Easter 4A
April 30, 2023
John 10:1-10, Psalm 23
INTRODUCTION
This 4th Sunday of Easter is always “Good Shepherd Sunday” – and I think that theme will be quite clear in some of our readings! For instance, we always hear on this Sunday Psalm 23 – this year we will hear the choir sing a gorgeous arrangement by Bobby McFerrin that might surprise you a bit! We often hear this beloved Psalm at funerals, but in the context of the Easter season, we hear it as a Psalm of new and abundant life – which I will elaborate upon in my sermon.
We also always hear on this Sunday from the 10th chapter of John – the chapter in which Jesus calls himself the “good shepherd.” Yet in this year, the part of the text we hear doesn’t actually include that statement! Instead, we will hear Jesus call himself “the gate,” by whom the sheep (presumably you and I) come and go freely out to pasture. Though this gate image has been used to exclude, I hear this as a very welcoming one – a gate is a permeable boundary, one that can open to allow others in.
Something else to know about the Gospel reading. In John’s Gospel, the pattern is that Jesus performs a sign (or miracle), and then follows it with a discourse explaining the meaning of the sign. This is from one such discourse, and the sign it follows is one we read back in Lent, in which Jesus heals a man born blind. Remember, the crowd was asking whether this man or his parents sinned, that he was born blind, and then when he is healed, the community throws him out, because the whole ordeal doesn’t fit with their understanding of how things work. And now along comes Jesus, calling himself the gate by which one is not thrown out, but rather is able to enter into abundant life.
As you listen, dwell in these beautiful images. Receive them, knowing that whether Jesus is shepherd or gate, he is for us, in order that we might, as he says, “have life, and have it abundantly.” Let’s listen.
[READ]
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our risen Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
There are so many rich and feel-good parts of our scripture readings today, on Good Shepherd Sunday. And why wouldn’t there be? When we think of a shepherd, especially in church, we imagine protection, care, safety, belonging – all very comforting things! But of all that these texts have to offer, the image that keeps rising to the top for me is the last line from our Gospel reading: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
What does that mean, “abundant life”? What would that look like for you? Perhaps abundant life is accomplished by having means, being able to acquire whatever you need when you need it. A nice house, a reliable car, fulfilling work, a full fridge, and clean clothes to wear. Our image of abundant life likely also includes good friends and family to cheer our way. Yes, all of these things make life feel very abundant indeed!
Of course, I think Jesus is talking about something more than all of that. And this week, I wondered if we might learn more about what abundant life through Christ looks like, by reading this beloved and well-known Psalm, Psalm 23 – and reading it through the lens of abundant life.
Because this is a Psalm we often hear at funerals, we may normally associate it with death and grief, or maybe with eternal life in heaven. Yet hearing it today, in the middle of the Easter season, we can better see how it is very much a Psalm about life here on earth, today. Let’s take a look.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. The second part of this sounds a lot like what I just described, doesn’t it? Abundance is having all you need, not wanting for anything. And yet we do want, don’t we? It isn’t often that we feel completely satisfied, both materially and emotionally, like everything is in its place, and we have no needs. At our council retreat last week, we were discussing what makes us feel that “our joy is complete,” as Jesus says later in John. Someone suggested they feel joy “when everything is done,” and I asked in desperation, “Is that a thing?! Please, tell me your secret!” Perhaps fleetingly we can feel like all is done, but there is always something more to worry about, isn’t there, at least there is for me! Always something more we need. But whether or not we have all our physical or emotional needs and comforts met – abundant life, I think, means that we are able to set them aside simply to dwell in the truth that with God as our shepherd, who cares for us and protects us, even if just for a moment, we can feel and experience the abundance Jesus promises.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, and leads me beside still waters. It seems, then, that abundant life has something to do with rest. That’s the word that comes to my mind when I read this verse. Our shepherd makes us lie down in green pastures. We might not otherwise do it on our own! As I said, we can always think of something else we need to do, something that is Very Important, and rest will have to wait. And yet, God makes us lie down, and shows us what stillness looks and sounds like… because left to our own devices, we might just work ourselves to the bone all the way to the grave.
