SPEAKER_00: In the name of the one holy and living God, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the fourth Sunday of Easter.
SPEAKER_00: We always refer to it unofficially as the Good Shepherd Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: That is because all three years of our lectionary pull from the tenth chapter of John, when Jesus goes pretty hard on his shepherding metaphors, so that chapter is split into three sections, and we get one each of the years, A, B, and C.
SPEAKER_00: Today we get this one, where Jesus refers to himself in two different ways.
SPEAKER_00: First, as a shepherd, and then in this lesser-known descriptor of being the gate.
SPEAKER_00: So, as a little context, we know that there were shepherds all over the fields of Palestine in Jesus' time, in the hill country.
SPEAKER_00: Shepherds were more away from home than at home with their sheep, grazing them wherever they could, and then moving them from place to place as the grazing got sparse.
SPEAKER_00: Because raising animals in this way was common, the shepherds would often all work together.
SPEAKER_00: And each night they would build a little sheep fold for their flocks where all the sheep would go in together and be safe inside these bramble walls and other deterrents that hemmed them in but kept the predators out.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus' illustration of walking in and calling his sheep and them following him is understood to be because of this setting.
SPEAKER_00: And sheep are indeed this way.
SPEAKER_00: They know the voice of their shepherd, which I know because, as I can't stop mentioning every year on this day, I was raised on a sheep farm.
SPEAKER_00: I watched those sheep know my parents' voices, mostly my mother's, since my father traveled for work a lot during that time, and they did know her voice, especially when they broke out of their fences and ended up on the front lawn bleeding madly because they scare themselves when they do that.
SPEAKER_00: And my mother would go out and call them, and they would follow her back inside again until the next time when they broke out.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is being clear that he is the shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: And the strangers' voices that tried to break into the temporary sheepfold or to call the sheep out through the gate were thieves or bandits, those who wanted to steal or kill or destroy, as the scripture says today, the flock behind the backs of those who care for the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: But as is often the case when Jesus is teaching, the disciples are not catching on, and the gospeler has no problem telling us so.
SPEAKER_00: They did not understand what he was saying to them.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus tries again.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever enters by me will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And when you come in and when you go out, you will find safety and pasture to graze.
SPEAKER_00: In both instances, on either side of the gate, which is Jesus, he says, you will find what you need.
SPEAKER_00: Now, most often I have seen this passage understood to mean some of us are inside the gate with Jesus and some of us are outside the gate.
SPEAKER_00: Some are right and some are wrong, some are loved and some are not.
SPEAKER_00: But I think that doesn't invite us to do the important gospel work of accepting that God's love is for all of creation, even those we disagree with or dislike.
SPEAKER_00: It minimizes Jesus to being on our side when we are all in Jesus' flock.
SPEAKER_00: We are all invited to follow his voice.
SPEAKER_00: So I would propose an additional way to think about this in and out of the sheepfold.
SPEAKER_00: What's happening within us when we go through him to our most interior selves?
SPEAKER_00: And what's happening when we go through him outside into the world?
SPEAKER_00: And so I'd start here.
SPEAKER_00: How are things inside you, my friends?
SPEAKER_00: How's your spirit?
SPEAKER_00: It feels very much like for the past five years or so since the pandemic, we've all been playing some imaginary game of catch-up, on work especially, as though we should be hustling harder and harder all the time.
SPEAKER_00: So are you able to make time for your internal self, for tending to your own heart and spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Are you finding time to rest with the divine that dwells within you?
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus, our gate, is trying to provide, to walk inside ourselves, into the protected enclosure that He has created within us as the shepherd of our souls, and divest ourselves of all those outside demands and just rest.
SPEAKER_00: I confess I'm not always good at it.
SPEAKER_00: I'll take time out of the office, but I'll still work from afar.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard not to feel compelled to do those things when everything seems to be moving fast, and in every other arena we're supposed to be constantly available.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's part of why my weekly email message last week was to tell you about the slow time that my partner Jill and I had while I was on vacation last week.
