Today’s Shepherds
Gate Pa – 4th Sunday in Easter- Year C - 2022
First Reading: Acts 9:36-43
to talk about the good shepherd tradition, and how the gospel writers and John in particular apply that to Jesus. This gives rise to 2 questions
- how do we pay attention to Jesus the good shepherd that we might follow his voice?
- how do we live out this tradition today?
For people to hear God’s invitation to feed God’s sheep, and to be good shepherds in our world today.
The Sermon
1.
Introduction:
The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.
A famous line from a favourite psalm for many.
It is the opening for the 23rd Psalm. A line that
some would argue helps establish a tradition within scripture that the gospel
writers deliberately pick up and use to make sense of who Jesus is.
The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.
The life of a Middle Eastern shepherd was tough and dangerous.
Leading the sheep to find good pasture and water. Protecting the sheep from thieves
and predators, both human and animal. Sleeping with them at night when out in the countryside. Scrambling to
find them when they got lost. High risk, low honour. Not romantic at all.
The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.
It was also an image applied to rulers = to set out what
might be expected of them. Rulers were shepherds of their people whose role was
to provide and protect. Few were that good. Too many got lost in their own self-importance,
wealth, and honour.
The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.
In contrast this psalm names God as the true good shepherd.
All others are held up against the standards of shepherding set by God. So,
what do we see in that Psalm?
The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.
We belong to the shepherd.
The shepherd is committed to us
With astounding generosity, the shepherd will provide all we
might need. Which removes the need for us to want more.
The shepherd strives to offer us life.
The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing.
Let’s stop and sit with that image for a moment.
What does it say to you in what is happening in your life?
2.
John and
the Good Shepherd
That image from Psalm 23 is used and reinterpreted by several
biblical authors to meet the needs of their time
e.g. – Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Zechariah
That image is used and reinterpreted by the gospel writers to
make sense of Jesus.
So, on this Sunday, the 4th Sunday of Easter each
year we hear part of John 10 and take time to reflect on Jesus the good
shepherd.
John’s gospel is written for a persecuted community. It is
thought that like much of the early church it included marginalised people who
found a place to belong within those first Christian communities. But their
claims were dangerous. To claim Jesus as the Son of God angered Jews who heard
this as blasphemy, as did the claim of messiahship. And Romans saw this as offensive
and treasonous as Caesar was, among other things, prince of peace and son of
god. Worshipping this crucified and dead
insurgent from Palestine in his place was insulting.
John’s community are actively resisting being assimilated
back into wider Roman society. The Jews among them are actively resisting being
assimilated back into the mainstream Jewish identity. From the letters of John,
we can see that there were divisions with their community, and too many had
found it too hard and left.
Out of this experience John writes his gospel to offer hope and life to this struggling community. To provide an anchor to their identity. To help them resist the pressure to stop resisting and to drift back to who they were before.
3.
Jesus the
Good Shepherd
Jesus is at the temple for the festival of lights or Hanukah,
which happens around our Christmas, and which celebrates the rededication of
the temple after the defilement by Syrian Greeks around 170BCE. It is a
celebration of the surprising defeat of oppressive Syrian Greeks and the end of
their attempts to assimilate Judaism into Hellenistic culture and religion.
These were not good shepherds.
And representatives of the current Judaean ruling class want
to know if Jesus thinks he is the messiah. They want to be rid of him. It is
winter.
But Jesus answers only by leaning into the good shepherd
tradition. “The works I do in my Father’s name
testify about me…” When we look at what Jesus does and says, we see God the
good shepherd. Is this also a veiled criticism of their leadership?
Jesus was living God’s is committed to all.
Jesus was acting with astounding generosity and providing all
we might need. Which removed the need to want for more.
Jesus was striving to offer life, and to free us from all
that traps us, enslaves us.
He was inviting us to know that we belong to the shepherd. All
belong, especially those pushed to the margins and declared less than. They
belong to God and God is their shepherd, our shepherd.
We belong to God. And that belonging is at the heart of everything.
Elisabeth Johnson[1]
says, “the Good Shepherd tells us that everything depends on belonging to him.
Never does our status before God depend on how we feel, on having the right
experience, on being free of doubt, or on what we accomplish. It depends on one
thing only: that we are known by the shepherd: “My sheep hear my voice. I know
them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish”
(John 10:28).
What did that mean for those disciples listening to Jesus in
the temple?
What would this have meant to those in John’s community
resisting persecution and assimilation.
What does it mean for us today?
4.
Tabitha/Dorcas
the Good Shepherd
There are some big and important themes in all of this.
Themes of connection and belonging, trust and hope.
And it would be easy to stop there. And maybe we do
sometimes. resting in the sense of God being our good shepherd.
But there is more to this theme.
Last week we heard Peter being invited/called to carry on the
work of the good shepherd. Three times “Feed my lambs/sheep”. So too we are
invited /called to carry this work on.
And in the story of Tabitha/Dorcas we are offered a story of what that looks like. A wealthy woman who seems to stand across the cultural divide with both a Greek and Aramaic name, and with wealth. She is named in this story – that doesn’t happen often. And she is called a disciple. She uses her resources to gather a community of widows. Women suffering the loss of their husbands, their place in the community and their financial security. Women marginalised by the wider community. And through Dorcas/Tabitha’s ministry their material needs are met, and they are given somewhere to belong. And in all that they are given a tangible experience of belonging to God. She is their good shepherd. And we still remember and honour her today.
5.
What about Us?
Another theme in all this is listening to the voice of the
shepherd. Last week we heard how Peter was eventually able to hear Jesus and
what he was saying, and to let go of his sense of betrayal and failure.
This week, through her ministry, Tabitha is able to help
those she gathers stop listening to the many voices who told those widows they
did not belong anymore and that they had no place and no value. The life of a
widow in those times was perilous. She helped them hear the voice of The Good
Shepherd and to know they belonged.
What are the voices at work today that tell us and others
that we do not belong and that we are of no value?
è how do we take time hear and respond voice
good shepherd?
è in what ways do we join Tabitha/Dorcas living
in ways that others might know they belong and can hear and see God the good
shepherd?
take moment reflect
talk neighbours?
[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-of-easter-3/commentary-on-john-1022-30-5
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