Good Shepherd. Don't Scare Them Off. (2023-04-30, Easter 4th Sunday)

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April 30, 2023  4^th Sunday Easter (Year A)  ● Acts 2:14a, 36-41 ● Psalm 23 ● 1 Peter 2:20b-25 ● John 10:1-10 ●

Title:  Don’t Scare Them Off.

[_01__]    How do you follow? How do we follow in the ways of Jesus as the Good Shepherd? This is the Good Shepherd gospel.

Just an example. Have you ever been to Liberty Science Center (LSC)?

To LSC, a museum in Jersey City near NY Harbor, in Liberty State Park. The LSC stated goal is to form the next generation of scientists and engineers to excite learners with the power and the promise of science and technology. But one person also said at LSC that their first goal is in attracting girls and boys not to frighten them, do not scare them away.

And as somebody who has sometimes been scared away from science, or mathematics or difficult classes like that, I can relate to being “scared off”

[_02__]    When I was a college freshman, and taking a difficult math class for the first time I was failing. But I was also had a very fortunate experience and that the professor welcomed me to his office many times to do equations with me to show me the ropes as it were to move my me from a failing status to a decent grade with him, I felt safe, he did not scare me off, we all need such she shepherding, teaching and guiding.

I have experienced this also shepherding in those my spiritual life in the quadratic formula, the quadratic formula of sin and sinfulness and faults. In other words, going to confession to have my sins absolved, I was not “scared off” but rather encouraged by Jesus through the priest, to show that I can begin again, we can all begin again and start over.

 

[_03__]     Today is about the good news and strength of the Good Shepherd, which also relates to the famous parable of the shepherd and the lost sheep. Remember the shepherd and the lost sheep. In this case, the shepherd goes out to search for the 1% of the 100.

And in this case, the 1% is not the one with all the advantages. The 1% is the one who has fallen behind you are the 1%. I am the 1% at times. And in biblical language and biblical history, the shepherd is an important image.

“Before Jesus” as shepherd - there was the young David of Bethlehem who was the shepherd, the shepherd boy who was selected and anointed to be the next royal ruler, the next king of Israel.

And David seemed an unlikely choice. But he was the shepherd boy who knew how to fight he had agility, strength, and he defeated the mighty Goliath by his skills.

All the kings of Israel are referred to as shepherds. But as Jesus said, some were better shepherds than others. Some were thieves and robbers.

David, however, is described as a shepherd after God's own heart. Jesus is born in the Ancestry DNA lineage of David.

“DURING JESUS TIME” The shepherds came to visit Jesus in Bethlehem after his birth. It's a reminder that Jesus comes to those who are awake and alert, and waiting for him and not necessarily to the famous or connected.

“AFTER JESUS / TODAY” The word pastor = shepherd. Please pray for me as a shepherd, I also need to listen to the voice of God as the voice of God and Jesus as the ultimate Shepherd.

[_04__]      A shepherd in the Middle East in Jesus’s day andin our own would have gone ahead, gone first, to lead the sheep.

Now, sometimes it's scary to go first.  As the eldest sibling in my family, I often had to go first and sometimes wished someone would go ahead, go first.

[_05__]         How can we “go first / take initiative” and follow in the ways of Christ the Shepherd.

There are everyday way we can do this.

(a)            Eye contact with somebody who's not necessarily looking at us. That means going first taking the risk to look at somebody in the eye, or taking the risk to listen to somebody, maybe somebody who doesn't seem to be listening to you. Listening carefully to someone is not an exercise in “being passive” but also in being actively compassionate.

(b)            Slow Down. Sometimes I'm rushing around, trying to “get ahead”. But can I not take more initiative by slowing down and not being too abrupt in my actions? By praying for guidance.

(c)            SILENCE. At times, it can be the charitable thing not to say anything or not to say too much. If you are a parent, a mother or father, have there not been ways in which you have revealed only what was necessary to your children, to tell them only what they can handle right now. This not sometimes waited told your children, And we are called to choose silences in certain ways in charitable ways

 

These are everyday ways in which we can take initiative in following the Good Shepherd and being good shepherds.

[_06__]          Jesus is also the Good Shepherd because he leads us to his flock and part of his flock is the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes, 07052. Perhaps this is your parish or your parish is in another location.

And the church universal is also meant to be Jesus's flock.

The strength of a community is shown not just by what we say, or by the words that are spoken from this microphone, but also by what we do.

And that's true also in a family and in a community that we also speak a body “physical langauge”.

You speak a body language is your presence here at Sunday Mass. And this is your witness to others. You are here and we need you here. Also to be present to Jesus who is here also here body and soul.

Body language is also spoken by being together at meals, or physically present and visiting each other.

says something about our being together, being together at the dinner table or being together in the living room, or being together is more simply “calling [texting] to say, I love you”.

The body language of your virtue is spoken by keeping your family together your marriage together at difficult times.

[_07__]      Jesus is the one who willingly went to the cross and spoke in a way in a body language sort of way, because he is the lamb led to the slaughter, who openened not his mouth. [Isaiah 53:7]

Why can the shepherd of the parable leave the 99% and go after the 1% It's because he knows Jesus and the shepherd knows the biology and the psychology of sheep, that the 99 together will protect and keep each other warm while he goes to look for the 1% who is lost.

Meanwhile, the 1% who has lost that one sheep was lost will perish or at least be severely harmed because the sheep who is lost and alone, might fall down might not be able to get up and needs the shepherd to lift him up.

And we also need the help and support of Jesus as our shepherd and wished to lift us up as well.

To remember that he comes among us as the incarnation he comes among us to be among us as a human person, and to teach us – first by not scaring us off -- but also by his actions by laying down His life for us one at a time. [_END__]