Listening Skills
This elderly woman who, in her mid 80’s had been given the gift of good health all her life. She was at the doctor’s office for her annual check-up and, even though the results from all of her tests came back pretty good, she told the doc of how she had just been feeling a lot of achiness in her joints and less energy. The doctor smiled and said, “Well, you know you have to expect things to start deteriorating eventually. I mean, who wants to live to 100 anyway?” This woman looked him straight in the eye and said, ANYONE’S WHO’S 99! THAT’S WHO!
This minister was walking into the church one afternoon from the parking lot and a couple of 12-year-old boys on skateboards who belonged to his church were playing nearby. “Hey guys,” the pastor said. “”Hey, you boys wanna go to heaven, right?” The first kid said, “Sure, of course.” But the other one looked down and shrugged and said, “I don’t think so.” WHAT? the pastor said. JASON, YOU DON’T WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN SOME DAY? “Jason looked up and grinned, “OH, SOMEDAY…SURE! I THOUGHT YOU WERE GETTING UP A GROUP TO GO TODAY.
Is that your perspective on heaven? I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES AND THERE’S A PLACE IN HEAVEN JUST FOR ME….BUT DON’T RUSH ME? That’s ok, you know. God didn’t put us on this earth simply to kill time until it’s our turn to die. I can prove it. The human animal is happiest when we feel like we are being productive. And we are our most miserable when we feel like we are just taking up space on the planet. You won’t read that truism in too many of those glossy retirement community brochures.
One of my very best friends in the world is a pastor up in Eagle River, WI and this Spring he contracted a fairly rare illness, but one that is appearing more frequently in the upper Midwest. It’s called Blasto. You apparently get it from the soil, and it is fatal for 1 in 5 people, mostly because it is misdiagnosed as pneumonia until it’s too late. When he was in the hospital with this, several folks dropped in to see him and one woman reminded him that the good news was, if he didn’t survive, he got to go to heaven right now! And Bill was like, “thank you”? Her logic was indisputable, to be sure. But pastors have families and loved ones and future plans like everyone else. So of course the reaction is, DON’T RUSH ME!
St. Paul wrote two wonderful letters to the Church in Thessalonica that he had organized. These missives are found in the New Testament and are titled, “The Letters to the Thessalonians.” In the first letter, Paul is excitedly reminding these folks, “Try not to be discouraged. You have the promise of eternity. Jesus is going to come back and when He returns this old, discouraging and often disappointing world will pass away and there will be no more weeping and crying and dying. Well, that was just what these faithful folks needed to hear. Here they were beating their brains out to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads and provide for their children’s future. No more! They listened, and what they heard was, “Let’s give away all our possessions, quit our jobs and all gather on the mountain and wait for Jesus to come back and make everything new and right.”
Guess what the 2nd letter of Paul to the Thessalonians was about? “Get off your rear ends and get back to work!” In chapter 3 Paul told them, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all those earthly needs will be provided in one way or another.” But nowhere in this heavenly equation is there a place for laziness, or giving up or not utilizing your gifts for the common good.
This Good Shepherd Sunday and all these beautiful words and promises about our great good shepherd watching over us and caring for us and leading us through green pastures and especially through dark valleys, is all about each of us living our own mission NOW, until such time as heaven is ready to receive us. When someone loses a dear spouse to death after weeks and months and sometimes years of providing care for them in their sickness, I always explain to them sometime after the funeral that they not only lost their spouse, they also lost their mission. Your partner became your mission and now you must find a new mission. It will take time. God will provide it to you. But you will need to be open to accepting it. Parents have a similar crisis when they first experience the empty nest, especially moms. The best initial therapy is a productive busyness.
Look at the picture Jesus gives us here in John 10: This wonderful vivid portrait of a shepherd caring for his sheep. More than any other duty the goal of the shepherd is to protect the sheep. That’s how you can tell a good shepherd from a bad shepherd. Does the Shepherd; does the leader have the best interest of his people at heart? You know by looking at the sheep.
Once upon a time, the U.S. government had a huge scrap yard in the middle of a desert. It was decided they needed someone to guard the scrap yard at night. So they created a new position and hired a night watchman. But then they realized the night watchman needed training. So they hired two people – one to write instructions and one to do time studies. Then Congress asked, “How will we know the job is being done correctly?” So they created a quality control dept. and hired 2 people – 1 to do the studies and 1 to write reports. “How will all these people get paid?” they asked. So they created 2 more positions – a time keeper and payroll officer. “We need someone to be accountable for all these people” pointed out an astute congressman. So an administrative section was created: an administrative officer and an assistant admin.
Then Congress said, “We have had this operation for one year and we are $918k over budget. We must cut back.” So they laid off the night watchman.
Now, this isn’t a political statement. For good reason, political statements have no place in the pulpit. It is a Scriptural statement. Jesus promises: I AM THE GATE FOR THE SHEEP. Everyone who came before me were thieves and robbers. The hired hand is not the shepherd. The hired hand looks out for himself. Isn’t that the truth? You don’t have to be a libertarian to have figured out that the only righteous purpose of our government is to protect us from each other and protect our human rights and provide some avenue of health care for all. Or at least they can and should try to do these things. But they are not the shepherd either.
No one has your best interests – your eternal interests – at heart except Jesus Christ. He created us to achieve and be productive, he created us to cooperate with each other for the greater good, and he created us to care about each other. Jesus himself reminds us, there’s a lot of bad advice out there. A lot of hired hands posing as shepherds who ultimately, when the wolf comes, will choose to serve themselves, even in the Church. But our Lord knows His sheep and His sheep listen to His voice. That, we can do, right? Listen? I HAVE COME THAT YOU MAY HAVE LIFE, AND HAVE IT TO THE FULL. Did you hear that? That’s your good shepherd talking. AMEN
