Easter Week 4

Psalm: Psalm 23 

Acts: Acts 2:42-47 

Gospel: John 10:1-10 

Epistle: 1 Peter 2:19-25

Welcome to the fourth week of Easter, or in the secular calendar Mother’s Day. Unfortunately, the passages don’t mention anything about motherhood. During these last few weeks of Easter, I have felt the Scripture passages have not really had an obvious theme. In thinking about them this week, I think we have two ideas: first, the Church requires some type of community, and that can look different ways, but there is nothing solitary about the Christian life; second, the way to this community is through Jesus.

Perhaps we can start at the Psalm this week since we don’t always mention it. Psalm 23 might be the best known and spoken Psalm of all 150. The opening line says “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” The first point from this is that humanity is compared to sheep. Sheep are pretty stupid animals and this is not a very flattering picture of humanity. But also sheep are always found in flocks. A solitary sheep won’t last very long. The second point is that domesticated sheep require a shepherd to take care of them. The Psalmist declares that the Lord is his shepherd. There is no better shepherd than the Lord to guide and direct.

Keeping with the sheep theme, 1 Peter 2:25 reads, “For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” Again, sheep tend to go astray and get lost without a shepherd to guide them, but the good news is that Jesus is the “shepherd and guardian” of our souls.

In John, Jesus declares himself to the gate to the sheepfold (10:7) and the good shepherd. (10:11) Jesus uses the image of the sheep in John to explain our relationship to the Father and to Jesus himself. We are in need of the herd and the shepherd to live in the kingdom of God. The good news is that we have a shepherd who is gracious, loving, and like Psalm 23 says, with us even in the presence of our enemies.

Finally, we have been looking at the first sermon of Peter in the book of Acts, and this week we have the summarizing verses of the chapter. It presents the early church as a community which shared everything and cared for each one as they had need. It seems unrealistic and idealized only because we might never have experienced a community where God truly was central, and the Spirit was guiding everything. With the Good Shepherd at the head, the early church was able to act as the sheepfold of God is supposed to.

Life can be difficult. We can find ourselves lost, both metaphorically and actually. There are times when we look around and realize we appear to be alone. It is at these moments especially when we must remember that God is the Shepherd who is seeking us and ready to accept us into his family. It is also at these moments that we must remember that as much as we need a shepherd, we also need other sheep.  We can’t do this on our own. Life is too difficult without the Body of Christ, and it is much more joyful and enjoyable when we have others to experience life together.

Grace and peace.