Fourth Sunday of Easter 2004

Speaking Index

Delivered 1 May 2004, the Saturday service based on the readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter.

He is Risen!

We have come from our homes, some from our labors, probably some from our gardens, to gather beside the waters of baptism, to gather at the foot of the cross. We are called here to worship together. It is good that we are here.

This is the fourth Sunday of Easter, continuing through the Gospel according to John. The last time I preached I did two sermons back to back. Don’t worry, I’m not going to do that again today.

Look them up

Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and from his son Jesus the Christ, and from the Holy Spirit. Amen

About two centuries before our lesson from John, in the year 168 BC by our reckoning, the Syrian king Antiochus desecrated the temple at Jerusalem, placing a Greek idol on the altar and allowing pigs to roam the temple grounds. Three years later the Hasmoneon revolt led by Judah Maccabee liberated Israel. The Maccabees returned to the temple and immediately set out to reconsecrate, to rededicate the temple to God. They needed to relight the temple lamp, but only had oil enough for one day, but it would take eight days to make more oil. They lit the lamp anyway, and in the second miracle of Hanukkah it burned for eight days and did not fail.

You probably know that this is a big deal to the Jews. They still celebrate Hannukah today. Different translations identify the observance as the feast of lights or the feast of dedication. It was really a big deal in first century Jerusalem. For one, it was less than two hundred years before, so it may be like Americans celebrating the Fourth of July. It was a very patriotic event. Maccabee means "the hammer", a name Judah earned in battling the forces of the king.

After Alexander the Great's empire broke into three parts, it was still essentially a Greek or Macedonian rule over each of them, with a Syrian tyrant in charge of the section that included Judeah. Ordinary farmers and shepherds, trained by this "Hammer" and his brothers and father, defeated the occupying army.

Not only was this a major patriotic event, the image it brought to the Jews suffering under the Romans is very clear. They are looking for the Christ, the Messiah, a man from God even more powerful than Judah the Hammer. A man that will throw aside the Romans and keep them and any other occupiers out forever. That's where this story starts.

So Jesus was walking in Solomon's Colonnade, Solomon's Porch. We read that the Jews gathered around him, other commentators say the original suggests they surrounded him or trapped him, that this was a threatening moment. Then they demand Jesus declare himself. He had been accused both of being possessed by a demon and of being a demon. They had in mind that this was not the Messiah, that this man was a visit from a new Antiochus. To cast it in American terms, they were more worried the candidate was another George III rather than another George Washington. And after Jesus declares that these Jews are not his sheep, they pick up stones to put him to death for his blasphemy.

Jesus spoke gently with the Jews, but they were not appeased, and the last verse of the chapter says that Jesus escaped their grasp. The Jews might have accepted a Christ that swept them away like a wave, it was a challenge to accept a Christ that had to escape from a small group on the temple porch.

How many of you have had close dealing with sheep? I have, and those who John was writing to certainly did. It isn't necessarily a complement to be called a sheep. Sheep are stupid, dirty, flighty, smelly, and easily distracted and led away. A good shepherd can keep the flock together, but if he doesn't they are likely to follow another shepherd into another pasture. If I was going to move a flock of sheep through the Valley of the Shadow of Death I think I'd tie them up and throw them in a truck.

But realistically, can we say that we are not sheep? We’re normally fairly clean, at least when we come to church. I know I took a shower this afternoon. But I also know I am easily led away from the path. I think I know my shepherd’s voice, but I don’t always hear it. I think I can safely say I’ve tried not to hear it at times. Like a sheep I certainly have been known to go my own way, and the shepherd has to leave the 99 to come and drag me back.

Generations of religious artists have portrayed the sheep as cute wooly lumps, clustered around the Jesus the shepherd, beard neatly trimmed and hair carefully brushed. This is nonsense of the first water, and doesn’t serve us well in understanding the whole sheep and shepherd paradigm. John’s original readers didn’t have any such problem.

But these words, even if we think of real sheep and real shepherds, can come to us as the best of news. We don’t have to do anything to be part of the flock. We just have to hear. If we can hear, we belong. We don’t have to be white as snow, we belong. If we gather with the flock, we belong.

Despite their problems, sheep are valuable. They manure the pastures, provide wool and milk, and when properly roasted they are very tasty. We aren’t fit for food, but we can nurture our communities, provide nourishment and shelter for others in ways large and small. But we still need a shepherd.

Fortunately, we have one. So let’s not stone him.

We don’t know why Christ chose to speak in parables. In many of the parables the stories lead us to understanding, but in others we are left confused. The story of the prodigal son is a good example, we get so distracted by wanting to judge the older son we have trouble seeing just how much grace was given to both the sons. In this account, the Jews want it down in black and white.

In this confrontational setting, I’m not sure what they would have done with a clear answer. They longed for the Messiah that would sweep aside the Romans and lead Israel to glory, but this group also was ready to turn him over to the Romans if he was anything less.

For us, we can recognize that we are sheep. We flock together, we hear the voice of the shepherd. We follow Him, not always as closely as we should, but we do. No one can snatch us out of His hand, and He will give us Eternal Life.

Our Father and Our Shepherd are one, and that is the Gospel of the Lord. Amen.