15 April 2018
Text: John
10:11-16 (Ezek 34:11-16, 1 Pet 2:21-25)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Because
of the Gospel reading this week, in which Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd,”
this Sunday is often called Good Shepherd Sunday. Our Old Testament lesson from Ezekiel
prophesies that God Himself will shepherd His people (a prophecy fulfilled by
Jesus, the Good Shepherd). Our epistle
lesson from St. Peter also follows this theme: “For you were straying like
sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
And
this is what has happened with little Anastasia this morning, dear friends. As part of her baptism, you heard these
words: “The Word of God also teaches that we are all conceived and born sinful
and are under the power of the devil.”
This is what Peter means when he says, “You were straying like sheep.” That goes for all of us sons of Adam and
daughters of Eve – including Anastasia.
We
strayed when we listened to the serpent.
We strayed when we disobeyed God.
We strayed with that first murder between brothers. We strayed when we brought on the worldwide
flood. We strayed when we built the
Tower of Babel. We strayed when we
followed after idols instead of the true God.
We strayed when we demanded to have an earthly king rule over us. We strayed when we mocked the prophets who
called us to repent and who faithfully spoke the Word of God to us. We strayed when we took the Lord’s blessing
for granted.
We
strayed just by being born into this fallen world in our own sinful flesh, programmed
by our broken DNA to be selfish and evil, riddled with sin, and destined for death
and hell.
But,
dear friends, St. Peter says, “you were straying like sheep.” He uses the past tense: “you were.” But now, because you “have now returned to
the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls,” you are now hearing the Good Shepherd
as He gathers you into His “one flock” as “one shepherd.” This is what Holy Baptism is all about. The Lord Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He “lays down His life for the sheep.” He, the Shepherd, is willing to die so that
His sheep might live. He defends His
sheep against the wolf. He doesn’t run
away like a “hired hand,” but interposes Himself bodily against the enemy, out
of love and devotion for the sheep.
He
is the good shepherd! He is the “Shepherd
and Overseer of your souls.”
And
that “your” now includes Anastasia, whose very name is a confession of the Good
Shepherd. Her name is the Biblical Greek
word that means “resurrection.” She is
the new birth, born again from death itself, reborn by water and the Spirit,
born to live forever according to the promises of Jesus Christ, the Good
Shepherd!
In
the baptismal liturgy, we heard that “the apostle Peter has written, “Baptism
now saves you.” This baptism, St. Peter
explains, is “an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ.” Anastasia now has a
good conscience because of the death and resurrection of the Good
Shepherd. She has been made a disciple
and named as one of the Good Shepherd’s little lambs, whom our Shepherd and
Overseer specifically knows by name. And
again, that “good conscience” comes “through the resurrection,” that is, the ἀναστάσεως,
of Jesus Christ.
Anastasia
has been buried with Christ in Holy Baptism.
This means that she has been reborn by resurrection, and she will be
resurrected by being reborn. This is not
of her own goodness or works, but rather by the grace of the Good Shepherd. For “He Himself bore our sins in His body on
the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. For by His wounds you have been healed.”
Little
Anastasia has her whole life ahead of her.
We, her pastor, her brothers and sisters in Christ, her family, her
sponsors, and all Christians whom the Lord will bring into her life, are called
to teach this little resurrected one, by word and by deed, just what it means
to “die to sin and live to righteousness.”
It doesn’t mean that she will be perfect, but she will learn right from
wrong. She will be taught the Ten
Commandments. She will also know of the
Gospel and the love and redemption of Christ by being taught the Creed and the
Lord’s Prayer. She will be brought up in
the Lord’s House, surrounded by the Word of God and prayer, by worship and
praise, by forgiveness and acceptance.
She will, God willing, live a long life of mercy of partaking of the
body and blood of the Good Shepherd, and constantly being drawn back to the
safety of the flock by the “Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
She
will know what the cross is: the one that our Lord died on for the forgiveness
of sins, by which His blood pleads for our forgiveness and life and salvation, as
well as her own cross of life in this fallen world, dealing with pain and
disappointment, and death. But she will
also know what it means to be “Anastasia,” to be a child of the
resurrection! She will know both Good
Friday and Easter Sunday, and She will know her Good Shepherd!
But
more importantly, her Good Shepherd will know her! “So will I seek out My sheep, and I will
rescue them from all places,” thus says the Lord God.
This
is why we sheep of the Good Shepherd have been singing our opening hymn for
eighteen hundred years:
Shepherd of tender youth,
Guiding in love and truth
Through devious ways;
Christ our triumphant
King,
We come Your name to sing
And here our children
bring
To join your praise.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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