Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
The holy gospel according to Mark.
Glory to you, O Lord.
30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31 He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32 And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. 33 Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. 34 As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
53 When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. 54 When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, 55 and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. 56 And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
The gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
Grace to you and peace from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Throughout the Bible, God’s people are referred to as sheep and their leader’s as shepherds. In today’s Old Testament reading from Jeremiah, God is taking offense at those who instead of taking care of God’s sheep, his people, they have instead driven them away. In our gospel reading it says, “he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.” I was really taken by this thought this week and it reminded me of two stories, one personal and one that was on the news.
In 2018 Paula and I took a trip to Scotland to visit our nephew who was studying there. When we go places like that, one of things we like to do is go hiking, so hike we did. We hiked up Beinn Dubh (Ben Doov) 
which is one of the hills next to Loch Lomond. What a hike that was! We gained 2050 ft in elevation in about 2 1/3 miles. The total hike was just over 7 miles. All along the path there was evidence of sheep having grazed there. Little tufts of hair in the grass or little piles of sheep poop. However, we didn’t see any sheep. Here’s a photo of Paula at the summit with Loch Lomond in the background. 
Just before we summited, we stopped and were looking out over the area where there was a short cliff next to the path. We noticed something at the base of the cliff and there were two sheep grazing, far from any herd. 
As of then, they apparently hadn’t been missed and they were too dumb to know they were missing. Far across the valley there were some farmers gathering in a flock with dogs and four wheelers, which was fun to watch, but nobody was gathering these two. They were lost and on their own.
My second story is about Chris the sheep. 
Chris was found by a couple of hikers near Canberra, Australia, in 2015. He was a mess. He had trouble walking and couldn’t run from them. If he had fallen, he wouldn’t have been able to get back up. He was afraid of people and it took some weeks for him to become really comfortable around them again. They hired the national champion sheep sheared to shear him. When competing, he can do a sheep in about two minutes. It took him 45 minutes to shear Chris. Because of his fear of people Chris had to be given some medicine to calm him down so he wouldn’t fight the shearer so much. His coat weighed 89 Lbs when the shearer was done. The weight of the coat on his skin had the effect of stretching his skin out which is one reason it took so long to shear. A result of that was that despite the shearers care, Chris ended up getting nicked multiple times by the shears. 
The coat was so long, 17”, that they couldn’t use it. It’s now in a museum. They figure that for his coat to be that long, he had to have been lost for at least 5 years.
It’s not a good thing to be a sheep without a shepherd. Sheep need someone to watch over, feed, protect, guide and sustain them. Sheep without a shepherd scatter easily, they can wander into dangerous territory and become lost. It’s no wonder that Jesus, the prophet Jeremiah, and other too, used lost sheep as a metaphor.
We can go a step further and use a sheep’s wool as a metaphor for sin. A sheep’s wool never stops growing. Many modern sheep, like Chris, have been bred for their wool to keep growing without sloughing off, getting longer and longer. A sheep needs to get it’s wool sheared at least once a year. If it doesn’t, it will likely end up like Chris. The burden of carrying all that weight around makes life difficult. It can barely walk, let alone run. It’s uncomfortable. It can’t lie down because it might not be able to get back up.
So it is with sin. We need forgiveness. We need to regularly have our sin removed from us. If we don’t get the weight of it lifted from our shoulders, it will wear us down. At first, we may not realize it, but eventually, it will take a toll. Our joy will decrease and our spiritual lives will suffer.
These were the people who were coming to Jesus on the lake shore. they were lost, without a shepherd. Their situation was a little different though. God had placed shepherds over the people but they were not good shepherds. These shepherds had neglected their duties, driving the people into their spiritual wilderness. Instead of helping relieve the burdens of the people, they had instead heaped new burdens on them according to their traditions and not necessarily according to the laws of Moses.
We sometimes do the same today. I know of multiple cases in this congregation where people who had attended regularly stopped coming because they felt burdens were being placed on them that they couldn’t or didn’t want to carry. These burdens may have been real or imaginary. either way, they weren’t feeling they love that they should have. I don’t know that they’ve abandoned their faith as a result, but for at least a couple of them I don’t believe they’ve found a new congregation or flock to be a part of where they can be nurtured, cared for, and loved.
In the church at large, there are millions of people who have left the church because instead of being felt like they were being shepherded, they felt condemned or rejected. Jesus never treated people in this way. Instead he had compassion on the shepherdless sheep. He invited them in and cared for them, showing them love and compassion, bringing healing to their bodies and souls. When he did this, the people flocked to him from all over, even following him from place to place.
If we are followers of Jesus, as we claim to be by donning the description of Christian, then shouldn’t we be doing as he did? Shouldn’t we be accepting, loving even, the lost sheep of this world, no matter their condition? That is what we are called to do. The only commands that Jesus laid on us are to love one another and to make disciples. Perhaps if we did that, not just as a congregation but also as individuals, people would flock here to see what was going on and get to know the Good Shepherd.
Please understand that if it sounds like I’m being judgmental, I don’t mean to be. I am just as much a member of this congregation as you are and therefore just as complicit in placing burdens on people as you may be. As a staff member, I may even be more complicit. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. While we may be attempting to be good shepherds to the lost and wandering sheep, none of us are the Good Shepherd. Only Jesus can claim that title.
It’s also good to remember that while God may use us to shepherd his sheep, just as he used the disciples, we are also sheep and prone to wandering. Sometimes I think that wandering is what we do best. Satan know what entices each of us and makes use of it while we blindly follow along wandering away from the Good Shepherd. Our wandering may be short term or it may be long term. It may be hidden from others or it may be obvious to all. Whatever or however long our wandering may be, the result of it is that we are separated from God. But praise God, Jesus, the Good Shepherd that he is, always comes looking for us. Not to burden us down, not to condemn us, but to take us back to the flock, carrying us in his bosom if need be. He will make time for you, even as he made time for the crowds who were flocking to see him.
When we stop our wandering and allow the Good Shepherd to lead us we can find that:
We are not in want
We have green pastures to lie in
The waters around us are still
Our soul has been restored
We no longer fear evil and are comforted
We are fed even in the presence of our enemies
Blessings abound and goodness and mercy follow us.
Today, if you are wandering and even if you’re not, I invite you to come forward to the feast that Jesus has prepared for you and rejoice in forgiveness of your sins, letting Jesus cast off that heavy burden from you so that you may be renewed in body, mind, and Spirit.
I’d like to close with this video: Sheep in Ditch
No matter how many times you wander or how far, no matter how many times you jump into a ditch that confines you and from which you are unable to extricate yourself, Jesus will be waiting to renew his relationship with you. Waiting to watch over, feed, protect, guide and sustain you.
Amen, come Lord Jesus. Come and shepherd us.