The Fourth Sunday of Easter, 25th April 2021, Austwick
What makes a good shepherd? When I asked a local farmer that question he replied, “A well serviced quad bike and a really good faithful collie.”
That’s a typical self-effacing Yorkshire answer. Undoubtedly the quad bike and the collie are vital in a shepherd’s work, but surely the key to being a good shepherd are that person’s own qualities: qualities like “dedication, to be able to go to bed late, get up early and be determined to do your very best for each sheep or lamb that needs your attention today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes.” [1]
How heartening that these words from lambing-time 2021 are so close to the words of Jesus two millennia ago, who said, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.”
How heartening to us - his flock - as we begin to gather together again after the most disturbing time of separation we’ve endured over the past year, a time in which some of us might have felt lost, helplessly out of contact with the Shepherd to whom we look to attend to our needs. The gospels are full of imagery from shepherding: recall the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the sheer joy the shepherd expresses when he finds the one from his flock who had gone astray - and understand that that’s how Jesus feels about you and me returning to worship together today in this modest flock of ours. [2]
So we take comfort from today’s gospel passage - comfort in the knowledge that we are in the care of the One who knows us, his flock, and is dedicated to our care and protection.
We might of course also be surprised by some aspects of Jesus’ way of shepherding. For like all his teachings there are unexpected turns in what he says here. The first turn is when he says that he lays down his life for the sheep; the second turn is his statement that “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.”
The shepherd laying down his life for the sheep is a reversal of what usually happens. For all their devotion to their flock shepherds expect that ultimately their sheep will lay down their lives for them - in bald economic terms that’s how farming works. Back in Jesus’ time animals were reared for sacrifice and shepherds drove their flocks through the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem, en-route to be traded then ritually slaughtered in the Temple. I find it suggestive that it may have been this very same Sheep Gate through which Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, a way of acknowledging that he himself was destined for sacrifice. [3]
And what are we to make of Jesus’ statement that “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice”? Who are these other sheep? Bible scholars say that this is a message to the groups of Christians to whom John wrote, that sooner or later they would have to come into fellowship with other Christian communities. [4] It would be a challenging message at that time, as it is to us today, for it is natural for us to coexist in small groups, tribes if you like, and to be uncomfortable engaging with others from outside. I recall that farmer telling me that “A good shepherd will never forget that the flock is part of the fabric of the farm, it is their home. They were born there and will spend much of their working lives there, as did their parents.” In traditional farming areas there are families who have been working the same land for generations: every bit as hefted to their environment as the flocks they tend. There is security and deep identity in that. But to those who are followers of Jesus Christ there is also the understanding that we belong to others, outside our close-knit community, and in Christ, they belong to us.
You may remember not long back we contemplated Jesus’ words in John chapter 12: “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” [5] Once I have given myself to sacrifice on the cross, people - not just from my own tribe, but from every tribe - will be drawn to me.
Rather than being unsettled by Jesus’ statement about these other sheep who equally belong to him, might we take this as an opportunity to reach out in neighbourly love beyond our usual boundaries? To discover and to celebrate the close connections we have with others even far away.
Jesus’ “other sheep” were often the poor and the outsider in his land. I’ve been reflecting on how the life of the small farmer has - in all places, in every era - been hard to sustain in the face of the forces of wealth and power. In Jesus’ time, under the regime of Herod Antipas, the livelihood of small landholders and tenant workers was threatened by crippling taxation and the expansion of large estates: rising debt and permanent expulsion from the land was their common experience. [6] In more recent times the Livestock Revolution across the world has forced small-scale farmers to become contractors for global agricultural conglomerates, ‘factory workers in their own field’. [7] Those who experienced the dark days of Foot and Mouth in 2001 might relate to the stories of small farmers in Asia losing everything in the massive culls of recent Avian Flu crises. And today, peasant farmers in countries most vulnerable to Covid-19 and other epidemics are struggling with these viral threats to their survival.
The images we have been seeing this week have mostly been from URBAN India: we can imagine the situation being even more extreme - if that is possible - in India’s rural, farming areas. I’ve also been encouraged this week by news of some clergy inviting sponsorship for 'Gavi', the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation , which organises vaccinations for people in low and middle income countries. The Astra-Zeneca vaccine costs between £5 and £10 for two doses: those who are donating this much to Gavi are enabling another person across the world to receive their vaccination too. If I set this up here would you consider supporting it? [8]
Jesus said, “I know my own and my own know me… And I lay down my life for the sheep.” And from this we take comfort that here in this place amongst our people he deeply, fully, cares for us.
And Jesus said, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” And from this we take knowledge that we are connected to others across the world, equally beloved of God, often the poor and the outsider, to whom he invites us to reach out in compassion, to share our struggles and our joys.
Notes
[1] I’m grateful to John Dawson of Bleak Bank Farm, Clapham for sharing his thoughts on this question.
[2] Luke 15.3–7.
[3] For more on this, see my talk, John 10 - At the Sheep Gate - Saved from Sacrifice. Also Jill Carattini, The Sheep Gate. iDisciple website.
[4] Paul Nuechterlein, Girardian Lectionary, Easter 4B, referencing Gil Bailie, Reflections on the Gospel of John.
[5] John 12.31-32. See my "I will draw all people to myself”, 21 March 2021.
[6] Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man: a political reading of Mark's story of Jesus. p.50-52.
[7] Mike Davis, The Monster Enters: COVID-19, Avian Flu and the Plagues of Capitalism, p.114-116.
[8] This sermon was preached in a week of extreme increases in Covid deaths in India. Diocese of Norwich, King’s Lynn vicar raises funds for COVID vaccines in low-income countries. 4 February 2021. FOOTNOTE: as a consequence of people's response to this sermon I was encouraged to set up our own appeal via the JustGiving page Weʼre raising £2,000 to to help people in low-income countries access the COVID-19 vaccine.
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