Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter
You’ve likely seen stained glass images, or icons of Christ, the Good Shepherd, with a lamb tucked under his arm, or a sheep riding high on his shoulders. It is a comforting and consoling image of God. Even the most ruggedly independent person will know times when they are lost and need to be found; in peril and in need of rescue; or vulnerable and in need of a power beyond themselves. The Lord as our Shepherd is a deeply personal image, and speaks of a relationship of tender care. But Christ the Shepherd is also a communal and even political image.
The Kings of ancient Israel were known as shepherds of the people. To affirm that the Lord is our Shepherd is to render the absolute claims of all rulers, powers, and authorities relative and accountable to God. The Biblical Prophets did not call out the palace and the temple because their festivities and worship lacked splendor and glory; rather because the powerful lacked justice and mercy towards those who were vulnerable, poor and needy.
For the early Christians, the affirmation that Jesus is Lord, meant that Caesar was not! To follow the Shepherd and his ways is to “march to the beat of a different drum:” the rhythms of the Kingdom of God; where the first are last, and the last, first; where service is perfect freedom, and the poor hear Good News.
Faith calls us to listen for the voice of the Shepherd above the clamor of the marketplace; the agendas of the empires of this world; and the incessant voice of my own selfish ego. But the priorities and prejudices of our culture can be so pervasive that that they are like the water that the fish swim in, or the air that we breathe. We need to hear the prophets in our Church and society, who may make us uncomfortable or angry, but help to open us to the voice of the Shepherd, calling and guiding us into our true and authentic identity as children of God. Modern prophets have been speaking through Black Lives Matter, MeToo, the Climate Crisis, Truth and Reconciliation; LGBTQ; and even COVID, which exposed the scandal of eldercare, and the plight of low paid essential workers, who lack essential benefits.
Psalm 23, “The Shepherd Psalm,” is often associated with death and dying; and with good reason. It has been prayed at bedsides and gravesides and has brought comfort and peace to countless people.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall not fear, for though art with me.”
Because of COVID, the whole world has been walking through the valley of the shadow of death. There have been over a million confirmed cases in Canada, and over twenty thousand people have died. Even with more and more people being vaccinated, the third wave, and the rise of contagious variants, continue to keep us anxious and hypervigilant.
But the valley of the shadow is not only a place of literal death and physical illness. We may be in the valley of the shadow when we feel overwhelmed by uncertainty, rapid change, or when our personal inner resources seem too small to meet the challenges which face us. The Psalmist can put one foot in front of the other and keep walking, and not be paralyzed with fear, because he believes that the Lord is with him. He trusts that he is accompanied by the unseen yet real presence of God.
We have a Shepherd who not only walks with us, but has laid down his life for us. The message of the Cross is that there is no place where God is absent. There is no journey, inner or outer, that we can take, where Christ has not gone before us: no darkness, no time of trial, no suffering, no loss. Even if we feel abandoned by God, Christ’s own cry of forsakenness from the Cross, declares that he is with us. We are not alone.
Friends, we are living in challenging times. In the name of Christ, may we extend shepherding care, protection, and support, to those in need. May we walk with others through their times in the valley of the shadow. And may we all be led to those green pastures, beside still waters, where our cup runs over with gracious love and mercy. And all this we ask in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Written by the Ven. Peter Crosby
good shepherd
Latimore, Kelly. Good Shepherd, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57121 [retrieved April 26, 2021]. Original source: https://kellylatimoreicons.com/contact/.