Easter 4; Good Shepherd Sunday.

Act 2: 42 – end

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

John 10: 1- 10

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

In first century Palestine most villages had a pen where the sheep from the local farms were kept safe at night. On seeing a shepherd approach the gatekeeper opened the pen gate, the shepherd called out, and his sheep came running, while the other sheep stayed in the pen.

This is the scene Jesus is referring to in our passage from John. We heard, ' The gatekeeper opens the gate, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.' Jesus adds, the sheep 'will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.'

Jesus is explaining to the gathered members of the religious establishment the divisive fact that his voice has authority, and that the people have come out to listen to him, not to them.

Once the sheep had been called the shepherd took them out to graze in remote pastures. Here the sheep slept in pens, with the shepherd sleeping across the entrance, as if he were a gate. This was to ensure the shepherd was fully aware of what might be entering or leaving the pen.

If you relied on a wooden gate to do the job, then you might wake up to find the sheep are missing, or there is a wolf in the pen.

In verses 7 – 10 Jesus explains He is the gate, the faithful are the flock, and the thieves and robbers are the religious establishment of his day.

All this pastoral imagery is occasioned by what immediately precedes this passage, which was an account of the Pharisees criticising Jesus for healing a blind man on the Sabbath.

Jesus wants the faithful to 'have life, and have it to the full', which includes being healed on the Sabbath no matter how many religious rules have been twisted into life stealing burdens by the thieves and robbers of the religious establishment.

Jesus is publicly telling the educated and duly appointed religious guardians of his day that he, an itinerant preacher, has authority over both them and the faithful. That his teaching is life giving, and theirs is destructive.

I think we miss the meaning of this passage if we let our minds imagine an Arcadian scene of contented shepherds and sheep out in the sunshine, Jesus is making a seriously confrontational and controversial point.

He's saying, in his gentle but firm way, 'I'm in charge'.

Our first reading described the life of the Church that gathered in response to the voice of Jesus. We heard that,

'They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer', and that, 'All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.'

This is the one catholic and apostolic church of which, two thousand years later, we are a part, even if we are not nearly as radical the early church.

Not everyone accepts that Anglicans are a part of the one catholic and apostolic church, the Roman Catholics have severe doubts about it, as do many Conservative Evangelicals. Apparently, we believe the wrong things, or worship the wrong way, or don't accept the authority of the right Bishop.

Even some Anglican churches are now saying that we are not a part of the one catholic and apostolic church because of our recent debates concerning same sex relationships, and the Appointment of the our first female Archbishop. We are now truly beyond the pale.

It appears that the one catholic and apostolic church now has many self appointed gatekeepers.

Entry into the early church was by repentance and baptism.

To repent means to stop going your own way, and to start following the voice of Jesus.

The death and resurrection of Jesus is a sign that God will always accept your repentance, and will continue to offer you forgiveness for the times you stray from the way.

We seem to have made it all rather more complicated.

To those Christians who have set up road blocks at the gateway to the church I would say, believing the right thing helps you understand that God forgives, but it does not enable God to forgive.

Believing the right thing is not a token you take to heaven in exchange for entrance.

Salvation is the gift of God. No token or sacrifice on our part is required, or effectual.

Christians should not believe in salvation by creed, or salvation by sacrament, or salvation by doctrine, or by tradition, or good works, or even by believing the right things about sexuality, but rather Christians should believe in salvation by faith in the grace of God.

Creeds, sacraments, doctrines, traditions, good works, sexual fidelity, these things can show you the way, but salvation belongs to no one denomination - salvation doesn't even belong to the Church.

As Psalmist writes, 'salvation belongs to the Lord.'

Salvation belongs to God.

That's why Jesus can say he is the gate.

'I am the gate', is one of those times when Jesus says, ‘I am’, deliberately echoing God’s self-description to Moses at the Burning Bush, ‘I am who I am…tell them I am has sent you…The Lord the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent you.’

Jesus speaks with the same voice that Moses heard from the Burning Bush.

That's why Jesus can claim the Old Testament Kingly authority associated with the imagery of shepherding, that's why he can claim authority over the religious hierarchy of first century Palestine, and indeed over the religious hierarchy of any age, including our own.

If we must think of ourselves as gate keepers, it is to fling wide the gate when Jesus calls his sheep out to pasture.

We should remember, at the cross the gate was opened wide for anybody who understands they are in need of God's healing and forgiveness.

In the clatter and clamber of this noisy world there are many voices calling for you to follow them, so listen out for the voice of Jesus, the voice that spoke Creation into being, the voice that spoke from the Burning Bush, the voice that called David to shepherd his people, the voice that challenged the religious establishment of 1^st century Palestine, the voice that is heard in the Apostle's teaching, and in the breaking of bread, a voice that is felt in prayer in prayer, the voice that leads you out to green pastures, to quiet waters, that guides you along the paths of righteousness, even through the darkest of valleys.

Amen.