I mentioned a moment ago our new canine acquisition from the Westside animal shelter. You may
know that our family dog of 12 years, Freddy, passed on a couple of months ago. His successor,
Nizhoni, has been with us for about a month now. Nizhoni means “beautiful” in Navajo, and she fits
the bill. She’s black with rust markings and has big, brown, soulful eyes.
She’s also a gangly, kind of goofy young German Shepherd who, on the ladder of intellect falls a few
rungs short of Einstein, and she stands as living proof that Shepherds sometimes need some pretty
serious shepherding themselves. If you’ve read the book or seen the movie “Marley and Me”, she’s
not quite that bad, but for a while looked interested in giving Marley some pretty serious competition.
One example of our concerns came when I quickly realized that I needed to attach a large, chain link
gate to our wrought iron gate into the back yard, since Nizhoni quickly learned how to squeeze
through the bars and go on “walkabout.” Now, I’m relatively certain that Nizhoni saw no particular
problem with this when she decided to exit the back yard. If German Shepherds thought in the
English language I imagine she might have been thinking something like, “Gee, what a big,
wonderful world. Lot of things to be sniffed out there—think I’ll go with the flow and let my nose do
the walking.”
The problem, of course, is that there’s also a lot of danger out there, not the least of which is
Albuquerque traffic. When we adopted her, she’d already been a stray, and was pretty skinny and
scraggly. She’d even apparently gone through a teenage pregnancy in her time on the streets.
The point is, as well-intentioned as she may have been, left to her own devices she was pretty
fortunate to have survived to her new life at the Tutons’ house. We are now shepherding the
Shepherd, and helping her to live the life that will hopefully make both her and others happier in the
long run.
Now I don’t want to carry the comparison between dogs and people too far, as the scriptures say we
humans are created in God’s image, and no such claim is made on behalf of dogs, cats, or the other
critters that our Creator blessed us with in this life. But there may be a lesson or two here to which
many of us might be able to relate on some level. Humans are often symbolically depicted in the
Bible as sheep. Not to puncture any pride we may be harboring about our exalted human status,
but if you’ve ever spent any time around sheep, you’ll know that this is not an unqualified
compliment. Left to their own devices, sheep aren’t known for their wise decision-making abilities,
for example.
We have the prophet Isaiah who once wrote, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has
turned to his own way.” And when preaching to the multitudes Jesus was observed to have deep
compassion on the people, as they were “like sheep without a shepherd.” These are fairly typical
examples of the way the word is used in the scriptures. In fact, I did a word search for “sheep”, and
there are almost 200 places it can be found in the Bible.
And there are 60 occurrences of the word “shepherd.” Perhaps the most famous of these is in the
23rd Psalm we heard a few minutes ago. It presents a kind and loving image of the Lord watching
over us, protecting us, and giving us peace. He makes us lie down in green pastures—places of
plenty. He leads us beside still waters—places of peace. He leads us in right pathways—pathways
of purity and health. And he protects us. The rod and staff are not to clobber us with, but to
protects us from those who would do us harm. This divine love and provision moves the psalmist to
say that his cup of blessing is running over. It’s full to the brim and overflowing in blessing for those
around him.
All of these things of course hold true for our Lord Jesus. I’ve said before that Jesus often used
symbols of nature in his teaching. In the Gospel reading from John we have Jesus identifying
himself as the Good Shepherd. He’s the one who knows his sheep, and whose sheep know his
voice. He says his sheep listen to his voice. And he identifies himself as the one who protects them,
that is, us, from predators, even to the point of laying down his life for the sheep.
But in the epistle reading, which also was written by St. John, the distinction between shepherd and
sheep becomes a little blurred. Because, as he did in his Gospel, John speaks here of Jesus laying
down his life for us, but then encourages us to do the same for each other. In fact, the Lord
appears to see us both as sheep and as shepherds, or at least sub-shepherds. We have the
responsibility to perpetuate the guidance and the protection he gives to us. We, too, are to make
sure that we bring others into the safety of the sheep fold and protect them, even with our very
lives. This all intersects with the reality that, pending his return in glory, we’re his body. Pending his
return to build the great city of God, we’re here to shape the building blocks with which he will build
it. And the main building blocks God uses are his beloved human creation.
So we’re charged with the responsibility to share in the guidance and protection of the sheep who
are the people of his pasture. This is what brings us to our immediate responsibilities, here, today.
