Sermon Preached in St. Paul’s Athens (and on Zoom) on the 5th Sunday of Easter 2021: Acts 4, 5-12; John 10, 11-18)

Fr Leonard Doolan

 

In today’s gospel reading Jesus says ‘I am the Good Shepherd’. This has given rise to a particular Sunday in the Easter season being called ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’. So I begin with an apology. I got the Sunday readings mixed up and we should have read today’s gospel last week. If you are confused by this, you can imagine how confused I am. Anyway, with all that clearly sorted out  – back to the Good Shepherd.

Half of this chapter of John’s gospel is taken up with an extended pastoral metaphor. To begin, Jesus speaks of the sheepfold and how the sheep will know the voice of their shepherd, and not that of a stranger – and Jesus, by implication, is saying that he is the trustworthy Gatekeeper. St. John the gospel writers comments that Jesus uses this description as a ‘figure of speech’ (παροιμία).

As the word picture develops Jesus then goes on to say that ‘I am the Gate’ (John 10, 9). Thus far we are left understanding that Jesus is the Gatekeeper, and the Gate, and now he raises the image to its main point – ‘I am the Good Shepherd’.

This image is popular – but playing around with the image is not new, nor unique to Jesus. If we look to the Old Testament, and to the Prophecy of Ezekiel, (Ezek 34, 1ff) the prophet excoriates the spiritual leaders of the day for their bad practices as shepherds of God’s people. They are the ones directly responsible for scattering God’s sheep, with the implication that they have not been gatherers as a good shepherd would be.

Another helpful OT reference is the beautiful psalm (Psalm 23) which we will be singing at our Zoom service today, but which is said or sung in so many situations, perhaps in particular at funeral ceremonies.

‘The Lord’s my shepherd, I’ll not want, he makes me down to lie’. In its sung, or metrical version, it’s best known tune is called Crimond, and is taken from the Scottish Psalter of 1650, although it was composed by an Englishman called Francis Rouse who held various important appointments during the reigns of James II, Charles I and had a significant influence during the Commonwealth period of Thomas Cromwell.

So when Our Lord speaks of being the Good Shepherd there would be an automatic association in the ears of his hearers to the Psalm 23 that speaks of this particular image of the Lord.

In real terms, I don’t know whether I would make a good shepherd or not. I think I would know the front end from the back end, but not much more than that. While I was a priest for three Oxfordshire villages we had a good number of sheep farmers working the surrounding countryside. One used to do all his work on a quadbike, which he also drove furiously fast through the village streets, especially when it was getting near closing time in the village pub. Another would guide his sheep through the centre of the village to get them from one pasture to another – he sitting in his Land Rover, while his two dogs would keep the sheep rounded up and travelling (more or less) in the same one direction. This particular farmer had a very appropriate surname – he was called Lamb.

It is not a shepherd sitting on a quadbike, nor in a Land Rover that Jesus is describing to us. His is more of a relationship based focus – the sheep know the voice of the shepherd, and they will not follow the voice of a stranger. The shepherd also puts himself at great danger to protect his sheep – and with perhaps a hint of what is to happen at Golgotha – the shepherd even lays down his life for the sheep.

 

At the service of Ordination to the priesthood in the Church of England there are several references by way of analogy to this scriptural image.

The Bishop says to the deacons who are to be ordained priest that ‘They are to set the example of the Good Shepherd always before them as the pattern of their calling.’ To seal the relationship between the priest and people, the bishop reminds the candidates to,

Remember always with thanksgiving that the treasure now to be entrusted to you is Christ’s own flock, bought by the shedding of his blood on the cross.’ So the link between the words of Our Lord in today’s gospel reading are securely part of the living and working relationships within the life of Christ’s church.

As if to further emphasize the impact of the metaphor, St. John almost concludes his Gospel with a conversation between the Risen Lord and St. Peter. Three times our risen Lord says to him ‘Feed my lambs’, ‘Tend my sheep’, ‘Feed my sheep’. (John 21, 15-18). Of course, a good deal more textual analysis can be done on this conversation between Christ and Peter – but let’s look on this as Peter’s ‘second’ commissioning. Christ warns that Peter, as a follower of Jesus, will go into unchartered waters as he seeks to serve the church.

To see how this works out for Peter we largely depend on the book called Acts of the Apostles – roughly speaking split in two between recording the ministry of St. Peter, mostly in Jerusalem, and St. Paul in the wider Mediterranean region.

In this morning’s first reading we learn of an encounter between Peter and the religious ‘top brass’. At a gate in the temple called the Beautiful Gate, Peter has heaIed a well – known crippled beggar. The latter is seen later ‘clinging to Peter, as he walks in the Portico of Solomon. A few well known named people turn up to quiz Peter about all of this business – Annas and Caiaphas, whom we know from their participation in the events leading to the death of Jesus, along with Sanhedrin members, named as Alexander and John.

Peter gives an account of himself and his faith. He witnesses to the good news, to the good news about the church, and the gospel message that Jesus has been raised, despite what these religious officials had done to him in crucifying him. St. Peter is indeed a witness to the power of the Holy Spirit in action, and he witnesses in his evangelism, by naming the name of Jesus, crucified, and yet raised by the power of God.

So we may take some comfort from the beautiful and bucolic metaphor of Jesus as our Good Shepherd, and rightly so, but the relationship between us and Christ in the life of the church in the world is not all one way. We are called to take risks for the sake of the gospel, the good news of the Easter Christ. Alleluia.