Easter 4B 2009
John 10:11-18
In this week's gospel lesson,
Jesus identifies himself as a shepherd, an image very familiar to Christians over the centuries. The Old Testament sometimes uses shepherd as a metaphor for God, as in the 23rd Psalm. But the Old Testament shepherd metaphor usually is used for
human leaders who have responsibility for their followers when it doesn’t refer to actual shepherds with sheep. The metaphorical references to human shepherds usually depict the shepherds as worthless
and dangerous persons who harm those whom God has placed in their care and are more concerned for their own personal gain
than for the good of their flocks.
In the New Testament Jesus is a shepherd who is different from these other shepherds. These others are are just hired hands whose care of the sheep
goes only so far. They guide and protect the sheep in easy times, but when wolves
threaten, they flee to safety, and abandon the defenseless sheep. Jesus is the
opposite of the bad shepherds; he does not, and did not, place his own life above the lives of his followers.
Jesus also said that he has
other sheep who are not of this fold. There are other Christians who don't belong to the Saint John’s community of Christians
and who may understand Jesus quite differently. These other sheep are still Christians, but Jesus will bring them into the
one fold, so that there is one flock and one shepherd – as long as they conform to the belief set and practices of the
Saint John community. There is little
ecumenical or pluralistic or inclusive vision here if taken too literally.
In today's hotly contested
religious environment, many voices conflict over the issues of exclusivity and pluralism. Some
mainline religious groups insist that Jesus is the only way, and insisting not
only on the rightness of following Jesus but also to the wrongness of other ways, but also that any other way of being Christian
is entirely wrong. For these Christians, parts of Saint John’s Gospel and
Acts of the Apostles are key rallying points for their restricted vision of the church and who can be included in it.
At the same time, other Christians
are exploring broader interpretations and options, emphasizing the unity in diversity of God's church with its many differences
and disagreements. For these Christians, exclusiveness is seen as somewhat
embarrassing for its refusal to embrace difference in order to focus on the singularity of Jesus.
In the Gospels and in Acts
of the Apostles, sides can be chosen and scripturally supported for both exclusion and inclusion. Scripture holds up both models, but the church today has not grappled adequately with this tension.
(Adapted from Jon L. Berquist, Exegesis I, Lectionary Homiletics for John 10:11-18,
goodpreacher.com)
Two thousand years of Church
history suggest that good and sincere Christians who are persuaded by one or the other of these two streams of thought have
struggled with each other, resulting in denunciations of heresy and even torture and killing in the inquisition and in religious
wars. It is an aside comment on the human condition that this sort of struggle
is not confined to Christianity.
The General Convention of
the Episcopal Church meets July 8-17, 2009 in Anaheim, California. Most of its
deliberations will be the routine housekeeping business of the Church. But the
usual hot button issues will be there. In particular, some dioceses will use
General Convention to pursue social justice where it concerns human sexuality and same gender relationships. I do not know whether General Convention will conclude its work on July 17 with something close to one
mind on these recurrent issues. I rather doubt it.
But these are the sorts of
issues that divide us, like the Early Church and the Church through the centuries has been divided on various issues, many
of which seem much less important now than then.
Our task is to keep our eye
on the main thing that Jesus taught us almost two thousand years ago: First of
all, to love God with all that we are and have, and second, and following from the first, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Looking at any disagreements we might have among ourselves through the lens of the
Summary of the Law will see us safely through any storm that might come from action of General Convention – or anywhere
else. AMEN
