EASTER IV (“GOOD SHEPHERD SUNDAY”) 25 April 2021

Readings: Acts 4.5-12; Psalm 23; 1 John 3.16-end; John 10.11-18

In order for us to better understand what’s going on in the reading today from Acts 4, we need to go back and look at Acts 3, which explains that, following Jesus’ death and resurrection, Peter and John were entering the Temple at three o’clock one afternoon. You may remember the story which ensues, about the man lame from birth who would be carried into the Temple daily and laid at the gate of the Temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could beg. That day, He asked Peter and John for money, but instead of giving alms, they gave him a much greater gift - they healed him “in the name of Jesus”. The man stood up, jumped, leapt, praised God, and walked into the Temple alongside them.

The crowd recognised the man and rushed towards them. Peter and John seized their opportunity to preach to the crowd, telling them that the man had been healed in the name of Jesus Christ, the very same person they had handed over to Pilate to be crucified, instead preferring that Pilate save a murderer.

Peter and John told the crowd that the man had been healed because of his faith in God. They also told them that they understood, and realised that in handing Jesus over to be crucified, they’d all acted in ignorance, as had their rulers, and it was because of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, that God had been able to fulfil all that had been foretold through the prophets.

Peter and John advised the crowd to repent and turn to God, and to turn from their wicked ways in order that the Lord may bless them also, and in order that they may all receive their own forgiveness and refreshment from Him.

While Peter and John were proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection, the priests and Sadducees came and arrested them, putting them in custody until the next day, and that’s where we pick up on the reading from Acts 4, where Peter and John are asked by what power they had healed the man.

They replied that the man standing before them had been healed in the name of Jesus Christ, describing Jesus as “the stone that they rejected”, the stone which has become the cornerstone, and the only name through which salvation is possible.

We’re familiar with Jesus as our Good Shepherd, and the other readings today overtly bear out the fact that today, the fourth Sunday of Easter, is known otherwise as “Good Shepherd Sunday” - a day when we concentrate on Jesus as our Good Shepherd. In fact, in John’s Gospel today we hear Jesus refer to himself as “the Good Shepherd”, in one of the seven “I am” sayings unique to John’s Gospel.

I usually try to reflect on the wording of all our Sunday Collects and Post-Communion prayers because, in one succinct verse of prayer, the Collect usually beautifully articulates the essence of the spiritual focus of any particular Sunday. Today is one of those Sundays when we’re offered an alternative Collect, which is:

Risen Christ, faithful shepherd of your Father’s sheep: teach us to hear your voice and to follow your command, that all your people may be gathered into one flock, to the glory of God the Father.

Peter and John were obediently doing just that – they’d heard the word of Jesus, the Risen Christ, the faithful Shepherd of his Father’s sheep, and were following his command to preach that word to others, in order that all God’s people may come to believe in Him and become that “one flock”. Thankfully, none of us is likely to be arrested and thrown in prison for preaching the word of Jesus! (At least not if we go about it peacefully!)

But, the burning question is, do we actually go about it at all? How often do we preach and teach the word of Jesus to others? Because those things aren’t exclusive to the clergy but are the obligation of us all.

Peter and John appeared uninhibited in their actions. They just got on with it, albeit with the advantage of the very visible symbol of the healed lame man in front of them. We’re more inhibited, of course, but I wonder why. Not only do we fail to speak out, but seem, in many cases, almost embarrassed to tell others about our love of Jesus.

All of us here today, I trust, believe in God, and in Jesus as the Son of God. We’re familiar with references in Biblical texts to Jesus as our Good Shepherd, and to us as his sheep. And, hopefully, we all want to hear his voice, and become one united flock.

But, if we say that we want to be one united flock, I wonder who we include? Is it those in our congregation here today? Is it those Christians in our community? Is it everyone in our community - regardless? Is it all those who are members of the Church of England? If so, do we mean those in this country, or worldwide? Who’s excluded from that flock, if anyone? Do we exclude, even albeit unwittingly, those who are different – maybe of a different religion, skin colour, or sexual orientation? Because let’s get straight that Jesus excluded no-one from his flock.

