Sermon
Easter IVYear B
26/4/15
Booval
Readings
Psalm 23
Gospel: John 10:11-18
+INFSHS
Some of you will be aware that I am a passionate Trekkie. I love losing myself in the world of Star Trek. I suppose you could hardly grow up in the 1980s without being aware of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D. But I didn’t feel a real resonance with the franchise until I watched Star Trek: Voyager, which tells the story of Captain Janeway and her crew, cast 70000 light years away from home by an anomaly, and their epic journey of trying to get back to the Alpha Quadrant where Earth is located. In one of the Voyager episodes called Good Shepherd, the ship’s been travelling through an uninhabited region of space, nothing dramatic going on, everyone at peak efficiency – and therefore housekeeping that usually goes by the wayside starts being done. Janeway orders assessment done on all crew, identifying those who are underperforming. Three crewmembers are found to be not pulling their weight. Janeway takes them under her wing directly, thinking that personal attention from the Captain will make them pull their socks up – she casts herself as the Good Shepherd seeking out the straying sheep. Only it’s not as easy as she thinks. Each of the three crewmembers have personality issues, and a reluctance to overcome them or change or adapt to circumstances. There’s the inevitable crisis in which they have to face their issues and pull together in spite of everything – and so become fine upstanding Starfleet officers. But Janeway has also learnt her lesson: Sheep have got to want to be led. Or be prepared to be led. You can lead a sheep to pasture but you can't make it eat or drink. The shepherd might be good, but can the sheep recognize it and respond?
When we think of the Good Shepherd image, it usually evokes pastoral, comforting, “nice” images, pictures we’ve seen, stained glass windows, etc. What does it mean, though? What do we mean by "good"? Good, as opposed to what?
Jesus himself sets up a dichotomy in the gospel passage for today. He contrasts what it means for him to be the Good shepherd with those hirelings who are not good to or for the sheep. It’s easy for us to situate ourselves on the side of “good”, as though we were the sheep hiding behind Jesus’ coattails as he berates and tells off the “bad” hireling undershepherds. But it ain’t necessarily so. Because the truth of the matter is that if we identify with being sheep here, it’s not just the comforting idea of Jesus the Good Shepherd leading us by quiet waters in green pastures. It’s not just the lovely thought of being the lamb carried on his shoulders, or the lost sheep being sought and brought home. But the fact that we’re among the critters in the sheep pen jumping on each other, vying at the food trough, and, if we’re talking about being the lost sheep that gets found, well, what of getting lost in the first place? Having a tendency to follow our own way? There’s a reason Jesus talks about being the Good Shepherd, rather than being the shepherd of good sheep.
Having said that, the point of Jesus being the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep is about the sheep knowing him, him knowing them, and the sheep becoming one with him. What Jesus shares with the Father, he desires to share with the sheep. If he is the Good Shepherd, then the sheep will be united with and by his goodness. What is his goodness? His goodness is his love which puts the sheep ahead of himself: later he’ll tell his disciples: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down their life for their friends. You are my friends.” Goodness is a quality which is relational, and which seeks the benefit of the other. In being Jesus’ sheep, we are made good, united with him. We are his friends, those for whom he laid down his life.
If we’ve been made good, then what of the fact that we don't always behave like it? There's a reason Luke tells the parable of the shepherd who has to go looking for the dumbass sheep which decided to wander off on its own and got stuck. The question is: can we bear goodness? The people of his day couldn't bear Jesus' goodness – and they killed him. That says something about the nature of goodness. We can taste it for a little while, but like silly sheep we struggle to comprehend the goodness of a shepherd who lays down his life defending the silly woolly-headed muddlers. That kind of goodness shows up lack, lack in us, lack in the hired hands who are not the Good Shepherd. And we/they don’t like it.
There’s another kicker here. And that is that we put ourselves in the place of the sheep, dependent on Jesus the Good Shepherd. And that’s not a bad thing, because we are dependent on him, and for his goodness we owe him our lives and love. But he also says that there are sheep out there who are not yet part of the fold, and they too must be brought. If we are united with Jesus, the Good Shepherd, then we too are called and invited to be good shepherds – with all that entails, including concern for gathering and bringing his sheep into the fold. The call is to be good shepherds, willing to risk it all for the sake of sheep out there. We shrink from that.
When Jesus talks about laying down his life for the sheep as the Good Shepherd, we take him to mean the cross and his death. It’s more than that: the “good” of the Good Shepherd is for the sheep - and John’s gospel makes that clear in the sweep of the incarnation, the Word made flesh, made human. Laying down his life is more than about Jesus’ dying; it’s an orientation of all of who and what he is, his life lived for the sheep. If we are united with him, called to be shepherds with him, then we too as his own share his orientation. The church exists not for itself, but for the world. We here exist as St Margaret’s, not for ourselves. Not for warm fuzzies or fellowship with our friends. Not for the various things we’re part of. Although all of those things are good and important in themselves. The purpose of who and what we are is for the sake of those sheep who are not yet gathered into the fold… This isn’t easy to hear, because we like things the way they are. But the invitation to be shepherds after the pattern of Jesus the Good Shepherd is about willingness to lay down life as it is for the sake of the sheep, and for the sake of their growth and being connected with Jesus the Good Shepherd. Because what’s the big thing that comes from Jesus laying down his life? New, eternal life. The multiplication of the grain of wheat falling to the ground and becoming a harvest. In God’s economy, whenever life is laid down willingly for the sake of others, growth abounds. If we are good shepherds united with Jesus the Good Shepherd, we have every confidence that the willingness to lay down life as it is will result in yet more life. And therefore there is nothing to fear.
What does this all mean? It’s Good Shepherd Sunday, you might be thinking, and instead of being cosseted in the cotton wool of comfort, here we are being discomfited! Rightly so: Jesus came to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable. When we think about the Good Shepherd, what makes Jesus “good” is his life lived for the sheep, for others, for the Father. Good is relational: it seeks the benefit of the other. We find that confronting because it shows up where we have not lived life with the awareness of others. We are both sheep who know and hear Jesus’ voice, as well as those called and commissioned to be good shepherds as he is, the life of our community not lived for us, but for God, and for those who are Jesus’ sheep who are not yet here.
I’ll finish with a final thought, and that is this: all of this hinges on knowing and being known by Jesus the Good Shepherd, and on being able to hear his voice. How do we know where to seek for his sheep unless we first listen to him, learn from him, be with him? The key to being both good sheep and good under-shepherds is to be with him in such a way as his goodness rubs off on us, to spend time with him until his life is ours in every way, until we think his way, walk his way, do what he does.This means daily prayer, reading scripture, reflecting with others, participation in the eucharist. May we hear the irresistible call of the Shepherd's voice. And respond to his overwhelming love with our love.
Christ is risen. Alleluia!
He is risen indeed. Alleluia!
1