Sermon on John 10:22-30

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

As usual, Jesus was indirect with his answer in our Gospel reading today.

His healings and teachings and miracles had been creating quite a stir, and his critics (the religious authorities, not “the Jews” in general—as always, Jesus and his disciples were Jewish among mostly other Jewish people)—his critics were demanding a clear answer: was he the Messiah or not?

But Jesus wasn’t falling into their trap. He basically told them that if they had been paying attention to what he had been doing—how he had been caring for people, showing mercy and compassion to the most vulnerable, sharing God’s abundance—then they would have their answer already.

Louis Armstrong was once asked to define the rhythm of swing music, and he replied, “If you have to ask, you’ll never know.”

Jesus was essentially saying the same thing about his identity: if you have to ask if Jesus is the Messiah, then you’ll never see that he was answering that question every day of his ministry. It, like swing music, was something to be experienced, not defined.

And since, presumably, followers of Jesus were listening in on this conversation, Jesus was assuring them that they didn’t have to worry. Jesus was the Good Shepherd—he knew their names, and they would never be taken away from him.

Jesus was simultaneously comforting his followers and convicting his critics.

Throughout this passage and the longer teaching it’s a part of, known as the Good Shepherd discourse, Jesus references Ezekiel 34, which contrasts the false shepherds who were doing a poor job of leading God’s people with God, the True Shepherd.

God, through Ezekiel, calls out the “shepherds of Israel” for indulging themselves at the expense of the people they’re supposed to be caring for, for ignoring the needs of the most vulnerable, and for letting the “sheep” be scattered instead oftending to them.

God instead promises to seek them out, feed them well, let them rest, bind up their injuries, and strengthen the weak.

So, when Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd, he’s making those promises to those who are listening, especially the most marginalized.

They can trust him to fulfill the promises God made to God’s people. Jesus calls them by name, and they can never be snatched from his hand.

It’s tempting to be cynical about those promises today. It’s poetic and all, but the practicality of it is hard to see.It’s nice to talk of being part of a flock, but that kind of belonging is hard to come by these days.

Our world is constantly changing.

Churches aren’t the community centers they were decades ago.

Neighbors don’t necessarily know each other.

Technology allows us to stay in touch with people far away more easily, but it’s not the same as a hug.

Many of us spend more and more time online, where deep, beautiful connections can be made and where we can also sometimes get a superficial sense of being connected to other people that doesn’t ultimately satisfy our human need for community.

It can be hard to feel like we belong anywhere.

It can be hard to read our Gospel today and feel like we’re part of God’s flock.

In our anxiety about our disconnection and the state of the world, sometimes we seek easy answers, like the religious leaders in our story. “Tell us plainly, Jesus: are you who you’re rumored to be?”

Or maybe, “tell me plainly, Jesus, am I who you say I am? Am I your sheep? Will you care for me too? Will you look for me when I feel lost? What about the people I care about? Are your promises for them too? Or will you leave them behind?”

If there are two things I’ve learned about being a person of faith, it’s to value good questions and to be suspicious of easy answers. And those are good and important questions.

And in our Gospel reading, Jesus turns his audience away from easy answers.

Instead, he points them toward his actions.“Actions speak louder than words,” so they say.If you’re wondering about Jesus’ promises about caring for his flock, look at his actions.

He healed the sick, brought peace to the suffering, fed the hungry, and brought dignity to the marginalized.

If you’re wondering who’s part of his flock, look at his actions.

He gathered all kinds of people—from hated tax collectors to isolated people with leprosy to foreigners to women and children and people with disabilities who were second class citizens to people with bad reputations to pretty much anyone you can imagine. If Jesus is the Good Shepherd, he’s got a big and eclectic flock to tend.

We also see the variety of that flock in our reading from Revelation today. In it, there’s a vision of “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” all gathered together in joy and celebration.

This multitude of people has “come through the great ordeal.” Since Revelation was written in a time of persecution of Jesus followers, this likely refers to people martyred for their beliefs.

And today, there’s warfare, violence, disease, oppression, malnutrition, poverty, hate crimes, natural disasters, and many other “great ordeals” that too many people made in the image of God are subjected to.

It’s so easy to ask why God lets these things happen, but instead of giving us an easy answer, God often turns the question back to us, asking why we let these things happen.

There are so many people who are doing good in this world, trying to make a difference, including this congregation, which feeds our neighbors week in and week out. And still, this world is not as it should be.

And God still promises to tend God’s flock. Revelation, in addition to giving us beautiful visions of the fulfillment of the Beloved Community, tells us this about those who have gone through the “great ordeal”:

“For this reason they are before the throne of God
  and worship him day and night within his temple,
  and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
 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.”

May it be so for every single person made in the image of God, which is every single person.

We may not get the easy answers we want, and there’s plenty to be anxious about in our world, but when we look at Jesus’ life and the themes throughout scripture, we see that God’s flock is expansive and inclusive. We see that God cares deeply for the most marginalized and vulnerable in society and calls us to care too.

God calls each of us by name and those we care about and even those we might be bothered by or have a hard time with. We are all God’s children, part of God’s flock, living in God’s creation.

God cares about our world too—not an inch in all of creation is forgotten or unloved. Martin Luther wrote that “God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on the trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.” We can find the Good News of God’s Beloved Community in the natural world around us. We can see God’s care and abundance by looking at what God created and continues to nurture—it’s all around us.

God isn’t about easy answers, but we can look to Jesus’ actions and God’s handiwork in creation to find reassurance that God cares for us, tends us, and calls us by name.

As you go about your life loving your neighbors, neither you nor they will be snatched out of God’shand. We and all of creation are safe in the loving arms of our Good Shepherd forever.