4th Sunday of Easter (John 10:1-10)  5/15/2011

As we journey through our lives we experience significant milestones that mark important points in our lives; days that we will long remember with great clarity. Throughout this past week I have had the privilege to be present with others as they experienced or prepared to experience some important events in their lives: the pure joy of Baptism, the wide range of emotions of a Burial service, the excitement of marriage preparation, and this afternoon the celebration of my niece’s Confirmation. These events are important times in one’s life. These events are times that hold particular sacramental significance in our relationship with God and with others; often we feel closer to God as we experience these occasions. But throughout our lives we also live between these milestones; in fact, most of our days are filled with the everyday challenges and joys that shape and define our journey through life. In the midst of these ordinary days, where do we find God in our everyday experiences? Where do we find Christ when the important milestone day has ended, everyone has gone home and we are left with the joys and challenges of everyday life?

This morning we hear the metaphor of the shepherd and the sheep throughout our Scripture readings; as Peter points out in his music notes – today is “Good Shepherd Sunday.” The Good Shepherd is a popular metaphor and is used throughout the Bible. (Genesis, Psalms, Ezekiel, Gospel accounts, and Epistles) The story of the shepherd and the sheep serves to answer the difficult questions that confront people in the course of their lives and we often find the story used in response to these challenges. The beautiful and comforting words of Psalm 23 respond to the challenges presented in Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And are so far from my cry and from the words of my distress? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer; by night as well, but I find no rest.” And we hear Jesus speaking to his disciples in our Gospel reading this morning; Jesus speaking in response to the challenges presented to him from the Pharisees. In this section of John’s Gospel account, Jesus has just healed a man blind from birth and the Pharisees, determined to prove Jesus unrighteous before God, have succeeded only in putting up a wall to the truth of God’s grace. And the truth of God’s grace is that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the One sent by his Father and the One who enters the sheepfold by the gate. As Jesus told the story of the Good Shepherd, his intention was to tell his followers that he is the one who has been sent to love and care for all of God’s children; to love and care for them at all times and in all places. What does that really mean, you might say…and our Gospel lesson says, “Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.” (John 10:6) But the true difficulty is in trying to understand the depth of Christ’s love for us; the overwhelming abundance of love and sacrifice that Jesus is willing to make on our behalf.

Jesus continues his story by telling his followers that those who come to him will find safe refuge from the challenges of life. Jesus says, “Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:9-10) In the ordinary days of our lives, there will always be extraordinary times of challenge and joy – and Christ will be in the midst of all that we experience. You may have heard the popular expression, “everything happens for a reason.” I must admit I am not a believer in that expression because I think there are many things that happen for no particular reason at all. I would prefer the expression to be said in this way, “things in life happen, and Christ is always with us for a reason.” The strength of our days, the hope of our future, and the love of each other happen because Christ is with us and has promised that we may have life and have it abundantly.

The reading of Psalm 23 and the first ten verses of chapter 10 from John’s Gospel account were read this morning, but these Scripture texts were also read at the Burial service this past Monday. The service of burial is an Easter service; an important time to remember that we have been redeemed through Christ and we have been given the saving gift of eternal rest with God. A burial service is an important occasion to remember that we have been blessed to receive the promise of a new life in Christ, but on this Good Shepherd Sunday, we remember that Christ is always with us, in the milestone events of our lives and in the many, many ordinary days in between. In the hectic and noisy days of our lives, may you hear His voice; as you journey from here to places unknown, may you be confident that He knows your name; and as you wonder where life will take you; may you follow where He leads you. Jesus came so that we may have life and have it abundantly. AMEN.