Several years ago a woman awoke in the middle of the night to desperate, cries of "Help! Help!" Thinking that her husband was in distress, she shook him violently. Then, realizing that he was fast asleep, she got out of bed, headed into the living room where the shouting was even louder.
"Where are you?" she called out. "In the fireplace," was the reply. There, dangling in the chimney, was a burglar stuck upside down. Police and firefighters eventually freed the would-be thief, but only after dismantling the brickwork around the fireplace.
What was interesting in this story was that whilst the homeowner waited for help, she turned on the living room lights and sat down to record the sight with her video camera, and apparently she got her Bible and read part of the gospel we heard this morning (John 10:1-10), Jesus said, "Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in by another way, is a thief and "a bandit."
Today’s readings are about fellowship and about following Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep. Sheep and shepherds were of course an enormously important part of society at the time of Jesus. The sheep were used as sacrifices in the temple, and for meat in the feasts and festivals. But as a business they were kept mostly for their wool. Because of that the sheep would often be with their shepherds for years and the shepherds would call them by name.
Taking this into account it’s very easy to see how Jesus talked of the relationship between himself and his followers as similar to the one between a sheep and his shepherd. Contrary to what is often thought I’m told that sheep are actually very intelligent animals. They have a good grasp of what’s happening, but they are also animals that are willing to be led, and when cared for by a good shepherd this ability to be led is one that is often life saving.
And that is true for us. So often we try to clear out a path for ourselves with no consideration for God, and what his thoughts may be. Sometimes it’s for good reasons, ‘Why would God be interested in what we’re doing ??’ Other times it’s because we simply don’t think, or perhaps we even at times know that what we intend doing is not what God would want us to be doing.
But Jesus came to offer an example to follow, and as he ascended into heaven he left us with the words that should prove an inspiration to us every moment of every day, ‘I am with you always, to the very end of the age…’ In that most famous of all the psalms, perhaps even the most famous Bible verse of all from Psalm 23 that we have sung, David says ‘The Lord is my shepherd, therefore can I lack nothing, and it is precisely because David is able to say ‘the Lord is my Shepherd’, that he can also say, ‘therefore can I lack nothing.’
Jesus is the great shepherd, the shepherd that would never abandon his sheep, the shepherd that indeed goes looking for the sheep that are lost, the shepherd that will even lay down his own life for the sake of those he loves.
Shepherds at the time of writing of these passages we have heard today were very much on the edge of society. They did a tremendously important job, but they were often marginalised, and yet it is they that really epitomise the qualities of caring, love, courage, sacrifice, patience, vigilance and fearlessness. It is they that represent to us so much of what Jesus has done and does for us.
Jesus is the great shepherd who cares for his sheep wherever they are and whatever they may do. But with this inspiration, with this wonderful knowledge, also comes a challenge to go further, because a shepherd is also responsible for leading his sheep to places they may never have been before, to new places, perhaps places of greater growth, perhaps places of greater safety.
Jesus also leads us if we wish to follow, and that is our challenge – to have a willingness to follow the great shepherd of the sheep wherever he may lead, whatever the benefits, whatever the costs…
It is this willingness to follow that led the members of the early Church to sacrifice so much for the sake of their Saviour. It is this willingness to follow that inspired them to spend time together devoted, as we hear in the Acts of the Apostles (2:42-47) to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers. It is this willingness to follow someone who had given everything for them that enabled them to realise the futility of material possessions and enabled them to share all they had, and day by day as they lived out this example of love and fellowship and unity, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Someone once said that ‘we can't all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as the heroes go by.’ Within the Church that is true for many who will be followers rather than leaders, but in following Jesus faithfully we can often provide the greatest example of leadership and devotion to others.
We continue to celebrate the Easter season, the season that reminds us that God can do absolutely anything, having even conquered death…
Whatever the world does to us, we will still be part of the unstoppable force that regrouped after the resurrection to plan for world domination – not in the name of power, profit or ideology, but in the name of that great liberation, that excellent freedom – salvation.
Sam Pascoe said; "Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it moved to America and became an enterprise."
Perhaps we would like to be able to add – ‘and it came to Wales and started another worldwide revolution of love, hope, justice and peace… we might be dreaming, but if we don’t think big….well, the resurrection might as well never have happened.’
May we follow Jesus in our lives, and through our hope and willingness to be led, lead others to know the love that knows no limits, and has no boundaries of time or space. AMEN
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