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HEARING
THE SHEPHERD’S VOICE THE REV. JOHN E. KITAGAWA ____ THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF
EASTER ____ ACTS 9: 36-43 PSALM 23 REVELATION 7: 9-17 JOHN 10: 22-30
P.O. VOICE: 520-299-6421 FAX: 520-299-0712 E-MAIL: WEB SITE: WWW.STPHILIPSTUCSON.ORG |
Today’s Gospel is part of John’s “Good
Shepherd” (John 10: 11a) sequence. In
an earlier text, the relationship of the Good Shepherd to his flock is likened
to Jesus’ relationship with the One who sent him (John “My sheep hear my voice, I know them,
and they follow me. I give them
eternal life, and they will never perish.
No one will snatch them out of my hand” (John These
are comforting words. They speak of
communication between shepherd and sheep.
They tell us of a close, intimate and mutual relationship. They promise eternal life and
protection. If you are like me, your mind
leaps to the classic image of the shepherd carrying a lamb across his
shoulders—portrayed in paintings, sculptures, and stained glass windows down
through the ages. Biblical images of sheep and
shepherd tell us about God and the relationship God would have with us. In Matthew and Luke, the Parable of the
Lost Sheep[1]
portrays first the concern, then the extent to which the Good Shepherd goes
to find a lost sheep. In John, we
learn that the Good Shepherd goes even further, laying down his life for the
sheep (John 10: 11b). [This
association of death and the shepherd can be found in other sayings of Jesus[2],
but nowhere is clearer.] In reality, our relationships with the
Good Shepherd are not nearly as close, intimate and mutual as we would
like. Our communications are not
nearly as clear as we would like. And
in honesty, we may have questions about eternal life and doubts about God’s
protection. The problem is not the Good Shepherd. One problem is embracing the images of
shepherd and sheep. I read a story
about adults in a congregation cringing as the children were taught a song
“that had them ‘baa-ing’ for Jesus”[3]. What were the children being taught? “To follow the crowd without question? To have no mind of one’s own? To expect someone else to take care of us?”[4]. Today’s Scriptures are replete with images
of shepherd and sheep. So, we have to deal
with them. “In the Revelation to John,
Jesus is the Lamb who was slain. This
Lamb is not a helpless victim, but the one who brings salvation”[5]. One way to read Psalm 23, the Psalm appointed
for this day, is to see the Lord’s sheep as protected and well cared
for. They spend their days lying in
green pastures. They walk beside
quiet, placid waters and along straight pathways. The shepherd’s rod and
staff protect them, and when they hunger, they feed at a pleasant table. But, as one commentator notes: It is a bucolic scene—until we also
notice that the paths of righteousness could also mean the ways of
justice. Or until we notice that the
poem also talks about walking fearlessly through valleys that are like night,
filled with deep shadows. Or until we
notice that the table spread with abundant food also happens to be surrounded
by enemies. … The sheep become more
complicated creatures. They have a
double consciousness: they believe in
the shepherd’s providence, but that belief does not blind them to the terrors
that await them along the ways of justice. It begins to look more like
radical trust than blind obedience[6]. A closer look at today’s Gospel indicates
that Jesus uses the shepherd and sheep imagery in the face of
controversy. John’s language can be
confusing. Jesus’ main point is that
his actions, his work are “the result of his identification with, rather than
usurping of, God” [7]. He is pointing to their mutual understanding,
trust and love. Further, Jesus suggests
that this mutual trust, understanding and love exist between his
followers—the sheep who listen to his voice—and him. Once we take a closer look, we see that the
Biblical writers are not conveying a simplistic caricature of shepherd and
sheep, and their relationship.
Certainly, there is an element of having faith in God as provider and
protector. But these sheep are not
blindly obedient, and are not mindless followers. These Biblical writers are trying to convey
“what it means to live by a radical trust in God in the midst of terror,
enmity and death”[8]. Developing
that sense of radical trust comes from entering into a relationship with the
Good Shepherd, and learning to discern his voice. … the
difficulty we, as God’s flock, have in recognizing God, hearing God’s voice,
and accepting God’s guidance… [is that we] insist on
self-will rather than God’s will. We
forget, as the psalmist said, that ‘it is God that has made us and not we ourselves[9]. |
When we close our eyes for prayer and
meditation, it is common to hear a cacophony of competing voices and other
noises. Whose voice do you hear? A spouse? A partner? A parent? A child or grandchild?
A TV or radio announcer? A friend? A teacher? A colleague? Or, do you hear a lot of static? Can you distinguish the voice of the Inner
Shepherd calling you, beckoning you? Can
you focus on that voice? Some years ago,
I participated in a wonderful colleague group.
Part of our agreement was to spend significant time in silence, a
practice that became a richer and richer.
There is something extraordinary and powerful about corporate
silence. It is qualitatively different
from being silent by oneself. That was intentional
time to listen for, and sometimes hear the voice of our Inner Shepherd. This practice worked for me, and helped
me. Finding a spiritual discipline that
engages more than the intellect was important for me. I encourage you to seek a spiritual
discipline that helps you discern the voice of your Inner Shepherd. It is in hearing the Shepherd’s voice that we
are able to follow.
I have been and am privileged to listen to
the spiritual stories of many people. People
sometimes tell me they are frustrated and feel like giving up the struggle to
be in a close, intimate and mutual relationship with the Good Shepherd. In sharing their stories, some have conveyed a
sense of fatigue from what feels like chasing an illusive figure. To mix metaphors, listen to the way one person
describes this phenomenon:
“It is easier to live in the dark than to muster
the energy to hunt for the light. We
stop looking for our Inner Shepherd. We
feel abandoned.”[10]
In
this frame of mind, it is indeed difficult to believe the Good Shepherd seeks
us, even risking the ninety-nine in order to find us. It is difficult to believe the Good Shepherd
was willing to lay down his own life in order that we might have new life. In such darkness, it is sometimes difficult
to believe light is possible.
Perhaps this lack of energy for hunting for the light is a sign of my earlier
reference to our insistence “on self-will, rather than God’s will”. We live in a culture that values, teaches and
rewards self-sufficiency, personal initiative, and self-determination. Is it any wonder that we carry these lessons
and values into our spiritual lives?
Friends in Christ,
“… we are faced with
choosing whether we should act on self-will or on the guidance of God. As people who have been trained to be autonomous
and independent, it is hard to surrender our will and our lives to the care of
a force that we cannot see.”[11]
Such
surrender does not mean capitulation and becoming mindless followers who never
question or doubt. Such surrender means
we are more and more able to understand and trust what God is doing in and
through us. It means allowing God’s
Spirit to act through us.
Next week, as we celebrate the Feast of St.
Philip and
“The Lord waits to be gracious to you; therefore
he will rise up to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for
him. Truly, O people in
When we feel ourselves unable to discern the
voice of the shepherd, it is often helpful to get in touch with the ways the Good
Shepherd has guided others, and to hear how the Good Shepherd has whispered
into the ears of our companions on the journey, “This is the way, walk in it.” Parenthetically, this is one of the great
virtues and values of the Quest process.
The Good News is that once we discern the
voice of the Good Shepherd, we can, even in the midst of competing voices or
times of high stress, recognize it again.
Once we listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd, we discover “still
waters and green pastures”, and we can walk through “the valley of the shadow
of death” trusting in God’s mercy, love and grace.
AMEN.