The Sheepfold

The Sheepfold

The Rev. Adam Thomas deserves credit for a lot of this sermon. Thanks, Adam!

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God who is Creator, Christ and Comforter. Amen

Yesterday, Dave and I went to the Los Angeles Zoo right after I picked him up from the airport. We arrived before the zoo opened and as we gathered, I couldn’t help but notice the gates that kept us out until they were ready. Big, tall iron bars firmly welded together and then fastened to the ground by iron bars that went into the concrete. They were there for protection and safety – of that there is no doubt! But the gates, being iron bars, you could see right through them and because of that, begin to build anticipation of what lies inside. It felt a bit like being sheep, but this time outside the gate!

John chapter 10, Jesus employs the imagery of first-century shepherding practice in an attempt to reveal his own identity and his relationship to us. I grew up in the Midwest, out in the country and a few of my friends had sheep. But, quite honestly the way they farmed sheep is very different than the way 1^st century shepherds did. But, in England, one can get a glimpse, perhaps, of shepherding Jesus-style.

So imagine with me a rolling plain, dotted with humps and hillocks. Dusk descends, and the shepherds lead their flocks into the sheepfold. One of the hillocks has been hollowed out, and the sheep huddle inside next to the sheep of several other shepherds who share this particular fold. A pair of piled rock walls extends out a few feet from the sides of the hill. One shepherd lies down in the space between the low walls, effectively sealing the enclosure. Thieves and bandits and wolves will have a difficult time getting in with the shepherd’s on guard. The sheep are safe in the sheepfold.

When the shepherd arises the next morning, as Jesus explains, "He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice." The sheep can't spend their whole lives in the sheepfold, no matter how safe the enclosure may be. There's no food in the fold, after all. There’s no water. The sheep may be comfortable and safe, but the sheep must follow the shepherd out of the fold in order to find sustenance, in order to live.

Jesus' choice of words here is telling, but our translation into English hides the special word that Jesus uses. "When he has brought out all of his own, he goes ahead of them," says Jesus in the version we use in church. In this verse, this is a very weak rendering of a Greek word έξάϒει (exagei) that appears over and over again in the Gospel. We hear this word every time Jesus casts out a demon. We hear this word when Jesus makes a whip and throws the moneychangers out of the temple. We hear this word when Jesus speaks of driving out the "ruler of this world." In every instance of this word in the Gospel, Jesus is doing some sort of battle: he is pushing, pulling, throwing, yanking, driving, exorcising, casting out. But in this instance about the shepherd and the sheep, the translators decided a nice, safe, neutral translation was better. The shepherd simply "leads" his sheep out of the fold.

Now, perhaps those dimwitted, wooly animals trod placidly from the fold every morning at the beckoning of the shepherd. But Jesus is, of course, not talking about real sheep. He's talking about us, about you and me. He's talking about calling out to us - about speaking the word that will bring us forth from our own sheepfolds, from those places of comfort and safety that we have built up around us. The seductive force that pulls us into these personal sheepfolds tells us that everything will be okay as long as we keep quiet and stay put. Play another hour. Have another drink. Watch another show. I don't know about you, but I need to be pushed, pulled, thrown, yanked, and driven out of that place of stagnation and dormancy every time I start settling into my comfortable enclosure.

Jesus is the gate for us the sheep. But again, in Greek, the word θύρα (thura) is not gate, but door. Which then makes Jesus the door TO the sheep…and the door TO God. What kind of door is Jesus? He’s the kind of door that when we follow where Jesus leads, he leads us to life – abundant life - for ALL of God’s people. But the false shepherds come, too. Jesus calls them thieves and bandits. And these bandits and thieves rob us of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, generosity, self-control and turn us into needy, greedy, selfish, people who think only of themselves and “their kind” who look like us, talk like us, walk like us, act like us. We no longer live like Jesus’ disciples who understand that we have a life-giving message for EVERYONE. The message is simple, “C’mon through the door and find LIFE in all its fullness!”

The message of the Resurrection is this: life cannot be conquered-- not by death, not by sin, not by the powers of darkness. Life happens--fully, intensely, eternally. Jesus tells us this afternoon: "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." The Resurrection of Jesus ripples out to touch every life, everywhere, for all time. The wonder of Easter morning shows us the absolute lengths that God goes to offer us abundant life.

And yet, while life cannot be conquered, life can be delayed, put on hold, made dormant. When we retreat to the safety and comfort of our own personal sheepfolds--whatever they may be--we refuse to participate in the fullness of a life lived in God. Of course, existing in the sheepfold is easier, less demanding. But it is existence…not life. Ease does not bring joy. Less demanding often means less fulfilling.

When I talk to non-Christians about being a Christian, it never ceases to amaze me what their preconceived notions of living this abundant, full life in Jesus is like. Dull, boring, bigoted, homophobic, closed- minded, judgmental, full of rules and regulations that keep you from having any fun, seem to be what I hear more times than not. And, if you look around, there certainly are Christians who fit that bill – like serving the God of life puts you behind those big iron gates I saw at the zoo yesterday. Life in Jesus is not anything like that! Life in Jesus leads you to seeing the world through eyes of love and grace. But the truth is, we have to get out of our own sheepfolds.

Because we cannot import into our sheepfolds the abundant life that Jesus offers us because the very fullness of that life cannot fit inside a safe, comfortable enclosure. Jesus drives us out of the sheepfold so that our lives have the opportunity to expand, that we may embrace God's unrestrained abundance. During this season of Easter, join God in the expansive life found in the Resurrection. Listen for the voice of the shepherd calling you by name, calling you out of complacency. And give Christ the chance to cast you out of your sheepfold so that you may find the fullness of a life lived in the abundance of God.

Let us pray. O God, your 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 him wherever he leads.