Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is Jeremiah 23:1-6

"Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!" declares the LORD. ² Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: "You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD. ³ Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. ⁴ I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD. ⁵ "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.'

Let’s take a trip back in time to our childhood. Remember being introduced to playing cards? We watched our parents and others shuffle the cards. Some were so good at shuffling they looked like they could be a card dealer in Las Vegas. Do you remember struggling with the deck trying to shuffle like your parents? Inevitably our efforts resulted in 52 card pick up, cards flying all over the place. We also found it funny to do it to our friends and family. We would scatter the cards everywhere and expect someone else to pick them up. I remember being fascinated with the game or I guess it’s more of a joke, 52 card pickup. In this game which is easier, spraying the cards or gathering them up? Of course spraying them (spray the cards) is much easier and a lot more fun. But it isn’t very considerate if you expect others to gather up what you scattered.

The Lord declares to Jeremiah, "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!" He is talking about the kings of Judah including Zedekiah. They failed God. They did not carry out their divine assignment. They were supposed to serve God and be shepherds of His people. Instead they turned their back on God, His Law, and His people. They weren’t just incompetent leaders. The king’s actions caused God’s people to be destroyed and scattered. Just like the game 52 card pick up the kings had an easy and enjoyable time scattering God’s sheep. They were not being very considerate and they expected someone else to gather the people. The kings only wanted the benefits of being a king not the responsibility. They wanted to appear to be attending to their flock but in reality they were not.

Do we do that with our vocations? The king’s vocation was shepherd. He was responsible for caring for his people. What are your vocations? You are husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, employee, employer, actress, theater construction hand, CASA volunteer, pastor, musician, most importantly you are the priesthood of all believers. Are you seeking the benefits of your God given vocations without the responsibility? Do want to appear to be attending to your vocations but in reality you are not? Attending to your vocations is giving each one your God given best.

He is not asking for anymore than what He gave you. Your vocations are your divine assignments. You have more than one. Are you faithful to your calling, your divine assignment, your vocation?

Verse 2 is where it gets interesting. Notice in verse two God uses the word attends when talking about the shepherds, kings, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: "You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them." He points out they have not attended to the flock, in other words, taken care of. He uses the same Hebrew word for attend back at them, "Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD." Kind of sounds like something my mom would say to me when she saw all the cards scattered all over the place; "I’ll attend to you alright!" He is going to do to them what they did to His flock. He will destroy and scatter them.

Once the cards are scattered, what is next. Someone must gather them up. Here comes the Lord. He loves His flock so much that He is going to go through the tough part of gathering the flock from everywhere. He spends the time and energy to gather His people. If it’s anything like the deck of cards, they will be everywhere. I remember having to look under furniture, on top of cabinets. Sometimes I never did find all 52 cards. But God does the difficult thing and gathers everyone and cares for them, "Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply." You know when a flock is multiplying they are being cared for. Mike, I imagine it is that way with goats too. He not only cares for them but provides new faithful shepherds to watch and care for them. You see Jesus gather people to Him in the Gospel lesson. Once He gathers them He cares for them completely. In this case He feeds them. He satisfies all their hunger. First He feeds their heart with His words. Then He feeds their bodies with the bread and fish.

Now we get to verse 5 where God tells Jeremiah what He is going to do for you and me. "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD," This means it will happen. "when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely." Jesus is that righteous branch! Jesus reigns as king! Jesus not only reigns but He conquered. He took on the difficult task of gathering all your sins. You played 52 card pick up with your sins (spray cards) and He gathered all them to himself, every one of them. He won the game for you when He gathered you to Himself and washed away all your sins at Baptism, when He died on Calvary after collecting all your sins, and when He gives you His forgiveness of sins every time you ask for it in faith. He didn’t bring those sins back out with Him when He came out of the tomb. He doesn’t need to play anymore. He won; He conquered sin, death, and the devil. He attended to your sin. He destroyed and scattered it. That is why He is to be called 'The LORD is our righteousness.' You are righteous before God because of Jesus. He has given you the ability and strength to attend to your divine callings, your vocations, because He is your righteousness. He paid the price for you playing the game. You cannot win on your own; you cannot gather all your sins and pay for them. With Jesus, you always win because He won.

Amen.