The Life of Sheep

Grace Episcopal Church, Madison NJ
April 25, 2010

Year C: The Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 9:36-43
Psalm 23
(Revelation 7:9-17)
John 10:22-30

The Life of Sheep

Each year when Good Shepherd Sunday rolls around, I think back to my time at General Seminary, particularly the many hours spent in the seminary chapel, the Chapel of the Good Shepherd.

Behind the chapel altar there is a line of large statues carved from Italian marble. The four Evangelists are there along with Peter and Paul and the Old Testament figures, Moses and Elijah. And in the center, towering above the other statues, is Jesus the Good Shepherd. In the statue the Good Shepherd is wearing long, flowing robes. His head is graced by a halo. In his left hand he holds a metal staff and in his right arm cradles a little lamb, while a larger lamb stands at his side.

This impressive statue of the Good Shepherd and his two lambs presents a warm, cozy, even somewhat sentimental scene.

But, there is nothing warm cozy or sentimental about the scene presented in today’s reading from the Gospel of John. I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but it bears repeating once again that this gospel was written around the end of the First Century, several generations after the earthly lifetime of Jesus.

It was written for a Christian community faced with the painful separation from Jewish life. Unfortunately, readers and hearers like us who are far removed from that painful separation, are left with a gospel that has been misused all too often by Christians to attack Jews. So, knowing that Jesus and all of his first followers were Jews, when we hear the people who challenge, criticize and ultimately reject Jesus referred to as “the Jews” we need to remember that this is shorthand for “the Jewish religious establishment” or “the Jews who opposed Jesus.”

Anyway, the little scene we heard today is a kind of follow-up to an earlier exchange between Jesus and his opponents when Jesus had declared, “I am the Good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus also said, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.”

Now the Evangelist John continues this shepherd and sheep talk between Jesus and his opponents. John tells us Jesus and his opponents are at the Temple, which would have definitely been the place to be because it was the festival of the Dedication – better known to us as Hanukkah – the festival that celebrates the re-consecration of the Temple after it had been defiled by pagan worship.

That location would have really resonated to the first readers and hearers of the Gospel since the Romans had destroyed the Temple several decades before the gospel was written. On top of that, the early Christians – and certainly the author of this gospel – were already thinking of Jesus as the new and eternal Temple.

So during Hanukkah and at the Temple, Jesus is once again challenged by his opponents. They want to know if he is the messiah, saying “How long will you keep us in suspense?” Another possible translation, which I like better, is something like, “How long will you annoy us?”

Jesus replies by returning to the shepherd and sheep imagery. This time, though, the image is more like Jesus the Good Shepherd entering the sheepfold and calling out to the sheep. Some, but not all, of the sheep respond to Jesus’ voice, put their trust in Jesus, and gather around Jesus – just like those sheep in the statue.

And we are some of those sheep, aren’t we? Somehow, some way, you and I have heard the voice of the Good Shepherd calling to us. Maybe we heard the voice of the Good Shepherd calling to us through our parents who raised us in the faith. Maybe we heard the voice of the Good Shepherd in a Sunday School teacher or in a sermon that made a powerful impression. Maybe we heard the voice of the Good Shepherd in a friend who offered comfort during a tough time or in the neighbor who invited us to church one Sunday.

Maybe we heard the voice of the Good Shepherd in the calling to us in the Word of God or in a thin sliver of bread and a sip of wine. Maybe we heard the voice of the Good Shepherd in the beauty of a hymn. Maybe we heard the voice of the Good Shepherd in the person who nagged us about getting out of bed and going to church on Sunday.

Somehow, you and I have heard the voice of the Good Shepherd. In our baptism, ready or not, we became members of his band of sheep. And later today at the cathedral a whole flock of our brothers and sisters will stand up on their own and confirm that, yes, they are sheep belonging to the Good Shepherd.

But, then what? Is that it? What is the life like for sheep who have heard the voice of the Good Shepherd? Are we sheep just supposed to be like the sheep in that statue – nice and warm and cozy with Jesus? Well, that’s part of it. That’s what we do here in church. This is a pretty warm and cozy place. Each week Lauren has to expend quite a bit of energy to wrap up the passing of the peace and continue the service. It’s obvious how comfortable people are here – how adults and children really see Grace Church as a second home.

