Sermon John 10 22-30

Today has been known in the church as "Shepherd Sunday." All our texts, particularly our gospel for today, as well as the psalm speak of God and Jesus as shepherd and of us as the sheep. I have to use caution here: some of you have actually been around sheep and you may not take kindly to being called "sheep." Sheep get shaved or slaughtered and are notoriously dumb. So you might not like it when I, or Jesus, refer to you as sheep, members of this ragtag flock we call the church.

But sheep require a shepherd. That may mean, not that they are dumb, but rather they are smart enough to know they can't go it alone, they need someone to lead and to guide them. Don't we all?

Today's Scripture has a number of critics confronting Jesus, attempting to entrap him. Jesus has proclaimed to them who he is - at least, he does so in the Gospel of John - and he has tried to tell and to show them what he is about. But they just don't get it. Some have believed, some have witnessed his work and heard his words and have said, "Here is the long-awaited Christ!" But others have looked at Jesus and have found in him a charlatan or a madman, a blasphemer or an impostor.

Why are some able to believe and some not?

I do not know. Maybe even Jesus doesn't know. He doesn't get into a great deal of speculation on the difficulties of belief, or the causes of disbelief. Here, in today's gospel, Jesus says simply that he is the shepherd and that his sheep hear his voice and know him. They believe because they are his sheep. They are his sheep because they believe. Sounds like circular logic, doesn't it?

"My sheep know who I am and believe and if they don't, they're not my sheep because they don't know who I am and believe."

Ali, that's the hard part, isn't it? Believe. We've been for some time in the season of Easter and for many people, Easter presents one of the greatest challenges to belief - all this talk of resurrection, and life from death. I recall, at the end of a particularly glorious Easter service, with trumpets, and lilies, and the choir, and the sermon, and the crowds, this young man emerged muttering to me and to himself, I just don't know. I just can't be certain."

Maybe you're the sort who can stand and say with sure voice, I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead ..

Maybe you have never been bedeviled by doubts. Fine. Belief comes easily for you. But we ought to note that, even with Jesus standing right in front of him, listening firsthand to his words and witnessing his mighty works, many did not believe. So if you sit there today struggling to believe, this Scripture ought to remind you it has been that way since the very first. Jesus says to his critics, "You do not believe simply because you are not my sheep. My sheep know me, know my voice, and believe. You're not in my sheepfold, so of course, you don't believe."

Note carefully: Jesus doesn't say that you are admitted into the flock if you believe or that you are kicked out of the flock if you don't believe. No, he says that, if you're in the flock, you're one of his. You hear his voice, and know him and he knows you and won't let you go.

Aren't you in the flock? I'm looking at a bunch of sheep right now who look like they're in the flock. There you sit, you sheep. Jesus says that's good enough for him. You are in the flock so you hear his voice and he knows you and that's what it takes. He doesn't raise the bar that you've got to get over if you are to make the grade as one of his disciples. In fact, your making the grade, getting up over the bar, doesn't seem to be the point at all of being one of his disciples. Rather, it's a simple matter of just hearing his voice and coming forward to follow as one of the fold.

I've sometimes wondered what would happen on Sunday when the preacher made everyone stand up and say, "We are not alone, we live in God's world. ... we believe in Jesus crucified and risen." I wondered what would happen if somebody said, "Wait! I can believe the first part but have trouble believing the second part, the stuff about the resurrection and all." I wondered if the preacher might say, "Get out; you can't sit down here unless you believe."

But Jesus doesn't say anything like that here. He just says his sheep hear his voice and he knows them and they know him. They're in the fold just on the basis of hearing his voice.

That's just about all of you, no matter what doubts, questions, or reservations you may harbor about all of our beliefs and creeds and affirmations. There you sit in the fold. You may not have your head straight on every article or the Basis of Union or A New Creed. You may not know what to think about the Doctrine of the Trinity. And Easter? You thought you were fairly sure on that a couple of Sundays ago, but today, in the clear light of May, you're not so sure.

Belief, for most of us, is a come-and-go kind of thing. In church, we feel assurance and conviction rise within us. But then we wander out of here, into the world, away from the fold, and it is more difficult. There are other voices that compete for our attention. The paths go in myriad directions. What once seemed so sure and certain for us begins to fade.

But none of that may be the point. You or your belief or you and your doubts may not be the point. The point is, you're here. You have heard the voice of Jesus and you have come forth, you have come into the fold. Somehow you have heard something that sounded in some way like the voice of God inviting you to come forth and be part of this gathering, this flock. And that's enough, says Jesus, for him to keep you, to keep you for good. It's not a matter of what you can say, but a matter of what he says. It's his voice that keeps drawing us here.

I've studied lots of theology, and I spend a lot of time pouring over the Scriptures. I have even studied them in their original languages. But when it comes to how I stand before Christ, I'm just like you. We have no right to be here except we have heard his voice and have come forward. Here we both are, in the flock. Furthermore, the comfort is that he says he won't let his sheep go. He will keep us. Believe that if you can't believe anything else.

At Easter, just as Jesus came back to his disheartened, half-believing, mostly unbelieving disciples, broke down the doors behind which they cowered, breathed upon them and blessed them, offering them "Peace," so he comes back to us. He keeps coming back to us. Easter is the first and last great promise that he will not let us go. Our relationship with the shepherd is based upon who the shepherd is rather than who we are. Today's gospel promises that he will keep his sheep in the fold. Nobody and nothing will snatch his sheep out of his hand. Amen.