11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”"
“Life In All Its Fullness”
Ernest Hemingway - “The Sun Also Rises” - nobody but bullfighters ever really live “life all the way up.” We don’t agree.
Jesus Christ tells us that life in all its fullness is His to give, and only his.
We don’t like this very much either! For is not the fullness of life attained by achieving it? No.
Life is not to be discovered in things, objects and possessions; life is discovered in all its fullness in being known and in knowing, in relationships!
Herman Wouk, author of “The Caine Mutiny” writes:
“It was my lot to reach quite young what many people
consider the dream life of America: success by my own efforts,
a stream of dollars to spend, a penthouse in New York forays to Hollywood,the companionship of pretty women all before lI was 24.
There I was in the realms of gold. But even as I lived this conventional smart existence of inner show business and dreamed the conventional dreams, IT ALL SEEMED THIN.” Sept, 21, 1959, Time Magazine
Life is relationships. It is knowing and being known. The fullness of life is discovered in the touch of others, and in the touch of the One who came that we might have life. Who calls us by name and knows us intimately, so we can be totally honest with him. When we hear his voice and follow him we discover life all the way up.
“The Abundant Life”
Jesus came to give that which every living person desires - the abundant life.
We have no argument whit this. We do have some questions about how he does this and some doubts as to what really makes up the abundant life.
He came to give us the abundant life. We want to create it for ourselves.
How do we reconcile this?
We don’t! We don’t resolve the paradoxes of life with faith.
We discover in them - in the very experiences of life which seem to destroy - the meaning of our humanity.
We discover we have feet of clay but also are creatures of our God and King.
We discover that life is political, economic and social, but it is also spiritual.
We discover that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God, and in so discovering, we also discover the abundant life in Christ.
The abundant life is a gift, offered by Christ, received by faith. It offers no pat answers to all the dangers and struggles of life. It simply yet profoundly enables me to say, with confidence and hope in the face of all that life throws at me, “The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not want.”
To live the abundant life is to live knowing the Masters voice, and it is to be called by name. Then it is to follow him, as he leads out into life.
“One Flock - One Shepherd”
There is one flock because there is one Shepherd. There are many sheep and all are different. There are numerous folds in the flock, and they are different. Yet there is one flock and this flock is made up of all who hear the voice of the Shepherd and follow.
One thing is necessary within the unity which is ours in Christ and that is faithfulness to our confession that Jesus is Lord. All else is secondary.
Unity in the Church does not depend on sameness within the church, but upon oneness in Christ, in which there is room for differences.
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