This is a day which the Lord has made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Good Morning! My name is Jude, and I am so happy to be here with you on this warm Good Shepherd Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Easter.
Good Shepherd Sunday –the Sunday that celebrates one of the most beloved images of Jesus for believers and non-believers alike. There is a reason why the 23rd psalm brings comfort at memorials for those who haven’t been to church in decades. And there is a reason we return to it year after year, deepening our understanding, helping us to breathe easier in its loving calm.
There are three words from John’s Good Shepherd Gospel today I’d like to unpack: Voice, Gate, and Abundance.
The first asks: What is the Voice you follow? Is it authentic?
I have friends – my age – who post something they have made or care about on Facebook and then despair over the comments, count how many likes, and then change what they wrote or made to gain approval from those they follow.
I know people, from BOTH parties, who say, boldly, that they never listen to or read anything from that other party, because that other party lies. They themselves listen to the voices of truth.
And I know people who say that unless your branding, marketing, messaging speaks with one voice, you will not be heard and you will have no influence, so how you manipulate your voice is what matters.
What is the Voice that you follow? Is it authentic?
My father was a radio personality in the 40‘s and 50’s. Some of you may be old enough to remember— He was an announcer for Edgar Bergan, Phil Harris, Kay Kaiser, Jack Benny, and he was even the announcer in 1954 for the academy awards hosted by Bob Hope.
His own show, for which he was best known, was “The Whistler”, a wonderful mystery program with a haunting whistle at the beginning. My father had a powerful, well-trained voice radio voice.
At that time, all actors aspired to achieve The American Standard Voice used by all the best actors and announcers. Today that voice sounds mildly British, with soft R’s and crisp diction: “Our” or “Power”.
Character actors, of course, learned to create comic voices that –more often than not-- were stereotypical, in ways that today we might find offensive, but the Radio- Television voice, the American Standard voice, was the sound associated with class,with education, with sophistication.
It was beautiful, soothing, predictable, and respectable.
It homogenized the sound; it standardized the voice.
We learned to trust that trained, created voice.
We thought the best voice, the most Authentic Voice was stripped of ethnicity, personality, emotion, location … difference.
Listen:
“Last night for dinner I had two desserts.”
“Today is Good Shepherd Sunday”
“The plane crash killed 5 people and their dog.”
The words are different, but the sound is the same. The sound is disconnected from the person speaking. Disconnected from its context and its meaning.
I exaggerate, but only a little.
Is that what we mean today by Authentic— stripped, bloodless, predictable?
I don’t think so. At least I hope not.
The sheep follow the shepherd because they recognize and trust his voice. It is unique to the shepherd, it is authentically his. Not some standardized shepherd voice, but his own unique sound.
David made up songs and sang them to his sheep.
Jesus spoke, laughed and probably sang too.
An authentic voice is a voice we trust, a voice that is connected to the heart and soul of a human being a voice that helps us to know, a voice that gives comfort, a voice that includes. a voice that generates in us a desire to follow, a will to follow, we make a choice to follow.
And---the voices of those we love are imprinted in us forever.
My father died in 1966 at age 50, and just thinking of him now, I can hear his voice.
How do you hear Jesus’ voice?
Allow your imagination to hear as the disciples hear, in the present moment.
The disciples heard his words, but they followed, like sheep, his voice.
As a side note, Barbara Brown Taylor has written that sheep get a bad rap, promoted in part by cattle ranchers who found sheep unmanageable and therefore stupid. She explains that sheep are not stupid; they are different. Cattle are herded from behind pushing and forcing the cattle forward with loud yells, sticks, ropes, whips, horses and dogs.
Sheep tend to scatter and run away in fear. Sheep are led from the front, they recognize their shepherd’s voice, and they follow.
Jesus walks out of the pen, his sheep recognize and trust his voice, he walks in front of them and they follow.
Jesus hikes up the hillside and the people follow.
Jesus has always led by attraction, not force.
Force is how humans understand the world.
Jesus is different, and he leads us to be different with him.
The question remains, What is the voice that you follow?
Is it the voice of manipulation, pressure, insult, seduction, marketing, fear, enticements--
Or Is it the voice of Jesus, of God?
Is it authentic?
Does it ask but not insist?
It is interesting that in our Gospel today Jesus never says “I am the Good Shepherd”.
There are 7 “I am” statements in John, and the one we hear today is “I am the Gate.”
Word Two: Gate.
Historians note that sometimes shepherds were an actual gate! Pens were built with high walls of stone, sometimes topped with prickly branches to discourage climbing over, and there was an opening to enter and exit. Occasionally there was a real lockable gate, but when there wasn’t, the shepherd lay down across the opening to protect the sheep from predators and thieves.
So when Jesus says his sheep “will come in and go out and find pasture,” I enjoy imagining Jesus laying down across the opening with some straggler sheep walking over him!
Perhaps, today, we might extend the metaphor to think of a gate not as a door that opens and closes, but more like a bridge, a gateway, Jesus says I am the bridge, I am right here, with you, listen for my voice, particularly when so many other voices are so loud, listen for my voice, you know it, you do, even when you think you’ve forgotten, you know it, follow me toward the still waters of love and peace.
And this takes us to word three: Abundance.
Abundance---overflowing, more than enough, plenty, all you could ever need or want, miles and miles of it, abundant love, for everyone!!!
Jesus says, “I came that you may have life, and have it abundantly.” Which means: ‘I came that you may be so filled with love and beauty and gratitude and wonder, that it feels like your heart will burst in excitement to share it with others. I came to open your eyes to the love of God to a depth beyond your knowing, to the life hAre and now And the life beyond this one.’
Jesus does not say I came to force, punish or shame you so that you will obey, conform, or deny yourself pleasures, or that you should all be the same. Nor does he say that living life abundantly has anything to do with wealth or things.
Jesus knows that being able to silence the voices of the world in order to hear his voice, is not a mere switch we can turn on or off.
Jesus knows that the struggles we face are real, the fear and pain we feel are real, the temptations for an easy fix are real, and that all of us can get tired and lost and lured in the direction of an inauthentic voice, even a dangerous voice.
But the voice of our Good Shepherd, the voice of Jesus is always singing, always calling to us, ready for us when we lend an ear.
Today’s Gospel reminds us, yet again, to ask ourselves if the Voice we are following is of God?
Jesus invites us to strengthen our hearing by following him over the bridge, to feel again the abundance of God’s gifts to us, to give us love and hope for another day.
AMEN