Year C
John 10:22-30
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
Living the Easter Faith
In the mid-1950’s, Sophia Cavaletti an Italian educator, became interested in evaluating the potential of young children to comprehend certain religious symbols. She determined that there were several central Christian symbols that spoke profoundly to the young students. Among them was the symbol of the Good Shepherd. To be sure her findings were correct she decided to create an environment with models representing the Good Shepherd in the tenth chapter of John-a shepherd, sheep, a sheepfold, a hireling, and a wolf. Then she, together with the children, meditated on the questions, “God, who are you?” and “How do you love us?” Without giving answers, she watched and listened to the children joyfully play with the models and turn the questions over in their hearts.
She was convinced that the main religious experience of childhood and for that matter all ages, was joy and this joy is brought about by experiences of being loved, protected, and at peace. Today, on this fourth Sunday of Easter, known as Good Shepherd Sunday, also Mother’s Day, the church holds up this image of God as the Good Shepherd who loves and protects all God’s children like a Mother. This depiction of God, Jesus, as the good shepherd is an ancient one in the church. In Rome, there are wall paintings in the catacombs that show us this. Through time, this image of Jesus has not lost its ability to communicate its powerful message even though for most of us today a shepherd is not a familiar feature.
In Jesus’ day, shepherding was a common occupation, so the reference Jesus makes in today’s gospel from John would not only have been clear to the people; everyone knew how diligently a good shepherd had to work, how much he guarded against losing a lamb to wolves but Jesus also knew sheep, that they were easily lost, defenseless and in deep need of a shepherd’s care. In that day, there were no large, commercial farms, electric fences, and barbed wire, to protect the sheep. Pastures for sheep in Palestine were lined by rocks. The land is made up of rocks. For centuries, the people separated properties with high rows of rocks and many would drape the rocks with a variety of grapevines to make further use of the walls.
Little areas circled by rocks were used as “sheepfolds” or enclosures designed to hold no more than 50 sheep during the nighttime for protection. The rocks were usually placed high enough so the sheep couldn’t jump out, and the thorny grapevines were a deterrent to intruders of many sorts. Just prior to nightfall, the shepherd would go out into the fields to the larger herd, consisting of many different flocks, and he would call out the name of his own. They would recognize their shepherd’s voice and one by one, he would lead them out of the larger flock into the stone-walled pen for safety.
Once inside, the shepherd, having made sure that all the sheep were safe and accounted for, would then lie down across the 4 to 6 foot wide opening and spend the night. He was the door, the gate. By day, with the shepherd’s attentive care, he guided the sheep to lush grazing fields and fresh water. This protective and guiding nature of the good shepherd we hear both in chapter 10 of John’s gospel and in the 23 psalm, a psalm that generations of us have committed to memory, a psalm that shapes our image of God, a God of life who restores our souls and who walks with us through the valleys of life into the valley of resurrected life. All of the texts today speak to the providing care of a loving God, who begs us to choose life and whose concern reaches out to all of us but especially to needy folk, many of whom have no other arm to lean on.
The widows in the Acts reading today, known for their acts of charity, were vulnerable to being manipulated by aggressive scoundrels. Tabitha or Dorcas is one of these widows and a leader of the Christian community in Joppa or modern day Jaffa, a Philistine city on the Mediterranean Sea. She is well known for her devotion to good works and acts of charity. Her leadership in the church is so great that when her health fails and she dies, her friends in the First Church of Joppa send two men to Lydda to get Peter and bring him to Joppa as quickly as possible. When he arrives, he finds a dead widow surrounded by mourning widows who-like the women who went to the tomb of Jesus-were preparing her for burial. Peter prayed and the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead raised Tabitha.
This beautiful miracle story reinforces Jesus’ message in John, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. Tabitha is clearly someone who has chosen Jesus, and helped to share his life and love with all around her. She chooses the living God, and her resurrection will be used as a witness, a declaration of the power of Jesus Christ in our lives. Her story is a story that must be told. The good news of God’s victory over death must spread so that many can hear it and respond by coming to believe in Jesus Christ who gives us life. We serve a God whose chooses life and while God does not always, reach into our lives to calm the storm, God does walk with us. Our God, the Good Shepherd is with us through it all.
The Acts story and Psalm 23 tell us how the Good Shepherd stands with us. Revelation today gives us a beautiful picture of how God comforts us. In his vision, John sees a vast multitude of people-all races and nationalities and languages-getting to spend eternity in the presence of God, singing God’s praise, and God will shelter them: “They will hunger no more, and thirst no more…God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” They have known hunger and thirst, exposure and weeping, but they now experience a deliverance, a shelter, and a way to the “springs of the water of life.” God dwells among God’s people, sustaining, caring, and protecting the faithful.
This passage from Revelation reminds us of what Jesus offers us in eternity. What a wonderful picture of the “sheepfold” where we will live with the Good Shepherd forever. The texts today give us ample reason for living without fear; with trust in the living, loving God. And they call us to be both good sheep and good shepherds. We are to be those sheep who are so intimately connected to the Shepherd that we listen for the voice of the Shepherd. We know his voice and are not fooled by the voices of those who would lead us astray. At the same time, we are called to be good shepherds for those like the widows in Acts who need us.
We like Peter and the disciples, during these 50 days of Easter, will continue to experience the dawning awareness of the power of that first resurrection, as we participate in Jesus’ unfinished story. Christ leaves death behind. Living leads to dying, but the resurrection of Jesus means the Great Good Shepherd will continue to lead disciples to green pastures, to be protected, to be watered by an abundant stream of life and that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Easter answers the questions: “God, who are you?” and “How do you love us?” Like a mother who calls us home and tenderly wipes our tears and feeds us at the feast to come.