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Sermon for 9th Sunday after Pentecost

First Reading: Jeremiah 23:1-6

 1“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. 2Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord. 3Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the Lord. 5“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’”

 

Psalm 23

 1The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. 2He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. 3He revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for his name’s sake. 4Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; you have anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over. 6Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

 

Second Reading: Ephesians 2:11-22

 11Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands — 12remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

 

Gospel: Mark 6:30-44

 30The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. 31And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves. 33Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. 35And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late. 36Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” 37But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” 38And he said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they had found out, they said, “Five, and two fish.” 39Then he commanded them all to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40So they sat down in groups, by hundreds and by fifties. 41And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before the people. And he divided the two fish among them all. 42And they all ate and were satisfied. 43And they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.

 

Woe to the Shepherds who will not Shepherd

It’s hard to hear the readings for this 9th Sunday after Pentecost without hearing the overtones of leadership.  In our Psalm, we listen as David announces who leads and guides him.  In St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Paul identifies Jesus as the Cornerstone of the church, the One who came to reconcile us to the Father; the One who leads us in all righteousness.  In our gospel reading we hear St. Mark’s account of the disciples coming back and reporting to Jesus all they had seen and done, and of how Jesus directs them to go away and find a place for rest.  And finally, in our Old Testament text, we hear as the prophet Jeremiah scolds the leaders of the people, for their lack of leadership.  But to better understand why God, through Jeremiah, is critiquing the leadership, we need to go back a couple of chapters.

Turning back in chapter 21, we read the background material for why God is pronouncing judgement on His people.   Beginning with verse 11 we read of God’s call for justice and announces the sentance.  Then, beginning in the next chapter, God calls for repentance and threatens judgment.  Then God names names, He next pronounces judgement on Shallum or king Jehoahaz.  God next pronounces judgment on Eliakim or king Jehoiakim and then moves to Coniah or king Jehoiachin.  Now to add some clarity, a review would be helpful.  The last five kings of Judah prior to the fall of Jerusalem (in 586 B.C.) were Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah.

Josiah, who ascended the throng at the age of 8, was the last good king of the Southern Kingdom prior to the Babylonian Exile.  He’s best known for instituting religious reforms after a scroll containing part, or all, of the Torah was discovered and brought to him.  Responding to what he found in that scroll, Josiah tore down the “high places”, or the places of pagan worship—and led his people to worship the One true God. Unfortunately, he led his army against the Pharaoh of Egypt, who was allied with the Assyrians against the Babylonians, and was killed in a battle at Meggido.  Jehoahaz, also known as Shallum, was Josiah’s fourth son, and succeeded Josiah as king.

He ruled only three months before being deposed by the Egyptians, who installed Jehoiakim on the throne; he died in exile in Egypt.  Jehoiakim, also known as Eliakim, Josiah’s second son, was installed on the throne by the Pharoah, but became a Babylonian vassal when Babylonia defeated Egypt.  Jehoiakim rebelled against Babylon in an attempt to re-establish an alliance with Egypt, but succeeded only in provoking a siege by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 598 B.C.  Next came Jehoiachin.

Jehoiachin, also known as Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, reigned only three months before Nebuchadnezzar exiled him to Babylon.  Zedekiah, also known as Mattaniah, was chosen by Nebuchadnezzar to succeed Jehoiachin and reigned eleven years.  According 2 Kings, “He did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done” (24:19).  He rebelled against Babylon, hoping to re-establish an alliance with Egypt, but succeeded only in provoking the final siege by Babylonia in 586 B.C.

This siege resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, the deaths of many of Jerusalem’s inhabitants, and the exile of most of the rest of the populace.  Three of these five kings are mentioned by name in Jeremiah chapter 22.  These are the “shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of (Yahweh’s) pasture” (23:1).  The odd thing is that Zedekiah is not mentioned, because he was the last in this succession of bad kings.  This brings us to our reading for this Sunday.

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says God.  Therefore, thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings, says the Lord.”  One very important point I want to make here is that, all of us, not just political and spiritual leaders, all of us, must hear this pronouncement in our own situation.

