Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:14a, 36-41 | 1 Peter 2:20b-25 | John 10:1-10

Almighty, everliving God, lead us to a share in the joys of heaven so that the humble flock may reach where the brave shepherd has gone before, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever, amen.

The words of Peter in this first reading are addressed to a group of people that have just had an experience.  The experience they’ve had is the one that, in a sense, ushers in a new age, a new level of awareness on the part of human beings as to the fullness of God’s plan.  The reason Jesus came into the world, the reason he died for us and removed the obstacle of sin as a wedge between ourselves and God brought the two of us together and then said the most amazing thing.  “I will come and dwell within you.  Just as the Father is in me, I am in the Father, and if I enter into you and the Father’s in me, then the Father is in you.”  And this whole notion of an in-dwelling presence of God is the heart of my ministry and, I think, the heart of the gospel.  And what these people have just experienced is the manifestation of that inner presence.  It was a moment.  It’s called Pentecost, and in that very moment, there was this overwhelming sense of something entering into them that was like enlightenment, like the purification of fire.  And it was wind that’s talked about that obviously led them to think, “There’s something really powerful here.”  And then they all began to speak, and the thing they must have been saying was in some response to recognizing that God was truly in us and, what it is to me, a manifestation of what happens when God dwells in human beings.  There is a unity of understanding, and there’s an acceptance of a fundamental truth.  And so the miracle seemed to be that all these people from different places, all different languages, and yet whatever they were saying, they all understood, because I think the image is what they were saying was the same truth.  They were saying, “God is in me.  God is in me.  God is in me.”  They understood it, not because they heard the words and could interpret them but because they felt it, and it underscores the mystery of when God enters into a human being.  It isn’t just a relationship with you and God, but it’s you, God and everyone around you.  The union is a union with creation, with the whole world, with everyone.

And what we long for and what we move for is being in a community of people, called a church, that leads us, through its guidance and direction, to understand this and to be living it, and yet it’s true that you can see ⎯ and in the second reading there’s a line that says, “But you lose your way.  You sometimes don’t focus on what’s really important.”  You lose sight of the shepherd guiding you, because the shepherd guiding you, in the gospel passage, is important to understand how that all works.  Unfortunately for the church, there’s been a sense of the shepherd role is a role to make sure that people all do what they’re told.  There is an obligation to follow the shepherd’s rules and regulations, and if you don’t do that, then you’re considered not to be part of the flock.  It’s like the flock is determined, in terms of what they do, by the shepherd, and he also is the kind of shepherd that casts you out.  And Jesus said, “Be careful.  That’s not the authority that I’m giving to my church.  The authority that I’m giving to my church is something quite different.  I’m inviting those who are called to lead,” and in a way that’s everyone but some in a very formal way, in charge of a community or whatever, overseeing doctrine and making sure it’s clear and it doesn’t get changed by a whim of a particular culture, but having something at its core.  And it’s the connection between the leadership of the church and the individual.  And what we see in the image that Jesus is giving us is so beautiful.  He’s saying, “Look, the only way that you can maybe understand this mystery is for me to give you some images to ponder and to work with.”  

Now, they all knew about shepherding.  They all knew what that was like, so they were asked to ponder this image, that there is such a thing that God has created called the church.  It’s a kind of sheepfold.  A sheepfold is a place of protection from darkness, the darkness of night in the sense of wolves coming and attacking the sheep.  So in a way, the church is a kind of place, a holding place that is safe, but then when it comes to the role of the leadership of the church, it’s very important to look at what the model is.  The model is Jesus himself, and there’s a role that God has, and there’s a role about the Spirit living in us has.  And I think it’s all in this beautiful image, the story.  This thing that Jesus offers his disciples is something to ponder.   God is the one in charge of opening and closing the gate.  He is the ultimate authority thing.  He’s the Father of it all.  He’s the force in all of it, this creative, loving, intimate force.  And he took the form of a human being, and he’s invited human beings to live, in a way, with him in such intimacy that they will continue to do the work that he intended to be done with his people.  And so Jesus is then the opening.  God opens it, but Jesus is the opening of human beings’ awareness of what they are, who they are, what they’re here for.  

