus embodies the ideal, the Good Shepherd. Today is also the day our Recovery Sunday Team chose for our annual “Recovery Sunday” celebration of the reality-based hope for new life that God offers to people whose lives are impacted by addiction – their own or that of someone they love, or both.

Good Shepherd Sunday makes us think about sheep. Sheep, as individuals, cannot defend themselves against predators. They have neither the speed with which to escape them nor, individually, the ability to defend themselves one-on-one with their own individual strength, teeth, and claws. (Claws? What claws?) One sheep against a wolf? No way. One sheep against a pack of wolves? You got a stop watch to time how long the sheep would last?

So, sheep are not solitary creatures but live in flocks, in which their numbers and the leadership of the biggest, smartest and strongest rams give them a chance. They have an even better chance if they have a shepherd, who can take this [shepherd’s crook] both to corral and guide them and to defend them. Imagine a larger and heavier crook in the hands of someone with, say, martial arts training, and the sheep would definitely have some protection.

Sheep also are not very smart animals. They are not going to compete with, say, German Shepherds in an intelligence contest. (This is why Shepherds are shepherds.) Sheep need to be led. They generally know that, except perhaps for some sheep who are just smart enough to think, “I don’t need no flock. I don’t need no stinkin’ shepherd. I can take care of myself.”

So this sheep that’s just-smart-enough-to-be-really, really, stupid goes off on its own, which may be fine for a while…until it meets a wolf. Or a pack of wolves. And it tries to run, and breaks a leg, and is surrounded by gleaming eyes and hungry mouths and maybe then, finally, it cries out for help to the shepherd.

People can be like sheep. As Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way…” and sometimes when people go astray, thinking they can do everything themselves, they find that they can’t, really, and they run and they might, so to speak, break a leg, and find themselves surrounded by wolves.

One wolf might be “alcoholism,” another might be “cocaine,” another “heroin,” and another “gambling,” and the hyenas that came along with the wolves might be “domestic violence,” “unemployment,” “family collapse,” “hunger,” and even “homelessness.”

Anyone of these “wolves” could gobble up a sheep – no one can say “Well, I don’t have all four, so I’ll be fine,” and any of the hyenas would be able to pick the bones clean OF whatever the wolf or wolves left, you don’t have to have all of them. But both wolves and hyenas are pack animals, like these afflictions also are, so if you spot one of them, the others are likely to be in the neighborhood.

Any sheep with a broken leg hunted down by one wolf, never mind a pack, would have no chance even if it called desperately for a shepherd to help. Unless that shepherd was a supernatural shepherd who really could be there at a moment’s notice, and really could face down any number of wolves and hyenas, and really could carry the sheep until its leg was healed and then would invite the sheep to follow the shepherd by turning the sheep’s will over to the shepherd’s, one day at a time, for the rest of the sheep’s life…and beyond.

Can this really happen? Does it really happen? Let me share with you stories from four of your fellow parishioners, members of the Recovery Sunday Team who’ve been sharing pews with you, in some cases, for years, people who know what it is to feel like a lost sheep, and know what it is to be rescued by The Good Shepherd.

Here are the words of “Parishioner A”:

“I left the sanity of the normal world and began a journey into a land filled with broken promises, lies, deceit, and denial. I traveled with a newfound friend that promised instant relief from the problems of life. “I will give you an escape from your problems and comfort in times when you cannot cope with life on life’s terms.” The further I went with this friend the more I learned that the world was against me and escape was easier. I did not have any problems that were my fault and my proof was satisfied with drink. I did not know when to stop or how to stop. My senses were dulled, my thinking was distorted, and I was accepted into a world of nightmares and fell into a self-created hell.

“I learned to put on a façade of falseness and the pretext of normality. There were people who said I had a problem, but I reveled in their misgivings and insulting remark, for you see, I did not have a problem, I was in complete control, so I thought. Complete and utter denials were my daily sayings, alcohol was my master, but I never heard it say, “I will take your life and you shall be my feast.” Depression and despair now lived in me. Suicide entered my mind, but something would not allow me to end my life. I felt a failure at life and sank downward more into an abyss. Death was near.

“I remembered my real Master, the Good Shepherd. Death came closer. I cried for help and could not see anybody coming. I was the lost sheep that left the comfort of my pasture but then, it was like a voice was calling my name. It was He. The one who guarded me in a life long ago. He had come. I lost my way and now begged for his help. That night I felt like I was lifted onto his shoulders and carried back to his pasture to heal and live under his care. Yes, the Good Shepherd found me and gave me another life to live in his care. He brought to understand my disease through AA and learn to live in sobriety.”

And now for “Parishioner B’s” story:

“It was the amazing grace of Good Shepherd Jesus Christ that saved me from the bonds of chemical dependency. It was the Good Shepherds that gave me the wisdom – Dr. Bob and Mr. Bill in 1935 who started AA – that led the way for N/A and G/A and many others, so in being like Jesus Christ St. Barnabas Episcopal Church sponsors groups like AA, enabling us to seek the support we need.

