( 1. Peter 5,1-4 ) - [ Deutsch ]
“The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord”
"But I won't let her go to church. I'll take her with me."
What role model?
What/who is a role model?*
When you admire someone
You need role models
Parents, friends or Jesus can be role models. You want to live like these people
When orienting oneself to someone
You can only become a role model if you have a good role model.
First Peter writes into a situation where Christians are in the minority (often within families) and are under pressure and threats.
Our sermon text begins by setting Jesus as the example whose footsteps we are to follow.
Text from 1 Peter 5:1-4
We are called to follow the Good Shepherd to be a Good Shepherd! Peter is addressing those in church leadership who have had the same problems as we do today. Therefore, he encourages them to empathize with Christ and follow his example—to care for others and minister to them with excellence and steadfastness. Peter is not asking them to do anything he has not done; rather he uses himself as an example and points them to the Ultimate Example.
Now Peter is writing these admonitions here in his letter to the churches. Doesn't he have a rather haughty past himself? Do you believe his message? Yes, because something has changed in him. The Archbishop worked on him. He took him to his school and set him up. And Peter allowed himself to be corrected. The first step from pride to humility is allowing yourself to be told something.
Peter wept bitterly over his guilt and failure. He stooped over his guilt and stopped rebelling when, after his resurrection at the Sea of Galilee near Tiberias, Jesus asked him three times: Do you love me? It was already clear to him that this had to do with his three-time denial. And despite his failure, Jesus commissioned him to serve as a shepherd three times.
Real role models are not the ones who always do everything right, or at least pretend to be. Role models are people who can talk about their mistakes, who can admit their weaknesses, who can apologize and ask for forgiveness.
Jesus does not refuse to build his kingdom with losers. He knows that those who are aware of their own weaknesses will build on their strengths. Admitting your own mistakes will show mercy to others who make mistakes and have weaknesses.
Peter has learned from his experiences and he tries to pass them on to the churches. He begins with the church leaders. At the end of his letter he gives them some very important advice: feed the flock of God that is entrusted to you; heed them, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, as pleases God; not for the sake of nefarious gain, but from the heart; not as lords over the church, but as examples to the flock.
“Feed the flock of God that is enjoined to you!” Peter takes up the beautiful image that was so widespread in the past and rarely comes before our eyes today
The community of the first Christians knows their shepherd. Theyknow what really nourishes. They have become receptive to the true shepherd of the soul.
And at the same time They know the many challenges to which they are exposed, persecution, ridicule and scorn. You not only know the firm belief, but also the doubt again and again. “Feed the flock of God”, warns the writer of the letter, don't leave them alone, don't leave them to themselves. Show them the way of a successful life! And it does so as pleases God. What a demanding picture of leadership is being painted here! We know how easily leadership can become domination, leadership can become the exercise of power!
Someone who leads and directs others should be able or should master what a good shepherd must be able to do. He doesn't shy away from difficulties. He leads to a reasonable cooperation. He is able to suffer with and can be close to people in need. And even in painful moments you don't have to suffer from him.
Pastoral ministry is no joke, it pushes us to our limits.
Jesus said: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (John 10:11) A good shepherd does not run away when the wolf comes. A good shepherd is in good contact with his sheep. Jesus already knew that: I am the good shepherd and I know mine and mine know me... I know them and they follow me. (Joh 10:14.27b) I am the good shepherd - yes, who could say that.
Role model, we think, no not me. I'm not a saint, I'm not Mother Teresa. When the Bible speaks of the human example, it does not mean perfect Christians without fault or blame. Role models are people who are genuine in their beliefs
We may learn from the arch shepherd, Jesus.
And that means everyone should clarify and answer for themselves:
- Where is the spot in the church where I submit to someone else?
- And where is the place in the church where I take responsibility for someone?
Only where I can answer both do I live according to the word of the Bible.
- Jesus as a model whose footsteps we should follow
- the experience of injustice, suffering and pain on our life path
- bearing burdens and tribulations with patience
- and the hope in Christ.
Someone who leads and guides others should be able or master what a good shepherd must be able to do. He doesn't shy away from difficulties. He leads to a reasonable cooperation. He is able to suffer with, can be close to people in need. And even in painful moments you don't have to suffer from him.
Good that we have such a role model. And in this way we ourselves can become role models in faith.
We can only learn from what Christ did and did not do.
Instead, I can now be a role model above all in that I myself live most of the love and kindness and pastoral care and guidance of the good shepherd, every day, in everything I do, for my ministry, wherever it is , especially, but certainly not only in the leadership of the church.
Two weeks after Easter and its jubilant songs, the image of the cross again today, the path of Jesus' suffering. We come from Easter - the turn from death to life lies behind and at the same time before us. During these weeks, this tension was reflected: terrorist attacks; Force; War; People who are dying: no peace is spreading there, insecurity, distrust, fear is growing.
Right now we need the promise of our faith that not everything is left to die, that life breaks through all death: that not everything has to remain as it was and is. We owe the Easter message to those who do not know what to do with their grief, their fear, the victims of abuse and hatred: we owe them the rebellion of life against all violence.
The wonderful transformation of the wood on Jesus' shoulder, which became the tree of life - it is worth singing about and telling the story. Just as the wonderful Psalm 23 describes this Sunday “Misericordias Domini”, the mercy of God:
Lord is my shepherd / I shall not want.
The carelessness of faith is based on the care of the one shepherd. The sheep should entrust themselves to him.
Having a role model is a power that can move me. But that mostly stays in the mental and theoretical. Above all because it depends entirely on me and my strength whether I can really follow my role model.
The best example one can have is Jesus, the Archshepherd, the shepherd of all shepherds and of all flocks in the sense of the biblical image of the Good Shepherd. Let us not despise this old picture, but look at it and consider it.
You can only become a role model if you have a good role model, like the young mother does with her children on Sundays.
It is a blessing for us and our work, also for our cooperation in the kingdom of God, when we allow ourselves to be told something. If we are honestly looking for peace and are willing to put up with it once in a while. Francis of Assisi can pray and I want to do it with him and invite you too:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
that I connect where there is discord, and carry forgiveness in the midst of the sorrow that forgets you.
Amen