The Good Shepherd

“I am the good Shepherd: the god shepherd gives his life for the sheep.”

place the eternal truth of the love of God before your children and they will grow as God intends.

As parents and grand parents, as aunts and uncles, and as Sunday School teacher's and adult role models living in a culture that promotes self-indulgence and exploitation of others we have a huge task at hand. The next generation of adult Christian leaders is among us. They are here, perhaps one day a week for perhaps one hour. The rest of the week they are inculcated, inundated, and indoctrinated. They get conflicting messages from school, internet and television and I would count on very little of it jiving with the eternal truth of the love of God in Jesus Christ. So we may only get an hour. We ought to make to most of it.

I remember the churches I attended as a child. I went to Mt. Pleasant 1^st United Methodist and Weidman United Methodist on a semi/less than regular basis. I remember having to be good; having to sit still and be quiet. I remember trying to figure out why we only read the first line of each paragraph on the song book then the second line in each paragraph when I was taught something completely different in school. I remember the pastor in his robe standing in front saying something like. “Blah, blah, blah...” Then at the end of church when we were free to leave the crowd was so big and so slow to move it was hard to get out of the building with any speed.

This was my perception of worship as a child. Certainly not what I hope for my children or any child that comes to St. Paul UMC. But this may be similar to what some are experiencing even today. Our mission here at St. Paul is to know Christ and to make him known. An that is exactly what needs to happen for the next generation of Christians to grow into the people that God intends them to be. Know Christ: brothers and sisters focus on your knowledge of the Savior; focus on your relationship with God; focus on your obedience to Christ commands to Love God and neighbor, and to proclaiming that the Kingdom of God has come near and that we are to turn to God and thus receive forgiveness for our failures. That's knowing Christ and making him known whether you are 8 or eighty.

Alright this next part is for the older folk out there. Youth you can tune out if you want. Anyone over 18 years old, here's the deal. We will always have someone that will stand here and proclaim the Good News about Jesus Christ. We will always have a place to come and love each other and have fellowship with each other. The Church that Jesus Christ established will know no end, that's a promise. We will always have potlucks, and Christmas parties. We will always have Easter breakfast and Sunrise service. The thing is we only have these youth and children here an hour a week sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. We ought to do our best to make the most of it. I want to invite you to think about your child or any child's experience here. What is inviting about this place from there perspective. What is intriguing? What about this place will hold a child's attention and what will communicate the eternal truth of God's love through Jesus Christ. We have to ask ourselves are we doing all we can to shape disciples for Jesus Christ or are we doing what is comfortable for us?

We celebrate when our toddlers learn to walk and we rejoice when they learn new words and can talk. But then it seems we spend the rest of our time telling them to sit down and be quiet. The youth and the children of the church are not the future of the church they are the church. They are our much younger brothers and sisters in the faith. They are here often times only because they have an adult in their lives that has come to know Christ and they want to make him known. We have just a small widow of opportunity to demonstrate the extravagant love of God to these young disciples so that they can come to a desire to know the love of God for themselves.

Alright this next part is for the youth. You older folk, you an tune out if now if you want to. Youth, this is your church. God has made you and has equipped you with talents and spiritual gifts. These talents and spiritual gifts are not solely for your benefit they are for you to honor and love God as well as to build up and help your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. Your understanding of God may have started with your parents or grandparents. It will always be formed by the experience of others because our knowledge of Christ comes from our collective experience of him. However your own experience of God through Jesus Christ is just as important to the life of this church as anyone's. Your church needs you. It is only by the sharing the talents and gifts that God has given you that we are made whole. Some may tell you of other priorities. Some may tell you to to put your self first, or the environment, or the government, or our country or some union or political party. But as a beloved Child of God you know the highest priority is loving God and demonstrating that love by loving your neighbor. Youth, you can change the world. You can be an example of God's love and change even those who you think know more than you about God.

In the Gospel lesson today Jesus refers to himself as the Good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life down for his sheep. This is almost a foreign idea to us. When this was written it was literally true. The shepherd in the ancient world had the responsibility of protecting the flock of sheep. He couldn't just say that one of the sheep was lost to a predator, he actually had to bring in the mangled carcass of the animal to prove what had happened. When David was trying to convince Saul that he could fight Goliath he cited his experience in fighting off Lions and Bears in protecting the flock of sheep he had charge of.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. We are his flock. When he saw that we had gone astray and we were threatened by predators on all sides he came and guided us to safety. He gave up his own life so that we would would be safe forever. He laid down his life for his flock. And now we have been given charge of the flock. We still have eternal security in his name because of his sacrifice. But there are still predators. There are still dangers and we as a gathering of God's people have to care for each other so that we don't get bumped around as much.

Brothers and sisters we need to focus on making disciple for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world starting with the disciple within our own walls. We may feel uncomfortable with change sometimes but we only have an hour a week to make a difference for our best voices outside these walls, the youth and children of this congregation. We need to get the nursery upstairs. We need to hear the sounds of children in the midst of worship. We need to honor their place in our life of faith. We need to use this building as a safe place for children to come after school if they don't have another place. This place needs to be where they experience the unconditional and boundless love of God through Jesus Christ.

So how is it with you today? How can you make this place a better place for the Young Disciples?