Topically, there are names and phrases which must by now be indelibly marked on all our hearts: Black Lives Matter; George Floyd; Stephen Lawrence; “I can’t breathe”, all symbolising division, segregation, exclusion, and racism, all of which Jesus our Good Shepherd lived and died to eliminate from our lives.

Sadly, there is racism even within the Church of England, as you may have discovered from last Monday’s Panorama programme.

On that programme, the Church of England recognised that we’re all made in God’s image and must reject the sin of racism and make urgent changes so that all God’s people are welcome and can flourish in the Church. In a subsequent letter, the Archbishop of York regretted the experience of so many “not having the space to be themselves, or being second-class citizens in someone else’s world - the antithesis of the new humanity we have in Christ that the Christian faith declares.” He said that it’s imperative for the Church to oppose racism in all its forms. Racism needs to be confronted not by words, but by action.

1 John 3 tells us that Jesus laid down his life for us all, in love, and we in our turn, also in love, ought to lay down our lives for one another, without exclusion. The passage asks how we, having so much, are able to reject a brother or sister in need and refuse help.

The Archbishop of York appeared to echo those words of 1 John 3: “Let us love by our actions. Not just with empty words, but in our lives”. Our ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ includes everyone, in the same way that in the parable of the Good Samaritan our ‘neighbour’ includes everyone. No-one is excluded.

In contrast to the hired hand, who runs away at the first sight of danger leaving the sheep vulnerable, the Good Shepherd, is willing to lay down his life for his sheep. Our Good Shepherd will not leave us comfortless. Following Jesus’ resurrection, the Holy Spirit came to be with his disciples, and He is with us always.

Jesus wants to keep the flock all together, and calls us to follow his voice. One thing with sheep, is that they seem uncannily “tuned in” to the voice of their own shepherd, and follow it. As Jesus’ sheep, how well are we tuned in to listening for His voice when he speaks to us?

There’s so much noise in the world today that there’s hardly a moment of silence for any of us. There’s always something going on in our lives, and the noise never stops. There’s the television, the radio, traffic, voices, the vacuum cleaner, the car engine, an aeroplane overhead, a police siren, the van or lorry making a delivery, the bin lorry collecting rubbish. Carry out your own little experiment: just take time out to listen and see if, or for how long, you actually hear nothing. If at all, it may even be seconds, rather than minutes.

In the unremitting noise and bustle of our lives do we hear Jesus our Good Shepherd calling us? When we do hear him, do we really stop to listen to the direction in which he might be calling us to follow? Do we, in our busy lives, ever make the time to stop what we’re doing, and listen for his voice?

Because perhaps the problem isn’t simply the noise all around us. Perhaps the problem in not hearing the voice of Jesus is within ourselves. Perhaps the problem is in our inability to stop and listen for Jesus speaking to us and, when we do, in our inability to really hear him. Or, perhaps when we do hear him, we’re unable or unwilling to follow.

Jesus came to lay down his life for us, as a shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. At any time during his life, Jesus could have saved himself. He was God incarnate and could have found a way out.

He could, had he wished, have avoided the indignity and the pain and the suffering of that cross. But, as we read in John 10.18, the very end of our Gospel reading today, Jesus said: “No-one takes (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord”. Jesus surrendered himself to the cross, subjecting himself willingly to suffering and humiliation, out of simple obedience to his Father.

If you attended our service of Evening Prayer on Zoom last Sunday evening you may remember me speaking about obedience, temptation and sin. We were created in order to live a life of love and obedience to God, and were given Jesus Christ as our example.

We have a choice. Do we, in obedience, follow Jesus our Good Shepherd, or do we take what’s perhaps an easier path, but one which could lead us to the top of the slippery downward slope of sin and despair, which imprisons us and leaves us devoid of our freedom.

In today’s Psalm we hear: “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake”.

There’s no mention in those words of Jesus offering us a noisy, hectic lifestyle in which we risk burning ourselves out, but green pastures and still waters and right paths. When we follow Jesus, we don’t find ourselves on a deafeningly noisy highway, but rather on the peaceful, beautiful, and quiet path leading to somewhere even lovelier which he has prepared for every single member of his one united flock when we reach the end of our journey. Amen.

Annie Billson