FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER, YEAR B

April 25, 2021

(Saint Uriel’s, Sea Girt, N.J.)

Acts 4:5-12; Psalm 23; 

I John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18

The Fourth Sunday of Easter is known as Good Shepherd Sunday because the Gospel reading is always from Chapter Ten of Saint John, where Our Lord identifies himself as the Good Shepherd. And down through the centuries, this image of Jesus has held enormous appeal for Christians of all ages.

Artistic depictions of shepherds often portray sentimental scenes of bucolic bliss. The shepherd sits on a hillside playing his panpipes and watching the flock graze contentedly in the meadow below. But while such serene images do perhaps capture one dimension of pastoral existence, in the biblical world shepherding could also be rough and dangerous work. In his excellent book A History of Warfare, British military historian John Keegan speculates that ancient peoples developed their fighting abilities by transferring skills they’d learned not only in hunting but also in herding. 

The Second Book of Samuel offers us a glimpse of this process when the young David volunteers to do battle against the armored giant of a Philistine, Goliath. King Saul protests that David is only a youth; what does he know about fighting? But David confidently replies: "Your servant used to keep sheep for his father; and when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth; and if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him and killed him. Your servant has killed both lions and bears; and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God."

Shepherds needed to be prepared to fight not only against wild animals but also against thieves and brigands. A good shepherd thus literally put his life on the line for the flock. And so, in today’s Gospel, our Lord describes himself not once but four times as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep; the third and fourth times he adds that he lays down his life that he may take it up again. In this way, he points to his death and Resurrection as the ultimate act of shepherding by which he will gather and unite his Church as one flock under one shepherd.

So, while it may not seem obvious to us at first glance, in today’s Gospel Our Lord invokes the image of the shepherd as warrior. He develops this picture in contradistinction to the hireling, who is not the sheep’s owner, and who flees at the approach of the wolf, which is given free rein to snatch sheep and scatter the flock: “He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep.” A hireling is someone who does a job simply for the money, and whatever else is in it for himself, so if the job becomes too difficult or dangerous, he doesn’t stick around, because his heart’s not in it. By contrast, Our Lord cares deeply and personally for his flock: “I know my own,” he says, “and my own know me.”

Today’s Gospel thus depicts the Good Shepherd first and foremost as a source of defense against danger. In a world of deadly predators, the Good Shepherd offers protection and safety. Hence the psalmist sings in the twenty-third psalm: “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.” The point not to miss is that the rod and the staff are not only implements for herding and corralling but are also available to be used as weapons for fending off attackers.

In the life of our society, we entrust this shepherding function of defense against enemies foreign and domestic to those whom we authorize to bear arms and use lawful force on our behalf: the police, on one hand, who protect us against criminality at home; and the military services, on the other, who help deter and defend against threats of aggression from abroad. In both cases, we ask these brave men and women to put their lives on the line, like good shepherds, to provide the modicum of safety that we need to get on with our lives in a peaceful, well-ordered, and secure society.

In the vast majority of cases, I believe, the police and military do a wonderful job, discharging their duties with integrity and respect for those whom they serve. In what I believe is a small minority of cases, we’ve witnessed the excessive and wrongful use of force by rogue elements. By and large, though, I think we’re moving in the right direction as a society in instituting reforms to correct such abuses. Meanwhile, overseas, we’ve recently seen entire military establishments turn on and attack the very societies they’re meant to protect and defend, as appears to be the case in such places as Belarus and Myanmar. Such out-of-control armed forces fall far from their calling to be good shepherds of their people.

In the spiritual realm, the Church’s leaders, your clergy, are similarly called to be good shepherds, protecting our flocks as far as we can from all harm and danger. This responsibility ranges from protecting against the spiritual dangers of false teaching and unsound practices to ensuring compliance with officially-mandated health and safety protocols in a time of pandemic. From what I’ve seen so far here at St. Uriel’s, you’ve been blessed with a succession of truly good shepherds—rectors, deacons, and associate clergy—who’ve done their best to safeguard the interests of the flock. In other places, however, we’ve witnessed sickening examples of clergy exploiting and abusing those in their charge for their own gratification. So we do well to pray constantly for all entrusted with the care and protection of our communities, that we may fulfill our calling to be good shepherds, and not hirelings who care nothing for the sheep.

The sad reality is that while those to whom we entrust our physical and spiritual protection usually discharge their duties faithfully and responsibly, in a few cases they don’t. We live in a fallen world where those in authority, those whom we respect, occasionally betray their calling and let us down. The good news, regardless, is that we can always trust Jesus to be our Good Shepherd. He knows his own and his own know him. And so, in the words of today’s Collect, we pray that when we hear his voice, we may know him who calls us each by name and follow wherever he may lead.