Proper 11 :: Jeremiah 23:1 – 6 / Psalm 23 / Ephesians 2:11 – 22 / Mark 6:30 – 34, 53 – 56
This is the homily
given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by Fr. Gene Tucker on Sunday, July
18, 2021.
“GOD WILL PROVIDE: GOOD SHEPHERDS IN PLACE OF BAD ONES”
(Homily texts: Jeremiah 23:1 – 6 & Mark 6:30 – 34, 53 –
56)
Perhaps
we could call this Sunday “Bad Shepherds Sunday” (in contrast to “Good Shepherd
Sunday”, which always falls on the Fourth Sunday of Easter each year). Or
perhaps we could call it “God Will Provide Good Shepherds and Will Remove the Bad
Ones Sunday”. (OK, I guess maybe that title is too long to be useful.)
As
is usually the case as we make our way through the season after Pentecost, more
than one choice of readings is presented from the Old Testament. And is also
often the case, the second option seems to have more in common with the
appointed Gospel text than the first choice does. (I know, doesn’t make sense,
does it?)
The
common thread that links our reading from Jeremiah to today’s Gospel is the
business about bad shepherds and bad shepherding. Jeremiah condemns the poor
leadership that caused God’s people such hardship in the time of his ministry,
saying that – in time – God would repay those bad shepherds for their evil
ways, and would replace them with good shepherds who would faithfully lead God’s
people. In a similar way, Jesus looks out on the large crowds that had come to
Him, lamenting that they were like “sheep without a shepherd”.
Some
background work is in order here.
We
begin with the context in which Jeremiah’s ministry unfolded. It was, for God’s
people in those days, a difficult and trying time. The Babylonians threatened
to overrun the country, something they finally accomplished in the year 586 BC.
But for many years prior, they gradually exerted more and more power and
control over the Southern Kingdom of Judah. In the midst of all this political
and military turmoil, there was, in the kingdom, widespread idol worship of
various pagan gods. It is true that King Josiah had instituted some reforms a
few years earlier (one significant aspect of his reforms was the discovery of
the Book of Deuteronomy in the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 621 BC). But
pagan idol worship persisted. The leadership of the people in that time (the
bad shepherds Jeremiah must have had in mind) kept on saying that all was well
within the kingdom. Jeremiah, through the wisdom of God, knew differently. As
is often the case with prophets, Jeremiah suffered greatly for his persistent
warnings about the coming calamity. Jeremiah experienced the fall and destruction
of Jerusalem, and survived it. No wonder Jeremiah is known as the “Weeping
Prophet”.
Now,
let’s fast-forward some six hundred years to the time of our Lord’s earthly
ministry.
The
people of God are, again, under the control of a foreign power. This time, it’s
the Romans, who brought with their control of the Holy Land a brutal occupation
and high taxes. But the leadership of the people seemed to be oblivious to the
hardships the people were experiencing. Yes, those very people, God’s people,
they were supposed to be leading. These bad shepherds ignored the welfare of
their flock. They advanced their own position within society. They ran a
lucrative money-changing enterprise in the Temple in Jerusalem (which
benefitted the priestly caste in the Temple). They insisted on a rigorous and
literal interpretation and application of the requirements of the Law of Moses
(Torah). But to make things better in real terms and in people’s daily
lives, that requirement of their position as leaders didn’t seem to matter
much.
No
wonder the Lord looked out on the crowds in front of Him and lamented that they
were like “sheep without a shepherd”.
But
down through time, God has demonstrated His concern for the people He has
claimed for His own, doing so by removing the bad shepherds and replacing them
with good ones. He did so by removing King Saul, replacing him with King David.
He did so in the time of Jeremiah, destroying the bad leaders of Judah. He did
so in the time of our Lord’s ministry, doing away with the self-serving ways of
the priests, the scribes and the Pharisees, replacing them with Jesus Christ.
We
Episcopalians don’t use the term “Pastor” to describe our ordained leadership
very much. “Pastor” means “shepherd”. (Perhaps we’d be better off if we did use
that term more commonly than the title “Rector”, which means “ruler”…..No, I,
as your Rector, don’t want to be anyone’s “ruler”.)
It
is natural to regard the ordained leadership of a parish as the parish’s
“pastor” or “shepherd”. Indeed, care for God’s people in the parish is a sacred
trust. There can be few higher callings, in my humble estimation.
That
calling, however, falls on each and every one of us, each and every one of us
who’s gone through the waters of baptism. For in baptism, we promise to “seek
and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves”. (Book of Common Prayer, 1979 edition,
page 305)
We
seek and serve Christ in others in some very practical ways. For example, every
time we offer a kind word, we act as shepherd to someone else. Every time we do
an act of kindness or offer support for another in a time of trouble or
challenge, we act as shepherd to that person. Every time we lift someone up in
prayer to God, we act as shepherd to that one in need.
Perhaps
the theme for this Sunday might prompt us to evaluate how good a shepherd we
are, acting as God’s hands and God’s heart. For God appoints good shepherds to
do His work in the world, caring for the people He has claimed as His own.
There can be no higher calling than that.
AMEN.
