The Good Shepherd.3

"I give them eternal life.

They will never be destroyed, nor can anyone tear them out of my hand.

My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than any kingdom or power; and no force is able to pluck even the weakest from his mighty hand."

--Jesus

In my role as pastor I had the privilege of officiating many wedding ceremonies. In those precious moments

watching two human beings make the most important promise of their lives - to live together as One - I don't recall one couple ever vowing together to make each other miserable!

And yet it doesn't take Americans very long to make each other miserable in

their marriages...about 7 years is the average before the end of a life together, once filled with hopes and dreams, comes to a crashing halt!

So perhaps that is why we, generally speaking, have a difficult time understanding words that promise an experience that can withstand the onslaught of doubt, fear, temptation, anger, resentment, accusation, deception and disappointment that we contend with in trying to safeguard promises from one human to another!

"I give them eternal life." What human being really knows what that means? Especially when we struggle so much with the life we do know about? But Jesus isn't calling us to a place, He's calling us to a Person - the Universal Promise Maker and Ultimate Promise Keeper! 

The closest we can get as humans to understanding this idea is, in fact, marriage! When we make those vows to another human being we have no idea what the future holds! We can imagine the future we'd like but it surely isn't one we're guaranteed. I once viewed a college student's research project about the "secret" of marriages that had lasted over 50 years. Everyone of these couples had survived tragic events that had served to make them stronger as individuals in faith and temperament thus ensuring a stalwart, enduring friendship. Events like the loss of a child, economic downturns, financial struggles, natural disasters, and even infidelity!

But I've also witnessed the destruction of those who stop believing in one another and begin to "hedge their bets" against infidelity, tragedy and a general feeling of unhappiness. Isn't the ultimate "hedging" some sort of "pre-nuptial" agreement that deliberately broadcasts that we're so convinced of the unreliability of long term human commitment we're just going to flat out ensure marital failure? How does that ensure failure? Because rather then stating at the outset of the journey that I promise to "give what I can as long as I can", we say "I'll get what I can as long as I can", we send a clear message that I'm in this for me not you.

But the Designer of Marriage viewed it as a covenant not a contract. In a contract, built on distrust, the terms try as best they can to define the minimum obligations and responsibility by the participants. In other words, contracts are a 50/50 agreement: I'll do this if you do that. If circumstances change, I'm no longer obligated.

A Covenant is built on mutual trust and responsibility. It is a 100-0 proposition which says: I am all in, I'll do my part even if you don't do yours! Even if circumstances change, I will do what I said I would do!

In this context, the struggle we have to understand Promises Made/Promises Kept, a conversation with a divorced co-worker takes on more meaning. After five years she still struggles with the bitterness of broken promises. Her attempts to establish a relationship with others is often co-opted by her conscious and unconscious fear of failure and has the potential to destroy the work she's put into building a good family.

Her good friend, a pastor's wife, has tried to help her with her struggles but has been rebuffed in her sage advice time after time after time.

However, the pastor's wife, consciously or unconsciously, describes her own insecurity when she confessed she doesn't know with certainty whether she is going to heaven or not!

"No One Is Able To Snatch Them Out Of My Hand!" And, just in case we didn't get it the first time, Jesus bolstered the message: "My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than any kingdom or power; and no force is able to pluck even the weakest from his mighty hand."

What part of "can't snatch" do we not understand??!!!

Let us confess: we are the weakest when our faith eyes grow dim due to the churning waters of heartache and disappointment which snatch our attention away from Him. We sink and wallow in the despair of our pain forgetting that the Man of Sorrow completely understands and cares for us and does not allow us to endure more than that which helps us grow stronger.

His death on the cross sealed His 100% covenant commitment. His resurrection ensures our 100% security. In Him, author and perfector of Faith, our covenant relationship begins, like marriage, the moment we say "I will" to His invitation to follow.

What is our part in the Covenant? Like sheep, we are called to Follow, i.e., do wholeheartedly what and where He tells us. As MacDonald points out: "If you can think of not one thing this day you have done because the Master said "Do this" or not done because He said, "Don't do this," you have good reason to believe you are not His disciple! Obedience is not perfection, it is trying. And trusting that the Good Shepherd will help us in our trying to get better and better! He always has in view the Perfecting of Love in and through us and knows precisely what and when it will take to get us there!

That, my friend, is Eternal Life! It is something we begin to understand in the here and now, not by becoming sheep herders, but by understanding the truth of the marriage covenant.