SPEAKER_00: We meandered and did interesting things, encountered new adventures and people and animals.
SPEAKER_00: It was wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: And I intentionally kept myself out of my email, too.
SPEAKER_00: And funny enough, the world didn't collapse without me.
SPEAKER_00: It was a good reminder to me and maybe one for you too.
SPEAKER_00: There is plenty of room for us to rest and to step back.
SPEAKER_00: There's plenty of people who can help make that happen if we include them in our community.
SPEAKER_00: I acknowledge that some industries are less affirming of this reality, so this is not universally accessible in the same way, but the truth is it should be.
SPEAKER_00: Because tending to my interior self gave me renewed energy to come back amongst you.
SPEAKER_00: Going inside myself and breathing deeply with Jesus, my shepherd, has made me stronger and more joyful in my work and more creative.
SPEAKER_00: After a few days of rest, I found I could start imagining future ideas for us as a community.
SPEAKER_00: New dreams and new what-ifs arose, all because I'd given myself a little room to get out of the weeds of the everyday work.
SPEAKER_00: I tended my spirit, and I'm better for it.
SPEAKER_00: And all of us should be afforded that room to regain our creative energies.
SPEAKER_00: And that all connects to what happens when we walk through the gate of Jesus out into the world as well.
SPEAKER_00: The rest and joy in my interior spirit gave me a sense of connectedness back to you and to this community.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't have started getting creative about problem solving and generating ideas if I hadn't tended to that interior world, so by tending to one side, I made the other side better.
SPEAKER_00: And by tending the world, whether in this community or outside our doors, I also clarify and sharpen my prayers that happen within me too.
SPEAKER_00: I gain clarity about what it is to love God and to love my neighbor as myself because I'm engaging with my neighbors more closely.
SPEAKER_00: I'm nourished and fed by the actions and energy of others that I encounter.
SPEAKER_00: I find pasture that feeds me by going through Jesus into the world, bringing him with me in my spirit with intention.
SPEAKER_00: So these revolutions continue one around the other, feeding each other and strengthening one another because we continually go through Jesus, both toward our inner self and toward the world.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, in all of this, we will encounter those thieves and bandits and must be on guard that they don't deplete us, that they don't, as the scripture says, steal, kill, or destroy us.
SPEAKER_00: Now, who those thieves and bandits are in your life may take some discernment.
SPEAKER_00: It can be anything from your own internal monologues about yourselves all the way to those using their power to hurt others in the biggest pictures.
SPEAKER_00: Thieves and bandits can look many, many different ways.
SPEAKER_00: But again, with intention, we can be going into and out of those interactions through Jesus, which helps us to be more of who we want to be when things are difficult.
SPEAKER_00: After all, the shepherd wants to protect the sheep and assure that we are well and whole and safe and united as his flock.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the grounding for understanding ourselves as saved by entering through him.
SPEAKER_00: To know we are so deeply beloved is transformative in our hearts and spirits, and we can live out of that place for the sake of the world.
SPEAKER_00: So we listen for his voice, knowing that when we really listen through the din of all the other voices which want to demand or steal our attention or affection, we will know it is him calling us.
SPEAKER_00: Because the voice is calling us toward safety within ourselves when we go through him, and to abundance outside ourselves when we go through him.
SPEAKER_00: We will know it is him by his love for us.
SPEAKER_00: A shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.
SPEAKER_00: He did.
SPEAKER_00: And he rose again so that death would be destroyed for us forever.
SPEAKER_00: It is a sacrificial love beyond compare that we have received.
SPEAKER_00: That love is like the underlying timber of his voice that feels so familiar when we hear it through all the years and all the miles and all the challenges of this life.
SPEAKER_00: That love is the voice which calls us home to him again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: We can follow him because we know we are loved.
SPEAKER_00: We know he is for us and never against us.
SPEAKER_00: That the good shepherd wishes us to have life and have it abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: So follow, beloveds.
SPEAKER_00: Listen.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to his voice alone and follow him.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.