View Full Transcript
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Well, I had opportunity to play with some words this week, and the words that I got to play with are what are called collective nouns. Do you know what collective nouns are?
[00:00:13] I'll give you some examples here, mostly in the animal kingdom. For example, today we're talking about flocks of sheep. So sheep are identified that way. Flocks of sheep. That's the easy one. But there's some other fun ones, like a murder of crows. Have you ever heard that?
[00:00:31] I like that one. Or pride of lions. Probably everybody's heard that before.
[00:00:36] A parliament of owls. You can look this up on the Internet. It's really fun to see all the. Practically every animal group has these. Or this one. A crash of hippopotami.
[00:00:49] Doesn't that just. That's so descriptive, isn't it? A crash.
[00:00:52] But my favorite. And there's lots of these. Okay, but a clowder of cats. Now, I don't know what a clowder is, but I just kind of like the way that sounds. A clowder of cats. I'm not sure I'd like a clowder of cats. In fact, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't. But that's just. That's just so descriptive. We do with humans, too.
[00:01:13] And in fact, you know, we can kind of pick on a whole bunch of areas. But one in. In particular caught my eye this week.
[00:01:22] Generations and their names. So probably in this congregation, there has been or is even currently someone from the greatest generation being born from 1901 to 1927.
[00:01:35] Anybody here?
[00:01:38] Okay, that's ancient in today's culture for sure. But the one that followed that was the silent generation being born from 1928 to 1945. Whole bunch of us there, right? Well, I can't say us because I'm in the next one called the baby boomers, who were born from 1946 to 1964.
[00:01:59] And baby boomers were identified by the previous generation, the silent generation, as not going to amount to too much.
[00:02:08] Did you know that?
[00:02:10] And then comes Gen X.
[00:02:13] Okay. That we baby boomers gave rise to. And following that, millennials.
[00:02:19] And the millennials don't really like to be called millennials. Imagine that. You know, that fits perfectly after that, of course, Gen Z, those born from 1997-19 or 2012.
[00:02:33] So that. That's Gen Z. And then everything after that. Now we've run out of Alphabet letters, so we're starting over again. Gen Alpha is coming up. Okay, so that's how we sort of are collectively identified. There's other ways you can be collectively identified as a Democrat or Republican. And some of us sort of revile at that and say, you know, thank you very much.
[00:03:00] Rather than being identified with a certain group per se, I'm going to use my mind. I know people like this who say, I'm going to search out the candidate that will most clearly meet what I believe to be the sorts of policies and actions that I would like to see go forward in our culture, and people will vote that way. Here's another group Christian that in some circles might not be a popular identity.
[00:03:37] And then those of us who claim to be Christian might also look at some Christian groups and say, I don't want to be identified with them. And isn't that an interesting phenomenon?
[00:03:49] Well, today what we're going to talk about is, and see from God's word is that Jesus cares about both. He cares about the group and he cares about you and me as individuals. Would you pray with me, Father, open our ears today to hear your word that you care so much about us as your flock, but each of us as individual members of it. We ask in Jesus name, Amen.
[00:04:27] So a number of years ago when we looked at lived in Colorado the first time, I guess I'd say we had a jeep and we thought we should put that jeep into action. And so we were able to go up on some of the jeep trails. And I know some of you have been able to do that up in the high Rockies to get on these trails and get up where you can be so high and have the clear air and the beautiful pastures and the mountain flowers and challenge your skills driving such a vehicle. And so we did that. We went up into a number of places, but one in particular that just sticks in my mind is going up into Lead King Basin, which is above Marble, Colorado. Anybody been to Lead King Basin? You kind of know what I'm talking about. And it's a challenging trail and we were having a great time, a whole family, and we encountered, believe it or not, a whole herd of sheep that was over what you would call a jeep trail.
[00:05:31] And you just sort of slow down or even stop to work your way through a herd of sheep, I guess a flock of sheep, we would call it, right?
[00:05:43] And so you sort of creep along, you roll down your windows, you listen to the noises, you kind of smell the sheep air and.
