Youth Dialogue Sermon on Good Shepherd Sunday

4 Easter b  April 29, 2012

Acts 4:5-12  Psalm 23

1 John 3:1-8     John 10:11-16

 

Katie: Why are ministers called pastors?

 

Conner:  Pastor is a word that comes from the Latin and it means shepherd.  So Pastors are called shepherds of their flocks.

 

James: Does that mean that I get to be a sheep?   Baa…thanks a lot.  I have nothing against Father Phil as my priest and pastor, but really is the difference between him and me the same as the difference between a shepherd and a sheep?  We’re talking about two different species of life.

 

Katie: There is a big problem when we take metaphors or allegories too literally.  There must be some other message in the story of Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  But what is the hidden message that we need to reveal in our sermon about this Gospel?

 

Conner: Well, you have heard the expression, “You are what you eat!”

 

James:  I guess that means you should be looking like a pizza by now.  What do you mean?

 

Conner:  Well, when we read the Gospel, we can say, “We are what we read!”  So how can you and I be this Gospel for today?

 

Katie:  Has your cheese slipped off your cracker?  How can you and I be this Gospel?

 

Conner: Well, the Gospel is essentially you and me and anyone who reads it.  We resemble at various times in our lives the various roles of the Gospel.

 

James: I can see at least three roles, a good shepherd, some sheep and a hired-hand.  I’ve never been a shepherd, I’ve never been a sheep and I’d appreciate you not calling me that, thank you very much.  And I’m not a hired hand to take care of sheep.  How do I relate to any of these Gospel characters?

 

 

 

Conner:  My friend, you are being way to literal.  No one is literally a shepherd, a sheep or a hired-hand.  Even Jesus was not a shepherd.  He actually grew up in the family of a carpenter.  This is an allegory and so we have to look at what each role stands for?  What do you think that sheep represent?  How could you and I be like sheep?

 

Katie:  I guess anyone who has to be taken care of or tended to would be like a sheep.  And that could be anyone.  Some time or any time a person may be a person in need of care.  It is obvious that babies and children are some times like sheep because they need to be taken care of.  And even though I feel like an adult, my parents suggest to me that that I won’t really be an adult until I am financially independent.  So I guess this is what I have to say to my parents for now: bah bah bah. And thank you for my allowance!

 

James: But adults can also be in very needy roles too.  When your car breaks down on the freeway, you are helpless and have to call triple A and then get a mechanic to fix your car. 

 

Conner: And when we are sick or when we need surgery, we are like dependent sheep, because we have to depend upon others who have more skill than we have in medicine.

 

Katie:  So do you see how we are this Gospel that we have read?  We are all sheep at some times in our lives because all of us at some time need the skill, the wealth, the knowledge, the help and wisdom of other people.

 

Conner:  The best thing that can happen to us when we are in need is to be able to have help.  But isn’t that the big trouble in our world?

 

James:  What trouble are you talking about?

 

Conner:  The trouble is that there are more sheep in the world than we have shepherds who can take care of them.  There are too many refugees, orphans in need in our world.  There may be shepherds but we do not know how to get help to all of the people in need.

 

Katie:  I guess that is why we have this Gospel because another role in our Gospel is the role of the Good Shepherd.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd and he asks all of us to learn how to be good shepherds in this life.  So how can we be good shepherds?

 

 

 

James:  I guess if we have wealth and ability to help someone in need, we become good shepherds by helping others in need.  There are so many people in need and sometimes we live our lives so isolated from people in need that we don’t see their needs. 

 

Conner:  Sometimes the need seems so great that it is easy to give up on trying to solve the big problems in our world like starvation, sickness, clean drinking water, literacy, freedom and justice.

 

 

Katie:  Well we don’t have to save the entire world all at once.  There is not such a super person who can do this.  We need to learn how to be good shepherds in our small corner of the world.  We need to help those who are around us and we can still help people in other parts of the world through our gifts and support to different relief agencies.

 

James: Jesus is the model good shepherd and he shows that it is better to give than to receive.

 

Conner: What about the third character in the Gospel lesson, the hired hand?  Why is the hired hand criticized?

 

Katie:  The hired hand is only working for money.  He doesn’t really care about the sheep.  They don’t belong to him so he does not care if a fox or wolf comes and steals the sheep.  He is not going to sacrifice himself to protect a sheep.  He only wants to get his pay and go home.

 

James:  I think that this Gospel lesson is about stewardship.  This means how we take care of what has been given to us.  God has given us a great responsibility to take care of everything in this world.  And the best way to do this is as a good shepherd.

 

Conner: In some way all of the three roles are about our relationship to power.  A sheep would be like a person who experiences great need and so does not have power to save him self.  So a sheep is like a person without power.

 

Katie:  The good shepherd is a model for a person who has power, wealth and knowledge.  How does a person use power, wealth and knowledge?  Jesus as the good shepherd calls all of us to use our power, wealth and knowledge to help others in need.  We should do so since when we are in need we too need good shepherds to help us.

 

James:  The hired hand is the person to has power but uses power, wealth and knowledge to exploit, ignore or even take advantage of the weak.  The use of power to abuse others is the wrong use of power.  That is why we need to model our lives after the Good Shepherd.

 

Conner:  I think that we have all learned some lessons from this Gospel.  We have learned about how we are related to power, wealth and knowledge.  We can be like needy sheep, we can be like a good shepherd who helps others or we can use our power, knowledge and wealth to bully, exploit or ignore people in need.

 

Katie: Well we are all  in need sometime, so we are all sheep-like.  Can you talk like a sheep?  Let all say baaaaa.

 

 

Conner: And let us all look to Jesus as the model for us to be good shepherds in this life.  Can you say “Amen” to that ?  Amen.