Fourth Sunday of Easter

The Lord is my shepherd.  It is one of the most beloved and comforting images of God, and one of the most common.  It is a recurring image of God in the Old Testament, and it is a recurring image of both God and Christ in the New Testament.  John chapter 10 has an extended discourse on Christ as the good shepherd.  Today, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is sometimes nicknamed Good Shepherd Sunday, because each year we read one of the three sections of the good shepherd discourse in John 10. There is plenty in these images of the Good Shepherd that makes for good sermons.  However, as the preacher Barbara Brown Taylor notes, “somehow or another the preacher must deal with the congregation’s likeness to sheep, which does not always sit well, since most of us think of sheep as slobbering, untidy, dumb animals who exist only to be shaved or slaughtered.

She says, “Imagine my delight, then, when I discovered that someone I know actually grew up on a sheep farm in the Midwest, and that according to him sheep are not dumb at all.  It is the cattle ranchers who are responsible for spreading that ugly rumor, and all because sheep do not behave like cows. Cows are herded from the rear by hooting cowboys with cracking whips, but that will not work with sheep at all. Stand behind them making loud noises and all they will do is run around behind you, because they prefer to be led. You push cows, my friend said, but you lead sheep, and they will not go anywhere that someone else does not go first--namely, their shepherd--who goes ahead of them to show them that everything is all right.  Sheep tend to grow fond of their shepherds, my friend went on to say.  It never ceased to amaze him, growing up, that he could walk right through a sleeping flock without disturbing a single one of them, while a stranger could not step foot in the fold without causing pandemonium. Sheep seem to consider their shepherds part of the family.”

This sense of the sheep’s relationship with a leader they trust like a family member is key to understanding several aspects of this passage.  One of them is the confrontation between the questioners and Jesus.  The Jews gather around Jesus and say something that is translated in this version as “How long will you keep us in suspense?”.  When I did my scripture study, I learned that the phrase in Greek is literally, “How long will you take away our life?” which can also mean “How long will you continue to annoy us?  I kind of like the drama of that.  Now that I think of it, when someone is being really annoying over and over again, it does kind of feel like “how long will you continue to take away my life?” 

However, it does not feel like a positive form of drama.  When they say, “How long will you take away our life?  If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” That doesn’t feel like this is a friendly interest in getting to know Jesus better in order to cultivate a warm and trusting relationship.  It feels adversarial to me.  And it seems to feel adversarial to Jesus.  He responds, “I have told you, and you do not believe.  The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.”

Why does Jesus respond this way?  It may be because what they have in mind when they say “Messiah” is someone to recruit an army and overthrow the empire.  What Jesus has in mind when he says “Messiah” is someone who will wash his disciples’ feet in an act of humble service, and be crucified by the empire. 

It may be because they are looking for a way to accuse Jesus of either blasphemy or sedition and they want a statement they can base those accusations on.  Or it may be that there is something else going on here too.  One of my favourite quotes is from Maya Angelou, who says, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.”  There are plenty of people who will tell you they are nice people.  But they will show you who they are when they treat someone disrespectfully, or talk about people disrespectfully.  There are plenty of people who will tell you they are honest, but they show you who they are when you see them get away with some lies, or some financial actions that are not quite above board.  Angelou warns us not just to listen to what people say, but to believe them when they show you who they are. 

And if you want to develop a relationship with a person, you can’t do it by asking them for a self-definition. You can only do it by seeing them gradually show you who they are, and believing them.

Jesus is saying, in effect, “when I show you who I am, believe me.” “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me, but you do not believe.”  If you just want to argue, instead of to develop a relationship, then you won’t see when I show you who I am, and you’ll never get to know me. 

The sheep already know their shepherd, not because he’s explained to them the terms in the shepherd job contract, but because the shepherd has shown them his care for them, his love for them, his family bond with them. 

