Sunday, April 30th: "I Am the Good Shepherd"

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First United Presbyterian Church

“I Am the Good Shepherd”

Rev. Amy Morgan

April 30, 2023

John 10:1-15

“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. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me[a] are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.

Denny Barnes was not a part of the flock. First of all, he didn’t believe in God. As an espoused atheist, there wasn’t a faith community that would welcome him to the fold. And so, he had no group of compassionate humans who could help him through the mounds of self-doubt, family turmoil, and social awkwardness of his early adulthood. 

So when he did come to believe in Jesus and was baptized at the age of 19, he was filled with joy and excitement. He carried his Bible everywhere and told everyone about the good news of his conversion. 

But it soon became clear that his new faith community was not really sure Denny was part of their flock. When Denny shared with another church member that he is gay, the news quickly spread through the congregation, and Denny received a call from his deacon telling him he needed to change his “lifestyle” and he was not welcome in church. 

Ginger Robertson grew up in the church, but never really felt that she was part of the flock. At an early age, she began struggling with depression, and the message she heard from pastors, teachers, and fellow church members was: 

• “You aren’t a good Christian if you can’t beat your depression.”
• “You don’t have enough faith. You just need to trust in God.”
• “You need to pray more.”
• “You are letting the Devil in. You are possessed.”

Nonetheless, Ginger tried to stay in the fold. She studied and prayed, even participated in a kind of exorcism and an individual healing prayer session to battle the “demons” of depression. She credited the faith community with bolstering her recovery from suicidal depression even as she questioned its opposition to mental health medication and professional treatment. She was very involved in her church, participating in prayer groups, children’s church, and community outreach. 

But when she offered to help with the church youth group, hoping to support young people who struggled with mental illness as she had, she was given the clear message: Your desire to participate in the church is of less importance than our belief that your mental illness is a threat to our church. 

These are only two stories of people who have been on the margins of faith communities, restored to that community, and subsequently kicked out of those communities. But it is a common narrative, and one we have heard for millennia.

In fact, we heard this story in the Bible just about a month ago, if you’ll recall. A man who was born blind was on the margins of his faith community because it was assumed his blindness was linked with sin. That sin threatened to contaminate the rest of the community. Jesus then comes along and heals the man’s blindness, which restored him to the community. However, Jesus’s assertion that the faith leaders were wrong to have excluded the man in the first place, his insistence that the man’s blindness had nothing to do with sin, creates a controversy in the faith community.  There is all this conversation about who’s a sinner and who isn’t, who’s blind and who can see. Ultimately, the man is kicked out of his faith community for believing in Jesus, the one who healed him, and refusing to call him a sinner for healing on the Sabbath.

And right after that Jesus launches into this monologue about sheep and shepherds, gates and bandits. Because of the way this text comes up in the lectionary, we almost never notice that this good shepherd business is an inextricable part of the story about Jesus healing a man who is blind. And when we are blind to that connection, some troubling interpretations result. 

Many sermons on this text will justify some kind of exclusion or warn about the dangers of outsiders. The sheep pen is a place of safety for God’s good flock, and Jesus keeps out all those bad people trying to get in. During the Reformation, the practice of “fencing” the Communion table developed, with liturgy declaring who was invited in and who was not. Some churches even have a physical fence around the table that people must pass through for Communion, and others provided Communion coins that were issued to those worthy of the sacrament and withheld from those who were not. 

But this text has also been used to condemn and exclude all sorts of folks from the flock of God in other ways. Those bandits and thieves, strangers and wolves have been cast as pretty much anyone who, in belief or behavior, disagrees with the pastor, the “shepherd,” of any given congregation. Whether it’s the exclusion of Catholics in the 16^th-century or LGBTQ+ persons in this century, the women accused of witchcraft in the 17^th century or someone suffering from mental illness today, the church continues to use this text to justify the exact opposite of what Jesus meant by it. 

Now, this confusion is somewhat understandable, not just because this text is normally read in isolation from its larger narrative. This speech is so obtuse, mixes so many metaphors, and operates on so many different levels that it confounded Jesus’s original audience. 

