Good Sheep

 

A Sermon preached on Easter IV April 30, 2023 at St. Augustine’s, WI

Acts 2:42-47, 1 Peter 2:19-25, John 10:1-10

Both this week's Epistle and Gospel make use of two main metaphors: shepherds and sheep! In fact, we often refer to this Sunday as Good Shepherd Sunday, the term Jesus applies to himself in verse 11 of chapter 10 from John's Gospel. Using the term shepherds for leaders, both good and bad ones, is a common metaphor throughout the Bible. Israel’s greatest king, David, had been a shepherd and people knew what shepherds did. In chapter 34 of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, he is told by God to prophesy against the shepherds, the political and religious leaders of Israel, because they had scattered their sheep, and been more concerned with feeding and caring for themselves than for those entrusted to their care. And so, God promises to be the shepherd for his sheep: “I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak…. I will shepherd the flock with justice.” (34:16) When, as in today's gospel, Jesus describes himself as the shepherd, as one who is both known and loved by, and loves his sheep, and one who as a human gate guards and keeps his flock safe from harm, we are supposed to think both of God’s self-description in Ezekiel, and also to see in Jesus the true heir to David, the messianic king.

One of the words used for clergy is pastor, which means shepherd, coming from the Latin verb pascere "to lead to pasture, set to grazing, cause to eat.” Now, while eating and drinking is an important part off the life of this congregation, feeding you physically is not my primary function! You do that very well yourselves at our coffee hours and other fellowship events. In a wider sense, I, and the many other qualified teachers and preachers we have in this congregation do have the important function of nourishing you all spiritually. AJ Levine, whose book “The Difficult Words of Jesus” we studied during Lent writes that a pastor needs “to be sure that they have lost none of their sheep, which means both counting every one and making sure that everyone feels counted, feels acknowledged, feels loved.” That also sounds like a task too big for one person and is again thankfully something we can and do share in this congregation. I know we tried hard, but I suspect that we have failed at one time or other. At the end of the day there is really only one true, good, and unfailing shepherd and that is Jesus himself.

What about the other metaphor? Sheep! Do you all feel like sheep? AJ Levine is not happy with the metaphor of the congregation as sheep. “Congregations should not be sheep: docile, silent, unimaginative, unthinking, even if cute in pictures. Congregations should be disciples: questioning, asking for clarification, challenging, advancing.”  I could not agree more. And recently, during the pandemic, the word sheep or sheeple has become an insult, standing for those who fail to think critically and who mindlessly follow the crowd. It was used particularly against those who willingly followed government and science’s advice and mandates to mask, to distance, to isolate and to vaccinate. Which is a bit ironic as many of those who instead followed the more strident, populist voices against these common-sense measures could also be accused of sheeplike qualities!

But I am not sure than sheep is such a bad metaphor. And there can be no shepherd without sheep! As the author of 1 Peter writes, like sheep, humans can be led astray. We do follow false leaders, we do follow those who offer supposedly easy solutions, we follow those who tell us we are much better sheep than the flock in the neighbouring field, we do follow false leaders who tell us that we should take that neighbouring field. One reason that many find the label of sheep so offensive in today’s world is because of how high we currently value self-realisation, independence, individualism, and autonomy. But these are not Bible values. 1 Peter praises Jesus’ example as one who suffered for others: “He entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.” (1 Peter 2:23-24) And look at the ideal community that Luke describes in Acts: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. …. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:44, 47) The focus is on community and commonality, on service and dependence, rather than on individuals.  

To be human is to be a social creature, we thrive in relationship, we cannot survive alone, and a society built entirely on the ideal of competition would not be a healthy or sustainable one. We not only like to follow others, but we need leaders. We cannot know everything, and we need to trust others. And that is where the two metaphors come together in today’s readings. Sheep exist in relationship to the shepherd. The relationship between shepherd and sheep is based on intimate contact and trust. Sheep learn to recognise the voice of their shepherd, “the sheep follow him because they know his voice.” (John 10:4) Thanks to my colleague Steve from Frankfurt, who showed us a wonderful little video clip about this our weekly Bible study, I saw how sheep ignored the voice of a stranger, but willingly responded to the voice of their shepherd – or shepherdess. The sheep had learned to trust her voice as the source of food, green pasture, and safety, just as we must trust that Jesus is our good shepherd, the source of spiritual nourishment, the guardian of our souls, and one who came that we may have life, and have it abundantly.

So, let’s be good sheep. That means looking out for one another and being just as concerned with losing one of the flock as the shepherd is. We are good sheep when we act like that early Christian community in our first reading: helping those in need, spending time together in worship and fellowship, rejoicing in and praising God. (Acts 2:45-47)

We are good sheep when we trust in and follow Jesus’ example and teaching: “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:21)

And we are good sheep when we listen for Jesus’ voice. We can hear his voice when Scripture is read, we can hear his voice in prayer, we can hear his voice in our hearts and thoughts, and we can hear his voice – just as we can see his face – in other people. We know that it is his voice when it is in line with what the Bible teaches about Jesus and God, we know when it is his voice as it calls us to a life of love and joy and abundance.

