SPEAKER_00: This Monday we carry the same theme of the good shepherd from yesterday, Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a difference between a shepherd and someone who just works the job.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says it plainly today a hired man sees danger and runs.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because the sheep are not his.
SPEAKER_00: There's no real attachment, no real love, no real cost.
SPEAKER_00: When things get hard, he leaves.
SPEAKER_00: But then Jesus says, I am not that.
SPEAKER_00: I am the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: And the proof is this, I lay down my life for the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: That line sounds beautiful, but don't soften it.
SPEAKER_00: Because what Jesus is saying is not poetic, it is violent.
SPEAKER_00: There is a wolf.
SPEAKER_00: There is danger.
SPEAKER_00: There's something that wants to scatter, to wound, to destroy.
SPEAKER_00: And the difference is not whether the wolf exists, the difference is who stays when that wolf shows up.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we hold on to that, because the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, something else is happening.
SPEAKER_00: Peter's being confronted, not by enemies, but by believers.
SPEAKER_00: You went into the house of Gentiles and you ate with them.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, Peter, you crossed the line.
SPEAKER_00: You went where you were not supposed to go.
SPEAKER_00: You got too close to people who are not like us.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter does something remarkable.
SPEAKER_00: He does not defend himself with an argument.
SPEAKER_00: He tells a story.
SPEAKER_00: God showed me something, he says.
SPEAKER_00: God sent me.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit told me to go.
SPEAKER_00: And when I got there, God moved.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says one line that should shake us.
SPEAKER_00: Who I who was I to hinder God?
SPEAKER_00: Here's that's the real tension of the gospel today.
SPEAKER_00: Not just sheep and shepherds, but who belongs?
SPEAKER_00: And who we think does not.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
SPEAKER_00: These also I must lead.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're honest, that line makes us uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Because we like our fold.
SPEAKER_00: We like what's familiar, predictable, safe.
SPEAKER_00: People who think like us, people who talk like us, live like us.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says there are others, and I'm going after them.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's where it gets real because the hired man runs when it gets uncomfortable, when things get messy, when people are complicated, when the situation is not clean, but the shepherd stays.
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd goes out, the shepherd crosses lines, the shepherd walks into places where others would say, Hey, don't go there.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because the sheep are his.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not just about Jesus, this is about us.
SPEAKER_00: Because every single one of us in some way is a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: In your family, with your children, with your spouses, in your workplace, the way you serve your parish.
SPEAKER_00: And the question is not whether there will be wolves.
SPEAKER_00: The question is not whether things will get uncomfortable because they will.
SPEAKER_00: The question is what do you do when they do?
SPEAKER_00: Do you pull back?
SPEAKER_00: Do you avoid?
SPEAKER_00: Do you say this is not my problem?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you stay?
SPEAKER_00: Do you move?
SPEAKER_00: Do you love when it costs you something?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's the difference.
SPEAKER_00: The hired man calculates, the shepherd gives.
SPEAKER_00: The hired man protects himself.
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd lays down himself.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus says something even deeper.
SPEAKER_00: I know mine, and mine know me.
SPEAKER_00: This is not management.
SPEAKER_00: This is a real relationship.
SPEAKER_00: He knows you.
SPEAKER_00: Not the version you show people, not the version that you post online, the real you.
SPEAKER_00: The parts you hide, the struggles you carry, the things you do not say out loud.
SPEAKER_00: He knows you.
SPEAKER_00: And he still stays.
SPEAKER_00: And that should change everything.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you know your love like that, you stop living like a hired man.
SPEAKER_00: You stop calculating everything.
SPEAKER_00: You stop asking, what is the minimum I have to do?
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you start asking, how do I give myself?
SPEAKER_00: So here's where I want to land this.
SPEAKER_00: There are people in your life right now who feel like they don't belong.
SPEAKER_00: People who are far from the church, people who think God is not interested in them, people who are messy, complicated, not easy, people that you avoid.
SPEAKER_00: And the temptation is to feel and keep your distance, to stay in your circle, to stay in that bubble, to let someone else deal with it.
SPEAKER_00: But listen again to what Peter says.
SPEAKER_00: Who was I to hinder God?
SPEAKER_00: What if God is trying to reach someone through you?
SPEAKER_00: What if the other sheep Jesus is talking about are already in your life?
SPEAKER_00: What if the difference between a hired man and a shepherd is simply this?
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd shows up.
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd stays.
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd is willing to love even when it cost.
SPEAKER_00: Because that is what Jesus did for you.
SPEAKER_00: He did not run, he did not step back, he did not say, This is too messy, too broken, too far gone.
SPEAKER_00: No, he laid down his life for you.
SPEAKER_00: And now he says, Follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Not just in words, but in the way you love, in the way you stay, the way you refuse to give on people.
SPEAKER_00: There will be one flock, one shepherd, and somehow by grace, he's asking you to be part of how he brings them home.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.