On one level, this can be read as an exposition of 1^st-century Palestinian shepherding practices. Everything Jesus says, other than the self-referential statements, is practically correct and comprehensible to the pastoral community Jesus is addressing. Thieves and bandits would try to enter sheep pens by some way other than the main gate that was guarded by a gatekeeper. That’s why most of these enclosures consisted of a stone wall topped with brambles and thorns, the 1^st-century equivalent of barbed wire.  Shepherds and gatekeepers would know each other, and shepherds would know the names of their sheep and call to them individually. Sheep will run away from strangers. Shepherds will sacrifice themselves to protect their sheep while those with no ownership stake in the flock will run away and leave the flock vulnerable to attack. You can almost see the crumpled brows in the crowd as Jesus is speaking, people turning to each other asking, “Why is he explaining all this stuff we already know? And what’s the deal with him being a gate?” 

But some people in the crowd, especially the religious leaders, those people Jesus has just called spiritually blind, would have heard something else entirely in this speech. Anytime shepherding came up in a religious or leadership context, the minds of those familiar with the Torah would have immediately jumped to two places in scripture: 1 Samuel 16 and Ezekiel 34. 1 Samuel references the anointing of David, the shepherd king of Israel. And Ezekiel 34 celebrates God as the “Good Shepherd” and condemns the recent kings of Israel as “Bad Shepherds.” Much of the imagery Jesus uses in this speech is drawn directly from those parts of the scriptures. So you can almost see the religious leaders getting red in the face and huffing to one another, “first he calls us blind, now he’s calling us bandits!”

But there is another group of people responding to this speech who we also need to keep in mind. The Gospel of John is very different from the other three gospels. One reason for that is that scholars believe it may have been composed, not by an individual, but by a whole community. The conflicts and struggles, as well as the beliefs and hopes, of that community are expressed in the way they tell the Jesus story. From this story, it is clear they were in some kind of conflict with the Jewish community, and perhaps there were even other Christian leaders and groups who were becoming divisive within the Johannine community. We can almost see them reading this together as they worshiped, strengthening the bonds of their flock, grateful for their security in Jesus and preparing to follow where he would lead them, even if that involved danger and uncertainty. 

And now this story has been entrusted to us. We get to unravel the meaning of this cast of characters Jesus creates: bandits, thieves, strangers, hired hands, and wolves; sheep and shepherds, gatekeepers and gates. It’s still a very confusing speech. 

But all of these images, no matter when you’re reading this or what context we’re in, boil down into two distinct categories: those that destroy and those that offer abundant life. The key sentence upon which this whole speech hinges is smack in the middle, when Jesus proclaims: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

So we don’t really have to sort out all the mixed metaphors and multiple levels of meaning to understand that there are destructive forces and life-giving forces. And then everything else falls into place. 

Jesus gathers the sheep into the fold and protects them from the forces of destruction. That’s the role of the shepherd and the role of the gate. And Jesus leads the flock out to find pasture and fresh water, and he protects them from destructive forces, even to the point of sacrificing himself for them. That is also the role of the shepherd and the gate. Notice that in no instance is the shepherd or gate responsible for keeping anyone from becoming a part of the flock. If someone wants to become a part of the flock, they don’t need to try to climb over the fence or find another way in. It’s only those who would be interested in harming the flock or using it for their own gain who would do that. 

This speech proclaims Jesus as the Good Shepherd who gathers us into comfort and safety and leads us out into liberty and abundant life. But abundant life does not always mean the comfortable life, living your #bestlife, having everything you want and need and always feeling amazing. Abundant life involves discovering abundance even in desolate and dangerous places. Because that abundance is not defined by still waters and verdant valleys. It is defined by the shepherd who leads us. Jesus is our abundance, in all times and all places. Abundance is not defined by our bank accounts or Instagram photos. It is defined by following Jesus, wherever he leads us. 

In him, we find abundance. Because of him, we can welcome those who might feel dangerous, even adversarial, to our tables, without putting up fences. Because of him, we can open wide the gates so that all may come in and so that we all may go out to follow where Jesus leads. 

Denny Barnes followed Jesus to abundant life in another church community who affirmed his belief that God loved and cherished him for who he is. He writes and advocates for other LGBTQ+ Christians, encouraging them in their faith journeys. Ginger Robertson followed Jesus to abundant life in a career as a registered nurse working in mental healthcare. She encourages Christians to seek care, both medical and spiritual, for mental health challenges. She hasn’t given up on her faith, and her favorite Bible verse is Jeremiah 29:11, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”

With Denny and Ginger and countless others, we can remind people that they are part of God’s flock. That they are loved and cared for and welcome. That they are worthy of feeling safe and of belonging. And that in every dark valley and dangerous encounter, the Good Shepherd goes before them and will never leave them. And in this reminder, we, too, can be reminded that God has plans for us, plans for abundant life and a future with hope. 

To God be all glory forever and ever. Amen.