Reading: John 10: 1-18
The opening verses of the parable of the Good Shepherd are speaking to us about what has to be the most important feature of our Christian faith, which is the identity of Jesus. Jesus is using the sheepfold and the door as symbols of the gateway to the temple of His body in heaven and on earth, the places seen and unseen. Jesus reveals Himself as God made man using the imagery of the temple seen by the prophet Ezekiel, as the glory of the Lord came from the East and entered through the gate – the gate remains shut to all but the Lord our God, for only God can open or close this heavenly door. Jesus being the true Shepherd, the Creator of humankind, is the only one who comes to us as the way, the truth and the fullness of life.
St Paul tells us that ‘since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities are clearly seen by what has been made.’ The Creator and the created are intimately bound together – He knew us in our mother’s womb, and so that neural fingerprint of God’s voice, like a mother’s voice, is imprinted within the mind of all His children.
‘Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.’ This is good news, but in a fallen, noisy and busy world, how can we be sure to not follow the thieves and bandits, the false prophets, and idols? How do we prevent our going astray – like sheep without a shepherd in these times?
The sheep listen to His voice, know Him, and are known by Him. Knowing is not static in that we gain and possess it, but it is a dynamic participation, and relationship that endures throughout our lives. In the Song of Songs, Wisdom calls to the Shepherd, her lover, her King – ‘tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday,’ – she listens as the King tells her, ‘to follow the tracks of the sheep and graze her goats (that is her wealth) by the tents of the shepherds.’ The Song of Songs is a constant shifting between speaking and listening, of a seeking and finding that connects these two lovers. There is a longing to hear each other’s voice – just as Jesus longs to hear ours.
The angels may sing all day and all night but we in the world speak through our worship and through our prayer. Prayer becomes an entwining of awareness with words, the space between the Shepherd and the sheep that becomes a point of meeting – our consciousness is like a stage within the mind upon which our language plays – but the greatest song and the greatest awakening we have is of love. Love creates order. Love is the language that feeds the soul. Between the silent spaces of our hearts and minds, in the calm and beside still waters, the Lord works – creating and renewing. The Word written in our hearts becomes the embodiment of relationship and cooperation. We become the change we wish to see in the world.
St Anselm of Canterbury, who wrote many beautiful devotional prayers said to God “Let me find you by loving you; let me love you when I find you.”
Love serves, it is not self-oriented. The self is fulfilled as a consequence of a movement between God, self and other – by becoming known and loved through otherness. We move, we follow, we go in and go out. So, our voices, our languages are like an ebb and a flow of the desire to entwine, participate, and be with others – in heaven and on earth.
What happens if we like the Pharisees do not understand what we hear? And there will be such times. In relationship it will have nothing to do with lacking, or a deficiency of intellect, or our longing for God – no, the silence or the not knowing or understanding reminds us that it is time to give, for it is not what we receive that matters as much as what we are able to give. And in the silent times of faith, we persevere in giving and encouraging one another in community, not to give up.
Jesus as the gate to the temple in heaven and on earth, the temple rebuilt after three days in His body – the ‘one body’ that ascended to heaven is on earth symbolised by the one Church, for the one flock who journey this gift of life together. We are held together as one by being dependent on Him, not our own resources. Jesus, as the head, turns the whole body so that we who belong to Him are also then turned to follow in obedience – in a harmony.
As sheep, we are to allow ourselves to be led, and in doing so we remain as one. Too often we think of ourselves as the image of the Shepherd, and there is a real tension between living with what we perceive in the world and allowing ourselves being led by what is unseen and so often missed – but in these times and in this parable, we are all being called to remember in humility, that we are in fact the sheep. Jesus, fully God and fully man, is the good Shepherd and the obedient sacrificial lamb.
With the Spirit of Jesus let us remember the virtues of sheep, docile, yet wise, contented, and meek. Let us remember that the good shepherd lay down His life, because we are known and loved beyond measure – bought with His precious blood, so that we may have our life and have it to the full.
Amen.