Rev. Dr. Warner Bailey, Preacher
Ezekiel 34.1-24 Psalm 100 Ephesians 1.15-23 John 10.11-16
November 20, 2011
Before I go any further, I owe you a word of full disclosure. You may remember that you were told prior to the reading of the Old Testament lesson that what you would hear would be coming from the New Jerusalem Bible. If you were following the reading from your pew Bible, you were reading the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The Jerusalem Bible comes from the work of scholars who are part of the Eccole Biblique in Jerusalem. The Eccole Biblique is an internationally respected school of biblical study founded by French Roman Catholic scholars. I chose the Jerusalem Bible over the pew Bible for today’s text because of what the Jerusalem Bible says God will do with the fat sheep when the new shepherd comes in judgment and salvation. The Jerusalem Bible says that the shepherd will watch over the fat sheep. The watching over is part of the overall plan to save the entire flock. Your pew Bible says that the savior-shepherd will destroy the fat sheep. Watch over or destroy. Those are pretty big alternatives.
Well which one is right? Two Bibles that have been produced with equally scholarly care. Watch over or destroy? It’s not a trivial matter if you are a fat sheep! What we have here are two modern English translations, equally accepted as authoritative Scriptures for the church, the Jerusalem Bible and your pew Bible. These two modern translations are based on manuscripts written in ancient languages. These ancient manuscripts provide a choice in what happens to the fat sheep. Some of the manuscripts support the English word “watch over” and some support “destroy.” The Jerusalem Bible has chosen to reflect at this point the “watch over” group and your pew Bible the “destroy” group.
My job as preacher, just like any preacher in the Presbyterian Church, is to decide which translation to use. I have chosen to go with the savior-shepherd watching over the fat sheep and reject the reading that has the shepherd destroying the fat sheep. Well, why? A couple of reasons are technical and are best explained with a chalk and blackboard rather than from the pulpit. But there is one reason for my choosing against the option of destroying the fat sheep which I think you will see when I point it out to you. Look, it was the fat sheep who were targets for the greedy eyes of the corrupt shepherds. What happened to them was just as bad as the shepherds’ abandoning the weak and the sick. Why, when God comes to depose the corrupt rulers and save the flock, would God want to destroy the very ones who had been victims of the exploitation? God comes to watch over the fat sheep. Well, enough of explanation. Let’s get to preaching.
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“We are the ninety-nine percent,” chant the protestors who have been occupying Wall Street and many other public locations across the world. The clear implication is that the remaining 1 percent comprises the super-elites against whom the rage of the 99 percent is being directed. The pitting of the 99 against the 1 is a combination familiar to readers of the Bible. In one of Jesus’ famous parables, the shepherd leaves 99 obedient sheep on the hillside undefended while he searches for the 1 lost sheep. It is safe to say that this is not what the current protestors have in mind.
In our Old Testament lesson for today, the prophet Ezekiel takes another spin on the relations between the shepherds, the 99 and the 1, although he does not use those exact numbers. Under Ezekiel’s hand, the shepherds stand for the corrupt and ruthless rulers of Israel, the 99 stands for the mass of cast off sheep and the l stands for the few fat and strong sheep.
In Ezekiel’s parable the ruthless and corrupt politicians who dare to call themselves shepherds are content to let the sick, scrawny sheep go to pot. Let them scatter on the mountainside to be chewed up by the wild beasts in the wilderness. The ruthless and corrupt politicians who dare to call themselves shepherds instead zero in on those few sheep who have managed to stay healthy. They have put a little fat on themselves and some decent wool on their skins. These sheep became the prey for the shepherds to eat. Rulers would concentrate on the fat sheep. For all their being well-off, the fat sheep could not escape being targets for the rulers to exploit. They were just as helpless as the 99.
Ezekiel’s version of the parable of the shepherd and the helpless flock puts God on notice to send a new shepherd who will save his flock. The sending of a savior-shepherd is good news for the flock, but bad news for the corrupt rulers. The judgment of God on the rulers is universal, just as much for their coordinated exploiting the 1% fat sheep as for callously abandoning the other 99%. Ezekiel’s parable puts God on notice that the savior-shepherd will watch over the 1% fat sheep with just as much intent to save them as the shepherd’s desire to bind up the broken 99%. At the time of salvation, God does not practice class warfare.