[00:05:51] And notice how they're just sort of up there. And there was a shepherd somewhere, although we know not where. We couldn't see the shepherd. And these sheep were just doing what they do. They Were grazing up there in that high mountain basin.
[00:06:12] We finally got through. And as jeep trails go, you kind of start weaving your way. And we cut around and we were able to look back down at that flock of sheep that just sort of covered a hillside. And all of a sudden we heard an ambulance. Well, what we thought was an ambulance anyway, because, like, you don't hear ambulances in the high mountains, you know. But sure enough, it was an ambulance. And this ambulance was trying to work its way to go and rescue someone.
[00:06:42] And the shepherd, wherever he or she was, took immediate note and with a couple of whistles, got his dogs to sweep those sheep. And I'm talking in seconds, sweep those sheep off the road and make a clear path. That shepherd didn't clear that path for us.
[00:07:03] Just occurred to me, swept those sheep out of the way, and that ambulance was able to go on its way and complete its rescue up there in the mountains.
[00:07:20] That's just like our lesson today.
[00:07:25] The tax collectors and sinners, by the way, collective nouns, right?
[00:07:31] You want to be identified with them?
[00:07:33] Not really.
[00:07:36] And the Pharisees and the scribes, some more collective nouns, tax collectors and sinners, were gathering around to listen to Jesus and the. The Pharisees and the scribes, they didn't like it. They said, this man received sinners, another collective noun.
[00:07:52] So he told them this parable. He said, what man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he had lost one of them, does not leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he's found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing, and calls his friends together and gets them all to rejoicing. And even the angels in heaven will rejoice over one sinner who repents.
[00:08:20] And you get his point. He's like saying to the Pharisees and the scribes, look, this is what I've come for.
[00:08:31] I've come to save sinners. And even if I have to leave the 99, I'm going after that one.
[00:08:42] And that's what you see me doing. And that's what you don't like about me.
[00:08:52] It occurred to me that that scene that we saw up there in Lead king basin was exactly like this text.
[00:08:59] Because that shepherd had, well, in effect, pushed his flock, his 99, out of the way so that there could be the rescue of one.
[00:09:13] Do you see that? I mean, it was just not lost on me that we were witnessing Luke 15, right in front of our eyes right there that day.
[00:09:21] And don't you know, there had to be rejoicing among those people who called the emergency vehicle and those EMTs to come that they would rejoice that here comes somebody to help our loved one who, I don't know, maybe broke a bone or had a medical emergency of some kind, but it all just sort of unfolded before us. And it was so remarkable that that happened that day.
[00:09:56] That text indicates to us Jesus care about the One, but make no mistake, he cares about the whole flock. In fact, that's what Ezekiel 34 was about today. Behold, I will search for my sheep and will seek them out as a shepherd seeks his flock when he is among his sheep. So I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered, and I will feed them good pasture, and I will be their shepherd, and I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed and bind up the injured and strengthen the weak. Do you see what he's doing there? He's gathering his sheep together.
[00:10:35] Yes, individuals, perhaps. Lost groups that wandered, people carried off into some sort of slavery. And yet he's about the business of bringing his people back to himself and together take them away with him with full rejoicing in his eternal habitation.
[00:11:02] What a joyous passage that is.
[00:11:06] Seek the lost, bring back the stray, bind the injured, strengthen the weak.
[00:11:11] He cares for the flock, he cares for the individual. He says that in Luke 19, he comes to seek and to save that which is law, singular, that one.
[00:11:29] So it might cause us to ask the question, well, who is that lost one?
[00:11:34] And to our minds, perhaps you can bring a child or a parent or some other relative that isn't walking with the Lord, isn't following the shepherd.
[00:11:51] Or maybe you watch on television or in some work arena, know of somebody who needs to find the Lord, needs to come back, needs to be brought back. And so our hearts go out there, don't they? And we pray for that individual, and we pray that God would send his spirit to bring them back into a faithful, trusting relationship with the shepherd. We do that.
[00:12:31] But I want to suggest to you today that that one, that lost one, is you also you and me.
[00:12:46] Yesterday in our elders meeting, we were talking about why do people come to church?
