Century Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)

1301 Tamarack Road, Owensboro, KY 42301, (270) 684-0286, Pastor:  Rev. Jim Westmoreland

Will My Name Be Called?
John 10:1-15
by Jim Westmoreland

When I was a child in grade school, after we ate our lunch, we went outside to play. I remember playing dodge ball, Red Rover come over, and kickball. Kickball was played on a baseball diamond with a rubber ball about the size of a soccer ball. The pitcher would roll the ball across home plate, and the runner would run up and kick the ball and take off toward first base.

Like many other games that we played, the first thing we did was to "choose up sides." Usually, two of the most assertive people became the captains who took turns choosing who was going to be on their side. I can remember the agony and disappointment of running to get out there to play, standing among the others full of energy and ready to play, and not being chosen. Nobody called my name. But I also remember the joy of being chosen, of hearing my name called!

Our text today is about Jesus as the Shepherd who knows his sheep by name and about Jesus as the Door through which His sheep are allowed to enter.

There is no better loved picture of Jesus than the Good Shepherd. The picture of the shepherd is woven throughout scripture as a picture of what God is like. The land of Israel was much more a pastoral land with flocks of sheep than an agricultural land full of crops. Israel is mountainous with many hills and plateaus.

The shepherd with his sheep was seen everywhere. His life was very hard. The flock did not go out without the shepherd, and he was never off-duty. He had to constantly watch for sheep who became separated from the flock, and he had to be alert for wild animals, as well as thieves who would steal his sheep.

In Matthew 18:12 and in Luke 15:4 Jesus gives us a picture of the shepherd who will risk his life to seek and to save the one sheep that did not come in with the others. In 1 Peter 5:2-3 the leaders of the church are described as shepherds of the flock. So, especially, we who are elders and deacons, leaders of the church, should act as shepherds. We, too, must be concerned about all the sheep, not just the ones who are here with us for worship.

We have to ask ourselves, How would we like to be one who, being sick, distracted by other concerns, or perhaps feeling left out and not wanted or needed, misses being present for services for a few weeks and no one calls our name? No one acknowledges our absence and acts with concern to come looking for us. How would we feel? Would it hurt? Would it confirm our fears?

The shepherd does not ask, How do I feel? Or, say that the sheep should have known better. The shepherd cares and goes out from his place of comfort and safety and does whatever he needs to do to bring the sheep back into the fold.

Around here, any sheep raised are likely raised for slaughter and become mutton or part of burgoo. But, in Palestine, they are raised for their wool. Because of this, the sheep are often with the shepherd for years and years, and they often have names by which the shepherd calls them. Describing the shepherd, in v. 3 Jesus said, "he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out." Will my name be called? If we are his sheep, if we hear his voice and follow him, then he knows and calls our name.

The Good Shepherd knows His sheep and He calls them by name. The Good Shepherd knows if just one is missing from the flock and will go out to find it and bring it back. The Good Shepherd does not turn his back on the sheep or turn a deaf ear to their cries of hurt.

The Jews did not understand the meaning of the story of the Good Shepherd. So, Jesus, in a more direct way, applied it to himself, in v. 7-10. He said, "I am the door." In the villages and towns there were sheep-folds where all the village flocks were sheltered together when they returned home. They had a strong door, which was locked by the doorkeeper. Jesus referred to this kind of fold in v. 2-3. When the sheep were out in the hills when it was warmer, they didn't return at night. The sheep-folds were just a wall of stones out in an open area or against a vertical side of a hill or rock formation. There was a narrow opening in the wall for the sheep to pass through. There was no door of any kind. At night the shepherd himself lay down across the opening and no sheep could get out or in except over his body. He became the door.

George Adam Smith, the 19th century biblical scholar tells of traveling one day in the holy land and coming across a shepherd and his sheep. He fell into conversation with him and the man showed him the fold into which the sheep were led at night. It consisted of four walls, with a way in. Smith asked him, "This is where they go at night?" "Yes," said the shepherd, "and when they are in there, they are perfectly safe." "but there is no door," said Smith. "I am the door," said the shepherd. He was not a Christian man and wasn't speaking in the language of the New Testament. He was speaking from an Arab shepherd's viewpoint. Smith looked and him and asked, "What do you mean you are the door?" "When the light has gone," said the shepherd, "and all the sheep are inside, I lie in that open space, and no sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body; I am the door."

This is what Jesus was thinking about when he said, "I am the door." "Through him, we find access to the Father," wrote Paul in Ephesians 2:18. Until Jesus came we could think of God only as, at best, a stranger and as, at worst, an enemy. But Jesus came to show us what God is like, and to open the way to him. He, alone, is the door through whom entrance to God becomes possible for us.

In v. 10 Jesus says, "I came that they might have life; and might have it abundantly." The Greek phrase for abundantly means to have a superabundance of a thing. To follow Jesus, to know who he is and what he means, is to have a superabundance of life. When we try to live our own lives, life is dull, without focus, without energy, without taste, without meaning. It is only when we walk with Christ that life becomes really worth living and we begin to live in the real sense of the word.

Thomas A. Pilgrim in The Man From Galilee tells a story about Harry Emerson Fosdick, one of the greatest American preachers of the twentieth century. He described his preaching as counseling on a large scale. Few people knew that, as a young seminary student, he reached the breaking point after working one summer in a New York Bowery mission. He went home and was overcome by deep depression. One day he stood in the bathroom with a straight razor to his throat. He thought about taking his own life. And then -- and then he heard his father in the other room calling his name, "Harry! Harry!" It called him back. He never forgot it. It was like the voice of God calling him.

So I want to remind you today that in those times when you are in the wilderness, trying to find your way through, and when temptation comes and offers you the wrong answer, the wrong choice -- the wrong use of power, the easy way to popularity, the wrong kind of partnership -- then you remember that God has called your name: "This is my beloved son, my beloved daughter, in whom I am well pleased." And, you remember that because God has called your name He will see you through. He is the Good Shepherd and He sends us out in His name. We are all called to care for each other. And sometimes, . . .God calls our name through the mouths of our brothers and sisters in Christ.