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The Fourth Sunday Of Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday)
O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of thy people; Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calleth us each by name, and follow where he doth lead; who, with thee and the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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The Fourth Sunday Of Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday)
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postPriority: 3primaryPost found for date: 2021-04-25 with ID: 7053 (The Fourth Sunday Of Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday))
A Sermon by
The Rev. Dr. Alison Turner
✛
Loving Shepherd
audio_file: 257899
Loving Shepherd by Margaret Tarrant (1988-1959)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
As a young teenager I would go often go abroad with my parents ‘to the continent’, as we used to say, with my Aunt and Uncle in their prized possession, their VW affectionally called ‘The Vehicle’. At the end of one of these adventures we arrived before dawn at an unforgettable scene, an eerie mist covered battlefield with trenches still intact, trenches that had once been homes of horror to thousands of soldiers in the First World War. We were at Vimy Ridge Ahead of us and on the horizon stood the huge Canadian memorial bearing the names of over 11 000 people, announced or presumed dead. This endless list of names was profound. It was harrowing. Though our spirits were lifted just a little as we turned to leave, we saw the sun was rising behind this imposing monument. It was a beautiful scene though I was moved by something all the more surprising, a little lamb was being born by the entrance to the field. Since then, I have often been reminded that God brings us glimpses of life and of hope in the most unexpected of ways.
You may have your own sheep tales, though today’s gospel text uses powerful imagery that may be lost on many of us, especially of us city dwellers without the firsthand experience of rearing sheep or even shepherding them!
For many of us our most familiar sheep as the younger choristers were telling me yesterday, are found in cartoons or wonderful childhood stories of talking animals such as Brave Charlotte, Samuel the sheep in White’s Charlotte’s Web and the Dick King Smith’s The Sheep-Pig, better known as Babe. Or likened to cuddly soft toys we like to give out at baptisms, or Margaret Tarrant’s early 20th century romantic illustrations of children and animals seen on Easter greetings cards. Some of you may even have dressed as sheep right here with your children, or even terriers, on these very steps in Nativity pageants of the past. All these images however are far removed image from the universal and real flocks in the Holy Land where flocks’ fluffy fleeces are reddened by the dusty soil, or in Kenya where the Masai tribes lovingly graze sheep and cattle together, or the sheep found in the green pastures of Yorkshire or ‘Herriot’ country, the setting for those biographical novels like All Creatures Great and Small.
I imagine we don’t necessary value sheep or take them that seriously in our everyday city life, after all aren’t sheep seen to be weak, and lack both confidence or even direction? I wonder why Jesus, who in our gospel reading today is clearly following God’s Command, gives them so much attention?
According to Veterinary manuals, sheep are a prey species, and their only defense is to flee. They’re very social and symbolize loyalty, devotion and justice. And as the some of the younger choristers in their Theology class identified yesterday, they also both seek and accept protection, they know the Shepherd’s voice. They’re vulnerable and valuable and to Jesus they are priceless. Or as Rocco summarized. “They get scattered and lost in life just like we do.” The list goes on.
They boys also recalled the close relationship between sheep and shepherd in multiple songs and psalms that reverberate in our memories and move our souls. Psalm 23 that they have just sung is one of the great confessions of our faith: The song of the sheep who has heard God’s voice and allowed God’s care. There is very little that can ever compare in faithfulness, in love, in understanding, in loving relationship with God who sees that we are never in want. (And don’t’ forget boys, I will be asking you later just how many other sheep you have sung about in our service today.)
Sheep are one of the most persistent images in Hebrew scripture, aside from the Psalms, and also in the New Testament. Therefore, it would seem we are invited not
simply to pass by, but to pay attention to this creature which appears some say around 500 times in the bible.
From their first mention in Genesis, to scenes of Abraham and Isaac, of sacrifice, tribute and hope depicted in our beautiful window in which the wolf will dwell the lamb and a little child shall lead them. (Isaiah 11). We also recall the multiple times we both hear and also declare Jesus as the Lamb of God. And of us like Peter being called to care for one another, to love in truth and action, and to ‘Feed my sheep’. We hear of sheep and goats as an image of the kingdom, and in the trilogy of the parables in
In Luke and Matthew’s gospel we are given a vivid image of sheep that are both lost and found. And how often as we are reminded in Handel’s Messiah, we too are like sheep who have gone astray, (Isaiah 53) for we easily become panicked, self-doubting, fearful and uncertain and need to be loved in a way that Jesus can offer.
An image which is powerfully depicted behind the altar in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd at General Theological Seminary, here in New York City where many of your clergy have, or are studying, and is beautifully described by a fellow alum The Rev. Peters-Mathews:
‘In his left hand, Jesus holds a shepherd’s crook, a crozier, herding sheep as the ultimate overseer of the Church. In his right? A lamb held close to his chest, the way many of us might hold a cat we love. He stands looking out over the chapel, a place of silence and solace amid the noise and excitement of New York, with another sheep at his side. This sheep is leaned against Jesus, relying on him for support, demonstrating affection with touch.’
On the Fourth Sunday of Easter each year we are reminded of this very Shepherd image and of how Jesus has not only laid down his life for his friends, but his life was taken back up, defeating death, sin, and the grave.
Today, Jesus makes the distinction between himself, the Good Shepherd, and the un reliability of the hired hand. “The Good Shepherd,” Jesus says, “is loyal, committed, unswerving and willing up their own life to save the sheep”. Our text today, the second half of Jesus’ Good Shepherd narrative is remarkably vulnerable, and human giving us such a tender image that mirrors the writing of Phillip Keller [1] who reflects on his faith in the Good Shepherd in the light of his work as a shepherd when during a blizzard he goes calling and seeking for the lost little lambs and in rescuing them bundles them up close in his jacket. In these times the shepherd is laterally a life saver.
Jesus who too offers us comfort, protection and compassion says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.” Just As a shepherd knows their sheep more that just a number or name, they really know them both within and as a flock but especially as individuals. He knows us each and every one as well as part of us our celebrated strengths and hidden weaknesses. He too calls each one of us to listen to his voice, to turn from the voices of darkness and to play our part in sharing Christ love and in caring, protecting giving dignity to, respecting and upholding of one another to those in and outside the flock, just as we recently affirmed in our renewal of vows at Easter and recalled the sacrament of baptism where we are called by name not simply as a member of one particular flock or community, but ours, yes, our name! Names are so very important, aren’t they? Both their history and meaning, the people who chose them become so much part of who we are, whether chosen on our behalf or by ourselves our precious names say so much about us.
Our darkest brightest and times are marked by the calling of our name, at our baptism, conformation, even when we are admitted as a chorister, and too as we wait for that all important call, in the surgery, at our death and burial and as we are remembered.
Today we celebrate together that our name and indeed all of who we are is known by Jesus, the good compassionate Shepherd who is even constantly calling us close. This Jesus who knows and loves you and I, wants to comfort and protect us, wherever we are right now, here in-person or joining us from far away. For Danny, Cyra, Avery, JB, Rocco, Luke and each and every one of us, Jesus invites us, invites you, and I, to listen to his voice and then respond with all our heart, Oh Lamb of God I come.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Sermon Audio
References
| ↑1 | Keller, Phillip. The Shepherd Trilogy. (Michigan: Zondervan, 1996), 266-274 |
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