John 10: 1-10
Acts 2: 42-47
For Family of Christ Presbyterian Church, Greeley, CO. May 15, 2011
Now that you’ve heard the Acts’ text, I wonder if any of you are expecting to give you a sermon about how you need to rush out from here and sell all your goods and possessions and give the proceeds to any who have need.
Just go and sell your stuff, get rid of all you own. Why not? Especially if the billboards are to be believed and the world is going to end next Saturday.
Well, you can relax; I’m not here to preach that sermon. There’s really no way to preach that sermon, at least not without a long period of preparation and care, by which time, I imagine, it might be redundant.
As one writer pointed out as I was researching this text, the unheard of level of communal sharing here was not a cause, but rather an effect. It came about as a result of that community's earlier actions. “They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers”
You can relax, then, about my haranguing you to sell everything you own.
But then, what I am going to talk about might actually make some of us squirm just as much.
I’m going to sneak up on it though, in the hope of luring you in. It can be a touchy subject and many people turn off and turn away just from hearing it named. Especially when they hear it named as something they are going to be asked to do.
“That’s something that ministers do, not people like me; ministers have special training, they know how,” they’ll say. Or, “I couldn’t do that; I’d just make things worse.”
Any guesses?
In the Gospel text, Jesus talks about the role of the good shepherd. He goes into the sheepfold, “And the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he’s brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.”
Jesus knew all about. . .I’m going to name it now, so brace yourselves. . .Pastoral Care.
There I said it, and no one has bolted for the door.
