Of Shepherds And Kings
Stories
Object:
Contents
"Of Shepherds and Kings" by Larry Winebrenner
"Christ the King" by Larry Winebrenner
"Follow the Leader" by Constance Berg
* * * * * * * * *
Of Shepherds and Kings
Larry Winebrenner
Jeremiah 23:1-6 (New International Version)
I held little Bryana Lee's hand as I took her to the local Dairy Queen® for a soft serve cone. I used her for an excuse because I liked the frozen yogurt they served in that store. Of course, Bryana Lee liked it, too, so I wasn't making her do something she didn't want to do.
"Grampa?" she asked in that sweet little child voice. She's only five. I expected her to ask about the ice cream trip. "What's a shepherd?"
Shepherd? Where'd this come from?
"Do you know what a sheep is?" I asked, not really knowing how to explain shepherding to a small tot who probably had never seen a sheep.
"That's the mama of a little lamb," she told me.
"Well, a shepherd is a man who takes care of sheep." A wave of guilt for my male chauvinism caused me to add, "Or woman, but mostly they're men."
She didn't seem to notice. She asked, "Then why does the Bible say the Lord is my shepherd? I'm not a sheep."
I was beginning to think this ice cream trip wasn't such a good idea. I knew the answers. For adults. But for little kids?
"Has your mommy or daddy ever called you their little lamb?"
"Yeah. And you and grandma, too. But I'm not a real sheep. I'm just a little girl."
"Yes. You're a lovely little girl," I affirmed. And smart as a whip I thought. "Don't you think the Lord might call you God's little lamb?"
She thought about it until we arrived at the Dairy Queen®. Foolish me thought it had passed out of her mind. Before we entered the store, she stopped and asked, "If I'm God's lamb and the Lord is my shepherd that takes care of me, are Mother and Daddy shepherds, too?"
"Before we discuss this, let's get a cone," I suggested, hoping either the yogurt would make her forget or I'd think of something.
"Okay," she agreed.
We entered the shop.
"You want vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry?" I asked.
"We only have vanilla soft serve," said the clerk. "We have other flavors in the hard stuff."
"You have banana?" she asked.
"Yep."
"Gimme a double dip banana cone," she instructed.
Double dip? Her mother was going to strangle me. I ordered soft serve vanilla yogurt. We started home.
"Well?" she asked.
"Well, what?"
"If I'm God's lamb and the Lord is my shepherd that takes care of me, are Mother and Daddy shepherds, too?"
I nibbled my cone to buy time.
"Let me explain it this way," I finally said. "Have you ever heard the preacher called pastor?"
"Yeah," she agreed. "But how does this tell me if Mother and Daddy are shepherds?"
"One thing at a time," I told her. "Pastor is a word that means shepherd. In a way, anyone taking care of another person is a kind of shepherd."
"Oh."
Warming to the topic, I said, "In fact, Jeremiah said that the Lord cried out, 'Woe to the shepherds who have scattered my flock.' Or words to that effect. He was saying that the pastors in Jeremiah's day had treated God's sheep badly instead of helping them"
"Who's Jeremiah?"
"He's a famous prophet in the Bible."
She gave her cone a couple more licks. Then she asked, "Will you tell me about him sometime?"
"Some other time," I promised. After I've had time to read up on him I told myself, hoping I'd get to know the prophet well enough to answer her questions.
She bit off a piece of her cone and chewed.
"Is a prophet a king?" she asked.
I was afraid of yes and no answers. They drew forth questions I had trouble answering.
"Why do you ask?"
"Last Sunday in church we sang, 'The King of Love my shepherd Is.' I was wondering if kings and shepherds and prophets were all the same."
Whoops!
"I tell what. When I tell you about Jeremiah, we'll talk about this. Now finish your cone before we get home, or your mother is going to scatter me."
"What's scatter?"
"Eat!"
Christ the King
Larry Winebrenner
Colossians 1:11-20
"The king is dead. Long live the king."
Such is the proclamation in nations ruled by kings. It is broadcast when the reigning king dies.
When we celebrate Christ the King Sunday the cry of "The king is dead" must ring out for three days before the affirmation, "Long live the king!" But, having cried that, we can sing Beethoven's great words from the Bible, "He is King of kings! He is Lord of lords, forever and ever! Hallelujah!"
And, unless we belong to the Christian faith, that proclamation can be confusing to the citizen of a kingdom and a citizen of a democracy.
At least that was true of little Charley, born in Wisconsin. He wondered how Jesus could be king if God were king. It didn't make sense.
Charley's Sunday school teacher gave him Colossians 1.15-20 to read and an assignment to "let your imagination run wild" and put this into story form. Now, Charley wasn't a very good writer, but he did have a wild imagination. Here's the story he wrote.
