+ In the Love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
After carefully studying this morning's Gospel, I have come to the conclusion that Jesus is hyperactive. But before I say anything more about Jesus' hyperactivity, please listen to this passage from the prophet Ezekiel [34:1-16 passim], which forms the background for this morning's Gospel:
"The word of the Lord came to me: Thus says the Lord God: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. . . ."
And so God tells Ezekiel: "I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. . . . I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak."
So when Jesus says in this morning's Gospel, "I am the good shepherd," he is saying that in him God's promise has been kept: "I myself will be the shepherd of the sheep."
And immediately after Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd," Jesus tells us the good shepherd's most important qualification: "The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." And then a little later Jesus confirms that he is indeed the good shepherd when he says, "And I lay down my life for the sheep."
Now when Jesus said, "I lay down my life for the sheep," he used a particular Greek preposition which means "on behalf of." "I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep." And the particular Greek preposition Jesus used was "hyper." And because Jesus used the preposition "hyper," the earliest Christians writers also used it whenever they wrote about Jesus' death for others. So, for example, St. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans [5:8], "While we were still sinners Christ died for― hyper― us."
So that's why I began my sermon by saying that Jesus is hyperactive― because Jesus' activity is always hyper― for us.
And when we turn to our first reading [1 John 3:16-24], John writes: "We know love by this, that he laid down his life for― hyper― us." And then John writes, "and we ought to lay down our lives for― hyper― one another."
John couldn't be clearer: if Jesus is hyperactive for us, then we are to be hyperactive for one another.
And then, to be clear about what laying down our lives for others might mean, John asks, "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action."
We are all concerned about the outbreak of the H1N1 flu. What might it mean to lay down our lives for others, what might it mean to be hyperactive, during this epidemic?
Several years ago I read this book, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History, by Rodney Stark [© 1996 by Princeton University Press, chap. 4 passim].
In the chapter titled "Epidemics, Networks, and Conversion," he writes:
"In 165, during the reign of [the Roman Emperor] Marcus Aurelius, a devastating epidemic swept through the Roman Empire. . . . During the fifteen-year duration of the epidemic, from a quarter to a third of the empire's population died from it, including Marcus Aurelius himself. . . . Then in 251 a new and equally devastating epidemic again swept the empire."
At the height of the second epidemic, around 260, Dionysius, the Bishop of Alexandria, wrote this in his Easter letter:
"Most Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ. Many, in nursing and curing others, died in their stead."
"The [pagans] behaved in the very opposite way. At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease. . . ."
". . . a century later, [in 362,] the Emperor Justinian launched a campaign to institute pagan charities in an effort to match the Christians. . . . He wrote: 'The [Christians] support not only their poor, but ours as well, everyone can see that our people lack aid from us.'"
And then Rodney Stark, the sociologist, makes this telling comment: "Here issues of doctrine [that is, Christian teaching] must be addressed." In other words, it matters what we believe and what we teach. And then he goes on to write:
". . . alien to paganism was the notion that because God loves humanity, Christians cannot please God unless they love one another. Indeed, as God demonstrates his love through sacrifice, humans must demonstrate their love though sacrifice on behalf of― hyper!― one another.
"Pagan and Christian writers are unanimous not only that Christian Scripture stressed love and charity as the central duties of faith, but that these were sustained in everyday behavior [emphasis added]."
For example, in about the year 210, the Christian Tertullian wrote: "It is our care of the helpless, our practice of loving kindness that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. 'Only look,' they say, 'look how they love one another!'"
And late in the 4th century we read this in the Apostolic Constitutions: "[Christians] are to be doers of good works . . . ; they must ascertain who is in distress and not exclude them from a share in church funds."
And then Rodney Stark goes on to tell the amazing story of the rise of Christianity during this period of devastating epidemics. Because Christians cared for the sick just by the simple actions of feeding and bathing them, and because in the process of caring for the sick many Christians developed immunity to the diseases, here's what happened:
In 160, just before the first epidemic, there was only 1 Christian to every 250 pagans; by the end of the first epidemic, there was 1 Christian to every 200 pagans; and by the end of the second epidemic a hundred years later, there was 1 Christian to every 4 pagans. In other words, Christians went from less than 1% of the population to 25% of the population.
Of course, these days, we have public health clinics and hospitals and Centers for Disease Control, all of which developed from the earliest hyperactive Christians. As a result, laying down our lives during this H1N1 epidemic may mean no more than washing our hands; or, if our worst fears are realized in a pandemic, it may mean volunteering to help understaffed hospitals and nursing homes care for the sick. But whatever may happen today or in some future situation, as Christians let us always remember that we know love because Jesus laid down his life for us, and therefore we ought to lay down our lives for one another.
In other words, let us follow our hyperactive Lord and be hyperactive Christians. Amen.
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