The God who calls each sheep by name has called us all here today.

We come today, celebrating God’s love for all the sheep of the world.

The Good Shepherd, who has many flocks, gave his life for all of them, for us.

We come today, thanking Jesus for his witness and his teaching.

The Shepherding Spirit moves through us, uniting flocks together as one, bringing us new hope.

We come today, ready to celebrate and bring praise to the shepherding God. AMEN.

Holy God, you are our shepherd, our gatekeeper, our leader, our unifier. You lead flocks of different sheep to the same place but along different paths.

It is you the Good Shepherd who called us here today to hear this message. You called us to love you, you called us to love our neighbor, and you called us to love ourselves.

God of Abraham, God of Issac, God of Jesus, you know each sheep within your flocks by name. You know their needs. You know their personalities. You know their behavior patterns. You know them as no one else knows them. You created each and every one to be different yet to all belong together.

Help us dear God to trust in you. Help us to trust you to care for your sheep, especially those who weigh heavy on our hearts today. (pause)

Help us, Good Shepherd, to trust that you show grace and mercy to your all sheep, especially those whom we lift up to you this day. (pause)

Help us, Shepherding Spirit, to embrace your movement which connects us together, that we may no longer view ourselves as being from different flocks, but that we may know and act as if we are all a unified, loving, one.

Help us, Lord of all, to be present, accept, and affirm all of your sheep, that through loving you, loving our neighbor, and loving ourselves, we may grow closer in community and faith to worship You as one flock. Amen.

The Good Shepherd aka The Sneetches

Ever sit through an entire sermon and walk away thinking you have no idea what the preacher just said? Let’s hope that’s not true today. Any form of verbal communication follows a particular structure in an attempt to effectively get the reader or listener to hear. You tell your audience what you’re going to say, you say it, and then you summarize what you just said.

John 10:1-18 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. ² The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³ The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵ They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” ⁶ Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

⁷ So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who came before me^[a] are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹ I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³ The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. ¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷ For this reason, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

In our pericope today, or passage if you prefer to call it, Jesus said the same thing three times, twice in parable and once directly and yet at the end… the Jews remain divided. The Bible repeats the similarly themed stories over and over again, each time trying to get the same point across in different ways, to a different culture, in a different time.

In Ecclesiastes 1:9, Solomon tells us, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun.”

¹⁸ You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. Leviticus 19:18

³⁷ Jesus answers the question about which is the greatest commandment as“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the greatest and most important commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’  Matthew 22:37-39

And again in John 13:34-35 ³⁴ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

And yet, Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So why do we continue to read, some of us over and over again, the same stories, told in different ways, over and over again?

Because we’re not hearing. We may be listening, but we are not hearing. To love God, we MUST love our neighbor as ourselves. There is no other way. And yet, we struggle. To this day, the problem of our society remains: there is an “us” and there is a “them.” And if we are not of the same flock then we are not loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Anyone know what this is?

That’s right, it is a Sneetch. There are plain-bellied sneetches and there star-bellied sneetches. I have been unable to buy a Sneetch without a star upon its belly. I feel like this is a reflection of humanity and how we listen but do not hear.

 It is of my personal opinion that Sneetches should only be sold in pairs, to not sell Sneetches without a stars is an insult to the story and the lesson it provides for us.

I also believe that this verse “to love your neighbor as you love yourself” should never be interpreted in a sanctuary without making sure the listener also understands that to love one’s neighbor, one must ALSO love oneself. To treat yourself poorly does not entitle you to treat others poorly. To follow this commandment, loving one’s neighbor requires ALSO loving oneself.

If you don’t know the story of the Sneetches, it’s a great Dr Seuss book. A story written not just about loving one’s neighbor, but about how there are other flocks, people different from you, but we all belong to the same shepherd. Those other flocks are your neighbors, just as the other sheep within your flock are your neighbors. So today, I am going to tell you the story, a story of the Good Shepherd told in a different way.

“Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches had bellies with stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches had nothing on thars.  Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small. You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.”

And yet… the Star-Belly Sneetches thought they were better than the Plain-Belly Sneetches, the best Sneetches on the beaches in fact. They played games, and had parties, and ate Frankfurters all day. The Plain-bellied Sneetches were not allowed to play with them. Instead of enjoying the sun and the beach, the plain-bellied Sneetches spent their days longing for what the Star-Bellied Sneetches had.

In this beautiful area of northern Michigan, there are residents, there are snow-birds, and there are tourists. There are townies and there are city people. There are rich people and there are poor people. There are smart people and there are… not as book-educated people. There are people we find attractive and there are people we find less attractive. There are Star-Belly People and there are Plain-Bellied people. There are people who appear to do nothing all day but play and there are people who appear to do nothing but work, often jealous of those who spend their days at play. There is an “us” and there is a “them.”

