Sermon Fourth Sunday of Easter

Sermon

Text: John 10:1-10

I think I've said this before, but my Dad is a professor of Applied Economics and farm management. He has yearly international Farm Management meetings, often which he does not go to as they are just in some metropolis somewhere. But this year during March they were in New Zealand. There is a whole separate story about the large Earthquake that occurred 3 weeks before their meeting and changed all the venues. But, one thing that did not change was going to see a sheep pasture. My dad took a video on his camera of probably a couple hundred or more sheep on the side of this steep hill not moving. The shepherd is trying to move the sheep to their new, fresh grass in the next paddock (or pasture). He is in the back whistling commands to his dogs. A couple of the dogs stay with him in back barking and putting pressure on the herd to move. A couple other dogs are the turners--those that run up alongside the sheep to turn them in the way the shepherd wants them to go. The process is rather slow. The sheep don't seem to catch on too fast so the dogs have to work at them to understand which way they are supposed to go. Sometimes the sheep want to go one way and the dogs stop them. So the sheep stand looking around perhaps saying, "What? Which way? Look at the nice grass." Then some think, "Oh, you mean that way." Maybe they all don't go first. Finally enough of them figure out which way they are supposed to go that they all start to go and keep moving through the narrow gate. And they scatter throughout their "new" paddock for several days before they are moved to the next paddock.

I find sheep herding fascinating, and based on the times Jesus uses the analogy it is one that connected with people. This week Jesus talks about himself as the good shepherd, and in fact this fourth Sunday of Easter always has the gospel lesson as part of the tenth chapter of John and is often called Good Shepherd Sunday. This year's passage we fine Jesus talking about being the gate of the sheep fold, and being the voice that the sheep listen to. “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.” It makes me ask, what does Jesus mean that his is the gate for the sheep, or that he is the Good Shepherd?

It makes me think of pigs. Ok, not pigs, but a specific pig. I tend to always have the movie Babe pop into my head when shepherds are mentioned. It's such a fun movie, I will probably try to track it down and watch it again soon. I remember rewinding over and over again the scene of Babe falling off of the walk way of the chicken pen. And I love the interaction between Babe and the sheep and the fact that the reason they listen to him is that he speaks to them nicely. They listen to him, and listen to his voice. It's a neat understanding of our text before us. Jesus is the shepherd who speaks to us words of comfort, treating us as we want to be treated, as Children of God, not as we often are treated in this world, pushed around or ignored.

I also think of some stories I have heard told of Bedouin shepherds in the Holy Land. The Bedouin are Arab tribes that live in much of the desert areas of north Africa to the Arabian Desert in Saudi Arabia. They still live much like shepherds and people of Jesus’ time would have lived. There are some differences, they used to be nomadic, but have become somewhat settled, but they still rely heavily on herding for survival. Goats and sheep with a couple of shepherds in tow are a common sight in the hills along the highways of Israel and Palestine. The sheep are not in a pasture so are out in the open for most of the day. At the end of the day they must gather them together. There are multiple versions I have heard of how this is done.

Sometimes the Bedouin shepherd finds themselves away from their encampment and to make a pen they find a cave and block off all but a small gap in the opening just big enough to stand in. He then would call the sheep and have them enter by walking through his legs and while walking through he would feel them all over seeing if they have any cuts or bruises from the day. Then after they were all in the shepherd will crouch down in the opening of the cave and block the entrance, becoming the gate itself.

When they are near their encampment often times the main pen for the sheep is a circular enclosure with no opening at all. When it comes time for the sheep to gather for the night, again the shepherd calls them, but then gets down on all fours and allows the sheep to jump up into the pen by jumping on his back. They then spend the night in safety, and then upon the next morning the shepherd does the same on the inside of the pen and they jump back out of the pen. It's said you can tell a good shepherd by the marks on his back.

The third story is sometimes there is no pen available to the shepherd. So they build a fire and call the sheep around. By gathering them all around with himself in the middle they are protected through numbers. They are safe because the shepherd has become the heart of the fold, the center of their gathering.

We have these many stories of who Jesus is as the good shepherd, as the gate for the sheep. Many different interpretations of who he is, and what he means. Is he the shepherd who guides us to safety herding us to a new pasture as the shepherds of New Zealand? Is he the shepherd who speaks to us softly and tenderly, calling us by name and asking us to follow as in the movie Babe? Is he the shepherd who feels all of our wounds and hurts, heals them and uses himself to keep darkness and fear away as the shepherd in the cave? Is he the shepherd who sacrifices his own health and well being to allow us to reach the safety of the pen, but also allows us to venture out into the world watching out for us while we are there as the shepherd with the circular pen? Or is he the shepherd who despite no barriers or fences gathers us together becoming our center, our protection, the heart of our gathering as the shepherd at the fire?

We have all these interpretations and understandings of what it means to be shepherd. But what is central in all of them is the Good Shepherd. What is central is that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Jesus is all the different versions of the shepherd for us, depending on what we need. But, what matters is the centrality of Jesus. If Jesus is not the center we scatter, we venture far and wide, we lose sight of what is important, which is declaring that belief that God loves the whole world, so much so that God sent Jesus the Son to die for us. Our psalm today, Psalm 23, for good reason follows Psalm 22, the psalm of death we read as the altar is stripped on Maundy Thursday. In the midst of the craziness of the world as we mourn loved ones, miss old friends, are scattered and feel ignored, we see the psalm of the shepherd.

1The LORD | is our shepherd;

We shall not | be in want.

2The LORD makes us lie down | in green pastures

and leads us be- | side still waters.

3You restore our | souls, O LORD,

and guide us along right pathways | for your name's sake.

4Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

we shall | fear no evil;

for you are with us;

your rod and your staff, they | comfort us.

5You prepare a table before us in the presence | of our enemies;

you anoint our heads with oil, and our cup is | running over.

6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us

all the days | of our lives,

and we will dwell in the house of the | LORD forever.

Amen.