The Work of the Shepherd – Homily for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B

Brenda and Sarah and I just got back from a short trip to Leavenworth
to visit an old friend of Brenda’s.
Just to be clear, that was Leavenworth,
the quaint Bavarian village near Wenatchee in Western Washington,
not Leavenworth the prison in Kansas.

Anyway, while we were there,
of course we walked around visiting the different shops,
because that’s what you do in Leavenworth.
In one of the shops we came across this little plaque that made us laugh.
If you have adult children you might relate.
It said,
“I’m trying to be independent but no one will help me.”

In this country we’re pretty obsessed with being independent,
and we like to think that we can stand on our own.
But today’s scriptures remind us of how dependent we really are.

There’s a beautiful unity in today’s scripture readings
that binds all of them together
in the figure of the shepherd.
We see the figure of the shepherd in the first reading,
the responsorial psalm, the gospel,
but there’s even an element of the shepherd
in the letter to the Ephesians.

And what we find when we look closely at these readings
is the answer to what plagues our world.
That answer is found in the identity of the shepherd.
Not just in knowing that our shepherd is Jesus Christ,
but also in knowing what Jesus does as shepherd,
what his primary ministry is.

We start with the prophet Jeremiah.
In Jeremiah we see what the good shepherd does
by seeing what the bad shepherds do wrong.
The kings of Israel had become weak and faithless.
They led people away from the law
and had allowed Israel to be captured and sent into captivity.

God says to them, “You mislead and scatter the flock.”
The bad shepherd fractures the flock and drives them away.

So God promises he is going to take charge of shepherding the people,
of bringing them back together, of gathering them.
This is God’s first and foremost work,
bringing the people together.
The bad shepherd divides and scatters,
but God gathers.

To accomplish this work,
God promises to provide a shepherd from the line of David,
a Messiah.
And the main work of the shepherd Messiah will be to gather the flock.

We see this today in the gospel
when Jesus looks at the vast crowd
and his heart is moved with compassion for them,
because they’re like sheep without a shepherd.
This is so important to him, he actually changes his plans.
He was planning on giving his disciples a rest—almost like a retreat.
But he sets that aside when he sees the needs of the flock

And so what does he do?
He begins to teach them.
It’s by teaching the sheep that he gathers them together.
His teaching is filled with power and he creates a new people.
The crowd gathers around him and shares his teaching with each other.
Slowly they form a united flock.

This is how we recognize Jesus as the Good Shepherd, as the Messiah.
He does the work of his father in gathering the flock into one body.
This was his whole life.
This was why he was sent.
To gather.

Paul echoes this in the letter to the Ephesians.
He says Jesus “broke down the dividing wall of enmity.”
In Christ there are no walls, no barriers,
only one body, one family.
Those who were once far off have become near.

Everything that Jesus did was meant to unite.
He touched the unclean, he ate with sinners,
he spoke to Samaritans.
He gave up his life on the cross.
God’s primary reason in sending Jesus was to unite.
To make the lion lie down with the lamb.
To gather Jew and Gentile.
To unite humanity with divinity.
This is what salvation is.
This is the work of the shepherd,
and this is the answer to our world’s problems.

Today’s world is divided. We have gone astray.
We need a unifying force. We need a shepherd.

We are fractured not only as a people, but as individuals.
We need unity among peoples, but also within ourselves,
who often feel pulled in different directions.
In fact, we really can’t have unity among peoples
until we have unity within ourselves.

There is only one way to succeed in finding unity,
both for ourselves and for the world,
and that is to find it in Christ.
Only Christ is the way;
only Christ is the truth;
only Christ is the life.

And so here we have all come,
like the crowd that pursued Jesus.
Some of us may feel like we’ve lost our way.
Some of us are directionless.
Some of us may be scattered or falling apart.
We are like sheep without shepherd.

But Jesus sees us, and his heart moves with compassion.
He is here to teach us,
and through his teaching we become one.

Our work is to listen to Jesus, to learn from him,
to take his teachings to heart, to be his disciples.

This week let us join the crowd who is following after Jesus,
and be persistent in seeking him in our daily lives.

Let us pray for the wisdom to understand we cannot do it alone,
that we are dependent on the guidance and teaching
of the Good Shepherd.

One practical way to do this is to get up early each day this week,
find a quiet place, open up the bible,
and turn to the beautiful psalm we sang earlier, Psalm 23.
Read through it slowly, trying to own the words,
as if you yourself wrote them.
Perhaps read only a line a day and stretch it out over a couple of weeks.
Or maybe recite just the first line, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,”
over and over again throughout the day, like the Jesus prayer.
Husbands and wives, maybe you could wake up together
and take turns reading it to each other, or read it as a family before bed.
I invite you now to close your eyes, listen in faith
and meditate on its words as we hear them one more time:

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.

He guides me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
with your rod and your staff
that give me courage.

You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.