"…My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand…God and I are one." John 10

As you have guessed from the lessons and psalm this is Good Shepherd Sunday. Over the years I am sure that you have heard many accounts of sheep and shepherding. We know that sheep are dumb and panic if herded like cattle. They are domesticated animals so cannot survive alone. They can eat themselves lost with ease and lack geographic sense. They are black and white, old and young, weak and strong – each is different but all are dumb and need guidance.
The shepherd tends, protects, and leads them to food and water. He builds a relationship based upon trust, so his voice is recognized, heard and responded to. In the end, he leads and teaches them through relationship.
As someone owned by two feral cats I see some similarities. Cats cannot be herded, not because they panic but because it is beneath them. Mine survived alone in the wild for three or four years, so they can be very wary and fearful of people, sounds or changes. They can only begin to be in relationship when they have built trust – often over a period of years – and then they can love abundantly. Despite that loving, they still refuse to be led or controlled beyond that which is exercised by the food dish.
Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, the Psalms, Gospels and book of Revelation to St. John, we find recurrent images of Jesus both as shepherd to the flock (that includes all believers) and as a lamb in relationship to God. In the Gospel today he is challenged in the temple to reveal whether or not he is the Messiah, the one the Jewish people hoped for. That leader was to be like King David, one who would deliver them politically and militarily from oppression.
Jesus responds that he has already told them, but that they don't believe. He continues to challenge them to look at the works he has done in God's name, and they still do not believe. In claiming that he is one with God, he asserting that he does God's will.
The will of God is encapsulated in the 23rd Psalm. All will be loved, fed, cared for and refreshed. They will be so not just as individuals but as one community, one flock with one shepherd. Jesus was not about building mighty armies, great cities, businesses or a huge earthly kingdom, but about building the community of God, one relationship at a time. That is our charge also as Christ's followers.
Unfortunately, as one of the minor devils responded to Satan when asked: "Who will go out and work for the ruin of the souls on earth?" "I will tell the people that there is a God. I will tell them to listen to the Gospels as much as they desire. I will tell them that it's all true, but I'll tell them also that there is plenty of time for them to make up their minds about accepting the God's invitation to come." Satan was pleased by this answer and gave this order to all the minor devils: "Go forth and tell the people on Earth that Heaven can wait." (copied)
The truth is…God's children, God's fauna and God's flora are crying out now. God's entire creation is in desperate need of healing love. Heaven cannot wait! We ignore the lonely, the lost, the outcast, the broken the sick and the dying to our peril. Now is the time for us to show in our behavior our oneness with Jesus, the shepherd!
Tradition has it that John wrote the Revelation when he was on the island of Patmos, living in psychological, spiritual and physical isolation. As he saw the Roman ships, those symbols of early power he felt despair in the face of worldliness and corporate evil. To survive he had a vision of what the world would be as God wished it. God was imagined as a shepherd, guiding, protecting, even in the valley of the shadow of death. The vision was not sentimental, but hopeful, addressed to the community of all people, not just to individuals.
We are called to hold up that vision as our own, one in which those who are "…before the throne of God, and worship God day and night within the temple, will be sheltered by the one who is seated on the throne. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for 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." (The Revelation to St. John)
May we follow where the Good Shepherd leads that we may dwell in the house of God forever, knowing that forever is right now!

AMEN