This, of course, is one of the things that Jesus said, one of the many things. Chris mentioned that wonderful word “subversive.” One of the subversive statements, interpreted as subversive by some of the people listening to Jesus, are statements like, “God and I are one.” You know? Let’s try that out this week. Why don’t we, at our workplace, at home, maybe with your spouse – “I’d like to remind you, honey, that I and God are one. Let’s always remember that, right?” This is the sort of thing that Jesus would say that in some people’s eyes would get him into trouble.

Listen to what my favorite Bible commentator writes about that. I want to quote this. The Greek word for “one,” which is “enas,” – “the Greek word for ‘one’ is neuter, not masculine, so that Jesus is not saying that he and God are one person, nor even of one nature or essence. Rather, Jesus is saying that he and God are unified in the work that they do. It is impossible to distinguish Jesus’ work from God’s work because Jesus shares fully in God’s work.”

So, in other words, this biblical expert is trying to take our attention and direct it to the possibility that what Jesus is focusing on is the work that he does. Time and time again in the Gospels, Jesus is finding different ways to say this – if you want to know what God is like, watch me. If you want to know what God is like, listen to the words that I say. This is what Jesus is trying to say. And this, as opposed to walking up to people in our lives and telling them that, you know, “I and God are one,” we can, even with our mouths closed, say to ourselves, “Today I’m going to tell people what my God is like. You want to know what my God is like? Watch. Watch what I do. Listen to what I say.”

Chris and I were talking a little bit before the service. I have seen one shepherd so far in my life. Years ago, I was part of a church work mission group, and we were on a Navaho reservation in Arizona. It’s mostly desert, and there was – and hopefully, still is – a small Presbyterian church on the reservation. We went and spent about a week. We stayed at the church, and we did work at the church. We repainted the church, that sort of thing. And we were taking a lunch break one day. I’ll never forget it; it made such an impression on me. We were taking a break for lunch, and off in the distance, not sure, not sure, is that what we hear? Off in the distance, very faintly we heard (rings bell). It got closer and closer, and sure enough, we looked, and we saw a shepherd, and we saw sheep. It was a young boy. I’m going to say he was 12, 13 years old. One of the sheep (rings bell) had a bell. The bell sheep. You know, I heard a bell cow before, but there was a bell sheep. There were about 15 sheep. It was an amazing moment, and he had a staff, and he walked the 15 sheep. There were no straight lines involved. No straight lines. I got this impression that the 15 sheep and the one shepherd comprised this amoeba, this single body that impressed upon me as an amoeba. I guess the word that I would use is they meandered. The sheep and the shepherd worked together wordlessly. And what were they doing? One of you extroverts answer me. What were they doing? They were looking for food, right? They were looking for food. What a concept. Looking for spiritual food. Where do we go? Well, we’ll go wherever we can get it, right?

I was very honored and pleased last Sunday afternoon. I wasn’t allowed to drive yet, so I was a good boy and Vicki drove me. Some of you know about this. I was invited to preach at the Danville High School annual baccalaureate service. It was a very joyful moment, and I’ve done this sort of thing before. As we were getting into the car I silently chuckled to myself and I said this, and this was not meant to be any sort of self-serving statement, but I can remember thinking to myself, “These high school” – and we call them kids, this is a term of endearment – I said to myself, “These high school kids aren’t going to remember anything that I say.” Right?” I just can’t believe they ever would, and that’s fine, that’s fine. But there was one thing I wanted to say to them so that I could sleep at night, that they heard it from me. I now can sleep at night knowing I said it to them. I worked it into the middle of my message, and I said this to them – “if you remember anything at all that I say today, remember this. Life is contradictory and paradoxical.” Do you think any of them remember that any better? Of course they don’t. So, they’ll need to go to church every Sunday their entire life so that they can hear it again. See, those sheep and that shepherd, they meandered. They went to wherever the food was. There wasn’t any straight line involved. And it was contradictory and paradoxical. Maybe when we are in those contradictory and paradoxical moments, maybe we’re just a little bit closer to God, I don’t know. Maybe that’s true.

I’ve mentioned Bonnie and Clyde before to you. I want to mention Bonnie and Clyde to you again. Bonnie and Clyde were two white ducks that we raised from chicks when I was a kid because one Easter weekend my beloved grandfather, Harold Jones, showed up. He lived in Pennsylvania; he was coming for Easter weekend. My parents were not pleased that Gramps showed up with two baby ducks. Happy Easter! They were little things, and we raised them in our backyard. We had a good-sized backyard at the time, and we raised those ducks. We went to the hardware store, and we bought a little baby pool, and we raised those ducks. It was my sister Jill who decided to name them Bonnie and Clyde for no reason whatsoever, and we raised them. Somebody, I don’t remember who, somebody had the idea that every time we fed Bonnie and Clyde white Wonder Bread somebody would ring a bell (rings bell). Every time we fed them, we rang a bell. So, after the course of time the ducks, it turned into this like Disney after-school special, I don’t know, but we’d go outside, and the ducks were nowhere to be seen. Gone. I thought for sure that some neighborhood cat or dog or something would get them, right? So they were gone. They weren’t anywhere to be seen, and somebody would ring a bell, and way out in the distance you’d hear (quacks). They didn’t fly. They would run. They would run to us so that they would get fed. That’s what this scripture is saying. Can you hear it (rings bell)? Oh, you can hear it now. But an hour from now when we’re all gone and dispersed, living our lives (rings bell), listen for the bell. And run. Run to it. Run to it.

I’ll finish with this. The ancient philosopher Heraclitus, there’s a famous moment where he said that he heard the voice of what he called the Logos. He heard the voice of the Logos. He didn’t write very much in his life, but he wrote this. He said that he wanted to share with the world what the Logos said to him. He heard the voice, and the Logos said this to him – “everything is one, and one is everything.” Everything is one, and one is everything. Jesus said, “I and God are one.” And you and I can say, “If you want to know what my God is like, watch me. Listen to me. The Lord is my shepherd.”

Now this is absolutely the last point. When I was in the Presbyterian Church and teaching confirmation classes, we taught kids when they were 13 in order to join the church the kids had to meet with the Session, which is the governing body of the church. So, it comes time for the meeting, and we required each of our students to memorize a Bible passage to share with the Session. It didn’t have to be long. One of my students really struggled in school. I had read about this earlier, so the idea was not original with me, but I claimed it. One of my students really had trouble in school, and for him to memorize a Bible passage, I didn’t want him to have to do that. So, here’s what we taught him. When it was his turn to stand before the Session and to repeat his Bible verse, he stood up. It’s very moving for me to remember him. He stood up, he smiled, he put out his chest. They call them ruling elders in the Presbyterian Church. When you’re on a Session, you’re a ruling elder, how helpful is that? So, he stood up and he smiled, and he looked at all those ruling elders, and he said this, “The Lord is my shepherd, and that’s all I need to know.” How great is that? We are one. And the Lord is our shepherd. And it’s all we need to know. Amen?