Each of us must listen to God’s announcement, because each of us have some form of influence on someone else.  Our words and actions affect others in either a godly or ungodly way.  This is why we take the time each Sunday to confess our sins, known and unknown: things we have done and have left undone.  In other words, because we’re all leaders in one way or another, we all need to hear the words of God through our prophet.  This brings up a second point that we, in this country today, are not good at, or we outwardly avoid, accepting responsibility and accountability.  People today shun accepting responsibility and refuse to be held accountable.

In our self-centeredness, we want to shift the blame to someone or something else.  We openly demonize others, yet we fail to accept responsibility for the harm that it causes.  Throughout the day and even into the early hours of the morning, our TV talk shows, some who bill themselves as news programs, are filled with acrid words.  They openly talk of their hatred for this person, or that group of people, and suggest various ways for their listeners to react to the information they provide.  And when uprisings happen and people get hurt, they deflect the blame to others, never accepting responsibility for the actions they encouraged.  We must hold people accountable, and people must return to accepting responsibility for their words and actions.  St. Paul was clear, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).  We can see evidence of this in God’s warning through Jeremiah.

This warning to all who have influence on others comes into sharper focus when we consider that shepherding in Biblical times was a lowly occupation, involving long hours, hard and dangerous work, and modest pay.  However, people respected the attentiveness shown by good shepherds to their sheep.  Consider if you will that for the most part sheep are not the smartest of animals.  Absent good leadership, they’re inclined to wander off and get into trouble.  They’re defenseless against all predatory animals.  They need a shepherd to lead them to water and pasture—and to guard them against a host of dangers.

Because of the care that shepherds took with their sheep, shepherds became a metaphor for leaders, such as kings, priests, and prophets—although references to kings as shepherds are often negative (Ezekiel 34).  In the New Testament, Jesus changes this since He is seen as the Good Shepherd (John 10).  Here in Jeremiah, God is speaking to those with influence in the Southern kingdom.  Here God pronounces a woe on the shepherds, the kings, unfaithful prophets, priests and other leaders, who are accused of “scattering the sheep of my pasture.”  The sheep in this instance are the people of Israel.

“Therefore, thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away” (v. 2a).  Note the personal tone here.  God says the people are “my people” and “my flock.”  In verse 1, it was “my pasture.”  Scattering sheep isn’t something that shepherds do, because shepherds can’t defend a flock of sheep once it becomes scattered.  Predators will scatter sheep to remove them from the shepherd’s protection.  After the sheep are scattered, a predator preys on the sheep on the fringes—those far from the protection of the shepherd.

For a shepherd to purposely scatter the sheep is a malicious act, something akin to a police officer taking advantage of a person in custody. or of illegal opportunities at a crime scene, or a judge taking a bribe—an act of sheer treachery—a betrayal of the shepherd’s calling.  In this case, the Lord is talking about the kings of Judah, who are supposed to be shepherds, but who have led the Lord’s people from one disaster to another.

God continues His message with, “and [you] have not visited them; behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings, says the Lord” (v. 2b), again this is a reminder that those in positions of leadership or influence will be held accountable.  What’s interesting in this passage is that God uses the word visited, or pa·qad, both in a negative and a positive way.  The kings and other leaders have not pa·qad or attended to, not taken care of the Lord’s people, so the Lord will pa·qad or attend to—or punish the leaders.  Again, since all of us have some degree of influence over others, we need to listen to this second part of this verse.  God will attend to those who mislead, scatter, or do something that would cause harm to another.  Thankfully, in the second part of this verse, God also has good news here for those who have been abandoned and scattered.  God assures the people that He “will gather the remnant of my flock”, a reminder that no matter the circumstance, God is still ultimately in control.

“I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and multiply.  I will set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, says Yahweh.”  God reassures His people that He will perform the shepherd’s job of gathering the sheep together—of bringing them back to the fold where they will be safe.  Here the Lord gives His ancient people a glimpse of the return from exile, and gives us a reminder, that in the last day, Jesus will return to gather His faithful to Himself.

The word “remnant” used here is important in both Old and New Testaments.  The concept (if not the word itself) was introduced with Noah and the flood.  In that story, God destroyed the evil populace, but saved the righteous, Noah and his family (Genesis 6-9).  In that instance, Noah and his family constituted the remnant—the righteous nucleus preserved by God to reestablish the people of God.  The idea behind the remnant is that God will be faithful even when His people are not.  The people’s apostasy will not nullify God’s promise.  God has, and does, at times, impose a harsh punishment, but only for the purpose of purifying, not for destroying.  A righteous remnant will always survive.

