Jer. 23: 1--6

            Ah, shepherds who let the flock of My pasture stray and scatter!-- declares the LORD. (1)  This passage presents me with an enormous temptation to go on a rant concerning the shepherds who should tend My people: It is you who let My flock scatter and go astray. (2b,c)  Pay attention to the language.  Does My pasture mean your church, your denomination?  Or does it refer to God's world?

 

            And notice the caustic sarcasm: shepherds who should tend My people but who, in God's eyes, do not.  Instead, they let My flock scatter and go astray.  So what do you think will happen when you shut the church doors to keep My people out?

 

            But for the scattered and strayed, God has a different tone of voice: one of grace and determined restoration.  And this is the name by which he shall be called: AThe LORD is our Vindicator.@ (6b)  The name of our Savior is not Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Disciples, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian or any other Church, but the LORD.

 

Psalm 23

·        The LORD is my shepherd;

                I lack nothing. (1b,c)

Take heart, all you sheep who, like me, are scattered and have gone astray.  The LORD is [our] shepherd; AThe LORD is our Vindicator.@

 

Eph. 2: 11--22

·        Remember then your former condition, Gentiles as you are by birth, 'the uncircumcised' as you are called by those who call themselves 'the circumcised' because of a physical rite. (11) 

 

The Apostle makes abundantly clear that no physical rite of any sort is of benefit to you.  Rather, such rites tend to make proud and smug those who rely on them.  Remember, it was the apostate king Saul who demanded foreskins for appeasement (1Sam. 18: 25).

 

·        You were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the community... but now in union with Christ Jesus you have been brought near through the shedding of Christ's blood.  For [Jesus] is himself our peace. (12..14a) 

Contrary to Church doctrine, [Christ] has annulled the law with its rules and regulations (15a).  Remember:

·        The LORD is my shepherd;

                I lack nothing.

Mark 6: 30--34, 53--56

 

 

When [Jesus] came ashore and saw a large crowd, his heart went out to them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd (34a,b).  Why?  Because, as God told Jeremiah, the shepherds who should tend My people... gave no thought to them (Jer. 23: 2b-d).  Therefore YHWH devised a remedy: And I will appoint over them shepherds who will tend them; they shall no longer fear or be dismayed, and none of them shall be missing-- declares the LORD. (Jer. 23: 4)

 

So, shepherds, for which do you care more: the law with its rules and regulations or the flock of My pasture?

 

 

·        Goodness and mercy

     shall follow me all the days

     I follow Jesus.[1]