I attended a clergy workshop last fall with the topic of finding rest, healing, and rejuvenation, led by author and coach Rozella Haydee White. She asked the group what we were holding that day that was affecting our ability to be fully present, and I mentioned my ever-lengthening to-do list. She looked at me straight on and said, “Is anything on the list urgent?” I gaped at her for a moment, considering, and she added, “By urgent I mean, will anyone die if you don’t do it?” No, I admitted. She smiled and said, “Good, then it can wait until later.” Boom, reality check! It felt like the tightness of resistance in my chest… even as it felt like immense grace – if I could just do it! “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” Abundant life requires rest. Such rest is so important to God, that he included a whole commandment about it! (Remember the sabbath!)
To clarify what I mean by rest, I don’t just mean sleep (though certainly that!), and I don’t mean mindless scrolling on social media or playing Wordle or Woodoku (though there is also a place for that). I mean the sort of rest that “restores our souls.” Maybe it is a walk by still waters, or lying down in green pastures. Maybe it is meditation, or prayer, or coloring, or journaling. Maybe it is sitting and catching up with a friend, or reading a good book. Rest can look a lot of ways, but however it looks, the point is that it leaves you (and your soul) feeling restored.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Two things I want to point out about this verse. First, things suddenly got very intimate. Where the first three verses were talking about God, now we are talking directly to God. YOU are with me. YOU comfort me. And so, a part of abundant life is not only talking about God, but having an intimate relationship with God, one in which you can divulge even your deepest fears – be they dark valleys, or the table full of enemies referred to in the next verse. Abundant life is knowing we can trust God even and especially in these moments – knowing we can do it, and then actually doing it.
The second thing I want to highlight in both this and the next verse is that abundant life does not mean life without dark valleys or foes. Such a nice phrase as “abundant life” might fool us into thinking all must be well to achieve it, but it is not so. Abundant life is not the absence of struggle, pain, death, darkness, grief, or even enemies… but rather, it is the presence of God in the midst of them. It is the promise that we are not alone when we face them.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. A word here about enemies: it’s a strong word, right? While I certainly have people in my life who bug me, or even who have actively tried (and succeeded) to hurt me, I wouldn’t call them enemies. I suspect you are similar. So don’t think of enemies as people in our lives. Think of enemies instead as forces – those forces that would draw you in the wrong direction, that would try to get you to turn away from the God of love and life. This verse, then, because one that assures us that even when so many forces try to draw us away from God, our Good Shepherd continues to offer us a feast of love that is so abundant, it is overflowing.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long. If you memorized this at some point, you may have said, “I’ll dwell in the house of the Lord forever,” but I like it this way: “my whole life long.” It reminds us that all of this is, indeed, about life here and now. This verse also makes very clear to us that even when we might be tempted to turn away from the promise of abundant life, the promise isn’t going anywhere. The word “follow” is not a strong one in English, but in the original Hebrew it is! The word implies a persistent pursuit, as in, “goodness and mercy will pursue me every day, never giving up on me, never resting, never leaving me alone.” We will never be without God’s goodness and mercy right there, ready to catch us, console us, comfort us, and yes, draw us back into the relationship that will provide us with abundant life.
This Psalm has quite a lot to tell us about abundant life, doesn’t it! In abundant life, there is satisfaction, contentment, safety and security. There is gracious space for restorative rest, even when the world would tell us our value is based on how much work we do. There is both assurance and trust that while we are not immune to dark valleys, God will nevertheless be present in them. And there is the relentless promise of God’s goodness and mercy, the wind at our back in all our endeavors.
Jesus came that we may have this life, this abundant life. And he, “the Gate,” opens wide the door for us to enter freely into it.
Let us pray… Good Shepherd, Gracious Gate, call us persistently into the abundant life you offer, and give us ears to hear your voice. Grant us contentment, restorative rest, trust and assurance, even in dark valleys, and most of all the awareness of your goodness and mercy in all our endeavors. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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