Sermon: "Good Shepherd, Justin Bieber," April 25, 2021

Latimore, Kelly. Good Shepherd, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57121 [retrieved April 25, 2021]. Original source: https://kellylatimoreicons.com/contact/

Preacher: The Rev. Ryan Slifka
Scripture: John 10:11-18

“I am the Good Shepherd,” Jesus begins today’s scripture. “I am the Good Shepherd.” The image of God as shepherd is a Biblical favourite. We began today’s service with the words for the 23rd Psalm that sings “the Lord is my shepherd.” Seeing as how those who wrote the Bible were a pastoral people, agricultural metaphors like this make a lot of sense. God is the shepherd, people are sheep.

There’s a bit of a problem here for us sophisticated twenty-first century North Americans, though. Last thing we wanna be is a sheep.

Late last year I was walking down Cliffe Avenue in Courtenay. While I waited for the pedestrian sign to change, I noticed a little home-made flyer taped to the poll beside me. The flyer was in support of an anti-masking, anti-social distancing rally that was to happen at the Driftwood Mall. In addition, it had a web address that linked to a Youtube video that purportedly exposed the truth about COVID-19.

I’d seen a few similar posters before, and similar links on the internet. But what really stuck out to me on this one was the exhortation at the bottom. The bottom of the poster read “WAKE UP, SHEEP.” Wake up sheep, ALL CAPS.

Now the implication with this, of course, was that those who believe the mainstream story, those who are abiding by government health orders aren’t simply wrong. They’re ignorant, unthinking. Brainwashed, even. If only they’d think for themselves. If only they’d stop being led around like sheep.

Now, my initial reaction to this was, offense. “Hey! Who you callin’ a sheep?” It dawned on me that I was offended because as a culture, we prize originality of thought, making our own mark, blazing our own trail. We value freethinking, making our own judgments. We wanna think for ourselves. The last thing we wanna do is follow the crowd.

Sheep are dumb. Sheep are stubborn. Sheep wander. Sheep get lost. Sheep fall into valleys. Alone, they’re lunch for wolves, and when they’re lost they just “baaaa,” and beg to be eaten. They’re dependent totally on their shepherd, they need to be led and guided and protected by them, too. Sheep are weak, and defenseless, prone to self-destructive wandering and are completely in need of someone else to save them and guide their lives. For modern, sophisticated, self-sufficient people "sheep” is everything we should fight against being. For Jesus to call himself a shepherd delivers to us that insulting implication that we are sheep.  Cuz the last thing any of us wants to be... is one of those.

And yet... if we’re honest with ourselves, this is exactly what we are. Sheep. Not in the sense that we’re all a bunch of dumb animals—thought I know at least I can be on occasion. But that we too can be stubborn, foolish. We wander away from the people we love and cause our own self-destruction. I mean, how many of us had a good thing with friend, spouse, or family and then blew it all because we thought we could get something more. How many of us have got ourselves into messes we couldn’t clean up, that we can’t recover from? Hurt people, been hurt by people. Lied, cheated, and stole out of a sense of need.

It’s not about who is or isn’t a sheep. The issue is that we are all sheep in one way, shape or form. We are all sheep. The question is, who is our shepherd?

Who do we turn to? I mean, some of us have turned to conspiracy theories. Some of us turn to politics, ideologies, causes, institutions, economics, or identities of all kinds. Some of us turn to drinking, or using, or another means of escape, or money and power as means of control. What’s interesting, though, is that Jesus says that these won’t really give us what we need, or what they promise. These are less like shepherds who lead and care and protect, and more like hired-hands. They’re there out of their own interest for their own pay-off. And when the world’s wolves show up, they’re useless. When it comes to your and my maladies and sufferings, they’ll save their own skin first. They just can’t deliver in the end.[i]

Again, who do we turn to? My son Walter once told his younger brother that if they ask you a question in Sunday school, “just say the answer is Jesus, and you’ll probably be right.”

Who can we trust? Who can we turn to for guidance, for sustenance, for saving? Sunday School tip for the win again. The answer is Jesus. Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd because he's the one. In a world of competing shepherds, Jesus promises to be the one who will lead us to green pastures, and beside still waters. Jesus promises to refresh weary souls, to save we who are suffering from our own sin. Jesus promises to relieve we who are burdened by the weight of the world.[ii]

And unlike all those other hired hands, Jesus isn’t in it for his own benefit. That’s the difference between the fallen powers of this world and the power of God. Jesus doesn’t demand a sacrifice, or a trade to fulfill these promises. No, Jesus lays down his life for his sheep. He lays down his life to be taken back up again. Where everyone and everything else demands we do something first to free us or fix us, Jesus gives of himself freely on the cross for the life of the world.[iii]

And by “world” I mean that--everybody. This is another thing that makes this shepherd Good. Jesus says that there are other flocks he must bring into his fold. Not any one group, or race, or country, or tribe, or race, political party or ideological leaning. You, me. Our most beloved friends and our own wicked enemies. In the same way all of us are sheep, all of us are the recipients of the shepherd’s self-giving love. The people we love and the people we hate. That’s true goodness. This is what makes Jesus different, it’s what makes him the good shepherd in a world of bad ones. Jesus lays down his life for the sheep.  He throws himself on the grenade of sin and death... so the whole platoon of humanity can make it back home in one piece. It may be the last thing we wanna be, but the Good Shepherd somehow makes being a sheep Good News.

Ok, Ryan, you might be saying to yourself. “OK, I’m a sheep. So what, what do I do now? I’m a sheep... what’s next?” Like the rich young man who approaches Jesus asking “what must I do to be saved?”

