4th Sunday
of Easter
April 26, 2015
Psalm 23; 1 John
3:16-24; John 10:11-18
In
case you hadn’t guessed from the readings, today, the fourth Sunday of Easter,
is Good Shepherd Sunday. Each year the
lectionary readings include the 23rd Psalm and a selection from John
10. This means that what’s different is the
Acts passage and the Epistle lesson from 1 John. Rather than all the passages having sheep in
common, what they all have in common is love, such as the love the shepherd
shows for the sheep. However, John’s
letter says “let us love, not with words or speech, but with action and truth.”[1] That is, after all, how a shepherd shows love
for the sheep, through his actions.
Simply telling a sheep “I love you” doesn’t really do much, whereas saving
a sheep from a wolf really shows the sheep how much the shepherd cares. So, let’s look at loving with action, pulling
actions from our other readings this morning.
First,
we need to trust the shepherd. Jesus says directly at the beginning of our
Gospel passage, “I am the good shepherd.”
If we accept Jesus is our shepherd, we need to trust him to shepherd us:
to lead us, to provide for us, and to protect us. We also need to get over being compared to
sheep. It turns out that sheep aren’t
really all that dumb and that was a myth started by cattle ranchers.[2] You see, you can’t herd sheep the same way
you herd cattle. Cattle are herded by
cowboys and dogs at the rear of the herd, driving the cattle from behind to go
where you want them to go. But you can’t
drive a sheep the same way; sheep must be led from the front, and they will
follow a leader. Rather than being
pushed from behind, like cattle, we look forward, keeping our eyes on Jesus,
“the author and perfecter of our faith.”[3]
Jesus will lead us, if we will trust him
enough to follow, and he will provide for us.
“The relationship to God that God intends for us is not possible if we
hedge our bets about the sufficiency of God’s love or depth of God’s
mercy. We cannot keep [riches and
wealth] on speed dial, fearful that God might fail to deliver”[4]
Either we trust God is enough, or we don’t, and our actions will show it. I’m sure you’ve heard as well as me that if
you want to see where your priorities are, look at your checkbook. See where you spend your money. Do your spending patterns reflect trust in
God’s provision? Or are you keeping
money on speed dial in case God doesn’t?
You
see, trusting the shepherd means that we keep
our fear in check. As the 23rd
Psalm puts it, “I will fear no evil.”
The translation we read this morning simply says, “I will not be
afraid.” Another version says, “I fear
no danger,” putting this action in the present tense rather than in the
future. This isn’t an action for the
future, this is something for now. I am not afraid. I fear no evil. What this means is that I do not give in to
runaway fear and panic. At some point in
time we all have, with something that just overwhelmed us, whether a medical
diagnosis or losing a job or losing a loved one or an event in our community or
some other thing that just took the rug out from under us and, rather than
remembering God’s promise to provide and protect, all we thought was, “What do
I do now?” It’s human nature to panic
for self-preservation when our existence feels threatened. But the faithful response is to say with the
psalmist, “yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” or
“even if I go through the deepest darkness,” I am not afraid.[5] I fear no evil. I am comforted and protected by God. You see, evil is going to come. The devil is going to try his best. We all know that. Just because there’s a shepherd doesn’t mean
there are no wolves. God doesn’t promise
no danger, he promises protection in
the midst of the danger. So, “to accept
God as the good shepherd means to live in the presence of evildoers, mindful of
the life-destroying harm they can unleash against us and our loved ones, and
determined to keep our fear in check.
The relationship to God that God intends for us is not possible if we
are constantly soul sick in fear of evil.”[6]
Living in fear is no way to live.
That’s why, instead, God prepares this table,
this feast, for us in the presence of our enemies, in the midst of evil. God calls us to abundant life, but we can’t
claim it if we’re living in fear. So
instead, God sets this banquet for us where everyone can see us. That’s why the Bishop asked that our prayer this
morning for our community be outside,
on the front steps of the church, where everyone can see us. We are a witness to our community that we
stand with them and that we stand in spite of the fear of evil. The table is set in the presence of our
enemies, and Satan’s going to do his best to undermine it, like the feast at
the end of the Chronicles of Narnia. The
last book is called The Last Battle,
and a chapter near the end of it is titled, “How the Dwarfs Refused to be Taken
In.” Almost everyone enjoys the banquet
feast that Aslan sets at the end, everyone except the dwarfs. They insist on believing that they are in a
dark, stinky pig pen eating rotten food and cannot believe that it is a beautiful,
delicious feast. The dwarfs lived in
fear of being taken in and deceived, to the point that they could no longer see
God’s goodness, either. In contract, we
keep our fear in check. We fear no evil,
because we trust in the Good Shepherd.
Finally,
Jesus says that love means laying down
one’s life for another, self-sacrifice.
There was a point in the latest Divergent movie, Insurgent, where a character claims to be selfless by sacrificing
his family, and my friend commented that that’s not really what it means to be
selfless. Self-sacrifice is giving up yourself,
not someone else, and that’s the kind of costly discipleship Jesus calls us
to. To quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “When
Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.” I can remember the first time I
felt love this strongly; I was in college.
One summer my sisters, who are both younger than me, and I were in horrible
car accident that totaled my car and the emergency responders told us we were
lucky to not be hurt any more than we were.
In the aftermath of the accident, I felt that I would rather die than
let either of my sisters go through anything like that again, that’s how much I
loved them. Love so strong that you’d
rather die than see someone get hurt. Laying
down one’s life for another, in practical terms, though, doesn’t usually
involve death. Laying down one’s life on
an everyday basis means putting others first and living for the good of others,
not selfishly, not thinking only of how something would benefit you, but
thinking of others first. It is sharing
with those in need, which is also what our reading from 1 John tells us. “If a person has material possessions and
sees a brother or sister in need and that person doesn’t care – how can the
love of God remain in him?”
Brothers and sisters, our community is in
need. First and foremost, it is in need
of our prayers. The leaders of
our community need our prayers, as well its members. We, the church, have a unique place in the
community as we represent Christ here, in the midst of the people. We represent Christ, who laid down his life
for us. We represent Christ, who is the good shepherd, who doesn’t run
away when the wolf comes, who knows his sheep and leads his sheep and gives up
his life to protect the sheep. We
represent Christ who prepares a banquet for us, where all our enemies can see
us, and that is what we do for others.
We do not let fear get the best of us.
No, even when we walk through the deepest darkness, we still fear no
danger, and that calm and that peace and that reassurance we share with our
community. Christ welcomes us as honored
guests and fills our cups to the brim, and that is also what we offer to our
community. We welcome and treat everyone
as honored guests, and fill their cups to the brim. Christ promises a glass that is full to overflowing,
abundant life, an extravagant and generous love, and that is also what we have
to share with our community.
Let us pray…
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