The husband, as representative of Jesus, the Head, creates an atmosphere of love and trust through sacrifice and service, that allows His wife to achieve Radiant Beauty. The wife, representing those of us on our way to glory, overcomes her natural inclination to fearfulness and self-will, opens her heart more and more to her husband's direction, discipline, protection and provision for her, allowing God to use that safe environment to help her become all she is meant to be.

• When a husband is secure in his wife's respect for his God-endowed
  
  role;
• When a wife is secure in her husband's Godly love for her;
• When a marriage is living out it's God-centered purpose: creating the ideal laboratory for God's Perfecting love, 

a hostile thought of breakup or divorce has a snowball's chance in hell of surviving! 

It surely is a mystery, but one that leads us to a greater understanding of what it means to be unsnatchable in the Father's hand!

The Good Shepherd.2

"I am the good shepherd.

I know my flock and they know me, even as the Father knows me and I know the Father.

I am willing to give my life for the sake of the sheep.

My sheep recognize my voice.

I know them each by name, and they follow me. "

--Jesus

It's been said that in Europe a hundred miles is a long ways while in America a hundred years is a long time! And for most humans thirteen billion light years is an incomprehensibly long time and long way!

With a tip of the hat to young earth creationists for their sincerity and passion, more and more researchers in the geometric sciences agree that thirteen billion light years is, more or less, the breadth and age of the universe.

This same Jesus, the architect of Creation, produced the just right conditions in a vast universe for His crowning achievement: Beings fashioned in the Image of God! He chose to visit this planet and redeem people from their waywardness and self destruction and lead them to His crowning endeavor: Beings fashioned into the Nature of God.

I imagine the time He and the Father spent (who knows, perhaps many millennia) contemplating the things that must be said to humans to help them understand the Purposes of the Perfect Will.

When He came here, He described Himself and His work among humans in terms the simplest would be able to connect with from head to heart.

Good Shepherd
In preparation for this visit, the Creator made sure to fashion a "sentient" (what Hugh Ross would call "soulish") animal -sheep- that would point people to the tenderness of a loving caregiver. By observing a human shepherd's interaction with his flock we can understand Jesus' words describing His relationship with us!

Knowing the Flock
The Creator instilled in these soulish    animals a sense of community and belonging; qualities that would help people understand the special relationship each one has to the Shepherd and other sheep.

Give My Life
The Nature of Love is sacrifice. Jesus showed us what the Father is always doing: giving himself eternally for the good of people. The motivating force in the universe is Love and is the end to which All Creation is moving. 

One of the deadly consequences of Self-Consciousness and Self-Will is Self-Loathing - a genuine disbelief that someone could love me for what I am.

By dying for the very creatures who rejected their Creator He demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt what true love is and the eternal value He ascribes to every individual on this planet!

Voice Recognition
"Alexa, play my music!" "Siri, find this location." Artificial Intelligence has changed the way we live our lives! But they are soulless servants designed to only do our bidding without anything resembling (except a soft sounding female voice) freely offered loyalty and affection. 

The Creator's most challenging act of creating was developing a Being like Him capable of communication,  communion, and choice. 

Perhaps more challenging was that these creatures would be able to distinguish His voice in the midst of a din of noise these creatures would be capable of producing! 

Hope resides in His heart as He waits for people to answer His alluring call to Life!

Follow The Leader
Like sheep, humans can get lost rather easily. We need guidance to get to the right destination...most often not even sure what the right destination is. But the destination we are created for is to be at the Heart of the Father, to know our purpose and meaning and to be merry children around His throne!

He Knows Us By Name
"Take a number." Whether at the DMV or a fast food restaurant, we resign ourselves to waiting for our number to be called. As fickle as humanity is - some want to be noticed, some want to blend - the wonder of friendship with Jesus is that he cares about all that happens in our lives. Every event is an opportunity that, as our eternal Shepherd, He coordinates with to shape and refine us into His nature. Our names reveal something about the purpose for which we were created!

They Follow Me
The Shepherd has a right to expect the sheep to submit to his guidance, protection and provision. In a word, He has authority to care for the sheep. And the sheep have a duty to pay attention and follow where He leads and what He does to help them prosper. You could call it a Win-Win proposition! As this flock grows He gets the ever expanding Love for which He fashioned the universe, we get the home for which we long!

Words Mean Things
In the end, it wasn't so much what He said but what He did that demonstrated the Father's Perfect Love. His actions give the Ultimate Meaning to the things He said. May we, like sheep, live just like Him!