One day before there were days or even time for that matter, God called his angels together, all billion, billion of them.
"I'm going to invent time," God told the angels.
Several million cherubim were eavesdropping. One cherub asked, "What's time?"
"It's a way of measuring from one event to another," explained the Almighty.
"But events aren't separate," announced one of the seraphim.
Of course, the Lord knew that, but like everything else about the Divine, the patience was infinite.
"There will be when I create time and space," announced God.
"What's space?" asked another cherub.
"It's a limitation of existence by three dimensions. After I have created space and time, there will be limitations there."
"Why are you creating this different existence, Lord?" asked the angel Michael.
It will be a place for a new being I am going to create," said God.
"You have billions and billions of angels," pointed out Michael, "To say nothing of the cherubim and seraphim."
Heaven rumbled with the sigh of the Maker.
"I have no one to relate to."
"You have us," murmured Michael.
"But you have no volition," pointed out the Lord.
"You're going to give the creatures volition? They will be disobedient."
"Yes," sighed the Lord. "I will have to enter that limited existence like one of them. The only way I can release them from disobedience is by becoming one of them and showing them absolute obedience."
"If you know this Lord, why are you creating them?"
"Because I am lonely. There is no other being like me. I will create them in my image."
"If you become one of them," said Michael, "they will destroy you."
"That's a risk I'm willing to take. I will have all my fullness in the creature. If even the smallest spark of my being takes position in the creatures, they will know that the creature containing my fullness was part of the creative process. They will yearn for continued relationship with me. I will be the head, they will be the body. I will have my relationship with the creature even though they destroy the creature containing my fullness."
After Charley had finished writing his story, he read it.
"I don't understand what I've written," he told his Sunday school teacher.
She read it.
"I think you just wrote your understanding of that passage in Colossians. But how do you know there are a billion billion angels?"
Charley grinned.
"I counted them, he said."
Larry Winebrenner is now retired and living in Miami Gardens, Florida. He taught for 33 years at Miami-Dade Community College, and served as pastor of churches in Georgia, Florida, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Larry is currently active at First United Methodist Church in downtown Miami, where he leads discussion in an adult fellowship group on Sunday mornings and preaches occasionally. He has authored two college textbooks, written four novels, served as an editor for three newspapers and an academic journal, and contributed articles to several magazines.
Follow the Leader
Constance Berg
Luke 23:33-43
I admit I like it when people are articulate. I like a leader to show a wealth of knowledge on a certain subject. Many people feel the same way. We like the flamboyant skater with a glittery costume and dramatic moves. We like the politician who shakes hands, has good debates, and shows up in the right photos. We admire the celebrity who gives selflessly.
So then, why have we been attracted to Jesus as our authority? Jesus was born in a barn. His father could not hold a job and was therefore demoted to the lowest trade at that time: carpenter. His mother was a teenager.
When Jesus grew up, there were no wild costumes, no riding in the style of a king, no treatment as head of state. Jesus dressed plainly; he spoke plainly to people. He walked or caught rides in boats. He sat at the table of a tax collector. Jesus doesn't seem the type to be a leader.
When we look at the person, Jesus, we see authority that our leaders could never even dream about. Jesus spoke with a knowledge that surpassed even those of the religious leaders and scribes. Jesus understood things that would take the learned scholars years of study. Jesus' authority showed through his actions.
Jesus dared talk to women. In fact, they were the major players to give him financial and emotional support during his ministry. We hear of Martha, the Marys, Prisca, Dorcas, Phoebe, and countless other women who helped Jesus and the disciples.
Jesus dared associate with undesirables. He touched lepers, sat with the scorned, and healed a woman who was hemorrhaging. Children were brought to him for a blessing. Even the crippled, the sightless, and those who had afflictions were brought before him to be healed.
The scriptures tell us of a man who had ordinary needs: He was hungry, tired, sad, and angry. Jesus laughed, brought joy, and was a good friend.
Jesus also was extraordinary. He spoke with conviction about things yet unexplainable. He spoke of the future. He performed miracles.
Today's leaders carefully choose when they are photographed, with whom and where. They want to present a certain image so we will be impressed.
Jesus didn't care about earthly things. He dusted off his sandals, he ate with friends and foes, he debated hotly with scholars, and he spoke to the unfortunate.
Jesus, the righteous branch of Jesse, reigns in our hearts. What an unlikely leader. What an unlikely authority figure! We who have faith believe that he will remember us when we come into his kingdom.
(Constance Berg, Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit, Series III, Cycle C [Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing, 2000] ISBN 0-7880-1707-1)
**************
StoryShare, November 21, 2010, issue.