But that warmth and coziness of community is just part of our life as sheep. The warmth and coziness we find here is supposed to strengthen us, to nourish us, to prepare us, to inspire us, to do our work out there in the world.

The sheep of the Good Shepherd are not supposed to spend all their time warm and cozy here in the sheepfold. No, the sheep of the Good Shepherd – you and I – are supposed to go out into the world and continue the work of the Good Shepherd.

In the seminary chapel statues of Peter and Paul stand alongside the statue of the Good Shepherd. Those two great apostles were among the first sheep who went out into the world and gave their lives continuing the work of Jesus.

Last Sunday we heard the powerful story told in the Acts of the Apostles of Paul’s encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus. Paul heard the voice of the Good Shepherd and it transformed him from someone who persecuted Jesus’ followers into a faithful apostle giving his life continuing the work of Jesus.

And today the author of the Acts of the Apostles shifts the focus to Peter – and makes two big points. First, the Good News has already spread beyond Jerusalem. The raising of Tabitha from the dead took place in Joppa – an important Jewish port on the Mediterranean.

The second point is that Peter has come a long way from the Peter we see in the gospels – the Peter who earnestly tried to understand Jesus’ message but usually fell short; the Peter who betrayed Jesus three times in his greatest moment of need. We’ve even come a long way from the Peter we saw last week, who not knowing what to do after the Resurrection, returned to his old life fishing out on the Sea of Galilee.

Today we see Peter after he has been transformed by the Holy Spirit. Today we meet Peter continuing the healing work of Jesus. In the passage just before what we heard today, Peter healed a paralytic – a very Jesus-like miracle. And today in the most Jesus-like miracle of all, the author of Acts tells us that Peter raised the faithful disciple Tabitha from the dead.

The point of all this is that Paul and Peter and the other faithful disciples heard the voice of the Good Shepherd and then went out and continued the healing work of Jesus. That’s the life of sheep.

Well, if the author of the Acts of the Apostles were writing today, he might note that the Good News has reached all the way to Madison, New Jersey. And I hope he would describe how you and I have heard the voice of the Good Shepherd, how we live the life of sheep by going out into the world continuing the healing work of Jesus.

What does that healing work look like for us?

Well, since we live in a materialistic society that values and judges people based how many and what kinds of things they possess, maybe we can continue the healing work of Jesus by living a different kind of life. Maybe, with God’s help, we can live into our baptismal promise to respect the dignity of every human being.

How else could we continue the healing work of Jesus?

Well, we live in a society that seems to be in love with violence – physical violence but also emotional and verbal violence. We live in a society that presents violence as entertainment, a society that believes violence solves problems, a society which all too often seems to reward the bully. Maybe we can continue the healing work of Jesus by rejecting violence and challenging those who use violence. Maybe, with God’s help, we can live into our baptismal promise to love our neighbor as our self.

How else can we continue the healing work of Jesus?

The most important way we can continue the healing work of Jesus is to allow the voice of the Good Shepherd to speak through us. We can allow the voice of the Good Shepherd to speak through us as we raise children in the faith. We can allow the voice of the Good Shepherd to speak through us when we offer comfort to someone going through a tough time. We can allow the voice of the Good Shepherd to speak through us when we invite a neighbor to church some Sunday and even when we nag someone we love to get up on a Sunday morning and come to this warm and cozy sheepfold.

Maybe, with God’s help, we can live into our baptismal promise to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.

Continuing the healing work of Jesus is risky, though. It was risky for Jesus himself and it was risky for Peter and Paul who both died violent deaths because they were sheep of the Good Shepherd. Yet they and we have the promise of Jesus – the promise that far outweighs any risks – the promise symbolized in that warm and cozy scene of Jesus the Good Shepherd holding his sheep.

Paul understood that promise when he wrote to the church in Rome that he was convinced that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Or as Jesus is quoted in the Gospel of John, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.”

Somehow you and I have heard the voice of the Good Shepherd. We come here to be strengthened and encouraged. Then we go out to continue his healing work in the world. That’s the life of sheep.

Amen.