Sermon - Easter 4

Sermon – Easter 4
John 10:22-30
March 25, 2010
“ears like a sheep”

I’m a sheep. You are a sheep. We are all sheep. It is Good Shepherd Sunday. We know the metaphor well: The Lord is the Shepherd, and we are the sheep. This would have been a very useful metaphor in Israel at the time, given that it was a pastoral society.
Let’s think about this metaphor…How is the Lord like a Shepherd? The Lord protects us, provides for us (Psalm 23). The Lord seeks out the lost.
How are we like the sheep? We may not like this comparison as much. Sheep are known to be stinky and are not always known for their intelligence.
The metaphor does work, though. We are dependent on the Shepherd. We encounter those who might harm us (wolves). We follow the Shepherd and we know the Shepherd’s voice.
I’ve been doing some research on sheep, and one of their strengths is their hearing. They know the Shepherd’s voice, they are able to distinguish it from other sounds.

In today’s gospel, Jesus uses this metaphor saying: “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.”
Just as sheep can distinguish the voice of their Shepherd from all the others, followers of Jesus can distinguish Jesus’ voice from all the others.
So, how do we do this in our daily lives?
Our lives are filled with noise. All day we hear the sounds traffic, radio, cellular phones, text messages. We are inundated by commercials: buy this, buy that; politicians going back and forth. We’re told how to spend money, what to believe, how to act. Voices labeling us: You aren’t smart enough; You’re not good enough; you’re not welcome here. Voices trying to lure us: feed your addiction; your desires; your greed. Voices that tell us to be afraid; that remind us of the power of death in our midst; the power of evil in our midst; that try to convince us that evil is going to win; that try to weigh us down with negativity.

But the good news is that we are sheep, so we have the ears of sheep and we can distinguish the voice of the Shepherd. We hear the voice of the Lord, and as the psalm says, the Lord leads us to green pastures, beside still waters, to restore our soul. The Lord leads us in right paths for the Lord’s name’s sake. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we fear no evil, for the Lord is with us, with a rod and staff to comfort us. The reading from Revelations assures us that “the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes!" Amen.