In a few moments we’re going to be baptizing little Mia Finley. We’re going to participate in one of
the holiest and most important of our responsibilities as Christians—ensuring that Mia is given the
resources and the support to live a life of faith in Christ.
Some ask, “Well, is it faith or is it baptism that brings us into eternal life in Christ?” And of course
the answer is “Yes.” The scriptures identify both personal faith and baptism as essential
components of salvation and as the gateway to eternal life. Baptism without faith is incomplete, and
faith without baptism is incomplete. And the reason we can take joy in baptizing beautiful little ones
like Mia is that we are committing ourselves to ensure to the best of our ability that she’s brought up
with an active faith in Jesus.
I think it became especially popular in my own generation not to be overly directive of our children,
and instead letting them choose their own way and committing to respecting wherever it is they end
up. If we were blessed with an innate sense of impeccable wisdom I can’t think of a lovelier
parenting style than this. But the scriptures say that we all like sheep have gone astray. They say
that our own inclinations may not bring us to the wisest, healthiest, or safest path. Many of us have
stories that I’m guessing would corroborate this. I certainly do. Nizhoni sees no reason not to
squeeze through the gate and step out on her own. Fortunately, when she did just that, her
shepherds brought her back into the fold before she could come to harm.
Now, I’m confident that Mia Finley is going to be quite a few rungs closer to Einstein than Nizhoni is,
but she’ll still need guidance and protection. The job of Mia’s parents, godparents, sponsors, and
the people of this congregation, is to train her in the way she should go, as the writer of the
Proverbs says, so that “when she is old, she will not turn from it.” Jesus said, “I am the gate for the
sheep.” Not “a gate”, but “the gate.” Peter said in our Acts reading this morning, “There is salvation
in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be
saved.”
These words leave us with the sacred duty of being loving sub-shepherds, protecting Mia from
falsehood and from spiritual harm, receiving our own direction from the Good Shepherd, and by
word and deed, giving Mia the name by which all mortals under heaven must be saved. So as we
say our baptismal vows this morning, I encourage you to say them with clarity and deliberateness, so
that we may all joyfully say that we’ve been there to help shepherd Mia through the gate of eternal
life, who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
know that our family dog of 12 years, Freddy, passed on a couple of months ago. His successor,
Nizhoni, has been with us for about a month now. Nizhoni means “beautiful” in Navajo, and she fits
the bill. She’s black with rust markings and has big, brown, soulful eyes.
She’s also a gangly, kind of goofy young German Shepherd who, on the ladder of intellect falls a few
rungs short of Einstein, and she stands as living proof that Shepherds sometimes need some pretty
serious shepherding themselves. If you’ve read the book or seen the movie “Marley and Me”, she’s
not quite that bad, but for a while looked interested in giving Marley some pretty serious competition.
One example of our concerns came when I quickly realized that I needed to attach a large, chain link
gate to our wrought iron gate into the back yard, since Nizhoni quickly learned how to squeeze
through the bars and go on “walkabout.” Now, I’m relatively certain that Nizhoni saw no particular
problem with this when she decided to exit the back yard. If German Shepherds thought in the
English language I imagine she might have been thinking something like, “Gee, what a big,
wonderful world. Lot of things to be sniffed out there—think I’ll go with the flow and let my nose do
the walking.”
The problem, of course, is that there’s also a lot of danger out there, not the least of which is
Albuquerque traffic. When we adopted her, she’d already been a stray, and was pretty skinny and
scraggly. She’d even apparently gone through a teenage pregnancy in her time on the streets.
The point is, as well-intentioned as she may have been, left to her own devices she was pretty
fortunate to have survived to her new life at the Tutons’ house. We are now shepherding the
Shepherd, and helping her to live the life that will hopefully make both her and others happier in the
long run.
Now I don’t want to carry the comparison between dogs and people too far, as the scriptures say we
humans are created in God’s image, and no such claim is made on behalf of dogs, cats, or the other
critters that our Creator blessed us with in this life. But there may be a lesson or two here to which
many of us might be able to relate on some level. Humans are often symbolically depicted in the
Bible as sheep. Not to puncture any pride we may be harboring about our exalted human status,
but if you’ve ever spent any time around sheep, you’ll know that this is not an unqualified
compliment. Left to their own devices, sheep aren’t known for their wise decision-making abilities,
for example.
