The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick Episcopal Church. The sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 25, 2021, was preached in response to John 10.11-18 using the manuscript below.
The sure provisions of my God
Attend me all my days;
O may Thy house be my abode,
And all my work be praise!
There would I find a settled rest,
While others go and come;
No more a stranger, nor a guest,
But like a child at home.[1]
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
The good shepherd, Jesus,
lays down his life for the sheep.
It’s the Fourth Sunday of Easter.
Good Shepherd Sunday.
Easter Day,
Thomas Sunday,
Emmaus Sunday,
Good Shepherd Sunday.
The good shepherd, Jesus,
lays down his life for the sheep.
In the text from John today,
long before Jesus is discoursing with the disciples
before he’s preparing to die the next day,
Jesus tells us who he is.
He tells us who he is,
how Jesus is the Good Shepherd,
as he engages his challengers.
Among the parables Jesus has said in John 10,
he’s said,
“The gatekeeper opens the gate for [the shepherd],
and the sheep hear his voice.
He calls his own sheep by name
and leads them out.
When he has brought out all his own,
he goes ahead of them,
and the sheep follow him
because they know his voice.
… Jesus used this figure of speech with them,
but they did not understand
what he was saying to them.”
So he explains it to them.
The good shepherd, Jesus,
lays down his life for the sheep.
In the tumult of this week,
I don’t even remember what’s happened.
Many of us heaved a sigh of relief
when Derek Chauvin was convicted,
even as we know
that punishment in our carceral system
is not justice.
Even as we know,
or try to believe, that as my friend Kyle tweeted,
there will be no justice
till God raises the dead
and gives them back to their loved ones.
Punishing Derek Chauvin
is a beginning
a mere beginning
of the idea of accountability
to police who kill people.
Even as that verdict was being announced,
as the people of the Twin Cities are still grieving
Daunte Wright’s death,
Ma’Khia Bryant was killed by police in Ohio.
This doesn’t even account
for the rolling headlines
about mass shootings.
That’s just domestically.
COVID19
is still ravaging the globe
even if things are better now here
than they were four months ago.
The good shepherd, Jesus,
lays down his life for the sheep.
My friend Kyle,
who tweeted about justice
at Jesus’ return
when all the dead
are returned to their families
also said,
“Jesus’s resurrection
is the point of impact
between God’s justice and the world.”
The good shepherd, Jesus,
lays down his life for the sheep.
“No one takes it from me,
but I lay it down
of my own accord.
I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it up again.”
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In debating,
in good rabbinic fashion,
Jesus tells the pharisees
and his disciples
and anyone who overhears
exactly who he is.
Jesus is good shepherd,
the model shepherd
the ideal shepherd
who cares so lovingly,
so tenderly for the sheep
that he will die for them.
The pastoral as the ideal vision,
what we look back to
When Things Were Better —
think the Jeffersonian ideal —
is neither new nor unique
to the United States.
Long after shepherding
ceased to be the dominant way of life
for Jesus’ people
they remembered the Good Old Days
when David and Moses were shepherds.
That’s the comfort
that Jesus offers here.
The good shepherd, Jesus,
lays down his life for the sheep.
As we’ve lived a hard week,
a hard year,
with death
death
everywhere,
Jesus has lain down his life for us.
No one took it from him.
Jesus gave it on his own,
and had the power to take it back.
Christ is risen from the dead,
trampling down death by death,
and on those in the tombs
Daunte Wright
George Floyd
Ma’Khia Bryant
bestowing life.
We don’t necessarily see God’s justice enacted,
but Jesus the good shepherd
has lain down his life for us.
He has promised to call us by name,
and to care for us
as a shepherd cares for sheep.
Jesus loves us tenderly
and will bear our burdens,
carrying us over his shoulders
or in the crook of his arm
when we’re feeling pressed
to the point of feeling crushed.
The good shepherd, Jesus,
lays down his life for the sheep.
And Jesus the good shepherd,
has risen victorious from it.
Jesus, the good shepherd,
carries us when we can’t walk
and promises justice
in the goodness and fullness of time.
When I walk through the shades of death,
Thy presence is my stay;
A word of Thy supporting breath
Drives all my fears away.
Thy hand, in sight of all my foes,
Doth still my table spread;
My cup with blessings overflows,
Thine oil anoints my head. [2]
[1] “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need” by Isaac Watts, verse 3.
[2] “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need” by Isaac Watts, verse 2.