“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. ¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.¹⁶I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” John 10:11-18]

“Amid Jesus’ discourse on being “the good shepherd,” what jumped out to me this time was Jesus’ simply but bold assertion that, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” Have you ever noticed that before? Or, more than notice it, have you ever given much thought to its theological and homiletical implications?

What strikes me is that, quite simply, Jesus isn’t done yet. Despite his healings, despite his preaching, despite all that he had already done and planned to do, Jesus isn’t done yet. He still has more sheep to reach, sheep that are not in this fold. By extension, I’d suggest that God isn’t done yet, either. And this matters for at least three reasons.

First, God continues to call people from all walks of life, from every nation on the face of the earth, and from each and every generation across the nearly two thousand years since Jesus first uttered those words until today. If that were not true, you and I would not have come to faith and we certainly would not be giving our lives to the task and joy of proclaiming the Gospel.

Second, God is at work in our midst and through us and our congregations to extend the invitation to abundant life offered by the Good Shepherd. We probably know that, but do our people? Do they imagine, that is, that God is using their lives and words to invite others to faith? Can they imagine that simply by praying for someone or inviting someone to church they might be the vessel by which God continues to reach out and embrace God’s beloved sheep from beyond this fold? Perhaps kindling their imagination might prepare them to be equipped to do just that.

Third, the members who will one day constitute Jesus’ flock are beyond our imagining. There is a tremendous expansiveness to Jesus’ statement here, and we do not know – for neither Jesus nor John tells us – just what are the limits of the fold Jesus describes. All we know is that Jesus – and therefore God – isn’t done yet. Jesus is still calling, God is still searching, and in time we will all be, as Jesus says, one flock under one shepherd.”

(David Lose, God Is Not Done Yet, April 20, 2015, in the Meantime…. Website)

I was listening to a story the other day on the radio.  It was a story about colors – and the origin of words for colors in different languages.  Did you know, for most languages, the first words for colors is always black and white, followed by red, yellow, green, and finally blue.  Red is always first, after black and white, and blue is always last.  Some current languages, in fact, do not have a word for the color blue.  Did you also know that the color blue is not found in the bible?  Blue is a color that rarely occurs in nature.  We have blue flowers etc. but they have been created through genetics.   The colors red, green and yellow are all over the place in nature – so there are words developed for these colors first.  Now, the one thing that is interesting about this fact about the color blue is this, doesn’t the biggest thing that exists on the earth come in the color blue – that biggest thing being the sky?  Wouldn’t you think blue would be one of the first colors that is given a word in a language?  Apparently not….

Those who worry a lot about words are people who like to read ancient writers like Homer – the author of such works as “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”.  Homer, you see, seemed to have a problem with colors; he called the ocean “dark wine” colored – which he also called cows, or some animals.   It presented some questions about Ancient Greek color vision which led to ideas inquiring into the ability of the Ancient Greek eye to perceive color at all. It is possible, in light of evolutionary theory, that the retina of the Ancient Greek was not evolved to the point of full color perception. But besides this evolutionary question there is the question of consciousness, the question of perception. This color vision problem could have been caused by a lack of visual perception that would lead to the lack of a word for something that eluded their ability to see it.

Of course, this leads to another question: “do you really see something if you don’t have a word for it?”

I think it is easy for anyone to become “People Blind” – not because we do not see needs, but because we become so consumed with our own needs.  One way we can see what I am talking about is to tell you the story of the “six footed sheep”.  Did you know that sheep can only see SIX feet in front of their face?  That means SHEEP…get lost six feet at a time – because they cannot see beyond six feet.  Why is this important?  Because I think we, like sheep, get so caught up in what is happening within our 6x6x6x6 personal space that we do not perceive others – especially others who are in need of our help. 

For example, Sheep graze in a grass here.  Then they see something a little greener—SIX feet…over here.  Then they see more green grass six feet over here.  Then they see BETTER grass—six feet by six feet by six feet……they get so caught up in what is happening right in their own little space that they lose track of the pack – their sheep community. In other words, WE get lost…a little bit at a time – because our perception becomes short-sided.  We aren’t necessarily blind, we are near-sighted and do not see beyond our own needs.

A sheep does not wake up some morning and say “I think I’ll try some green pastures over in Camp Hill today, or down at the beach”— they can’t see that far!  A sheep GOES ASTRAY six feet at a time.  WE get lost a little bit at a time — and we lose sight of our community SIX FEET at a time.

So, we are SIX FOOTED sheep   Sometimes we get lost in our schedule – it becomes our life — SIX FEET at a time.  Sometimes, it’s listening a little too much to Oprah, or Dr. Oz, or the Long Island Madam; or surfing the internet for FaceBook posts, thinking “This is a good way to spend my time” – we lose our perception SIX FEET at a time.  SOMETIMES, it’s listening to a little GOSSIP.  Over the grocery counter gossip.  Email gossip.  Parking lot after-the-meeting gossip—SIX FEET, SIX FEET, SIX FEET — we get lost six feet at a time.  Sometimes, it’s NO Bible, NO prayer—SIX FEET lost again.    Sometimes, we move SIX FEET toward those who we like.  We’ll go six feet to be with those who we think are like us.  Other times, we’ll go a quick six feet  to get away from those we don’t like.

We get lost like sheep—a little bit at a time — because we lose our Christian perspective — we lose our daily perspective on what we should be doing, because, we like a sheep can see only six feet in front or all around us.  And, what Jesus knows about us is also true about sheep—the sheep has NO ability whatsoever…to find its way back.  It can’t see that far.  And so the Bible asserts unambiguously: Because WE, as sheep, can’t find our way back to the shepherd—–the Good Shepherd—Jesus—comes looking for YOU.  The Bible is packed with sheep/shepherd imagery.  And they all make the same point:  The shepherd looks and looks and looks and looks……until the Shepherd finds YOU! (thanks to Robin Green and his blog on LinkedIn titled Six Feet — Lessons From Shepherds, October 19, 2015, from which the six footed sheep analogy comes from).

Pastor Dave