Christ as the 'Door of the Sheep' and 'the Good Shepherd' / Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios

[GILLESPIE] Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sin, to deliver us from the age of the present evil, that we, being dead to sin, might live to God. Amen. Let us worship God. We have a very special guest this morning, and I, truly am honored and pleased to be able to introduce him to you. I could introduce him as Metropolitan Paulos Gregorios, Bishop of Delhi in the North Syria Orthodox Church in India, because that's who he is. I could introduce him to you as the author of numerous books, for he has published many.I could introduce you, him to you as one of the leaders of the World Council of Churches, for he has, in the past, served that organization. I could introduce him to you as an alumnus of this institution, for that he is, also. Indeed, a member of that distinguished class of 1954. But I want to introduce him to you this morning asa man who lived next door to me in Brown Hall in those days, and who became a good friend. I wanted to share a little story about him. I, I'm sure he has forgotten this, but I remember this about him. It was a Sunday evening, and he returned to the hall, and we were talking. And he had just come from downtown in the borough. And he told me about being accosted bya [war?] evangelical type in (inaudible) Square. A dear little old lady who walked up to him, noticed that he was an international student, and asked him if he were saved. Now, I don't know about your generation of theological students, but my generation would have been inclined to give that woman a thick lip. ButPaul (inaudible) sat down with her on a bench in Palmer Square, on a Sunday afternoon, and explained to her that yes, he did know the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a Christian, and this had come to him through the Syriac Orthodox tradition, and he was a student [of?] the seminary. I don't think she probably ever recovered from that. But I think that indicates, to me, at least, the spirit andquality of the man that I'm now very pleased to introduce to you, Metropolitan Paulos Gregorios of Delhi [in the north?].

[GREGORIOS] President Gillespie and friends, what a joy it is for me to be back on this campus and to be with you, and to find that so many of the class of '54 are now running this institution. That may not be the only reason whythis is still one of the best institutions of its kind in the world, and I say this without any sense of flattery. I suppose that the thing which happened in Brown Hall in my days still continue to happen. When examination tensions arise, we work until 10:00and then talk our heads off until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. I remember once we did that, then we gathered again a few days later for the same kind of, well, dressing down other people mostly. But one day, I remember, one of my neighbors said to me, not your president, but another neighbor,"Today, we won't talk. Last time, when we were in this room, I did a trick on you. I put a tape recorder underneath your bed. And I've got everything you said the last time for two and a half hours on tape. Wouldn't you like to listen to that?" And as we listened, we saw what theological students most discuss. Namely, the faults,first of the faculty, and then of the students. I suppose things are still that way now. Perhaps that's the way it ought to be. May I once again greet you in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ? Also, on behalf of the World Council of Churches, of which I am stillpresident, and bring you the greetings of hundreds of millions of Christians in more than a hundred countries. May I read to you today two passages of scripture. First, from the prophecy of Ezekiel, chapter 34, verses 11 through 16."For thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep, and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when some of his sheep have been scattered abroad, so will I seek out My sheep. And I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thickdarkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the fountains, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and upon the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture. There, they shall lie down in goodgrazing land, and on fat pasture, they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I Myself will be the Shepherd of My sheep, and I will make them lie down,' says the Lord God. 'I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed. And I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak. And thefat and the strong I will watch over. I will feed them in justice." Then, the second reading from the Gospel according to St. John, chapter 10, verses one through 15. "Amen, amen, I say to you, Anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by thedoor, but sneaks in some other way, such a one is a thief, a robber. But the one who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. Or is a shepherd of the sheep. To that person, the gatekeeper opens the door. The sheep then hear the voice of the shepherd, as the shepherd calls eachsheep by name and leads them out. When all the shepherd's own sheep have been brought out, the shepherd walks in front, and the sheep follow, for they hear the shepherd's voice. Someone else they will never follow. They will rather flee from him. For they do not recognize his voice.' Jesus spoke this parable to them. They could not knowwhat He was saying to them. So once again, Jesus said to them, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the Door of the sheep. Those who came before Me, they are thieves and robbers. The sheep never listen to their voice. I am the Door. (Latin) If one enters through Me,that one shall not only find salvation, but have the freedom of coming in and going out, and shall find pasture for the sheep. Why does the thief come, except to steal, to kill, and to destroy? I came so that the sheep can find life, abundant, overflowing life. I am the Good Shepherd.