“The image of God takes many forms, we need a savior.

1. We need a savior and counselor because we find ourselves hopelessly lost and confused.

2. We need a friend and comforter or one closest to us who will not let us down as we find ourselves alone.

3. We need a keeper because as addicts and alcoholics there will be times when we are hopeless and defenseless against that first drink or drug.

“We’ve heard another image of God. It’s a beautiful image that we alcoholics and drug addicts might try to relate to in Psalm 23.

“The Lord is my Shepherd – now most of us may not be familiar with the other 149 Psalms – but Psalm 23 is one most of us know. We’ve probably heard it at every funeral we have been to, even as they walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

“We’re here not because somebody died, but because we nearly died ourselves, desperate to have God fill that bottomless hole of addiction that exists inside of chemical dependent people.

“The Big Book [of AA] says we each need to undergo a spiritual awakening, we need a radical readjustment as to how we live in our day-to-day relationship with God. We will stay sober ONE (1) Day at a time.

“In the 12 step program FOUR (4) THINGS WILL HAPPEN TO YOU.

1. You hear God talking

2. You change

3. You pray to God constantly

4. Empty holes are filled with joy beyond you can ever imagine

Amen.”

Let us pray together Psalm 23.

Let’s hear from “Parishioner C”:

“Addiction. Redemption. Grace. Who would ever think you’d find these three words together in the same sentence, much less to describe someone’s sequential path through life? For me, the life of a drug addict was a self-centered one. I lied to those who love me, I ignored them when they tried to help me, I refused to look the truth of my life in the face. Through my addiction I kept people at a great distance. I did not need them. And when all was said and done, I left a path of destruction in my wake and suffered the darkest kind of loneliness. I was so far from God’s grace…how could there be redemption for a miserable, lying wretch like me?

“The answer is Grace. Amazing Grace. The grace of God’s love, which came to me not in serene prayer or in a clean and sober life, but right where I was: miserable, wretched, dirty, lying, and closed off from people. Now, many years later, I can see why I was given this gift so freely. To quote one of my favorite books, I am Abba’s child. Abba is what Jesus called God. Its modern equivalent would be “Daddy” or “Papa.” I am loved! I am precious; made in his likeness. I am worth saving. I have walked through Hell and, like all of us who suffer from addiction and alcoholism, I DID IT WILLFULLY! But I am forgiven. The slow process of learning to trust God is setting me free. Today, I try to give each day up to God, praying for His will, not my own. And My Father NEVER lets me down.

The Lord has promised good to me

His word my hope secures

He will my shield and portion be

As long as life endures.”

And finally, “Parishioner D”:

“Sobriety…one day at a time. What an amazing concept. Don’t over-complicate life by fretting over something stupid you did yesterday, or worrying about what problems tomorrow might bring. Focus on staying away from a drink or a drug, just for today.

“And to make this “sobriety thing” even easier, we don’t have to do it alone. Besides the love and support we receive from fellow 12-step members and caring family and friends, we have the best support system of all, our Lord Jesus Christ, our Higher Power, our Good Shepherd.

“In today’s Gospel, we are reminded again of how much Jesus truly loves us, and is there to protect and guide us, one day at a time. In AA, we’re taught to change people, places and things. If we continue to hang out in the same old seedy places with even seedier friends, we are doomed to repeat. Instead of listening to the thieves and bandits on the barstools next to us, we should be listening for our gatekeeper’s voice. He will call us by name and lead us out into good pasture, where we will be saved.

“Jesus truly is the Good Shepherd. He had laid down his own life in order to save ours. Putting down the drink or drug is not an end to our life, but rather a beginning. Turning our will and our lives over to the care of God is definitely the sanest and most blessed thing we could do.”

Sheep need a shepherd; Christians say the Good Shepherd is Jesus. We worship God together in church. Sheep also need a flock. Christians in recovery need to be part of a flock in church and another flock in a 12 step meeting, both of which have the same Higher Power.

In Easter Season we celebrate the love God has for us human beings that God became incarnate in this messed-up world of ours, took all our sins on himself to free us from them, suffered and died for our sake, and rose again that we might have new life. And that new life is not just in heaven, but it is available right now. This is life-saving, life-transforming Good News to anyone suffering from an addiction – and for those who are impacted by them, for whom the 12 step Program Alanon was created and exists.

I once said to a recovering alcoholic in the parish, “You can celebrate Easter and resurrection twice a year – once on Easter Day and once on the anniversary of your sobriety.” The person smiled and responded, “No, Father, it’s not like that; I celebrate Easter every day.”

Let us join together in the Serenity Prayer, at the bottom of page 2 of your Recovery Sunday handout.

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church