Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you from God the Father and our
Lord Jesus Christ,
I know that
we’re all familiar with leadership contests.
Politics, business, and sports are partly made up of rivalries for the
number one position. The Bible tells us
about a more important leadership contest in the spiritual realm between Jesus
and the devil. In this morning’s gospel,
our Savior is looking ahead to his death and his resurrection, which will mean
the permanent defeat of Satan. Even
though he’s involved in a battle with the forces of evil for the souls of
mankind, Jesus speaks in a calm and authoritative voice; he has no doubt who
the victor will be. He knows who offers
the only trustworthy leadership.
Jesus
describes his leadership for us.
Whenever he speaks, he says, his followers hear his voice and recognize
it. They don’t follow strangers. He brings salvation and plenty of pleasant
moments now for his people. He offers
life in abundance. Where a hireling
flees the people for whom he’s responsible in times of danger, Jesus stuck with
his flock. He lay down his own life and took it up again.
His victory
over Satan the hireling was assured from the very start. The devil is greedy; he reaches out beyond
his boundaries to claim all God’s creatures and even Christ himself, but the
Lord escaped his clutches not only for his own good but for the benefit of his
followers and then punishes the devil by depriving him of any claim over God’s
children. The devil may tempt, but we
have a refuge in Jesus. Satan may
accuse, but the ascended Lord intercedes for us so that the devil’s condemnation
has no influence on the heavenly Father.
The 23rd
Psalm helps us picture in our minds what Jesus victory over Satan means for
us. King David was poised and confident,
even more so was Jesus – confident that he would want for nothing, that he
would rest in pleasant places, confident that His Heavenly Father would quiet
for him the temporary turmoil of earthly life.
Jesus was confident that his soul would be protected and that he would
follow the paths that were best for him, the ways of right thinking and godly
conduct. Neither would Jesus fear death
nor any other evil, because His Father and the Spirit would guide and comfort
him. He rejoiced at the abundance of
life; he trusted that heaven’s goodness would accompany him, even into eternity.
The gifts of
God that Jesus and David affirmed also come to us. Peace, God’s care, the forgiveness of sins,
rescue from death and evil – these fruits of salvation bring us rest and
confidence and the hope to go on living.
Earthly problems such as the economy, the state of public morality, and
international politics have the capacity to vex us greatly. Christians are aware of these troubles and
work to overcome their influence on us, not with a spirit of anxiety but with
the joyful assurance that Jesus who died on the cross and rose again has
already won the victory over his enemy and ours.
We overcome
by taking hold of the fruits of Jesus’ victory with the faith heaven gives us –
such fruits as peace, the forgiveness of sins, and rescue from the devil with
the faith that heaven gives us. As we’ve
said a few times, the life of faith isn’t easy.
For one thing, when we’re away from the church a variety of earthly
leaders compete for our attention and we may be tempted to take them more
seriously than they deserve. Most folks
pass through times when confusion surrounds us and we crave a leader who
promises immediate relief. If we’re
starting out in life or even well along and needing to make adjustments, it’s
tempting to attach ourselves to well-established folks and model our thoughts
and behavior on their examples. We can
aspire to be as witty as our next-door neighbor or as vivacious as someone down
the street or as in command of things as a boss we once thought highly of. It can take us a long time to outgrow the
spirit of imitation and find our independence and the path that is right for us
in Christ. It’s common to admire the
rich and talented and beautiful; it’s also natural to pattern our aspirations
after them. Some lost souls change their
appearance and their personalities to copy prominent people like the man I saw
at the Eaton Centre dressed up to look like Elvis Presley. An extreme case that doesn’t apply to anyone
here. Even so, the world holds out many temptations, and our hearts may wander. We need reminds of what our Heavenly Father
expects of us and also that he is forgiving and patient. As we stick to his
Word, he draws us back to the leader he sent us, his Son who will never desert
us.
The world
challenges our faith in another way.
Most of us try to keep as busy as we can – going to work or shopping,
taking part in community events, spending time with family and friends. If we are with people who don’t welcome Jesus
as their leader, we may temporarily forget that we are God’s children. We may even meet people who are bitter toward
the church because of an incident from years ago that still has power or
through a misunderstanding on their part.
They may try to influence us and we may find their arguments a
burden. We trust, however, that the
good shepherd will stand by us, nourish us, keep us safe in his flock, and give
us the will to withstand secular influences and offer our testimony to
him. As we grow in strength,
experience, and wisdom, we learn that the Lord will help us find wise, faithful
leaders even in a culture ruled by money, possessions, and hunger for the new
and glittery. At the same time, he will
make us leaders on his behalf in the part of the world that’s close to us.
Still
another challenge is the one that hirelings of our own day present, church
leaders who stray outside the bounds of their callings. Not too long ago, we heard about leaders in
other Christian communities who abused young people or mistreated natives or
who stole church money. The bad behavior
of hirelings in the church slows down the spread of the gospel and harms people
in their care. The Lord takes the sinful
conduct of hirelings seriously, as these words from Jeremiah affirm: “‘Woe to
the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture,’ says the
Lord. ‘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
doings,’ says the Lord.” The Lord
punishes shepherds who shirk the responsibilities he has given them.
He knows the
situation in the church better than we do and provides a remedy for the
failings of earthly leaders. He says,
also in Jeremiah: “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 the fold, and
they shall be fruitful and multiply. I
will set shepherds over them who care for them, and they shall fear no more,
nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, says the Lord.”
As a result,
the church is never corrupt to the core.
Leaders and people in our day have taken strong steps to discipline
wrongdoers and correct abuses. Moreover,
there are always many dedicated, faithful shepherds, and the Lutheran church
has its share of them. I once heard a president
of our district say that there was no scandal in the Lutheran Church-Canada, a
condition for which we give thanks to the Lord in hopes he will keep us on the
right track.
Good things
happen when the church and her people focus on Christ, her good shepherd, who
promises that none of his beloved sheep will be missing from his flock. Jesus
calls you and me and all believers out of what a Christian centuries ago called
a mass of perdition to live in faith with him in his flock, to live abundantly,
to enjoy the good things of life, to grow wise under his guidance, to accept
the forgiveness of sins, and to rejoice that we fear no evil, even the evil of
death.
So – to
conclude – leadership is a big question in every phase of our lives. Good leaders are a blessing, bad ones weigh
on us like a stone around our necks.
Jesus our good shepherd shows us the kind of leadership our souls need
and that he promises to provide. We find
in him a loving care for us that even the best of earthly leaders cannot aspire
to. We thank him for revealing to us his
perfect love and never-ending concern and giving us the hope that one day we
will live with him face to face, far away from our own sins, the imperfections
of human life, and the failings of human leaders. We rejoice that he leads us now. We ask him to keep us in his flock and use us
to lead others to knowledge of his loving goodness. In his name we give thanks. AMEN.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your
hearts and minds in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. AMEN.
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