Rev David Diller’s sermon was “The Power of Life,” based on John 10:11-18.  As there are two ways, the wise & the foolish, Jesus tells us there are two shepherds, the caring & the counterfeit.   The caring one, the Good Shepherd, comes from God.  He presents God to us as he lays down his life for the sheep.  We meet God in Jesus.  As Jesus says in John 10:30, “I & the Father are one.”  First, unlike many popular views, Jesus is not a third party, who steps into our place to bear the Father’s punishment meted out for sin.  There is no swapping going on here to save our souls.  Instead, out of God’s great love for us, it’s God in Christ who dies for our sins.  There’s only God coming to us in love in Jesus, & we either accept or reject God on the Cross.  Weren’t not offered a “Substitutionary Atonement” doctrine to believe or reject, but a personal relationship with a God whose love for us knows no limits.  Second, Jesus is no non-human, ideal, perfect being, but a concrete historical character who becomes our model for thinking & living.   In John’s Gospel, Jesus is always victor, never victim – he lives out of a relationship of love & confidence, not out of fear & uncertainty.  “Quit beating yourself up – God didn’t make any junk.”  Third, & finally, God loves you & everyone else as an individual.   Jesus knows his sheep (those who acknowledge him) by name, but he has other sheep not of this fold (everyone else is also loved by God as much as those who know they are), so in the end, God’s salvation is for everyone.