The Fourth Sunday of Easter
Sermon
21 April 2024
The Reverend James Shakespeare
O Lord, what we know not, teach us, what we have not, give us what we are not, make us all for your love’s sake. Amen
‘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.
I lay down my life for the sheep.’ (John 10.14-15)
A prayer to Christ the Good Shepherd, by David Adam, former vicar of Lindisfarne, evocative of the Biblical world of shepherding, whose deep resonances we need to re-capture today:
‘The herding of the shepherd
Keep you safe from danger
Free you from harm.
The herding of the shepherd
Keep you safe from sickness
Free you from alarm.
The herding of the shepherd
Keep you from despair
Have you in his care.
The shepherd’s love enfold
Keep you in his hold.
Christ our shepherd king
Our praises to thee we sing.’ Amen
How do make sense of the presence of Christ, in a world of lostness & anxiety? A world, for many, of grief and despair, of loneliness & confusion?
It was a surprising encounter and an excuse I’d not heard before...
On Easter Sunday just before Evensong, in my last Parish in Leicestershire, someone came into Church, whom I knew from one of our outlying villages - there were 16 in the area for which I had responsibility. He was a farmer. And he told me, with real regret, that this was the first service he’d made over the Easter weekend. The reason being that he’d been working non-stop in caring for his sheep - who’d starting lambing that very weekend… He looked exhausted, as well as relieved to have a few moments of peace, before returning to his flock. He even smelt of sheep!
It’s easy to forget, when we hear words describing Jesus as the good shepherd, that in Biblical times, sheep and shepherds were central to understanding the relationship between God and his people; for it was a predominantly rural society which many of us, being urbanites, can scarcely imagine.
Such was society’s backdrop, that the Bible inevitably described God in pastoral terms:-
· Today’s Psalm, 23, the best known of all Psalms, a Psalm of God’s loving protection, ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.’
· Psalm 80, ‘Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock.’
· Similarly, great rulers and prophets, such as King David, the shepherd boy who became king, are portrayed as ‘Shepherds’, in their care for God’s people.
· Isaiah prophesies ‘a shepherd who will shepherd thy people Israel’.
· In the great exilic prophet, Ezekiel, we find words of comfort, ‘I myself will search for my sheep & will seek them out… I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep… I will seek out the lost, bring back the strayed & bind up the injured.’
· +Jesus, in today’s Gospel, identifies himself as the good shepherd, our one true rock and guide; the intimate companion we can rely on, and need to stay close to, as we walk our earthly pilgrimage; ‘I am the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. I know my own and my own know me… and they will listen to my voice.’
The question is, what does such language tell us about God; and how does it help us to make sense of Christ today, in a world of lostness and confusion – let alone grow, ever more deeply, in the knowledge and love of God, day-by-day.
The reality of today’s world seems to be that we’ve lost sight of Christ the Good Shepherd, who cares for us intimately, knows us by name & gives his life in loving care of the sheep.
We live in a world, as if ‘without a Father or Mother’; or as Solzhenitsyn wrote, in the last century, ‘The greatest crisis of humanity today is that it has lost its sense of the invisible… men have forgotten God.’ And the impact of this is that as we forget God, so too we lose sight of the dignity of our fellow human beings, let alone of that transforming reality <in prayer > that lies at the heart of our walk with God; the one true source of hope & strength, in this vale of tears.
So many, today, feel lost and alone; and how easily the Church can forget, in all its divisions, to proclaim <with one voice> Christ the good shepherd, who cares intimately for his sheep, calls them all by name and reaches out to them with arms of love.
Our Gospel today reminds us that God in Christ, through his Spirit, is always faithful, always loving, always compassionate towards us. Christ the good shepherd has been here, and knows our every need; indeed he is with us (in the thick of it) and alongside us. He is not distant, but close. As St. Augustine wrote, ‘God is closer to us than we are to ourselves.’ God identifies with us, speaks to us, carries us – when we stumble or fall - & calls us by name. Yes, he is intimate to us, indeed abides within us, in our very depths, through his Holy Spirit.
And what is more, in his care for us, Jesus challenges us to do two things: firstly to learn – in prayer & discipline & meditation - to listen to his voice and recognise him <how great a challenge, today, with so many distractions, to really allow ourselves to listen>; and secondly, Jesus invites us to show that same Christ-like love to others: to offer genuine pastoral care, genuine relationship, genuine Christ-like community, always open to the other, to the outsider, to the one who is unlike us.
How much the world needs this Christ-like, open-hearted love; not least the anxious & lonely, the sick, vulnerable and marginalised, the oppressed & refugees. Yet we must always remember that our foundation, in all this work & witness – +how much I pray for the discernment of your new vicar at this time –must be Christ the good shepherd, and leaning on him; in prayer & silence & searching – before all else- the one who alone can give us strength, discernment and compassion, to reach out, as Christ’s hands and feet on earth. Finding time, daily, in prayer & silence, as well as (weekly) in belonging & communion, to be filled + transformed by Christ, our only strength & stay
As the Benedictine spiritual writer John Main, inspiration behind the World Community of Christian meditation, wrote of Christian prayer: ‘The task we have is to find our way back to our creative centre, where wholeness & harmony are realised… leaving behind all false images of ourselves… Learning to pray is learning to live as fully as possible in the present moment… to live as fully as possible with the now-risen and ever-loving Lord Jesus.’
Yes, all of us are called, lay or ordained, to model Christ’ compassion, generosity, mercy and justice, in God’s world and God’s Church; and we do this, above all, through leaning on Him, the Good Shepherd; being rooted in Him; and learning the essential disciplines of prayer, listening & discernment; of contemplation and action, rest and withdrawal; belonging & sharing, in communion with our brothers & sisters, without whom we are nothing.
Christ the good shepherd is always searching out his sheep & seeking us out. He is always caring for us, healing us, consoling us, and drawing us back to Him. All of us need Him, the one true guide and shepherd of the sheep. Yes, we all need Christ, and yet we must also - like my farmer friend – be prepared to roll up our sleeves and get involved, to make real the Father’s love. As Pope Francis writes, in his new book – A Good Life – essentials habits for living with hope & joy – ‘All human beings are united as brothers and sisters … bound together by God’s love for each of his creatures, which also unites us with tenderness and affection to brother sun, sister moon, and mother earth.’
Christ our Good Shepherd calls us to listen to his voice, to trust his love, and to share his bounty, offering healing balm to a torn & divided world, sharing with others in building that Peaceable Kingdom which Christ the Good Shepherd longs for. A kingdom of justice and righteousness, of mercy & peace; a kingdom in which people come from north & south, from east & west, to share in God’s gracious loving purposes, through Christ our Shepherd King.
Merciful Father, you gave your Son Jesus Christ to be the Good Shepherd, and in his love for us to lay down his life and rise again; keep us always under his protection + give us grace to follow in his steps; through Christ our Lord. Amen