One day, in the world of our star-bellied Sneetches and our plain bellied Sneetches, a swindler comes to town. He brings with him a machine. This machine will put stars on a Sneetch’s belly that has no star! The plain-bellied Sneetches are overjoyed, for one low bargain price, they can change themselves to be like the others. If they look like the Star-Bellied Sneetches, they can spend their days playing on the beaches and eating Frankfurter’s too, right?! So into the machine the go and out they come with stars upon their bellies. They spend a moment admiring one anothers new stars and then they head to the beach.

The Star-Bellied Sneetches catch on very quickly to this invasion though, and they get mad! You can’t be like us! How will we ever discriminate against one another if we can’t tell each other apart?!? If you look like me and act like me, how am I supposed to you from me?!

So, the Swindler pulls out another machine. This one removes stars from bellies. So the star-bellied Sneetches think to themselves, “If you’re going to get all fancy and dress up like me then I’ll start wearing plain clothes like you used to.” Take that! So now, the Star-bellied Sneetches enter the machine and come out the other side plain bellied, after they have paid the Swindler a hefty sum, of course.

Day in and day out stars are put on bellies, stars are removed from bellies, on and off they go, it’s complete chaos. Half the people trying to look like someone else and the other half trying to not look like the other.

All the way along the Swindler just smiles and takes their money. As the Swindler becomes richer and the Sneetches become poorer. Eventually the though, the money runs out. Now our Sneetches are left with no one knowing who was originally a star-bellied Sneetch or who was born with a plain belly.

They are all just Sneetches. They’re all just sheep. All part of the same flock, whether they were labeled or not. And ALL of them got Swindled by the Swindler. The question then remains, though, is the Swindler the thief who did not come in through the gate or… is the Swindler the Gatekeeper, the Good Shepherd who brought his different flocks together? This story is deeper than you thought, right?

Regardless, the Sneetches become angry at the Swindler for taking their money and they are suddenly forced to realize what he has done: He has made them rich. He has unified them together. He has shown them they are the same.

The stars weren’t so big. They were really so small. You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.”

But we don’t like being told that those “others” are just like us, do we?

Discrimination you see runs both ways. It has been around so long that we know not where it began just that it is. They are different. We don’t like them because they don’t like us. But both Sneetches are WRONG! None of them are loving either themselves or their neighbor.

They are jealous of those who have something they don’t have. Resentful of themselves for being born differently. Suffering from the disillusion that they have to be part of that other group in order to be happy.

The Star-Bellied Sneetches are wrong for excluding the Plain-bellied Sneetches and the Plain bellied Sneetches are wrong for caring so much about being excluded by the Star-bellied Sneetches.

They failed to see and love one another for who they were born to be. They failed to embrace who they were created as and instead wanted to be something else. The Plain-Bellied Sneetches are the ones who decided that having a star somehow made a Star-Bellied Sneetch the only one capable of being happy.

Together, both the Star-Bellied and the Plain-Bellied Sneetches decided that Star-Bellied Sneetches would be popular and whatever it was they were doing was THE thing, the cool thing, that everyone else should want to do but only the select few who had a star upon their belly could.

Until both the Star-Bellied Sneetches and the Plain Bellied Sneetches were able to love themselves, and accept themselves as being neither inferior nor superior to the other, nothing was going to change.

It took an intervention. It took manipulation. It took a Swindler, a money-maker, deemed a thief, someone who was not like either of them to intervene and throw a kink into their social structure. The Swindler used their greed to tear the whole system down. It took… a homeless vagabond to get a tax collector to intermingle with fishermen.

Jesus is not the God of the poor and the Lost. Jesus is the God of all. A God who wants us to see that we are all humans, all flocks are equal, and we can all like each other for our differences not despite of them.

It’s possible. But it starts inside not outside. It starts with accepting who you are as God created you, who you were called to be, the name God gave YOU not someone else, and accepting that others were called to be something different. It takes me not wanting to be you AND you not wanting to be me.

It takes not caring whether I have a Star on my belly or you do and seeing you as… you. It takes getting rid of the belief that there is an us and there is a them. We are all one in one Lord.

We MUST love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Those stars aren’t so big, they’re really quite small so a star really should be nothing at all. If they don’t understand a story about sheep, we tell them a story about Sneetches. And if they still remain divided, we love them, get to know them, and find a story to tell them that they will understand. If we have to tell the same story 100 different ways, across time, culture, race, and gender, then that’s what we do.

The message doesn’t change: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the greatest and most important commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ Amen.

May, the Lord bless you and keep you;
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you
And be gracious to you;
May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you
And give you peace.

Seuss, Dr. The Sneetches: and other stories. Random House, 1989.