A Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

Good Shepherd, Russian icon.

… When we hear the lesson of the Good Shepherd, it is a grave and perhaps even diverting temptation to routinely associate ourselves with the shepherd and not with the sheep. What an interesting ego trip it is to say, as we read this, "Yes, this is talking about us, we are the shepherds, and those poor wandering bewildered people in our congregations and our communities, who are either there or not there, they are the sheep." So we try to figure out where we fit in. Do we know our people by name? Are we better than hirelings? How do we carry ourselves like the Good Shepherd as opposed to the Bad Shepherd?

I want to suggest that the connection in this text on Good Shepherd Sunday, particularly for the clergy, but also for an often high-minded laity, is not that we are the shepherds, good, bad, or indifferent, but that we are among the sheep. That puts a slightly different perspective on this text for us, because when we preach to our people as fellow sheep instead of as shepherd and sheep, they may actually be inclined to hear the text somewhat differently than we are accustomed to giving it to them and they are accustomed to receiving it. If we think of ourselves as among the sheep, as opposed to belonging to the Shepherds' Union, we may actually gain a new insight into the relationship that we have with one another. It is not the only one, but it may be a useful and a mildly novel one.

In New England, the ancient parishes of the seventeenth century in the Congregational order are not described as "founded"--if you ever look at an old seventeenth-century New England church, the sign will not say, "Founded in 1620," "Founded in 1636," "Founded in 1690"--but use a very strange nomenclature used nowhere else in the church, either in Europe or in this country: it says "Gathered in 1620," "Gathered in 1640," "Gathered in 1690," and there is something very different between being founded and being gathered. The notion is that of sheep being gathered into the sheepfold.

St. Augustine, in using this paradigm, describes the function of the shepherd as that being who puts his body in the narrow opening of the sheepfold, the opening designed to protect the sheep gathered within and to prevent the wolves on the outside from leaping in. There is something to be said for being gathered rather than founded; and to be gathered together by the Good Shepherd, who knows us by name, and who protects us as the shepherd and guardian of our souls, is a cause for thanksgiving. It connects and unites us with the people of God, it doesn't separate us from them; and, when they are used to hearing about good shepherds (us) and dumb sheep (them) it removes some of those textual barriers and makes the image one of being gathered in together.

Remember, though, that in the notion of a metaphor, sometimes the metaphor has limits and you can't go much beyond it. We have to remember that the purpose of gathering sheep together was to protect them for a purpose, and that that purpose was to fatten them up for the slaughter. Those sheep were gathered together because their purpose was to be sold in the market as food - to be eaten, and that's it; it's not much fun being a sheep. That's where the limits of this metaphor take us.

For us, where the metaphor ends and the good news begins is that we are gathered and guarded not for the slaughter, and not to be eaten, but for love and redemption. That is where we take leave of the metaphor and embrace reality. What do we do in response to this truth and this reality? As usual, it is the epistle that instructs and amplifies the gospel. The epistle says, in answer to what we do, "We believe in Jesus"--the Good Shepherd--"and we love one another." The two are connected. We love one another because we believe in Jesus, and we believe in Jesus because he is the shepherd and guardian of our souls.

To be gathered in in such a name, to be known by our own name, by the name that is above every name, is cause for thanksgiving and may redeem the familiarity of Good Shepherd Sunday. It may be the means of our own redemption; and for that we give thanks and praise to God.

Rev. Dr. Peter J. Gomes

Plummer Professor of Christian Morals

and Pusey Minister in The Memorial Church

Harvard University

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MAY GOD’S BLESS US TO GROW AND THRIVE – IN 2025!

May God Bless you and yours as we journey through this Blessed Easter Season…

As we see, appreciate and embrace the Great Gift of God with us

May God’s Spirit empower us to

“expect great things from God and to attempt great things for God”…and

May God Continue to Bless Union Church!

-Pastor Mark