Good Shepherd Sunday

Sermon for Easter 4 – Good Shepherd Sunday

Acts 9:36-43
Psalm 23
Revelation 7:9-17
John 10:22-30

At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one."

Alleluia Christ is Risen! 

Today s the fourth Sunday of Easter.  Not the fourth Sunday after Easter.  We still have our Easter finery in the church.  However the Easter Lilies and other flowers are starting to fade.  For the secular world Easter with its cute bunnies and Easter egg hunts and oodles of candy – can you say peeps and cadbury cream eggs? – has faded into the background.  All around us society is already starting to think about the next holiday and the beginning of the summer season that is just around the corner.  But it is still Easter in the church.  How do we hold on to a celebration that lasts 50 days in our world of short attention spans?  How do we celebrate the joy of the resurrection when faced with the bombings at the Boston Marathon this past Monday and the manhunt that captivated the nation coming to a close with one suspect dead and the other captured and hospitalized in serious condition?

How do we celebrate Easter in the midst of violence and death?  And to top it off this Sunday is what we refer to as Good Shepherd Sunday.  It is a Sunday full of images of sheep and shepherds.  It was tempting for me to ignore the events of this past week and to preach about shepherds and cute sheep but instead the events of this week caused me to go deeper into the readings.

It useful to put the Gospel into context.  The setting is a cold December day.  It is the festival of the Dedication or as we know it today Chanukah.  It’s a far cry from our spring filled Easter setting.  The portico of Solomon is also the seat of judgment.  It is where the king would sit and pronounce judgment on the people.  And that is where we hear the people asking Jesus to tell them plainly if he is the messiah.  No more riddles.  And how does Jesus reply?  Seemingly in another riddle.  But behind that riddle is hope.  Jesus reminds the people of all that he has done in their presence.  Jesus has not only been telling the people that his is the messiah but he is demonstrating it though his acts.

Jesus then tells those people that because they are not his sheep they cannot hear – and I would add cannot see – that Jesus is the messiah.  There is a tenderness to this passage.  There is a promise of hope in the midst of doubt.  It is a two way street.  The sheep know the shepherds voice and the shepherd knows his sheep.  The shepherd will protect them.  There is a promise that we just have to listen for Jesus voice.  But it’s not that easy during weeks like this past week.  Weeks like this can make us doubt.  Another preacher I follow said “So often in church we talk about faith and that is a powerful thing to talk about, but to not claim the flip side of faith, the perpetual travelling companion of faith -- doubt -- means we are not leaving room for the real life experiences of people. Even the most faithful have moments of doubt. (Workingpreacher.org)”

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Where is Jesus voice in the midst of the destruction? Can you hear it above the roar of helicopters and ‘flash-bang’ grenades?  Can we hear Jesus voice calling us above the media frenzy that followed the manhunt all day on Friday?  The good news for us is that God is persistent.  Even when we doubt God’s presence we can – if we look find God’s presence.  We can see evidence of God in the reactions of those who – instead of running away from the bombsite – ran to the site to help those in need.  We can see God’s presence in a community that refuses to live in fear.  We can see and hear God whispering to us.  God will take care of us even in the midst of tragedy.  It can be hard to believe that God is present in times of tragedy but that is the good new of Easter.  God suffered death on the Cross and rose on Easter to prove to us that nothing on this earth can kill the love of God.  God’s love will pursue us all the way to the grave if necessary.  Let me repeat that – NOTHING ON THIS EARTH CAN KILL THE LOVE THAT GOD HAS FOR US. We can trust in that.  Even – and perhaps especially when we have doubts.  We hear it in our Gospel reading today - God’s promise that even from Solomon’s portico – from the judgment seat – that God knows us and we know his voice. 

We also hear that promise from the Psalmist today.  The Lord is my Shepard, I shall not want.”  When we are confronted by doubt and despair the psalms are good places to turn.  They express all the doubt, fear, anger and joy towards God that we experience.  There is one particular line in the psalm today that when translated differently emphasizes Gods relentless pursuit of us.  The last line of the psalm can be translated from the Hebrew to read “Surely Goodness and mercy shall chase or pursue me all the days of my live, and I will dwell in the house of the lord forever.” (Sermon Brainwave at workinpreacher.org)  In the midst of our crazy lives.  When nothing makes sense try saying the 23^rd Psalm.  Say it for your self or for someone else. Lynell has preached about using this psalm as a method to lift up to God people or situations when we don’t know how to pray.  Change the pronouns and instead of it being a personal response it can become a prayer for the victims or even the perpetrators of violence.

Lets try it together.  Change the pronouns anyway you want.  It can be for someone(s) in need of consoling or those who we don’t know how to forgive because of what they have done. (BCP 612)

1

The LORD is my shepherd; *
I shall not be in want.

2

He makes me lie down in green pastures *
and leads me beside still waters.

3

He revives my soul *
and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.

4

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no evil; *
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

5

You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; *
you have anointed my head with oil,
and my cup is running over.

6

Surely your goodness and mercy shall [pursue] follow me all the days of my life, *
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

God’s pursuit is never ending.  It is sometimes hard for us to hear or see the love that never refuses to die but it is there.  How will we hear God’s voice through the tumult?  It is not easy.  But the Easter promise is not one of judgment. The Easter promise is that God’s love for his creation can’t be killed.  I invite you to find a way to be able to listen for God’s voice in your life.  Is God’s voice there for you in the beauty of creation?  Is it in your relationships with others?  Is it in the beauty of worship and the sacraments?  The good news of Easter as expressed by the psalmist is that God will pursue us and call us all the days of our lives – even on those days we doubt in the goodness of creation and in the love of God.

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!