Copyright 2010 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
"Christ the King" by Larry Winebrenner
"Follow the Leader" by Constance Berg
* * * * * * * * *
Of Shepherds and Kings
Larry Winebrenner
Jeremiah 23:1-6 (New International Version)
I held little Bryana Lee's hand as I took her to the local Dairy Queen® for a soft serve cone. I used her for an excuse because I liked the frozen yogurt they served in that store. Of course, Bryana Lee liked it, too, so I wasn't making her do something she didn't want to do.
"Grampa?" she asked in that sweet little child voice. She's only five. I expected her to ask about the ice cream trip. "What's a shepherd?"
Shepherd? Where'd this come from?
"Do you know what a sheep is?" I asked, not really knowing how to explain shepherding to a small tot who probably had never seen a sheep.
"That's the mama of a little lamb," she told me.
"Well, a shepherd is a man who takes care of sheep." A wave of guilt for my male chauvinism caused me to add, "Or woman, but mostly they're men."
She didn't seem to notice. She asked, "Then why does the Bible say the Lord is my shepherd? I'm not a sheep."
I was beginning to think this ice cream trip wasn't such a good idea. I knew the answers. For adults. But for little kids?
"Has your mommy or daddy ever called you their little lamb?"
"Yeah. And you and grandma, too. But I'm not a real sheep. I'm just a little girl."
"Yes. You're a lovely little girl," I affirmed. And smart as a whip I thought. "Don't you think the Lord might call you God's little lamb?"
She thought about it until we arrived at the Dairy Queen®. Foolish me thought it had passed out of her mind. Before we entered the store, she stopped and asked, "If I'm God's lamb and the Lord is my shepherd that takes care of me, are Mother and Daddy shepherds, too?"
"Before we discuss this, let's get a cone," I suggested, hoping either the yogurt would make her forget or I'd think of something.
"Okay," she agreed.
We entered the shop.
"You want vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry?" I asked.
"We only have vanilla soft serve," said the clerk. "We have other flavors in the hard stuff."
"You have banana?" she asked.
"Yep."
"Gimme a double dip banana cone," she instructed.
Double dip? Her mother was going to strangle me. I ordered soft serve vanilla yogurt. We started home.
"Well?" she asked.
"Well, what?"
"If I'm God's lamb and the Lord is my shepherd that takes care of me, are Mother and Daddy shepherds, too?"
I nibbled my cone to buy time.
"Let me explain it this way," I finally said. "Have you ever heard the preacher called pastor?"
"Yeah," she agreed. "But how does this tell me if Mother and Daddy are shepherds?"
"One thing at a time," I told her. "Pastor is a word that means shepherd. In a way, anyone taking care of another person is a kind of shepherd."
"Oh."
Warming to the topic, I said, "In fact, Jeremiah said that the Lord cried out, 'Woe to the shepherds who have scattered my flock.' Or words to that effect. He was saying that the pastors in Jeremiah's day had treated God's sheep badly instead of helping them"
"Who's Jeremiah?"
"He's a famous prophet in the Bible."
She gave her cone a couple more licks. Then she asked, "Will you tell me about him sometime?"
"Some other time," I promised. After I've had time to read up on him I told myself, hoping I'd get to know the prophet well enough to answer her questions.
She bit off a piece of her cone and chewed.
"Is a prophet a king?" she asked.
I was afraid of yes and no answers. They drew forth questions I had trouble answering.
"Why do you ask?"
"Last Sunday in church we sang, 'The King of Love my shepherd Is.' I was wondering if kings and shepherds and prophets were all the same."
Whoops!
"I tell what. When I tell you about Jeremiah, we'll talk about this. Now finish your cone before we get home, or your mother is going to scatter me."
"What's scatter?"
"Eat!"
Christ the King
Larry Winebrenner
Colossians 1:11-20
"The king is dead. Long live the king."
Such is the proclamation in nations ruled by kings. It is broadcast when the reigning king dies.
When we celebrate Christ the King Sunday the cry of "The king is dead" must ring out for three days before the affirmation, "Long live the king!" But, having cried that, we can sing Beethoven's great words from the Bible, "He is King of kings! He is Lord of lords, forever and ever! Hallelujah!"
And, unless we belong to the Christian faith, that proclamation can be confusing to the citizen of a kingdom and a citizen of a democracy.
At least that was true of little Charley, born in Wisconsin. He wondered how Jesus could be king if God were king. It didn't make sense.
Charley's Sunday school teacher gave him Colossians 1.15-20 to read and an assignment to "let your imagination run wild" and put this into story form. Now, Charley wasn't a very good writer, but he did have a wild imagination. Here's the story he wrote.
