Shepherd and Gate

4EasterA, Good Shepherd Sunday, Sullivan Park Care Center, May 11, 2014 by Sr Annette Fricke, OP

            Today is known as Good Shepherd Sunday, even though this image may have been lost over the years as our main way of living and working has gone from that of an agrarian society to that of lesser and lesser manufacturing to that of technological advances.  The gap has widened so much that the older generation often needs extensive instruction on how to make use of these high tech devices that children seem to pick up with ease. Many of the older generation have firsthand knowledge of sheep, but fewer of our children know anything about sheep or have actually seen sheep unless they have seen them at a local fair.  But seeing sheep at a fair or auction tells little about them and even less is known if they are simply seen at the grocery store.  I think I would be pretty accurate in saying that the age of someone has much to do with how understandable this gospel text is.  This gospel text is confusing, even if you do know about sheep.  I am hoping that this passage from Acts 20 might shed some light for us as to what John 10 might mean. 

Acts 20:28-29 uses some of the same language as our gospel text: “Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own son. I know that after I have gone, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Some even from your own group will come distorting the truth in order to entice the disciples to follow them.”

Ever since the Christian movement began, even as Jesus went to the cross, there were the detractors, the deceivers, and the people outside Jesus’ followers as well as his own disciples who didn't like the direction Jesus was going.  Sometimes these misguided leaders take others with them.  We see this when there is the argument between the disciples as to who is the greatest among them.  We see it when a disciple of Jesus is asks, “Who can sit at your right and your left when you come into power?”  Who will become the first pope?  Is it Peter or Paul?  And later down the line it was questioned as to whether we need a pope at all.  Some in the churches have never let go of that need for power.  When I was working in mental health, I had a conversation with my cubicle mate about the fact that both of us had been in seminary and ended up working with the mentally ill.  He said to me that he never really wanted to be a priest.  I asked him why and he said it was because he thought that the hierarchy of the church was caught up in a need for power.  It left a bad taste in his mouth.  He found his answer to that by staying within the framework of helping people through counseling.  I see him as a great example of shepherding people by encouragement, direction, and nurturance.  He helps people through counseling to be their best selves.  He serves God in this way.  Another of my co-workers at the same agency was once a nun.  She decided later in life to become an advanced nurse practitioner.  Her role was to prescribe medications for those in counseling.  She once said that she thought people ought to be able to go through school without having to sit through all those lectures, just read the materials and come to your own conclusions.  She also was a strong advocate of over the counter medications, by-passing the prescription process.  Both of these people were just the opposite of power-seeking individuals. 

Be aware of the people around you.  What are their motives?  Don’t discount your own powers of coming to a conclusion on your own.  Ask others whom you trust about people you don’t know.  Are people guiding you to the truth or falsehood?  It’s not just being paranoid of others, it’s seeking to know the truth about others and where they might be trying to guide us.  For example, some of you may remember a few years ago when federal agents “joined” churches and Bible study groups who were supporting sanctuary for Central Americans. These people were not interested in learning about Jesus and becoming Christians.  Remember also a number of years ago, the “moonies” were going through towns soliciting funds. However, they never identified themselves as “moonies” or members of the Unification Church. They had a list of registered names such as the “Fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” They were not honest about who they were and what they were about. I have witnessed personally religious groups coming to my door to witness, but they never come right out and say what religious group they belong to at the beginning of the speech.  And they always assume that I do not believe in Jesus Christ, even if I tell them that I do.  But in this regard, I offer this.  In sorting out what it now past, even if in your mind, you did not like specific people coming to your door to convert you to their way of thinking, think of it this way: what if they gain your heart on another level.  What if, instead of arguing over what is true or not true about Jesus, you simply try to be a friend.  We don’t have to agree to anything that is contrary to our beliefs, but we can be friends.  There is only so much you can do with arguing and correcting, but speaking from the heart will have the most impact in any relationship.  All true conversion is a conversion of the heart.  More hearts are won through invitation than through argument.

Jesus is the gate for the sheep.  We are, each of us as believers in Jesus, the sheep.  We all are still learning to the very end of our lives how to follow Jesus.  Jesus knows each of us personally and calls each of us by name.  In the gospel text a couple of Sundays ago, Jesus meets Mary Magdalene in the garden and says to her, “Mary.”  Up to that point, she thought maybe he was the gardener.  He is the one who laid down his life for us in order that we too might live and all the other sheep of his flock.  Jesus calls each of us to enter by him, for he is the one who gives to us sustenance and nourishment.  It is he who will protect us from those who would lead us astray. He says to us, “Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.”  John is concerned about the integrity of the Christian community, that they remain faithful to Jesus’ words and teaching.  He knows that there will be others who will come along and try to destroy Christians and distort the word of God.  Do not believe them, but continue to believe the faith that has been handed to you throughout the generations alongside your own search for truth in the scriptures, your own Bible Studies among the faithful, your own seeking in prayer.  Don’t be led astray, but know that Jesus is always there for you and looking out for your best interests. 

Jesus models for us during his ministry here on earth how we also are to be both a gate and a shepherd.  In our reading from I Peter, we read, “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his footsteps.”  We are not called to complain, but to remember that Christ, in his suffering suffers with us.  When we remember this, we are enabled to keep his charge: Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own son.