Welcome to the last Sunday of the year … the Church Year, that is.
Our year began 12 months ago with Advent … what a journey it’s been for us … we’ve seen death; we’ve seen life; our souls have been dark; our spirits bright.
Times when we didn’t know God, and times when God was crystal clear … times when trust was hard; times when trust was easy … we’ve all grown in Christ, and we’ve stumbled in our sins, as well … we’ve been faithful to the LORD, and sometimes we’ve been a lot like Peter or Judas … sometimes we got it wrong, and sometimes we got it right.
What a year it’s been for us.
A year that ends today, ends with Christ the King.
And so it ends well … alls well that ends well … because everything ends with Christ … the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End … the Eternal Shepherd.
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want …
Jesus says to his disciples, I am the Good Shepherd … when others run, I don’t … when others think only of themselves, I think only of you … when others take, I give, and I lay down my life for you!
In Ezekiel’s story, who are the shepherds?
They’re the leaders: priests, prophets … kings, queens … scribes, Levites.
For us here, - pastors, deacons and elders - shepherds of the flock, if the elders and deacons would please stand … congregation, put your hands together to honor them … extend your hands toward them, as I pray:
These are your shepherds, O God, the shepherds of your people … your people here at Calvary on the Boulevard.
We pray for them, O God.
Their tasks are many; their burdens heavy.
Stand by them, we pray, in every way.
Give them grace, mercy and peace … faith, hope and love … and the joy of Jesus Christ.
That they may lead us, and lead us well.
In Jesus’ name. Amen!
Part of Ezekiel’s story is sad - Israel’s shepherds failed.
Sometimes shepherds fail … and every shepherd knows it when it happens … we all know when we fail.
And why did they fail?
They forgot their central purpose: to strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the injured, bring back the strays or seek out the lost.
I could fill a book with my failures … things I’m not proud of … decisions that were wrong … when fear and anger took control.
We all fail more than we care to admit …
Reality check: failure is a part of the program … that’s why we need to keep our expectations in check - what we expect of ourselves, and what we expect of others.
There’s nothing wrong with high expectations.
But expectations have a way of getting out of hand, and nothing worse than expectations out of control.
Many of us live with a psychological mommy or daddy still scolding us, wagging their finer at us, grounding us and sending us to our room without dinner - years later, we’re still feel small and resentful.
And to compensate, we expect too much of ourselves, still trying to win the love of mom or dad … we push ourselves too hard, and judge ourselves too harshly … and we only feel worse for the effort.
Or we turn it around, and we expect too much of others … and when others fail to deliver what we want, what we expect, we get all over them - we confront them, we wag a finger at them just like some angry parent did to us, we send nasty emails, and carry grudges.
We can rightly expect a lot of ourselves, but we’re not God, and we’re not perfect … no one can deliver all the time … not you, not me, not the baker, the butcher or the candlestick maker.
That’s why, at least in the church, we try to live by grace.
We practice forgiveness and acceptance.
We’re gentle with one another … because we’re all in this together … and we’re all carrying heavy burdens.
We watch our tongues and our emails … and when we overstep ourselves, we practice the needful art of apology, apology pure and simple, “I’m sorry! Please forgive me.”
This is a timely reminder for all of us - if we take it upon ourselves to “counsel” a fellow Christian - we have to be sure that we’ve dealt with ourselves first of all.
I’ve learned the hard way: when I’m upset with others, if I really think about it, I’m mostly upset with myself.
When I fail, my first response is to pin the blame on others.
Maybe you do that, too.
But it doesn’t help us, or anyone else.
We have to deal with our junk first.
Jesus said it well: before trying to take a speck out of a neighbor’s eye, be sure to remove the log in your own.
We all have plenty of logs.
If we work on our log jam, it’ll keep us busy for the rest of our life - and by the time we’ve got the logs removed from our own eyes, the world looks will better to us, and we’ll be better equipped to let our light shine.
We don’t have to remove anyone else’s speck from their eye … we just let our light shine, so they can do their own log-removal.
In the end, it’s God who removes the logs from our eyes, and the specks from our neighbors’ eyes, it’s God who deals with all the junk of life … by his stripes we are healed!
And that’s the gospel
The good news in Ezekiel.
The Eternal Shepherd takes up where we stop.
The Eternal Shepherd takes responsibility … what we can’t do, God does; what we fail to do, God accomplishes; what we mess up, God restores.
The Eternal Shepherd.
Who repairs, restores and makes all things new.
The Eternal Shepherd leads us to a better place of living.
The sunny side of the street … good pastures and quiet waters.
When our hands grow weak, God’s hand is upon us.
When we lose sight of the big picture, God heals our eyes.
When we hurt someone, the Holy Spirit disturbs us until we get it worked out.
When we’re tired and wanna call it quits, and just go home and hide our head under a pillow, God give us the energy to keep on going.
For EVERYONE here today, we’re all shepherds, are we not?
Responsible for the care of at least one other person!
Husbands shepherd their wives; wives shepherd their husbands … parents shepherd their children, and when the children get older, sometimes the children shepherd their parents … friends shepherd one another - in school and at work, and all around the town … there is always the need for care, kindness, mercy, love, hope-inspiring words, wisdom, witness and work - the stuff that builds up our world and gives everyone a second chance - Zacchaeus up a tree, the woman at the well, blind Bartimaeus - who doesn’t need a second chance now and then?
We have our work cut out for us.
Business, politics, education, religion - the world needs shepherds - women and men who have the wisdom and grace of God, who live the ethics of the LORD’S Prayer, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
The world needs shepherds who are light and salt - light to point the way, and salt to make people thirsty for the love and justice of God …
The world needs you and me - shepherds of grace and goodness, shepherds of wisdom and fortitude, shepherds led by the Eternal Shepherd, Christ the King!
That’s how our year ends … it ends well, beloved Christians … it ends on an upbeat note, because it ends with Christ, the Eternal and everlasting Good Shepherd!
He is the Alpha and the Omega, he is the beginning and the end.
Alls well that ends well.
Amen and Amen!
