May 11, 2003

Mindekirken May 11, 2003
Pastor Jens Arne Dale

John 10.11-18

Exciting things are happening downstairs in the new addition of the church. An eager group of volunteers is working to finish the space. There’s going to be a small kitchen, a restroom and meeting rooms. The remodeling also includes decoration. What are we going to have on the walls? They who built the sanctuary considered quality important. The walls have wonderful stained glass windows, which place us in the middle of Bible history. The good shepherd who we read about today also looks down on us from one of the pictures.

It took several generations for the Christian church to establish the first decorating committee. The Word and sacrament were the main focus, and at the beginning they didn’t have any churches to decorate. Some of the oldest pieces of church art might be found beneath the earth in Rome. The majority of the first Christians were poor, and with the extremely high estate prices they could hardly afford to buy a lot for a cemetery.

What they could afford was a lot as big as one might dig for a hole in the ground. And in the porous volcanic rock the Christians dug their tunnels. The catacombs could go as deep as five floors beneath the surface of the earth. And the length of the catacombs of Rome is like a couple of roundtrips from Minneapolis to Duluth.

The catacombs are like corridors with niches in the walls where the dead were buried. And it’s in this environment we can find some of the oldest church art. One of the motifs is the Good Shepherd. The Romans were familiar with this motif. It was the picture of the good human. In times of persecution it would be a smart thing to express one’s faith in pictures that would not offend anyone.

Christians didn’t consider the Good Shepherd just a philanthropic picture, but as a picture of Jesus Christ himself. In the same way it was with the cluster of grapes, it would to the Romans be a symbol of the wine God Baccus, but to the Christians it would be a symbol of the communion wine and the blood of Jesus.

The Greek word fish has initials for Jesus Christ, Son of God, and Savior. Christians would be able to state their faith through drawing a fish. The same symbol is used on the trunk of several cars here in Minnesota as well.

The Good Shepherd was a well-known picture of the good human for people without Jewish or Christian background. But to the first Christians, the talk of Jesus as the good shepherd opened the world of the Old Testament. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, and David sung 3000 years ago, Psalm 23.1. We are your people and the flock you guard, the whole congregation would sing, Psalm 79.13.

At a time when the leaders of the people were criticized for being selfish and poor shepherds (Ezek 34), the Prophet Isaiah pointed out the new shepherd who would come. You may have heard the text in one of the most beautiful arias of Handel’s Messiah: He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep. Isaiah 40.11.

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, Jesus said. What does that mean to us today? It’s easy to feel that one is being overlooked and worthless. Many people struggle with a feeling of inferiority. They don’t have any self-esteem. Our society is cold and graceless. We adore the successful ones when it comes to how we look and how our bodies are, as well as when it comes to career and material success. The picture of the Good Shepherd speaks differently. It’s aimed at the lost; it’s about care for the ones others wouldn’t have cared about.

In the political reality we’re facing today, the picture of the Good Shepherd might have something important to say when it comes to the care for the most needy ones among us. The Minneapolis Area Synod had its annual assembly last weekend. One of the resolutions that were approved calls us to speak out to shield the weakest among us when the budget is to be balanced.

It’s about nursing homes, health care for the poorest and basic social services. The resolution proposes a 10% surcharge on income taxes. Copies of the resolution will be available at the coffee hours after the services today.

The Good Shepherd gives us an ideal, which is different from the way so many think in our society. It’s a love message to the one who feels like a number in the line that doesn’t count.

Jesus told a story about the farmer who counted 99 sheep and was missing only one. It would have been reasonable to consider this as a small loss after a season in the mountains; the farmer was indeed successful. Therefore it’s like a kind of madness when he leaves the 99 to search for the lost one. But this madness is a picture of the highly personal care God has for each one of us. We are loved so much that the heavens are concerned about finding every one of us.

People have different attitudes towards Jesus. But Jesus has the same attitude toward everyone. He searches for the lost ones with a love that is God’s own. Grace is never a mutual matter. God loves us with a love, which has its reason in God’s love alone. What we have not deserved has been given to us. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, says Jesus.

When they crucified Jesus, thieves and hired hands running away were active. It was deceit on deceit. The human sin was demonstrated. But this very happening shows us how greatly God appreciates us. The shepherd himself became the suffering lamb of God. Jesus conveyed atonement for the sin of the world. The good shepherd has bought us for the price of his own life.

Some of us might have grown up with the picture of the Good Shepherd over our bed. Maybe it was a picture of Jesus carrying the sheep home, an image of the care that helped us to trust God’s love. To some of us, this week has been very special because of the loss of someone we loved.

Death is the last enemy. But at the same time the picture of the Good Shepherd may release us from some of awfulness of death. To pass away may be seen as being found by him, and carefully being placed on his safe shoulders. And then he carries us, home to our real home. We are taken to the joy of heaven where we may live life everlasting in his great white flock.

Glory be to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who lives now and forever. Amen.

The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church ·  924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 ·  (612)874-0716