The surprise and warning in this passage is that the Lord acknowledges driving out the flock.  In verse 2, the Lord criticized the kings for driving the flock away.  But this is not a contradiction.  The kings, unfaithful prophets and priests, and other leaders, led the people into sin.  The Lord drove the people into exile as a cleansing process—to purge them of their sinful ways.  Again, the word of hope, for those in exile, is that the Lord is promising to bring the people back to the Promised Land.  This word of hope is for us as well.  Jesus will one day return to bring His faithful into the new promised Jerusalem.

But more than just a return, they would be brought back, and they “shall be fruitful and multiply.”  This language harkens us back to creation (Genesis 1:28), a reminder that the Lord’s intention from the beginning is that His people would be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 17:1-8; 48:4).  And God furthers these words of hope by saying, “I will set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them” (v. 4a).  God promises to not only to regather His sheep, but will also raise up shepherds to care for them.  “And they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking, says the Lord” (v. 4b).  The result of the Lord’s care will be that His people will no longer need to fear or be dismayed.  God then reveals His plan in the closing two verses, “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name by which He shall be called: Yahweh our righteousness.”

This is a promise that the Lord will provide new leadership for His people—a righteous Branch—a spiritually and morally upright leader.  Only a person who has been hungry can really appreciate what it means to have food.  So also it takes a person who has suffered under corrupt leadership to really appreciate good leadership—morally upright leadership—a leader who will be as attentive to the needs of the poor and of the rich—a leader as concerned for the people as for his own personal welfare.

In these two verses God speaks of Justice or mis·pat and righteousness, seda·qah and these two words are related.  Justice involves bringing people into a right relationship with God and each other, and these right relationships produce righteous lives.  God’s law provides very specific guidance with regard to just behavior.  It requires witnesses to be honest and impartial (Exodus 23:1-3, 6-8).  It requires special consideration for widows, orphans, and other vulnerable people (Deuteronomy 24:17).  And while Israel is always tempted to define its service to God by the performance of religious duties (ritual sacrifice, Sabbath observance, etc.), the prophets kept reminding them that justice is a basic duty of the faith community (Micah 6:8).

When we examine the history of Judah after the exile in Babylon, it’s difficult to identify who might have been ‘for David a righteous Branch.’  However, we in the church, confess that in the fullness of time, God did raise up a righteous Branch, Jesus of Nazareth.  Again, God is pointing us to the future, “In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely.”  Note the references to both Judah (the southern kingdom) and Israel (the northern kingdom).  The northern kingdom ceased to exist with the Assyrian Exile.  The southern kingdom ceased to exist with the Babylonian Exile.  The mention of Judah and Israel in this verse doesn’t suggest the restoration of dual kingdoms.  Instead, it promises salvation to all of God’s chosen people.  This salvation won’t be just spiritual—a heavenly salvation—but also involves the care and tending of God’s sheep in the here and now.

Again, God is revealing the future Righteous King, “and this is his name by which he shall be called: Yahweh our righteousness.”  This name, “Yahweh our righteousness,” is a wordplay on the name, Zedekiah, which means “Yahweh is righteousness.”  However, Zedekiah was anything but righteous.  The point of this wordplay is that the Lord is supplanting the unrighteous Zedekiah, who failed to live up to his name, with a King who is truly righteous.  One who will forever tend and lead His people in justice and righteousness.  In our Old Testament reading for today, we have both God’s warning and His promise.  And each of us, because we do influence others, must take responsibility and accept accountability of our actions.  As St. Paul warns us, we will all be held accountable for what we’ve done, or not done, to others.  We must accept responsibility for our words and actions.  And for those who have been affected by unfaithful leadership, God also shows us His plan for our future and has revealed the One who is the answer to His promise, Jesus.

Jesus came to show us the Father and to set the example of what a faithful shepherd is.  Our model is that “righteous branch” whom God did raise up: Jesus, who enfleshed the ideal of God’s shepherding of His people.  Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the true Shepherd-King, is our model.  He has also set before us the call to be His shepherds until He returns.  It’s a call that we must take responsibility for and must understand that we too will be held accountable.  And the promise of God is sure, if we remain faithful, when Jesus returns, He will gather us, along with all His faithful, into His fold for all eternity.

Amen

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