Listening For Love

May I speak in the name of the One God who is Speaker, Word and Breath. Amen.

I don't know if Anna and Laurie knew when they booked today for Matthew's baptism, but today is Good Shepherd Sunday - a perfect day to welcome one of the newest members of our flock. 

The shepherding imagery weaves through the readings and feels quite familiar and reassuring

In the reading from Acts we hear what life looks like for that first community of Christians when they have heard and followed Jesus. They live together, sharing everything, eating, worshipping and working alongside one another. 

If we read the psalm for today it would unsurprisingly be Psalm 23 - a reminder that we’re known by God, and that God wishes to keep us safe.

But when we listen closely things really aren’t that cosy at all. In the gospel, Jesus is talking about thieves and bandits, about danger and about voices that can’t be trusted. Jesus says sheep need to learn the difference between the voice of the shepherd and those who might wish them harm.

He seems to be implying that there are those who claim to love God, to follow God, and to know God’s will, but aren’t really recognising the true voice of God. Jesus was preaching this at the temple, surrounded by Pharisees and others who definitely didn’t recognise his voice as the voice of God.

Now, sheep get a bad press. Being called a sheep for us usually means being accused of not thinking for ourselves or blindly following the crowd. But we might not be as different from sheep as we’d like to think.

Sheep have actually been proven to be pretty intelligent – they can recognise different faces, they have impressive memories and they experience a wide range of emotions. But when sheep are scared they panic, they behave irrationally.

They cluster, or scatter, or run towards danger, basically losing all sense of direction. And that feels… uncomfortably familiar.

We Humans tend to make our worst decisions when we’re scared. Fear makes us reactive, narrows our judgement, and makes us more likely to listen to voices we’d ignore at other times - and there are always people willing to exploit our fear.

Jesus names them plainly: thieves and bandits — those who don’t enter by the gate, who don’t care for the sheep, who take and scatter and destroy. We don’t need to look very far all these centuries later to hear the voices still exploiting our fears.

They’re the voices that tell us to fear the poor who’ll take more than they deserve, the outsider whose differences from us make them a threat, and the foreigner who threatens and takes. These voices tell us generosity is weakness, that compassion is naïve yet proclaim faith while preaching exclusion.

And those voices can be incredibly loud – and that volume can be amplified by wealth, influence, certainty, and power. The danger is that our fear can make their voices start to sound like wisdom.

Jesus tells us about the Good Shepherd – who loves, protects and leads the flock: “The sheep follow him, because they know his voice.” They might not know the path, or the terrain could be tricky, but the sheep know it’s the right way to go. They put their faith in the one leading them.

The shepherd’s voice never leads by fear. It doesn’t cause the sheep to scatter, or trample the weak for the sake of the strong. The shepherd’s voice leads towards the abundant life Jesus wants for each of us.

Now I’m a massive fan of The Chosen – I’m sure I’ve mentioned it in sermons before, I’ve told Huw to watch it as well, but he’s probably forgot. It’s an incredibly well-made TV series which depicts Jesus’ life, beginning with leaving the wilderness to start his ministry and the 5th series that came out last year finished with Judas’ betrayal – I rewatched the whole thing through Lent.

During the 4th series we see the scene from today’s gospel taking place on the temple steps, and it results in Jesus and the disciples being the victims of an attempted stoning by the Pharisees who are calling Jesus out, appalled at what they call blasphemy. Big James is quite badly injured, and they’re forced to retreat to their lodging house. And they’re scared.

The reality of how dangerous their ministry is hits them.

They realise that whilst they all believe that Jesus is the Messiah, not everyone will believe, not everyone will hear and understand, and some may even be threatened to the point where they want to kill those bringing the message.

It’s a moment of hate and violence as a response to a message of love, and I think that’s still the way some people respond when confronted with the true message of Jesus’ teaching, where the poor, the orphaned, the widowed, the sick, the tax collectors, people with questionable pasts and those cast out through illness are all equally loved and held up in God’s eyes; and to do God’s work is to care for the sick, the prisoner, the marginalised. 

This message of love and inclusion will always threaten those who benefit from exploiting our fears.

Which brings us, uncomfortably, to leadership. Today being Good Shepherd Sunday, is a day we inevitably think about those who have leadership and pastoral responsibility – whether in churches, in communities, or in the public eye.

Like Pope Leo, who recently seemed to become a threat to some powerful people by simply preaching the gospel. It takes courage for our Christian leaders to speak so clearly about love, justice, human dignity, and truth - especially when that brings them into tension with those who the world sees as powerful.

And it takes courage to resist those voices that trade in fear, to refuse a rhetoric of exclusion, violence and dominance, and to declare that our faith can’t be used as a weapon.

It takes courage knowing there will be a backlash, and part of that may well come from within the church. But finding that courage, knowing you must speak up to the fear-mongers, sounds like someone listening for and responding to the shepherd’s voice.

But not all those in leadership have this courage. Sometimes leaders are the same people preying upon our fears.

Jesus tells us something else in the gospel; “I am the gate.” This is a reminder to everyone – those who lead with fear but also us, who may think we’ve got it right, that we’re following Jesus the right way, which might lead us to have strong feelings against, or even hate, those who we think are getting it wrong.

The sheep don’t get to decide who comes through the gate, nor do the shepherds who came after Jesus and neither does the church.

Jesus alone decides who’s in and who’s out. 

He is the gate. 

And whenever we forget that - whenever we start deciding whose lives matter, whose suffering can be ignored, whose dignity is conditional – we’ve stopped listening to the right voice and we’re no longer following the shepherd.

When there are so many voices competing to be heard - political voices, religious voices, media voices, voices of friends, family and colleagues - which voices sound most like love?

Which voices speak about mercy rather than suspicion?

Which voices gather us together rather than scattering us apart?

Which voices speak of lifting up the most vulnerable rather than asking who deserves our help?

As we baptise Matthew this morning, what voices do we want him and our church family to hear as they grow in love, faithfulness and discipleship?

That is how we discern the shepherd’s voice – it leads towards love and leaves fear behind. It guides us into living an abundant life.

So I pray we resist voices that trade in fear. And even if the path is a bit rocky, or unfamiliar, may we have the courage - like sheep who trust their shepherd - to follow where God’s love leads.

Amen.

Fourth Sunday of Easter

The Collect:

O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

First Lesson: Acts 2:42-47

42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

Psalm: Psalm 23

1 The Lord is my shepherd; *

       I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures *

       and leads me beside still waters.

3 He revives my soul *

       and guides me along right pathways for his Name’s sake.

4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

  I shall fear no evil; *

       for you are with me;

       your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

5 You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; *

       you have anointed my head with oil,

       and my cup is running over.

6 Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, *

       and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Second Lesson: 1 Peter 2:19-25

19For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. 20If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. 21For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps. 22“He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” 23When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. 24He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

Gospel: John 10:1-10

1“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. 2The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.