(Latin) The Good Shepherd lays down one's life for the sake of the sheep. The hired worker, who's not a shepherd, and whose own the sheep are not, as soon as he sees the wolf coming, deserts the sheep and flees. The wolf devours them or scatters them. Sincehe's only a hired worker, he does not care about what happens to the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own. Those that are My own know Me, as My Father knows Me, and I know My Father, and I sacrifice My life on behalf of the sheep."Let us bow for a moment of prayer. Oh great Shepherd of the sheep, who lay down Your life that we may live, by Thy Spirit grant us to know Thy truth and to walk in it through Christ our Lord.Amen. The fourth gospel has got at least seven I Am sayings. I am with a predicate, that is. I am the Light of the world, the Bread of Life, the Son of God. I'm the Resurrection and the Life. I'm the true Vine. The two that we want tomeditate upon this morning are these two. I am the Door of the sheep, and I am the Good Shepherd. It struck me, when I was reading this passage again yesterday, that, how can Christ be both Door and Shepherd? That's inconsistent. Butthat was the main difference between my professors and Jesus Christ. They were so consistent. And Jesus always spoke inconsistently. Through parables, parables, once you get the point, hit you hard. Not by rational conviction, but by the depthof the truth to which they witness. A parable is a witness. As I was struck by the fact that anyone who enters by the door is a shepherd. Not the shepherd. A shepherd. If Christ says, "I am the Door of the sheep," then He says, "Anyone who enters by the door is a shepherd,"then I'm also a shepherd. Because I have entered by that door. All of us who have entered by the door of Christ are shepherds. Shepherds of who? That, to me, has been the growing awareness that the church is the shepherdof all being. The shepherd not only of the sheep within, but of all humanity. More than that, of all life. More than that, of everything that exists. But what does a shepherd do?Don't push the sheep analogy too far to apply human being, human beings. They don't always behave like sheep, thank God. But a shepherd does three things, the Good Shepherd. Three things which, to me, is the foundation of our ministry. The first is that the shepherdknows the sheep by name and when he calls them, they come out. Do we, in the church, know the world of people by name? Do we know how they think? How they feel? How they act? The people who follow other religions, like Hinduismor Buddhism, or other ideologies like communism, do we know them? Have you learned to call them by their name? And when we call to them, do they trust us? That is the hardest part of it. We have not yet been able to win the trust of the world. The world either despises us as a church, ordistrusts us. That is the reality in the other religions. That is the reality in the other ideologies. That when we say something, they don't think it is worth listening to. Because we have not known their name. We have not shown that we care. We have not shown that they arethe ones for whom we should be ready to lay down our lives. We have not shown it to them. We have gone on the mission, but the purpose of the mission was simply to draw them into our group. Not to know them by name, not to build their confidence. What is the foundation of the declaration of the gospel is to know the sheepof the world by name. To know their aspirations, to know their struggles, to know their despair, to know their homelessness, to know their poverty, their misery. This is very important if you want to be a good shepherd to the world. The second thing I see in this passage is that the Good Shepherdopens doors and leads the sheep out to where they can find pasture. I do not hear that the Shepherd leads them out and then cuts grass and puts it in their mouth. No. You simply open the door, lead them to where the good pasture is. They look after themselves. They will know how to feedthemselves. You don't have to be paternalistic to them. They have mouths. They know when they see good food. They will eat it. [If?] sometimes you may have to feed them, like, for example, in Africa, where 13 million people in Ethiopia today, and 11 million people in the Sudan today have to be fed byothers, because they have no food and no money to buy the food with. The drought has hit them. There, you may have to feed them by the hand. But in most cases, you don't have to do that. You just lead them to where the pastures are. That is a very hard thing to do, because you must know where these good pastures are, where humanity can find its fulfillment. That requires,as I have discovered, a lot of study of what they study. Of economics, of politics, of sociology, of the physical sciences. Of all that they study, only then can you find out how to lead them to the good pastures. But then, once you have begun to open these doors, always the wolf comes. That's the third thing.The wolf will be there the moment you open the doors to justice. The wolf will come. The wolf is determined that [you?] should not get to that good pasture, because it belongs to the wolf. And these wolves are pretty ferocious. They don't care about killing people. They don't care about destabilizing whole governments.They don't care about shooting you down through professional assassins. They'll do that. That's the kind of wolves we have in the world today. You can't name them. They're all over the world. Those wolves will come fighting, and the moment the church is fairly exempt from the wolves, the wolves have decided that the sheep haven't got out yet. They haven't foundthe good pastures yet. They are still enclosed where they can be manipulated and handled by the wolves themselves. But in this world today, as the church begins to move out through the doors, the wolves come. And then the hireling would flee, and seek its own security, whereas the Good Shepherd will stand, fight, if necessarylay down its life. That is the call to the church today. Enormous number of wolves on the prowl all over the world, devouring the sheep. Where is the church, the good shepherd, which fights the wolf? Which lays down its life, which protects the sheep. That, I believe, is theministry. In that context, they will also come to know how the true Good Shepherd is. We can tell them. And when we tell them, some of them, those who are the Shepherd's own, will listen. But now, since we don't know their name, since we don't lead them to good pastures, since we don't fight the wolf, they don't want to listen to us.Even when we proclaim the gospel. "I am the Good Shepherd," says the Lord. And anyone who enters by this door is also a shepherd. A shepherd of being. A shepherd of the world. A shepherd of humanity. Let us pray.Gracious Good Shepherd, who has called us by name and who has made us enter through the door, not only that we may be saved, but that we may also be shepherds of Thy flock, grant us thewisdom and the courage to follow the way You walked and to lay down our lives when called upon to do so, for the [same?] Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.(music)Now may the care and mercy of that great Shepherd of the sheep, who has brought us forth ought of darkness into life, rest and abide upon all of us, and upon all Christ's church, and upon all mankind. Amen.