One day before there were days or even time for that matter, God called his angels together, all billion, billion of them.
"I'm going to invent time," God told the angels.
Several million cherubim were eavesdropping. One cherub asked, "What's time?"
"It's a way of measuring from one event to another," explained the Almighty.
"But events aren't separate," announced one of the seraphim.
Of course, the Lord knew that, but like everything else about the Divine, the patience was infinite.
"There will be when I create time and space," announced God.
"What's space?" asked another cherub.
"It's a limitation of existence by three dimensions. After I have created space and time, there will be limitations there."
"Why are you creating this different existence, Lord?" asked the angel Michael.
It will be a place for a new being I am going to create," said God.
"You have billions and billions of angels," pointed out Michael, "To say nothing of the cherubim and seraphim."
Heaven rumbled with the sigh of the Maker.
"I have no one to relate to."
"You have us," murmured Michael.
"But you have no volition," pointed out the Lord.
"You're going to give the creatures volition? They will be disobedient."
"Yes," sighed the Lord. "I will have to enter that limited existence like one of them. The only way I can release them from disobedience is by becoming one of them and showing them absolute obedience."
"If you know this Lord, why are you creating them?"
"Because I am lonely. There is no other being like me. I will create them in my image."
"If you become one of them," said Michael, "they will destroy you."
"That's a risk I'm willing to take. I will have all my fullness in the creature. If even the smallest spark of my being takes position in the creatures, they will know that the creature containing my fullness was part of the creative process. They will yearn for continued relationship with me. I will be the head, they will be the body. I will have my relationship with the creature even though they destroy the creature containing my fullness."
After Charley had finished writing his story, he read it.
"I don't understand what I've written," he told his Sunday school teacher.
She read it.
"I think you just wrote your understanding of that passage in Colossians. But how do you know there are a billion billion angels?"
Charley grinned.
"I counted them, he said."
Larry Winebrenner is now retired and living in Miami Gardens, Florida. He taught for 33 years at Miami-Dade Community College, and served as pastor of churches in Georgia, Florida, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Larry is currently active at First United Methodist Church in downtown Miami, where he leads discussion in an adult fellowship group on Sunday mornings and preaches occasionally. He has authored two college textbooks, written four novels, served as an editor for three newspapers and an academic journal, and contributed articles to several magazines.
Follow the Leader
Constance Berg
Luke 23:33-43
I admit I like it when people are articulate. I like a leader to show a wealth of knowledge on a certain subject. Many people feel the same way. We like the flamboyant skater with a glittery costume and dramatic moves. We like the politician who shakes hands, has good debates, and shows up in the right photos. We admire the celebrity who gives selflessly.
So then, why have we been attracted to Jesus as our authority? Jesus was born in a barn. His father could not hold a job and was therefore demoted to the lowest trade at that time: carpenter. His mother was a teenager.
When Jesus grew up, there were no wild costumes, no riding in the style of a king, no treatment as head of state. Jesus dressed plainly; he spoke plainly to people. He walked or caught rides in boats. He sat at the table of a tax collector. Jesus doesn't seem the type to be a leader.
When we look at the person, Jesus, we see authority that our leaders could never even dream about. Jesus spoke with a knowledge that surpassed even those of the religious leaders and scribes. Jesus understood things that would take the learned scholars years of study. Jesus' authority showed through his actions.
Jesus dared talk to women. In fact, they were the major players to give him financial and emotional support during his ministry. We hear of Martha, the Marys, Prisca, Dorcas, Phoebe, and countless other women who helped Jesus and the disciples.
Jesus dared associate with undesirables. He touched lepers, sat with the scorned, and healed a woman who was hemorrhaging. Children were brought to him for a blessing. Even the crippled, the sightless, and those who had afflictions were brought before him to be healed.
The scriptures tell us of a man who had ordinary needs: He was hungry, tired, sad, and angry. Jesus laughed, brought joy, and was a good friend.
Jesus also was extraordinary. He spoke with conviction about things yet unexplainable. He spoke of the future. He performed miracles.
Today's leaders carefully choose when they are photographed, with whom and where. They want to present a certain image so we will be impressed.
Jesus didn't care about earthly things. He dusted off his sandals, he ate with friends and foes, he debated hotly with scholars, and he spoke to the unfortunate.
Jesus, the righteous branch of Jesse, reigns in our hearts. What an unlikely leader. What an unlikely authority figure! We who have faith believe that he will remember us when we come into his kingdom.
(Constance Berg, Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit, Series III, Cycle C [Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing, 2000] ISBN 0-7880-1707-1)
**************
StoryShare, November 21, 2010, issue.
Copyright 2010 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