One of the interesting, perhaps strange things about this text is that it’s all about the shepherd, what the shepherd does. This might be another difficult thing to hear as modern people. We’ve been taught that life is all about achieving, getting, and grasping, and taking. Like WHERE’S THE LIFE HACK, already? DO SOMETHING. But here all the sheep do is hear. “My sheep,” Jesus says. “My sheep know the sound of my voice.” Here we’re not first invited into doing, but to simply to listen. To hear the tone of the Shepherd’s heavenly baritone.

Now this might sound rather passive. Like spending twelve hours listening to the radio, it doesn’t sound like it’s accomplishing anything much at all. But Christianity is first and foremost transformational Good News. It’s an announcement. It’s like hearing that the war is over. Something fundamental has changed about the world. And just knowing that it has changed somehow has the power to change us. To lead the sheep in the right direction.[iv]

And you never know where you might hear this voice. This week I was rather shocked when the shepherd’s voice echoed through the pages of GQ magazine. That beacon of fashion, style, and culture for men, that only a few years ago generated a firestorm of controversy for suggesting the Bible wasn’t worth reading.[v] Even more surprising was the fact that this voice reverberated through an interview with famed Canadian teen-pop megastar Justin Bieber.[vi]

Bieber went through a long period of time that included multiple arrests, drug and alcohol abuse, lawsuits, various kinds of allegations, vandalism and a lot more. All the while he’s struggled with depression and anxiety. But according to the article he’s changed. And he credits this change to God.

“Two things brought Justin Bieber back, ultimately:” the article says. Two things brough him         back: “his marriage and his faith. What they had in common was that they were value systems        that didn’t depend on him performing in exchange for money. Bieber talks a lot about “have to”      versus “want to” — his life has been mostly shaped by the former...

God, though, is different. God, Bieber says,

God “is grace. Every time we mess up, He’s picking us back up every single time. That’s how I view it. And so it’s like, ‘I made a mistake. I won’t dwell in it. I don’t sit in shame. But it actually makes me want to do better.”

“I just kept trusting what He said and what He’s saying to me. “And I just believe He speaks to me. It’s not audible. I don’t hear His audible voice. I don’t know if people do. I know people have said it, and in the Bible it talks about that, but I just never heard it. It’s more like nudges: Don’t do this. Or: Set these boundaries.” The voice in his head, the voice that we all have, telling us we are less than, or not good enough, or that our mistakes have rendered us beyond redemption? He says that voice spoke up and it said: You are forgiven.”

I can’t really speak to the quality of Bieber’s life, or his faith. And I’m always a little skeptical of the intention of celebrity interviews and flashy photo ops like this. And really, the sign of Jesus’ presence tends to be less wealth. Is it just another way to generate revenue and Facebook buzz? Entirely possible.

Nevertheless... this sounds like gospel. Notice that same action, that same hearing. It wasn’t just about doing better, or doing something differently. He was being led by the hired hand of fame, success, selfishness and ego, and instead of bringing him joy it was eating him alive. The voice Bieber heard, though not audible, was the voice of a whole different kind of shepherd. One who told him that he didn’t have to achieve or perform to be loved or worthy. It told him that screwing up wasn’t the end. And with a Word of forgiveness, that same voice was shepherding him towards a new kind of life. The One who laid down his life for the world, had allowed him to lay down his own... to die, and be raised again.

And this is the promise for each of us. The bad news is that you’re all sheep—we're all sheep. We’ve all been led astray by our own brokenness and the self-interested leading of others. But the good news is that in a world of hired hands pulling us in every direction but towards truth, beauty and goodness, in its midst stands Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Jesus, in whose life, death and resurrection, we’ve been given a whole new world, one he’s leading us to by his powerful Word of grace.

So, friends, what I invite you to do today is simply listen. Listen for the voice of the shepherd. In these words may you hear his.

Though you’ve sinned and screwed up, in Christ you are forgiven. The slate is clean. You no longer need to hide or be burdened by guilt. You can make amends, and a new start.

Though you’ve done nothing to earn it, in Christ you are worthy. You can stop having your life measured by the leading of the world’s hired hands, and can rest in the glowing assessment of the Good Shepherd.

And though you’ve fallen way short in loving your neighbor, and doing what is good, in Christ you can. The God who has laid down his life for you has made it possible for you to lay down your life for the sake of the world.

So WAKE UP, SHEEP. Wake up, and hear these words, and believe them. Let them change you. For surely, goodness and mercy will follow you, all the days of your life. And you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Amen.

[i] “The image of the hired hand… has many of the echoes of the image of the bad shepherd in Ezekiel 34:5-6, 8-10 [and other Old Testament texts.] The common denominator in these Old Testament portraits of the bad shepherd and the hired hand is the shepherd’s primary concern his own well being at the expense of the flock’s well-being.” Gail O’Day, “The Gospel of John,” in the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, vol. 7 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1994), 670.

[ii] The idea of the “Good” shepherd is based on Ezekiel 34. O’Day, 670.

[iii] “In the end, to be a member of Jesus’ flock is to know oneself as being among whole for whom Jesus is willing to die.” O’Day, “John,” 673.

[iv] Thanks to Jason Michelli for this insight. See Jason Michelli, “The Syntax of Salvation,” Day1.org https://day1.org/weekly-broadcast/5ffdc7636615fbb1f2000005/jason-micheli-the-syntax-of-salvation

[v] The Editors of GQ Magazine, “Twenty-One Books You Don’t Have to Read,” April 19, 2018.

[vi] Zach Baron, “The Redemption of Justin Bieber,” Gentlemen’s Quarterly (GQ), April 23, 2021.