Good Shepherd Sunday: 4th Sunday in Easter, April 26, 2015

Collect for the Day

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Reflections: The theme of the Good Shepherd is introduced in our collect, which echoes the gospel assigned for today. 

First Lesson: Acts 4:5-12

The day after they had arrested Peter and John for teaching about Jesus and the resurrection, the rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, "By what power or by what name did you do this?" Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is

the stone that was rejected by you, the builders;

it has become the cornerstone.

There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved." 

Reflections: Several things in this reading ask for attention, but what captures my interest at the moment is the response to the healing by those in authority. The leaders here show more interest in credentials than in miracle. What is gained by discrediting those who have accomplished it?

          I am reminded of the general reaction when people present new ideas that fly in the face of accepted theories: that the world isn’t flat; that the earth isn’t the center of the universe, that geological process are not uniform; that alternative medicine works, and so on. Throughout history, proposers of such ideas have been ridiculed. Is it because they undermine trust in established authority?

          Another response to the “impossible” is to cast doubt on the phenomenon. The unexpected and unexplainable threatens our understanding of the world. For example, when various statues and icons of the Virgin Mary have been reported to “cry,” (scented oil—or even blood) the inevitable question is “How did they do this?” Distracted by the physics, do we miss what is perhaps the most important question: “What does it mean?”

In this passage, the Hebrew authorities of the early first century show more interest in challenging Peter and John than in the “impossible” deed they had accomplished—and the power in which they had carried it out. What threat are these “shepherds” reacting to? Who and what are they protecting?                                                        

Psalm 23 Dominus regit me

The LORD is my shepherd; * I shall not be in want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures * and leads me beside still waters.

He revives my soul * and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; *
     for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; *
     you have anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over.

Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, *
     and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

 

Epistle: 1 John 3:16-24

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us. 

Reflections: God calls us to love concretely. But we know that it’s impossible to cope with everyday life if our hearts are constantly open. Sometimes we must simply close our hearts and get on with business; our choices are justified by our demanding schedules, our diminishing disposable income, our skepticism about the most recent sob story.

Still, sometimes a scenario plays and replays in our minds. It seems that our hearts condemn us. But John reassures us: “God is greater than our hearts.” God, who “knows everything,” already knows we do not want to see about ourselves. Already knows . . . and forgives. And that—perhaps that alone—frees us to love. 

Gospel: John 10:11-18

Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away-- and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father."

Reflections: The image of the Good Shepherd reaches back into history as well as forward into the present. The “shepherd” is an ancient metaphor for the leaders of the Hebrew people. In a majestic passage from the prophet Ezekiel (ch 34), God accuses the religious leaders of betraying their sacred charge by using the people for their own ends: “Thus says the Lord God: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? . . . I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak . . .”

          This prophetic utterance forms the backdrop for John’s discourse on the Good Shepherd. The symbol of the shepherd would become among the earliest representations of Jesus. The image above is a ceiling fresco in the Catacomb of Priscilla in Rome and dates from the second half of the 3^rd century.  
          In his sermon on Sunday, Fr. Tony Hiatt called us to be both sheep and shepherd. Sheep in following the Good Shepherd—not running after the false promises of false shepherds; shepherds by living into our vocation to be like Christ.

How, we might ask ourselves we can live into that calling? First, we might ask how we do not. In what ways we use the people or resources around us, by placing our agenda, convenience, comfort, success, or status first? God, who is greater than our hearts, will teach us.