We have the prophet Isaiah who once wrote, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has
turned to his own way.” And when preaching to the multitudes Jesus was observed to have deep
compassion on the people, as they were “like sheep without a shepherd.” These are fairly typical
examples of the way the word is used in the scriptures. In fact, I did a word search for “sheep”, and
there are almost 200 places it can be found in the Bible.
And there are 60 occurrences of the word “shepherd.” Perhaps the most famous of these is in the
23rd Psalm we heard a few minutes ago. It presents a kind and loving image of the Lord watching
over us, protecting us, and giving us peace. He makes us lie down in green pastures—places of
plenty. He leads us beside still waters—places of peace. He leads us in right pathways—pathways
of purity and health. And he protects us. The rod and staff are not to clobber us with, but to
protects us from those who would do us harm. This divine love and provision moves the psalmist to
say that his cup of blessing is running over. It’s full to the brim and overflowing in blessing for those
around him.
All of these things of course hold true for our Lord Jesus. I’ve said before that Jesus often used
symbols of nature in his teaching. In the Gospel reading from John we have Jesus identifying
himself as the Good Shepherd. He’s the one who knows his sheep, and whose sheep know his
voice. He says his sheep listen to his voice. And he identifies himself as the one who protects them,
that is, us, from predators, even to the point of laying down his life for the sheep.
But in the epistle reading, which also was written by St. John, the distinction between shepherd and
sheep becomes a little blurred. Because, as he did in his Gospel, John speaks here of Jesus laying
down his life for us, but then encourages us to do the same for each other. In fact, the Lord
appears to see us both as sheep and as shepherds, or at least sub-shepherds. We have the
responsibility to perpetuate the guidance and the protection he gives to us. We, too, are to make
sure that we bring others into the safety of the sheep fold and protect them, even with our very
lives. This all intersects with the reality that, pending his return in glory, we’re his body. Pending his
return to build the great city of God, we’re here to shape the building blocks with which he will build
it. And the main building blocks God uses are his beloved human creation.
So we’re charged with the responsibility to share in the guidance and protection of the sheep who
are the people of his pasture. This is what brings us to our immediate responsibilities, here, today.
In a few moments we’re going to be baptizing little Mia Finley. We’re going to participate in one of
the holiest and most important of our responsibilities as Christians—ensuring that Mia is given the
resources and the support to live a life of faith in Christ.
Some ask, “Well, is it faith or is it baptism that brings us into eternal life in Christ?” And of course
the answer is “Yes.” The scriptures identify both personal faith and baptism as essential
components of salvation and as the gateway to eternal life. Baptism without faith is incomplete, and
faith without baptism is incomplete. And the reason we can take joy in baptizing beautiful little ones
like Mia is that we are committing ourselves to ensure to the best of our ability that she’s brought up
with an active faith in Jesus.
I think it became especially popular in my own generation not to be overly directive of our children,
and instead letting them choose their own way and committing to respecting wherever it is they end
up. If we were blessed with an innate sense of impeccable wisdom I can’t think of a lovelier
parenting style than this. But the scriptures say that we all like sheep have gone astray. They say
that our own inclinations may not bring us to the wisest, healthiest, or safest path. Many of us have
stories that I’m guessing would corroborate this. I certainly do. Nizhoni sees no reason not to
squeeze through the gate and step out on her own. Fortunately, when she did just that, her
shepherds brought her back into the fold before she could come to harm.
Now, I’m confident that Mia Finley is going to be quite a few rungs closer to Einstein than Nizhoni is,
but she’ll still need guidance and protection. The job of Mia’s parents, godparents, sponsors, and
the people of this congregation, is to train her in the way she should go, as the writer of the
Proverbs says, so that “when she is old, she will not turn from it.” Jesus said, “I am the gate for the
sheep.” Not “a gate”, but “the gate.” Peter said in our Acts reading this morning, “There is salvation
in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be
saved.”
These words leave us with the sacred duty of being loving sub-shepherds, protecting Mia from
falsehood and from spiritual harm, receiving our own direction from the Good Shepherd, and by
word and deed, giving Mia the name by which all mortals under heaven must be saved. So as we
say our baptismal vows this morning, I encourage you to say them with clarity and deliberateness, so
that we may all joyfully say that we’ve been there to help shepherd Mia through the gate of eternal
life, who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Of Sheep and Shepherds
Fourth Sunday of Easter, 2009
Fourth Sunday of Easter, 2009
May 3, 2009
Fr. Dan Tuton
Fr. Dan Tuton
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