Date: May 5th & 8th
Preacher: Pastor Ashley Rosa-Ruggieri
First Reading: Acts 9:36-43
Psalmody: Psalm 23
Second Reading: Revelation 7:9-17
Gospel: John 10:22-30
Since today’s service marks the 4th week of Easter, and there are 8 total in the season of Easter, we are halfway through the season of Easter this year. So far, there has been a theme that has related to a few of the readings we have had. Starting with Easter Sunday, we heard of the women who witnessed the resurrection, but who shared the story to disciples who refused to believe them. Next, we had the story of Thomas, who did not believe when the other disciples told him that Jesus had appeared among them. Thomas would not believe until he saw for himself. Even last week, though I focused on a different part of the story, there is disbelief from Ananias and Saul as they hear the voice of Jesus guiding them.
All of these stories so far in the season of Easter have showed disciples during the time of Jesus not believing in who Jesus was or what he could do. There is hesitation in these stories to really follow the path of the Spirit, the path of Jesus, in a way that puts too much dedication in before there is enough cause for belief. Our Gospel passage today picks up on this theme as well, but in a new way.
Today’s reading from John is earlier in the story of Jesus’s life than our other readings have been. Jesus is still in the midst of his ministry, rather than having already died and been resurrected. Since we know that even after his death and resurrection there were doubts and times of disbelief when it came to acknowledging and recognizing who Jesus was, it should not come as a shock that these same questions and moments of skepticism happened before Jesus even attended the last supper and was arrested. The setting for today’s story is around the festival of the Dedication, this festival also goes by the name of Hanukkah. Though not the highest of holy days, it is still an important religious marker for practicing Jewish people in Jesus’s time to gather together.
In this passage he is in the temple in Jerusalem and has been surrounded by other Jewish people and they ask him plainly to tell them if he is the Messiah. Jesus’s ministry has been gaining traction, and rumors and whispers have been spread around the region, especially in Jerusalem where they are now, and so people are curious. In some ways, their curiosity could be harmful, but in many ways, it is only curiosity of those who are not sure what they believe yet and would like more answers before articulating those beliefs. And so, they ask Jesus to stop with any of his suspense and just tell them if he is the Messiah. To these people gathered around, Jesus responds that he has already told them and showed them this truth, they just did not listen or believe him. He explains to them that he has been able to do great and wonderous things through the power that God the Father has bestowed upon him, and yet those things combined with his own words and affirmations of him being the Messiah have not been enough for those around him, and many who are not there at this moment in the temple, to believe. He follows up this statement with an acknowledgement that those asking this question are not part of his sheep, at least not currently, because if they were then they would recognize Jesus’s voice as that of the Good Shepherd of the flock. They would be his sheep.
This idea that those who are followers of Jesus will hear and follow his voice is easier to grasp when we consider those who lived with and among him. We might imagine that his disciples during that time and all who would eventually be Christ-followers after his death and resurrection were close enough to Jesus in the flesh that they could easily decide to join the flock and heed his voice as the Good Shepherd. But the people in this Gospel passage are not those who have embraced Jesus’s claim to being the Messiah, and so they are not looking for Jesus’s voice to be calling, guiding, and accompanying them in their lives. When we consider Jesus’s words here though, that his sheep hear his voice, we might be reminded that we have a God who not only created the world and came to live in it as a human, but also a God who has been around and present with creation from its beginning as the Holy Spirit. We have the promise from Jesus in multiple places of scripture that the Spirit of God has been given to us as an advocate, friend, companion, guide, and counselor. A Holy Spirit, a wind from heaven, a sacred breath of life. And so, when we know that Jesus has said he will guide us and we know that he has promised us the Holy Spirit, we can be assured that we hear the voice of our Good Shepherd through the leadings of the Holy Spirit in our lives today.
This does not always make listening to that voice easy. Not only can we doubt that the voice we are hearing, the path where it leads us, comes from the Holy Spirit, but there can especially be hesitation when where the Spirit leads is somewhere we have not yet gone. Much like sheep following their shepherd on uncharted terrain, we too might get nervous when the call of God looks different than it has before. And still, we are called to follow the Spirit’s leading in that new, changing, different, unfamiliar place. Because Jesus has promised us the Spirit and said that his sheep hear and know his voice, and that nothing can snatch us away from our Lord. But sheep do not always have it easy on their journeys, and we too will have some moments of difficulty. The joy and triumph of following the way of Jesus comes in the end when we all arrive together, listening to the same voice. The old and the young, the skeptical and the trusting, the whole and the broken, and everyone in-between. We all arrive together, following the voice of our Good Shepherd, knowing that nothing can snatch us from God’s loving hand. So let us be sheep, flocking together and following the voice of Jesus. Thanks be to God.