Easter 4 Year C

The Rev. Canon Donna G. Joy

Acts 9:36-43; Psalm 23; Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30

Today is often described as ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’ because the Gospel readings in all three years are drawn from the tenth chapter of St. John’s Gospel and its meditation on the Christ in the role of shepherd. The image is appealing, especially when viewed through the filter of the twenty-third psalm and its images of green pastures, still waters, right pathways, and a cup running over. We are inclined to think thoughts of peace and tranquility. But, in fact, the term shepherd is understood as rather political throughout the bible, and certainly challenging.

Sheep have only one shepherd, so if the God we worship is defined as our shepherd this God must be the only one whom we are to follow. In the simple, opening line: The Lord is my shepherd… the psalm is clear about the goal and focus, the center and purpose of life: Yahweh and no other. There is to be no other loyalty, no competing claim – neither economic nor political – no petty loyalties that seduce us. It is a mark of discernment and maturity to strip life down to one compelling loyalty, to be freed of all the other distractions that turn out to be idolatrous.

I once read of a story of Fr. Benson, founder of the Cowley Fathers, who – when he was old and dying his community used to wheel his chair out onto the lawn, near his favourite road in Oxford. One day a Salvation Army officer saw him sitting there in the sun, an old priest obviously near the end of his life. He stepped off the sidewalk, crossed the grass, and asked, “Sir, have you found peace and tranquility?” And the fierce old monk answered, “No! War!”

Today’s readings speak of dark and tumultuous times – serious struggle and turmoil. Indeed, they speak of a type of a war that we all know to be part of life. At the same time, they speak of the gift of God’s love and strength that rises through those dark and tumultuous times. I think we often tend to search scripture for a message that speaks of an absence of struggle, but as hard as we may try – we’re not going to find it. Scripture is, and most certainly today’s readings are, full of God’s love and grace in the midst of stress and conflict.

In the reading from Revelation the heavenly worshippers, gathered in the liturgy of eternity, are the victims of great trial and tribulation, and they discover that every tear shall be wiped away from their eyes. The context of this reading is important, because the author writes at a time when Christians are being persecuted by the Roman authorities, and many have been martyred. His ‘Revelation’ is that Jesus Christ is the Lord of heaven and earth, of time and eternity. Through Christ, God is bringing history to its climax, and a new creation to birth. The forces of Satan are to be finally defeated and the church is to become the bride of Christ. So, Christ speaks to his church through John (the author of Revelation) to encourage and guide his people. He urges them to persevere through times of darkness and great stress, for the time and circumstance will come when they will live with God in his glorious new world.

And the Gospel reading this morning is part of a violent confrontation between Jesus and some of the religious leaders of his people. It results in an attempt to stone Jesus and then to arrest him. It appears that he barely escaped.

So, against the backgrounds of these readings we should probably give greater attention to the darker dimensions of the twenty-third psalm, to the valley of the shadow of death and the enemies in whose presence a table is set. Peace and tranquility in the Bible are not found in the absence of struggle. Peace and tranquility in the Bible are found in those ways, times and places where God rises up in the midst of struggle to feed, nurture, protect, love, empower us in the midst of those dark and troubling times. The Good Shepherd is not merely a benign sort of a figure. In the light of today’s readings the sheep are in situations of peril and stress, and the Good Shepherd is the one who shares and transcends that peril. The peace which the shepherd brings is not an automatic cure-all which eradicates the danger in which the sheep must live; rather, it is a type of security in the midst of the danger.

One very real temptation confronts Christians when they think of the Good Shepherd and the peaceful vision of the twenty-third psalm: that is to hope for escape from the challenges of the situations in which we find ourselves. In this culture in which we live, there is a strong tendency to escape through self medicating – through the consumption of alcohol or other substances that help numb the pain – through any number of other addictions such as consumerism, work, etc. Our tendency is to escape from the pain, attempting to find peace and tranquility in another place, when in fact God’s peace is found when we dare to enter into the pain and turmoil of this life.

Three weeks ago on Friday, we gathered here to remember that God’s own son, Jesus, has entered into the pain of this life through his death on the cross. Three weeks ago today we gathered here to celebrate Jesus rising up from pain and death. And, also on Easter day, we remembered that his disciples / his friends discovered him risen from death and present with them in the midst of their own pain, suffering and grief. We were reminded that through his death and resurrection, Jesus is a constant reminder to us that God will always be with us and for us – God will always keep coming to us in the midst of those dark and troubling times.

So, in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection we are touched by this Good Shepherd (we continually receive the care of the Good Shepherd) in a very particular way. We are guided, nurtured and strengthened by this extraordinary gift. And it is this gift that brings us life.

Today’s readings are telling us that true religion never provides an easy escape from the demands and conflicts of the present situation. The way of the Good Shepherd begins right here, in all the mess in which we and our world find ourselves. The way of the Good Shepherd is not a way out of the contexts in which we live, but a way through them which always has the power to transform.