Sermon for the. Fourth Sunday of Easter – 8th May 2022: Acts 9:36-43, Psalm 23, John 10:22-3-

Deacon Christine Saccali – St Paul’s Athens

GOOD SHEPHERD TRUST

May I speak in the name of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN

Do you know what day it is today? Well, as I discovered while preparing this sermon, there are many answers. Here in Greece and elsewhere, it is Mother’s Day and in the Calendar of Saints we celebrate the feast day of Julian of Norwich, do come up and have a look at the icon on the altar, a gift, it usually resides on my prayer table.

In the lectionary, I know it is the fourth Sunday of Easter and we have been through the major resurrection appearances but today is Good Shepherd Sunday – our readings give us a clue or two. We are going to explore more deeply John 10 and the: ‘I am saying’ within it of Jesus, ‘ I am the Good Shepherd.’

The tradition of Good Shepherd Sunday is a long one spanning many Christian denominations reminding us we are all one flock under one Shepherd. We could do with this reminder with all the schisms and splits around in churches and society, at a time when we need to be unified as Christians. Our Collect, the prayer for today and this week, talks about trust and unification. They go hand in hand.

What did Jesus mean by saying he is the kalos poimenas in St John’s gospel? What does it mean for us today? We are reminded again, in this Easter season, that the Good Shepherd is willing to lay down his life for the flock and that nomadic shepherds used to lie as a gate across the makeshift sheepfold to ward off predators, this was part of his job.

This Sunday is also Vocations Sunday, when we pray for those seeking vocations within the church and for others to respond to the call but also to remember that each individual has a vocation within the church. The word vocation comes from the Latin vox meaning voice. Have you found yours?  Have you found your own voice as you listen out to the shepherd’s voice leading? Do you feel the trust in belonging as an individual and as a member of the flock?

In a very moving podcast issued by Church Times for the Festival of Preaching, Reverend Dr Sam Wells of  St Martin in the Fields  in London, refers to Psalm 23 so familiar to us all and a staple reading at funerals and memorials. It is set for today. A theologian and speaker, I much admire, Sam Wells said we should not have in mind the somewhat dirge and mournful Psalm sung slowly to the tune Crimond but think of the words of the first verse as upbeat and strong as we just sang it: the Lord’s my shepherd, I shall not want. As was intended originally, Dr Wells takes the first and seventh verses together then the second and sixth and so on, leaving the fourth central verse standing strongly on its own. These couplets give a whole new perspective to the over familiar psalm. It is a Psalm and story of tranformation for our context and for every context. It is an eternal, forever psalm.

Wells goes on to say this may not have been written for use at funerals, as is our wont, but for Ukraine and war torn and divisive situations which we have found ourselves witnessing to  our dismay. From afar but witnessing nonetheless. If Christ is truly our Good Shepherd, leading us, then he argues, we lack nothing. We can trust that God has provided and will provide more than enough in his abundance for us all even in desperate situations like disaster or war. It is when we are dissatisfied with our portion and feel we want to grab more for ourselves in our fear, insecurity and ruthless ambition that we take from others, amass wealth or invade sovereign territories.

When we look at the final verse, we see the outcome of satisfaction with our lot and trust in God, our belonging to part of the flock with the good shepherd as leader: Goodness and mercy shall surely follow me all the days of my life. That is if we follow the Good Shepherd and listen to his voice. Of course, we go off track at times, all silly sheep do. but we listen out for that voice calling us back by name. You can’t escape goodness and mercy they will get you in the end. You will never be short of  space with God, you will always be surrounded by love and abundance at His table.  God does not speak in the language of scarcity but love. We have to listen out for it.

And so we realise that we have always been a wandering people that we may have to be prepared to move to find pasture but there will always be provision and assurance of sustenance. We have before us a table of plenty with a place laid for everyone. As shepherd the Lord also protects us on our way – a bishop has a crozier to represent the shepherd’s crook which can lift up branches and other impediments. It is a staff to lean on and a sign to follow – rather like the umbrella of guides on a tour.

I do recommend you listen to the whole podcast; in a twist towards the end, Sam Wells reveals that in 1939 his grandparents fled separately from Ukraine and the Stalin regime to Berlin, and then to UK, where they married and had two children one of which was Sam’s mother who in turn had four children two of whom lived.  Sam is one of them. What a story! How does your narrative go, both personally as a follower of the Good Shepherd, and as a member of the flock, here at St Paul’s but also how does it fit in with the story of the wider church?

As we live as Easter and Resurrection people how does the narrative of the Good Shepherd within our story transform us and our context? Follow me, listen to my voice. What does it have to say to the Ukrainian situation and speak into the pandemic? What insights does the reading from Acts which must be used today have to enlighten us and offer us? We read here and observe that the disciples have moved on from being merely followers of Jesus and being witnesses to the resurrection and subsequent appearances. Now we see with the raising of Tabitha, a lovely narrative and encouraging one, that they can work miracles in Jesus’ name even raising people to life from the dead. This is reminiscent of Jesus himself raising Jairus’ daughter and Lazarus.

They and we, in turn, learn to trust ourselves by leaning on God for what is below while God deals with the above. Could it be that this is the same voice Mary heard in the garden by the empty tomb and mistook for the gardener then realised it was Jesus when he called her by name? All the resurrection appearances talk about how the disciples learn to recognise the risen Jesus. We need to do that too and listen to his voice in our life and the life of the church as we tend to ourselves and the flock in pastoral care while letting Him lead us. AMEN