[00:12:55] And one of the elders said, well, I come to be reminded.
[00:13:02] And that caused us to all start to think a little bit about. Reminded of what?
[00:13:06] Reminded of what?
[00:13:08] And it really comes rather clear, I think, to all of us. We come to be reminded that our sins are forgiven, don't we?
[00:13:22] We come to be reminded that God is With us, with us in very real body and blood that we will celebrate and participate in in a few minutes that we come together to be reminded that he seeks you and me out. He does that when we hear the word of God, both in preaching and teaching, but also in our own personal devotional time, when we open up God's word and he's sometimes screaming at us, come back. Come back.
[00:14:08] Sometimes tenderly telling us, you're my child. Come to me. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. He does that through His Word, and we come together to be reminded that we belong to a flock.
[00:14:25] I'm not just here as an individual, you know, My faith is very personal. Have you ever heard somebody say that?
[00:14:37] I have.
[00:14:38] It's not personal.
[00:14:40] Might be private, but it's part of a body.
[00:14:48] Our faith and our practice of that faith is part of belonging to a flock.
[00:14:56] And I say that you and I are among the lost because we are the ones that fall back into sin all the time. We set it to start. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, God is faithful and we need that reminder.
[00:15:19] We are among the lost because we so often ignore God's presence, don't we?
[00:15:27] I mean, it's hard to ignore his presence here with all the trappings and the wonderful music that calls us to acknowledge him, to praise Him.
[00:15:42] But we get into the week and it's so easy to ignore his presence.
[00:15:49] And we do go wandering off such that we definitely need his power, his spirit, to come and be calling us back to Him. And of course, we so easily resist the responsibility of being part of the Body of Christ.
[00:16:10] Well, if that's what they want to do, I'll just do my own thing. Well, that's our culture talking, but that's not the Body of Christ talking.
[00:16:19] The body of Christ says we're here together as one group, as faithful followers of our shepherd who will not let us down.
[00:16:31] Perfect in our text today, right? He goes after the One.
[00:16:36] So we are the ones who are among the lost as well.
[00:16:44] And as individuals and really as a group, we need the shepherd's rescue.
[00:16:54] And then, look, there's rejoicing. I mean, what a wonderful Savior we have that takes such care of us and even rejoices over our repentance and our coming back to follow him too, to live in this environment.
[00:17:21] You know how he does it.
[00:17:27] You know how his rescue happens?
[00:17:31] It happens because he went to the cross to suffer the penalty for our sin that we deserve. We deserve that penalty of the cross.
[00:17:41] He took it upon himself and died with all of our sins, all of our mistakes, all of our failings, and then rose victorious over them. So that he has the power to reach to you and to me and take us back to himself and not only do it, but to want to do it. That's what the cross is all about. He loves you and he loves us.
[00:18:18] I'm going to go out on kind of a limb here today.
[00:18:23] The very fact that you're here today, I'm going to guess that you claim to be a member of the flock, Trinity Lutheran Church. Is that a pretty good guess?
[00:18:36] You're part of this flock.
[00:18:38] And there are people who are watching online, some who can't be here, but are members of this flock, and others who are standing by and kind of watching what the flock at Trinity is like.
[00:18:53] As a flock, I haven't been here very long.
[00:18:57] Five months, I think I counted.
[00:18:59] But as a flock, I know a few things.
[00:19:03] You voted as a flock to move forward and support your foremost ministry of Trinity Lutheran School and of all things.
[00:19:19] And I can say this because he's not here, but God sent us a pastor who's passionate about that ministry.
[00:19:30] Actually, I have said that to him because it's so obvious.
[00:19:34] And here's why. He is passionate, because I asked him, he said, because this generation that's coming up, our children are the most important generation that we can teach and train to know and love Jesus and follow him, to hide his word away in their hearts and their minds and bring them to be following the Savior.
[00:20:09] And you all got behind that to the degree that you even passed a deficit budget to get us on this very stage.
[00:20:21] Under the heading words of, of faith and grace and forgiveness, you stepped out in faith.
[00:20:35] You're trusting God's grace to bring us along, even though we don't know how it's all going to work out, because we don't.