April 22, 2018 - Fourth Sunday of Easter - Good Shepherd Sunday

We acknowledged again today that we are Easter people and it was fitting since we are in the season of Easter. Should the reminder in this season quicken something more within us - does the season make us more alive, receptive and responsive when we affirm our underlying identity?

Today's Liturgy was the African / American liturgy. The hymns were mostly congregation favorites. Pastor Terry Moe and Pastor Deb (who went to seminary with Pastor Ray) worshipped with Creator today. They had attended a cluster's community organizing event this weekend in the Gorge. Both commented on the speed and the energy that came across in the congregation's music.

"It was fun trying to keep up..." was Pastor Deb's observation. "...and so different from where I am going to preach wnext Sunday here they insist on grand processionals with slow, stately organ music playing." 

Pastor Ray preached about we benefit from Easter being more than one Sunday of the year and that we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday during each Easter season. He spoke about the images that are too easily conjured up in our heads on this day - beautiful images. Jesus in a pure white robe with long flowing hair. Pristine, well-behaved sheep on a sunny day in a perfect pasture are with him. Perhaps he is carrying a lamb.

Yet this is hardly the life Jesus lived, nor what he promises of what life is like in other passages, nor does it match the expectations he sets for his followers as far as a future vision to serve as a guide.

Hearing the voice of Jesus is difficult in these verses. Hard to begin with because of our familiarity with this language. Verses like this can lull us into a beautiful life vision and promise. Yet this voice is calling for us to be more than sheep who need to be protected. We can gather as a congregation for strength, but it is not just to protect individuals or of those we recognize as part of "our flock". The voice of Jesus to my ear is no longer that commanding or exclusive. This brings me to a final reflection that I will use to end this post.

The language describing the Good Shepherd situation is also not as reassuring and comfortable as it seems on the surface. The shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. This is a noble gesture but also leaves the sheep without a primary defender against the wolf. The threat remains. How the wolf is stopped when the shepherd is dead is unresolved. Whether it is a hired hand who abandoned the flock or the shepherd who has died for them, nothing changes the continuing, inherent menace to the sheep.

I pointed this out to someone after service today. He lit up with this suggestion, "But Jesus conquers death at Easter" I tried to imagine that wolf / shepherd fight 'continuing' after the shepherd's death. My mind created some strange scenarios.

For many reasons, I don't hear Jesus calling his followers only to be passive sheep needing protection. This leads to another difficulty in this passage when determining how to stop the wolf. With a Good Shepherd image in our minds it is hard to imagine what Jesus is calling us to do. Quite simply sheep do not become shepherds. However, we read in Matthew 16:24-26:

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?    

To save sheep's lives from the wolf, the followers of Jesus should become shepherds themselves. This is a more subversive, disruptive message than we normally hear in thee words. Some may not recognize the voice in this invitation. To me this is a promise that there are different levels - different speeds - Christians are asked to be in their lives. This is as it should be. We don't always need to be the shepherd that Jesus is, but it is clear he desires his followers to be more than protected sheep.

The comforting verses and images of Jesus as the Good Shepherd do provide a challenging thought that might sometimes get lost. The good shepherd decides who is in the fold, we do not. "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold." (John 10:16) The Pharisees and the disciples alike thought that they knew who the chosen ones of God were. But this shepherd tells them, and tells us, that there will be "one flock, one shepherd" and it is God, in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, not we, who brings together that flock.