4 Easter B

Transcribed from a sermon given on

April 29, 2012

By Rev. Valerie Hart

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

Psalm 23

1 John 3:16-24

John 10:11-18

The 23^rd psalm is very meaningful for me. as I know it is for many people. It is very meaningful for me especially because I remember when I was going through a very difficult time in my life it was so reassuring to hear that the shepherd walks with me. There was one point when I was in the hospital and I was on so many different medications that I couldn’t read. I was just totally out of it, but every time anyone would come and visit I would say, “Read me the 23^rd Psalm.” I wanted to hear it, to be reminded that the shepherd walks with me through that deep dark valley that I was in at that time and would lead me through it and to a better life - to green pastures, still waters, that are such wonderful images of care and love. And I know many of the rest of you have that sort of feeling about the 23^rd psalm.

So today is “Good Shepherd Sunday.” We read from John’s Gospel Jesus describing himself as the Good Shepherd. He is the shepherd that doesn’t run away but is willing to die for the sheep. It is that same love and caring about the sheep that we get in the 23^rd Psalm.

One of the things about the 23^rd Psalm is that it feels very personal. The Lord is my shepherd. I will not be in want. When you are really in a time of struggle you need to know that the shepherd is there for you as an individual. But I have never seen a shepherd have only one sheep. There is always a flock; there is always a group of sheep that the shepherd is taking care of. And the shepherd loves each and every one of those sheep the way it is expressed in the 23^rd psalm.

Also in this reading from John is one of the most inclusive scriptures, because Jesus says, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

Now there has been debate about whom he was referring to. Many people say that he was refereeing to the gentiles. That he didn’t come just for the Jewish people but also to the gentiles who would become Christians. But was it more inclusive than that? Who are those sheep that he wants to include in that one great flock. He doesn’t set any limits to it. He doesn’t say who is in and who is out. It sounds like everybody; he wants everybody in this flock.

Lets think a little about how a flock of sheep functions. The shepherd’s concern is for the welfare of all of the sheep. And like Jesus said, if one got lost he’d leave the others to take care of that one because he cares about each one of them, but normally, in a flock of sheep, they are either all healthy or they are all in trouble. But sometimes, sometimes there will be a couple of sheep who are a little bigger than all the rest so when they get to that still water they push the others out of the way and get that nice green grass that is growing near the edge of the water. And want to keep it all for themselves. They don’t let any of the other sheep there. And if that goes on for too long, those overly assertive sheep can get nice and fat. Maybe even too fat, because they are just eating up all the good grass while the other sheep get thin and mal nourished. You have to know that is not what the shepherd had in mind. The shepherd would not stand by and watch a few sheep thrive at the cost of the rest of the flock. A good shepherd would be in there and move those fat ones out a little bit. Make sure everyone got a chance. Make sure that all the sheep had a chance for the green grass. And that’s what Jesus is trying to represent.

He talks about himself as the good shepherd, but another for Christ that we work with a lot during the Easter season is the idea of Christ the King - that the resurrection of Christ was the breaking forth into the world of the kingdom of God. Christ’s resurrection is the beginning of the coming of the Kingdom of God with the promise that death is overcome and God’s reign is on the way. That reign of God that we pray for every day, whenever we say the Lord’s Prayer. “Thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That sense that the reign of God, of what God really wants, will come on earth. If you’ve read through Revelations the last book of the Bible you find that at the end we have the heavenly Jerusalem coming and merging with the earthly Jerusalem. Where the kingdom of God in heaven becomes one with the kingdom of God on earth.

So what does the kingdom of God look like? What does the reign of God look like? It doesn’t look like a kingdom where you have a rich king with lots of fancy jewels and a lot of poor peasants trying to pay for that. The kingdom of God looks like a shepherd with the king caring for the people, caring for the sheep. And so with Christ bringing forth that kingdom of God what does that look like and what’s our role in it?

Well this wonderful passage from the first letter of John has a very powerful sentence in it. That says, “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” We who define ourselves as Christians we who take upon ourselves the responsibilities to be a disciple of Christ have taken on the role of being assistant shepherds. We are here to help the shepherd. We are here to help the shepherd care for all the sheep - for that one flock. And it is our responsibility to follow the command of Christ to love one another, to care for one another, not just in speech but in action because each one of us through our baptism is called to help to bring in the reign of God, to help with this wonderful way of being that Christ initiated with his resurrection that is coming. And we are part of making it manifest. So we are all called to love one another as Christ, as the Good Shepherd, loves us.