“We are the 99 percent.” The chant bounces off the stone facades of Wall Street and ricochets around this land. Protestors have no single voice or demand that unifies them. Instead, what connects the variety of protestors together is a conviction that when it comes to our lives, our destinies, we don’t have much power to decide for ourselves. “The theme that connects them all is disenfranchisement, the sense that the world is shifting deeply and inexorably beyond our ability to control it through our democratic institutions.” That theme connects the protestors to us, too, and, frankly, even to members of the Tea Party. Since the beginning of the Great Recession, the 1 percenters have seen their wealth double, and much of it directly attributable to political decisions regarding the economy. The protestors have a point when they say that the current political-economic system has failed the bulk of us. This system has fostered a series of debt-fueled asset bubbles and has created an economy that was rigged in favor of a financial elite, who took all the proceeds in the good times and then left everybody else with no alternative other than to bail them out. The 1 percent have gained at the expense of the 99 percent. Ordinary Americans are fed up by the unfairness of reckless financiers triggering a brutally harsh economic crisis, accepting a government bailout, and then going on to become even richer while everybody else has been left to struggle. As one demonstrator explained his position, “I’m pro capitalism; I just want it to work for everybody.”
Ezekiel’s parable puts God on notice to send a new savior-shepherd who will gather up the 99 percenters. The savior-shepherd will gather and restore and protect. He will set them on their feet again. The Gospel of John proclaims that the new savior-shepherd has come in the person of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Jesus will gather and restore and protect by laying down his life for the sheep. He will offer up his life as a sacrifice that his life may run out and into us so that we stand up on our feet. I’m going to take the risk of saying that Jesus is the Good Shepherd who suffers with and for the sheep who cannot find a job, who have crushing student debt, who fear more regressive taxation, whose house is underwater, who want decent health care. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who suffers with and for the sheep who want to see democracy work for us. The sheep find their voice and they say, “We’ve had enough.”
Look. Today is Christ the King Sunday. This is the Sunday which Christmas and Easter and Pentecost have been leading up to. Next Sunday we start all over again with Advent. So today, we get a chance to sum up what the Christian message is all about. Today, we must say, loud and clear, that Jesus Christ is bringing near to us a kingdom where all will find the space to grow and flourish. Christ is the Shepherd-King. He moves aside anyone who rigs the system to shut out the 99. In the church we must say that the presence of Christ’s kingdom even now makes demands on our political and economic leaders for everyone to have a decent shot at having what it takes to grow and to flourish.
Who is listening? Who is listening who has the power to change the arrangements that have dealt so many out of our economy and political life? Whoever has wealth or influence or privilege or connections or intelligence has that power. Whoever has wealth or influence or privilege or connections or intelligence is a fat sheep. Who wants to do something with their good fortune different from turning it into a club to bully people with, to muck things up, to push the protestors off so that we can move on, leaving the less fortunate to wallow in the mess we have made? Who would like to use good fortune as a way to give to the weak his right to life instead of using good fortune as a wall to hide behind?
If that is what you want, then it can happen for you in the kingdom of the Shepherd-King. Whoever has wealth, influence, privilege, connections, and intelligence can be assured that Christ, the Shepherd-King, is here for us. The shepherd watches over the fat sheep. Take heart; cling to Jesus. The Shepherd-King lays down his life for us. Jesus protects us from the deadly thought that since we have luck and good fortune we can have anything we want. He puts his life between us and the deadly temptation to live in our own world as though we were insulated from the masses. In the kingdom of the Shepherd-King, people of good fortune will be able to do the right deed and to make the gift that nourishes life. We will be known for our graces of humility, modesty, community, generosity, and acts of daring faith. We can be a force for good that blesses life and lifts hope. We can be a force for good that sends a shock wave of new courage throughout our land.
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever Amen.