Sunday Sermon 3rd May 2020
John 10: 1-10 FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
I come from central London and I grew up in a high-rise apartment in a
busy city environment. So when we moved to New Zealand in 1982, you can
imagine how amazed I was to see such a lush green country. I was also fascinated with the sheep and cows everywhere. At that time, I think that NZ had 3 million people, and 60 million sheep. They were everywhere.
I couldn’t help but point at them and say “look, sheep” to anyone who would listen, but I can tell you that my husband and even my sons got fed up with me. Once I took my youngest son Sam on a kindergarten trip to a local farm and I even got to bottle-feed some lambs. I think I was more excited than all the kids.
I have to say that most of the shepherds I could see were whizzing around on quadbikes and I am not sure how much they had in common with the shepherds of ancient Israel, the kind of shepherd which Jesus talks about. The shepherd was a common image used for those who were rulers, from ancient Egypt to Israel. It reflected both strength and nurture. It was an image of engaged leadership. That King David was a shepherd and the beloved king of Israel just strengthened the image. He demonstrated strength and caring authority over his people.
The image of God as a shepherd is also a prominent image in Hebrew scripture. Several psalms speak of God as a shepherd, and many of the prophets also picture God as a shepherd. Shepherd texts evoke images of a compassionate God who is close to his flock and cares for their needs. This was also the role of the religious authorities, those who exercised both spiritual and social leadership. Sometimes we preachers give the religious authorities who opposed Jesus a rather hard time.
It is not that they were terrible people; rather Jesus criticsed their narrow vision and lack of understanding. Some of them just refused to remove the blinkers because they could not contemplate that there was another way to teach people and serve God.
At times, we see Jesus in conflict with them because of their failure to care for the people, and their failure to look beyond the religious Laws: their failure to look at the people as children of God, and their willingness to punish rather than love.
These same authorities accused Jesus of ignoring the laws, but as the Gospel of Matthew tells us, Jesus said “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” Jesus was committed to the Law and he was committed to love the people
So when Jesus identified himself not as any old shepherd, but as the good shepherd, a shepherd prepared to die for his flock, people knew what he meant. He was also identifying himself with King David. It’s a strange thing, but people who know very little of the Bible are quite often familiar with Psalm 23, a psalm of David. It’s a passage which is often asked for at funerals. There is something very personal and I think very comforting about this, which is probably why it is so known and so well loved. We can all understand the confidence, the tenderness and the care it expresses.
When we remember all the things David experienced, he could still write a song of trust about God’s love for him through the joys and difficulties of life, and his experiences left him with implicit trust in God. God is described as the shepherd who lovingly cares for his sheep, who guides, leads and protects. And as a host to honoured guests, providing a banquet to satisfy. Most importantly, this psalm helps us to understand that God is just as present in the field as in the banqueting hall. In the famine and the feast. In company or in isolation. There is no part of our lives in which God is not present or God does not care for us.
I think that today’s Gospel ends rather abruptly; it is only half the story, as far as I am concerned. But if I may, I would suggest that you might like to read the next few verses of this Gospel, because it helps us to understand who Jesus believes he is and exactly what his ministry is: he is the Good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. And we are his flock. We hear his voice and we follow him.
But back to the NZ sheep. When we travelled from the little town of Paraparaumu where we lived to Wellington, the railway lines used to cut across the fields where the sheep were. It always surprised me that despite the presence of a noisy long train clattering through their fields, the sheep would just stand there eating the grass and not seem to notice the intrusion or the danger.
My prayer for each one of us is that we know that Jesus is the good shepherd, who walks with us every day, in the famine and the feast, and will never ever leave us. We can rest easy knowing that we are so loved, that when the great trains of life clatter across our fields, we can be as serene as those sheep.
AMEN
I come from central London and I grew up in a high-rise apartment in a
busy city environment. So when we moved to New Zealand in 1982, you can
imagine how amazed I was to see such a lush green country. I was also fascinated with the sheep and cows everywhere. At that time, I think that NZ had 3 million people, and 60 million sheep. They were everywhere.
I couldn’t help but point at them and say “look, sheep” to anyone who would listen, but I can tell you that my husband and even my sons got fed up with me. Once I took my youngest son Sam on a kindergarten trip to a local farm and I even got to bottle-feed some lambs. I think I was more excited than all the kids.
I have to say that most of the shepherds I could see were whizzing around on quadbikes and I am not sure how much they had in common with the shepherds of ancient Israel, the kind of shepherd which Jesus talks about. The shepherd was a common image used for those who were rulers, from ancient Egypt to Israel. It reflected both strength and nurture. It was an image of engaged leadership. That King David was a shepherd and the beloved king of Israel just strengthened the image. He demonstrated strength and caring authority over his people.
The image of God as a shepherd is also a prominent image in Hebrew scripture. Several psalms speak of God as a shepherd, and many of the prophets also picture God as a shepherd. Shepherd texts evoke images of a compassionate God who is close to his flock and cares for their needs. This was also the role of the religious authorities, those who exercised both spiritual and social leadership. Sometimes we preachers give the religious authorities who opposed Jesus a rather hard time.
It is not that they were terrible people; rather Jesus criticsed their narrow vision and lack of understanding. Some of them just refused to remove the blinkers because they could not contemplate that there was another way to teach people and serve God.
At times, we see Jesus in conflict with them because of their failure to care for the people, and their failure to look beyond the religious Laws: their failure to look at the people as children of God, and their willingness to punish rather than love.
These same authorities accused Jesus of ignoring the laws, but as the Gospel of Matthew tells us, Jesus said “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” Jesus was committed to the Law and he was committed to love the people
So when Jesus identified himself not as any old shepherd, but as the good shepherd, a shepherd prepared to die for his flock, people knew what he meant. He was also identifying himself with King David. It’s a strange thing, but people who know very little of the Bible are quite often familiar with Psalm 23, a psalm of David. It’s a passage which is often asked for at funerals. There is something very personal and I think very comforting about this, which is probably why it is so known and so well loved. We can all understand the confidence, the tenderness and the care it expresses.
When we remember all the things David experienced, he could still write a song of trust about God’s love for him through the joys and difficulties of life, and his experiences left him with implicit trust in God. God is described as the shepherd who lovingly cares for his sheep, who guides, leads and protects. And as a host to honoured guests, providing a banquet to satisfy. Most importantly, this psalm helps us to understand that God is just as present in the field as in the banqueting hall. In the famine and the feast. In company or in isolation. There is no part of our lives in which God is not present or God does not care for us.
I think that today’s Gospel ends rather abruptly; it is only half the story, as far as I am concerned. But if I may, I would suggest that you might like to read the next few verses of this Gospel, because it helps us to understand who Jesus believes he is and exactly what his ministry is: he is the Good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. And we are his flock. We hear his voice and we follow him.
But back to the NZ sheep. When we travelled from the little town of Paraparaumu where we lived to Wellington, the railway lines used to cut across the fields where the sheep were. It always surprised me that despite the presence of a noisy long train clattering through their fields, the sheep would just stand there eating the grass and not seem to notice the intrusion or the danger.
My prayer for each one of us is that we know that Jesus is the good shepherd, who walks with us every day, in the famine and the feast, and will never ever leave us. We can rest easy knowing that we are so loved, that when the great trains of life clatter across our fields, we can be as serene as those sheep.
AMEN
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