Today we had the great pleasure of listening to Clare singing the hymns and the settings with Gail in harmony – many thanks to you both for your part in our worship.
We also in our prayers gave thanks for the life of Margaret Hayes – such a loved and dear friend to us at St Andrew’s. Margaret died peacefully at Milngavie Manor on Friday.
Acts 4:5-12.
1 John 3:16-24
John 10:11-18
I am the good shepherd.
This gospel reading from John describing the Good Shepherd caring and nurturing his flock always comes at this time of year – just after Easter when the fields and hills are covered with sheep and their new-born lambs. Every year the cuteness and the vitality of the lambs never fail to charm me. They look so innocent, playful and appealing. And yet they are vulnerable creatures, helpless in the face of adversity, and so they require the skill of a shepherd to protect and care for them.
Throughout the Bible God is often depicted as that caring shepherd. Today in John’s gospel Jesus tells us that he is The Good Shepherd and in doing so reveals profound divine truths so typical of St John’s gospel. Over again in his gospel John tells us that:
darkness is in the world but it is powerless against the light.
Evil is in the world but it is powerless against goodness and truth.
Death is in the world but it is powerless against life everlasting.
The image of Jesus the good shepherd is wonderfully comforting – no wonder Psalm 23 is so often chosen for funerals.
Shepherds in ancient Israel lived with their flock and knew each sheep individually giving them names. When flocks were mixed on a hillside the sheep would respond to their own shepherd’s call. They wouldn’t need to count their sheep when putting them into the sheepfold because they would know just by looking at them which, if any, was missing. Sick and wounded sheep weren’t abandoned but found and tended – none was expendable. At night there were dangers from thieves and wolves and the shepherd would literally lay down his life for his flock by lying across the entrance to the sheepfold.
This is the image we are given of Christ’s care for us and our relationship with him. Jesus chose to die, not because he embraced death or had no regard for his life, but he loved others as he loved himself and this was the supreme act of love for those in his care. In verse 10 he contrasts himself with the thief who takes life; he dies to save life. This reading makes clear that Jesus isn’t a pawn or a victim; he has the power to give up his life and it’s his decision.
“ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” John 10:18
He dies to rise again and show the way to the father. He died that we also may rise. This is our faith, the Easter message – that however sad and terrible death is, death is not the end. Christ knows each of us as an individual and loves each one of us. Those who know the voice of the good shepherd in this life will hear him speak their name on the other side of earthly death.
It is beyond our imagining, but one day we will encounter the glory and splendour of Christ and stand before him just as we are and just as he knows us to be. In the meantime, we live our earthly lives. Jesus said “love one another as I have loved you.”
The letter of John that we heard says: “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech but in truth and action.”
How we act with love and integrity in our daily lives is a challenge. And as Christians if we don’t examine our conscience from time to time then we’re not meeting that challenge. The right way to behave isn’t always straightforward and can take courage, and the church community is called to encourage and support one another in faith. Jesus in his teaching has given guidance like a Good Shepherd guides his sheep.
We have to journey in this world together, trusting in the good shepherd, who laid down his life to save us, knowing that it’s in him and through him that we find the way to God.
As Peter, arrested, declared before the council in this morning’s passage from Acts.
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12