So he comes in, and he is the one who is forgiven everything and wants to do something for the sheep that are there.  And the interesting thing about the sheep is the sheep will respond.  There are all kinds of sheep in there, and they have different shepherds.  But when their own shepherd comes, they follow him, because they recognize his voice.  Now, that’s such an interesting thing.  You know what it’s like to be in a restaurant, and all of a sudden you hear a voice.  You say, “I know that.  That’s so-and-so.”  Our voice is a very unique thing about us.  So when they recognize his voice, it means they have some kind of connection.  There is something familiar about the way in which they feel at that time that, “This is somebody that’s been with me, that’s there for me, that I trust.”  To me, that is the image that inside of every human being there is born the truth, and it is not necessarily always nurtured and developed like to should.  And some people, most of us have some kind of damage, and we work through all of that, but still we know that truth.  And sometimes we hear it, and we go, “Yes, that’s right.  Whatever that person said, that is so right.  I recognize it.”  And what is it?  It’s that thing in you and me that is so like the God that created us but is in a constant struggle to discover it and to be nurtured by a community.

And so we need to think very clearly about what the role of any kind of authority is in our life, particularly religious authority, and when I think about what it is, I think about the words then that were spoken to Jesus by Peter, who represents the authority of the church.  And he asks a question of Peter.  “Do you love me?”  Now, why would that be so important, because he asked it three times?  And everyone believes, well, the reason he asked it three times is because there were three times that Peter denied him, but three times in the Bible usually just means, “This is really important.  Listen to this.”  “Do you love me?  Do you have a relationship with me?  Do you understand my voice?  Do you feel me?  Do you sense my presence?  If you do, then you have the right to do some things for me.”  The first, “Feed my lambs.”  Second, “Tend to my sheep.”  The third time, “Feed my sheep.”  What strikes me about this as a command to the church to rule, guide, nurture their people is really significant, because the first and foremost thing is you’ve got to know God if you’re going to lead anyone into a relationship with him.  If you don’t do that, it seems like the only thing you can do is use your authority, the position of power, to make them stop doing the things that you think are bad for them, and then that just never becomes church.  It becomes kind of a control.  

So let’s look at these three things.  What does it mean to feed lambs?  Well, the lambs are different than the sheep, because they’re the children.  They’re wide open.  They’ll listen to anything that they’re told and believe it.  So he said, “Feed them the truth,” and the truth is the food that God asked Jesus to bring to the world.  Remember when he was tempted, he said, “What I live for is the truth.  That’s my food.  Every word that comes from God is my food.”  So here we are telling the church, or Jesus telling the church, “I want you to be someone who feeds the word to young minds, the truth.”  And then as they get older, turn into sheep, tend them.  Tending is different than controlling, because one of the core meanings of tending is to move toward, to get closer to, to become one with, and then to nurture and then to guide, but it’s about moving in a direction toward them.  Know their life.  Teach them when they’re young.  Pay attention to them as they grow older, and then you’ll see and watch them, and you’ll see there are things they need to continue to be fed.  And then you feed them more.  The feeding never ends.  You always are offering people the truth.  That’s the role of the church.

One of the things that happened in the history of the church that so impressed me and so infused life into me was the Vatican Council, and if you look at the Council overview of it all, it is an incredible council in one or two major themes that it went over and over again.  One is to open the church to truth.  Make sure that all the windows are open and the Spirit enters, and the other is this truth that you are given, it is not just yours.  It is everyone’s, and so you need to work with people in discovering new insights into the truth.  It’s called collegiality, and the church began to open its ears to the life of the people they were serving and realizing we’ve come to a time when we need to reevaluate so many of the things that we ask of people to make sure that they are truly tending their needs.  Such a beautiful image, such a different image, and yet I hear so many people, now more than ever it seems, resisting the Vatican Council for the very reason that it exists.  They kept saying, “Well, the church is being watered down.  We have to go back to it as a strong, strict authority.”  But you’re watering it down by listening to the needs of people or asking their advice.  The people advising the church?  Are you kidding?  It doesn’t fit the old model, but it’s perfect, in line with the Good Shepherd.  What a beautiful image for us to ponder and to wonder about and to recognize that, if you look at the culture we’re living in, you can see the same thing happening.  People are opening up and telling people about the kind of abuse they’ve received, and there’s abuse in every institution.  The abuse can take awful, terrible forms, but the overall abuse is never to recognize the beauty of the individual and their right to have their opinions about what is best and for that to be pondered and wondered about and guided by people who truly care about the individual.  It's a wonderful time in the church, the tension between these two, because there is something about, when tension increases, that means the work is really, really working.  It’s a time to hope and not to be worried.  Amen.

Father, you have listened to the needs of your people, and over and over again, you created an environment in which they grew, and they learned more and more until the final times when we now see more clearly than ever before your intention.  By loving us, forgiving us and empowering us, you’re leading us into a new and wonderful world that is run and guided by such a simple truth, love, and we ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.