Amen.

Living in Hope

A Sermon preached on Lent V March 26, 2023 at St. Augustine’s, WI and St. Christoph, MZ

Ezekiel 37:1-14, Romans 8:6-11, John 11:1-45

It may seem a little strange to be hearing readings about people being raised from the dead before we have even entered Holy Week. And you will in fact hear the first reading from Ezekiel again soon, if you come to the Easter Vigil! But following the chronology of the Gospel of John, the raising of Lazarus is the last and greatest sign, that is miracle, before Jesus’ crucifixion, death, and resurrection! In some ways it anticipates it.

The first reading from Ezekiel is not really about dead people anyway, however much the story of the valley full of bones may make us think of them. The dry bones are the people of Israel. Physically and spiritually cut off from all that gives them life, from their home and the Temple, from their God – or so they believe – and therefore from all hope: ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.’ (Ezekiel 37:11) Israel in exile is danger of dying as a community, as God’s chosen, as a people of faith, just as the tribes of the Northern Kingdom did generations before, when they did not return from exile but were simply absorbed into the surrounding culture and population. What Ezekiel describes is the hope that God will act to restore the nation, it is not about personal, physical resurrection, although this passage was an inspiration for the development of that idea over the next centuries.  

Ezekiel’s description recalls the second of the creation stories. In Genesis 2.7 we hear that “then the Lord God (first) formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” It was a two-stage process of formation followed by inspiration, as it is in Ezekiel’s vision as well: First the bones came together, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Only then is Ezekiel told: “’Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived.” (Ezekiel 37:9-10) I don’t think the connection with the creation story is a coincidence. Ezekiel’s vision expresses his hope for a re-creation of the nation of Israel. And just as Adam only became a living being when God breathed God’s spirit into him – remember, both the Hebrew Ruach and the Greek Pneuma can mean wind, breath or spirit - so also we – as individuals and as a community – are not truly alive without that divine Spirit and if we are cut off from God: hold that thought!

Unlike the dry bones, Lazarus’ death is anything but metaphorical. By the time Jesus arrives in Bethany, he has been dead for four days. Mary and Martha had hoped that he would arrive in time to save their brother, but Jesus came too late – we know that he did not even set off when the messenger arrived – and now the only hope left is Martha’s belief in the general resurrection of the dead on the last day. It’s unclear whether Jesus would have got there in time even if he hadn’t waited. Still, his comment that, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11:4) indicates foreknowledge and what sounds like a rather callous and even cruel plan to wait just to make it more spectacular.

Two things speak against that interpretation. Just as last week Jesus’ saying that the man “was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him” (John 9:2) did not mean that God made that man blind just so Jesus can heal him, so this week’s saying does not mean that God caused or exacerbated Lazarus’ condition just so Jesus could raise him. What it means is that this death of Jesus’ good friend will be used as the greatest sign – prior to Jesus’ own death – to glorify God and God’s Son, and as a result to save many, many more lives than just this one.

The other argument against such cruelty is how disturbed and emotionally affected Jesus was by Lazarus’ death and Mary’s tears: “Jesus was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep.” (John 11:33-35) This is the only Gospel passage that ascribes such an acute emotional reaction to Jesus. He shares in their pain, is angry at death, and saddened at grief.

The purpose of this final sign, the raising of Lazarus, is to identify Jesus as God’s Son and as the one who gives life. We are called to believe in him as one sent by God and endowed with God’s power over life and death. This belief brings eternal life. The purpose of all of Jesus’ signs in John’s Gospel, especially this one, is to awaken, affirm, and strengthen that belief. And so, he tells the disciples “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.” (11:14-15) He asks Martha “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (11:26) And to all the people watching and waiting with the two sisters he exclaims: “I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” (11:42) As a result, many of those who had seen what Jesus did, believed in him and Martha is led to make a confession of faith as strong as Peter’s: “She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” (11:27) In Matthew’s Gospel (16:16) Peter said “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” [As an aside, I wonder what would have happened, if Jesus had said to Martha “and on this rock I will build my church” instead of to Peter!]

In Jesus and in his signs, we see God's love and life-giving power. In Ezekiel’s day, vanquished and exiled Israel had lost hope. There is much around us today that could cause us to lose hope as well. To have faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, who cannot be stopped by anything, not even by death, not even by his own death, gives us hope and empowers us to act. That hope is grounded in God’s gift and promise of life – both a fulfilled and purposeful life in Christ now and life in God forever. Jesus tells Martha that those who believe in him, will live and never die and asks her, do you believe this? Her answer is not a yes or a no, but a confession of faith. Do you, do we believe this? Like Martha we too can answer with by confessing our faith - in the words of the Nicene Creed. Please stand as we say together:

We believe in one God,

the Father, the Almighty…..