PHOTO: Diana Wilcox
April 21, 2024: Alleluia, Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia! Amen.
It is Good Shepherd Sunday, which always is the fourth Sunday of Easter. Of course, the obvious clues to this are Psalm 23 and the passage from the Gospel of John. Many, even those who have never been to church, know the words of the Psalm – we say it at services, especially funerals, at hospital bedsides, and for many, it is a personal mantra. The gospel is less familiar outside of the church, but still an image many grew up with for Jesus.
In the fourth gospel, the authors include seven “I Am” statements one of which we heard today, where Jesus says “I am the good shepherd…” He also uses other ones – like door or gate, vine and bread – but we don’t do a Door Sunday. I guess it isn’t as catchy, and sadly there aren’t a whole lot of hymns about Jesus being a door.
And while many may hear Jesus in this gospel and focus on shepherds and sheep, it isn’t really the sheep that should draw our attention. Jesus wasn’t comparing shepherds to sheep, he was comparing shepherds to something else – to hired hands.
Whenever I hear this passage, I am reminded of my first few months here. I gathered our Vestry and Wardens together at a retreat. This retreat, unlike others we have taken, was a working one. We needed to get to know and trust one another. I was a new thing in the midst of a parish with significant financial and building concerns.
I am no longer a new thing, and we have come a very long way – into new life and resurgence in the first five years, then into pandemic for the next three, and finally into our post-pandemic struggles, which by the way, are much like where we started – reduced attendance, and financial stresses and building issues that loom large.
At that first retreat, I used this passage for our bible study and to ground our work. Through prayer, dialog, and breakout groups, we began to identify what it means to be a shepherd, rather than a hired hand. Jesus said “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.”
And the fact that we are still here, worshipping in this space, serving the people of our neighborhood in Christ’s name, offering care and education to children in our school and employment for our teachers – all of that is because they were shepherds then, and all of you have truly stepped into your calling as shepherds through the years.
You did not run away when the wolf of financial trouble that cast a shadow over our future.
You did not run away when the wolf of pandemic terrorized the nation and destroyed lives all around us.
You did not run away when the wolf of financial trouble growled around us once more post-pandemic.
You stayed, because you chose not to be hired hands.
You chose to be shepherds – followers of the great shepherd, Jesus.
And that has made all the difference.
Because through these many years, from 2014 to now, there were other wolves attacking the sheep entrusted to our care – from the killings of Eric Garner, Michael Brown and Tamir Rice in 2014, the Emmanuel AME mass shooting and the terrorist attack at a newspaper in Paris in 2015, the Pulse Nightclub massacre, the death of RBG, and the election of 2016, the racist Charlottesville march and mass shootings in Las Vegas and a church in Sutherland Springs in 2017, the war in Syria, the Mass shooting at Parkland High School, wildfires in the US and Hurricane Florence in 2018, another mass shooting, this time at a Walmart in El Paso, and a fire that ripped through Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019.
2020 brought the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd. 2021 began with the insurrection by domestic terrorists on January 6th and ended with tornadoes that killed 91 across the south and Midwest. Then in 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, children were killed at Robb Elementary, and the 50+ year precedent of Roe v. Wade was overturned. Last year brought book bans, a devastating wildfire to Maui, the attempted bombing our neighborhood synagogue – Temple Ner Tamid, and war in the Middle East. And just in the first few months of this year, we have seen a bridge collapse in Baltimore, the intensity of another election in a very divided nation, and the rise of people advocating Christian Nationalism – an oxymoron if ever there was one. And through it all – every year – our climate continues to worsen by our abuse and neglect.
Of course, that litany of events isn’t complete. And, there were also many signs of hope, of light, of love through these years too: The Me Too movement and the women’s marches, the rise of Black Lives Matter, a fierce backlash in response to the Roe decision and a tidal wave of advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights and women’s healthcare, January 6th hearings that brought some level of accountability and visibility to our pained republic, the end of the pandemic and a return to in-person worship and other aspects of life that nourish us, Episcopal Church revivals and an increased presence of women leadership in the church, and profiles in courage too numerous to name by people who were willing to sacrifice everything for the good of others, for the country, for creation.
In our parish we continue to have visitors come, and many stay, as we grow in membership every single year. And most especially, I have witnessed your great love for one another and those in need – visiting the sick, offering food to the hungry, providing Christmas presents to the children of prisoners, caring for the animals in shelters, making the space accessible to all including learning to sign, opening our doors to those with special needs, marching in the streets to combat racism, sexism, and advocate for justice and love, and so much more.
All of this to say that hired hands would have fled a long, long, long time ago. Shepherds stay through the storms – not because they are stronger, but because they know that they are not alone – there is a greater shepherd who walks alongside them.
As we hear in the epistle, “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… 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.”
He abides in us – indeed.
These verses have a special place in my heart, as they were set to music in an anthem I chose to be sung at my ordination to the priesthood. It was a reminder to me then and through the years that we are to love, not only in word and speech, but in truth and action – and that through it all – the Holy Spirit, given to us, will carry us on.
And while I may not have been a perfect shepherd of this parish flock through these long years, like all of you, I was given strength for the journey by the love of this community and by the incarnational reality of Christ in the Eucharist and in my heart.
And so we together continue.
We step once more into the unfolding of God’s infinite activity in creation, and our role within that.
We take up our shepherd’s staff and continue to care for the sheep entrusted to us – most especially the poor, the outcast, the lonely, the imprisoned, the oppressed, the addicted, and the spiritually hungry.
And we will have no fear of the wolves in our midst – those who choose might over right, those who hate and harm, and especially those who turn their backs on Jesus and try to weaponize him against the sheep in our care.
Nor will we be afraid of the snarling wolf’s teeth of parish challenges that rattle the rafters of our church, and that of many other parishes.
No, these will not shake us.
The wolves shall not drive us away.
For we have been here before, and we know what we must do. We know that that we are shepherds, not hired hands, and it is our call to care for the sheep of God’s creation, it is our call to serve one another and all of humankind in love.
We know too that there is another hand – one over our own – on that proverbial crook we carry – the hand of Christ Jesus.
Jesus – our great shepherd.
Jesus – who laid down his life for his sheep.
Jesus the risen One – who destroyed death.
So we will walk through the valleys and the shadow of wolves that lurk about – never abandoning our call to love and serve those entrusted to us.
For He is with us.
He guides us along the pathways of our calling.
He revives our souls.
He comforts us at this table before us.
Our cup is truly running over.
Goodness and mercy will follow us, and those we serve in his name.
And at the end of our lives, when we pass on our staff to the next generation of this parish, we know, that having been good and faithful shepherds, we truly will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Amen.
For the audio, click below, or subscribe to our iTunes Sermon Podcast by clicking here (also available on Audible):
The Rev. Diana L. Wilcox
Christ Church in Bloomfield & Glen Ridge
April 21, 2024
The Fourth Sunday Of Easter
1st Reading – Acts 4:5-12
2nd Reading – 1 John 3:16-24
Gospel – John 10:11-18