It is a wonderful thing when we hear Jesus say, “My sheep hear my voice.  I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.  No one will snatch them out of my hand.”  It is a wonderful thing, unless there’s someone who’s feeling some anxiety about all this.  Maybe you go through the motions but can’t quite say what you believe.  You want to hear the Lord’s voice but you can’t quite make it out. 

I love the way Barbara Brown Taylor explores this, and the way she puts it, which I’ll quote at some length.  She asks, “On what grounds do most of us doubt our membership in Christ’s flock?  Who keeps us out?  Is it the Lord himself, blocking our way with his shepherd’s staff?  Or do we do it all by ourselves, disqualifying ourselves from the flock because we do not believe, or believe enough, or believe in the right way?

“Most of us have pretty firm beliefs about what it means to believe.  One common belief is that believers are never at a loss for words.  They can always say what they believe and why, and they speak about their faith in ways that move and convince others.  They are never embarrassed to be asked what they believe or shy to answer; they are always articulate and eloquent and wise.

“Then there is the belief that believers are in constant touch with God, so that they understand what happens to them every day, or at least have enough faith to accept it gracefully.  Consequently, believers are never doubtful or afraid.  They live in total confidence that they are in God’s hands, and when they say their prayers at night God talks back to them.

“Another popular belief is that believers invariably find worship a meaningful experience.  They act on what they hear from the pulpit, they mean every word of the Nicene Creed, and their hearts are strangely warmed at communion.  Believers….never feel bored, or cranky, or left out.  They have an unfailing sense of belonging, to God and to one another. 

“Have I gotten to your belief about believing yet?  What is it that you hold over your own head?  What golden ring is it that you place just high enough so that you can never quite reach it?  Is it that you do not pray enough, or witness enough, or read enough theology?  Is it that you are not knowledgeable enough, or enthusiastic enough, or sure enough about what you believe?  Whatever it is, please stop it.  Please stop exiling yourself from the flock because of your beliefs about what it takes to belong and see if you cannot allow yourself simply to belong because God says you do.

“’You do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep, Jesus says, but then listen to what he says.  He does not say that we are in or out of the flock depending on our ability to believe, but the exact opposite, in fact.  He says that our ability to believe depends on whether we are in or out of the flock, and there is every reason to believe that we are in, my woolly friends, if only because we are sitting right here with the flock this morning.

“If that is the case, then chances are that the way true believers believe is the way most of us believe: valiantly on some days and pitifully on others, with faith enough to move mountains on some occasions and not enough to get out of bed on others.  Since we believe what we cannot know for sure, our belief tends to have a certain lightness to it, an openness to ambiguity and a willingness not to be sure about everything.  Our belief is less like certainty than like trust or hope.  We are betting our lives on something we cannot prove, and it is hard to be very smug about that.  Most of the time the best we can do is to live ‘as if’ it were all true and when we do, it all becomes truer somehow.”

“Our belief tends to show up in our actions more than in our words.  Sometimes even we have to look at what we do to understand what we believe.  We are not, at heart, believers in an institution or an ideology but in a relationship that changes from day to day and year to year….Some days we are as firm in faith as apostles and some days we are like lost sheep, which means that we belong to the flock not because we are certain of God, but because God is certain of us, and no one is able to snatch us out of God’s hand.”

“Be patient with yourself, and while you are at it, be patient with the rest of us too.  You cannot follow a shepherd all by yourself, after all.  You are stuck with this flock, or some flock, and everyone knows that sheep are, well, sheep.  They panic easily and refuse to be pushed.  They make most of their decisions based on their appetites and they tend to get into head-butting contests for no reason at all.  But stick with the flock.  It is where the shepherd can be found, which makes it your best bet not only for survival, but also for joy.

“Above all, understand that you belong here, as part of the flock.  If you do not believe anything else, believe that—that whether you are here because you believe or because you want to believe, you are here because you belong to God’s sheep just like the rest of us.  And because we do, we hear his voice, and he knows us, and we follow him, and he gives us eternal life, and we shall never perish, and no one shall snatch us out of his hand.  Believe it or not, here we are, and here we belong.”