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Fourth Sunday of Easter

John 10
11"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father."

1 John 3
16 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.
17 How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?
18 Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.


Parents are more sensitive to the sound of a crying baby. Drivers (perhaps I should say good drivers) are trained to search for the source of a siren and decide if they must pull over. Cell phone users, it now appears, are equally sensitive to the sound of their distinctive ring and never want to miss that familiar sound.

The news this week* revealed what sound engineers and audiologist have long suspected: just as a vigilant parent will mistakenly imagine the babies cry and try to react, a regular cell phone user will mistakenly hear their ring in a variety of sounds and reach for their phone.

The people who study such things have given this phenomenon the name "phantom phone rings" or my favourite "fauxcellarm" and have labeled this the latest malaise to befall us moderns. To be truly honest, I thought I was losing my mind. Every time I put on my bathroom fan I can hear my cell phone ring. It hardly makes for a relaxing time. Now, rather than question my sanity, I can take comfort in knowing that I'm a hapless victim of the high tech world we live in.

Now that I've reestablished my sanity, however, I'm going to sound a little paranoid when I tell you that this phenomenon called "fauxcellarm" is frequently happening during radio and television advertising. Listening to such as ad, something triggers the auditory sensation I have described and suddenly the cell user is holding said cell phone in their hand. And, just life Pavlov and his dogs, most of us are more likely to make a call if we suddenly find ourselves holding the phone.

The less conspiratorial of our researchers would disagree with my theory. They would argue that it is simply a coincidence, and that the auditory location of siren, baby and cell phone (around 1000 hertz) is simply a "sweet spot" where these types of mistakes are likely to happen. I think I'll stick to my conspiracy. If you think I'm right, or hear anything new, call me on my cell.

***

"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd."

One could argue that the images of shepherd and sheep are the most familiar and most beloved among biblical images. People completely unfamiliar with church or Christian worship will ask for Psalm 23 by name, or will give me enough of a fragment that it is obvious that they know they want "green pastures" and "still waters" as part of a service.

The downside of familiarity, however, is a loss of power. The words lose their edge, their power to engage or surprise and what you are left with is a well-known passage recited by rote. The same could be said for the Lord's Prayer, and probably 1 Corinthians 13. The very same things that led to their place in our hearts (meaning and repetition) also robbed them of their power. For regular churchgoers you could add even more passages to this list: certainly the Ten Commandments and maybe even the Sermon on the Mount.

Things become familiar when we hear them frequently. We develop an "ear" for certain phrases or ideas. The tenth chapter of John is all about hearing:

The sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.

Sheep and shepherd are bound through the power of voice. The same Jesus who said "If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear" spoke of the power of sound in creating a bond. The relationship between sheep and shepherd, the ultimate pastoral relationship, begins and ends with voice recognition best described as intimate. This is not a case of "sounds like," but rather the intimate connection as mother begins speaking to baby in utero or child's cry triggers a distinctive emotional response. When Jesus used the phrase "ears to hear" he did it most often in connection with parables, words that point to the Kingdom. And the Kingdom is God's desire for a unique relationship: shepherd and sheep, parent and child, Creator and creature.

***

Walter Brueggemann, Old Testament scholar, would take us in a somewhat different direction, arguing that "the term shepherd is political in the Bible. It means king, sovereign, lord, authority, the one who directs, to whom I am answerable, whom I trust and serve."** "The Lord is my shepherd" is a political statement, an affirmation against Pharaoh's God-like illusions and all the other idolatry that seems to creep into the minds of the powerful. "I shall not want" for other Lords or shepherds, claiming instead the utter sovereignty of God in the face of all other claimants.

In the history of Israel, as the people adopted the rule of kings to mimic their neighbours, the kings quickly took on the role of shepherd. As the Lord was shepherd, they too became shepherd to the sheep, God's trusted representatives on earth. You know what happened next. The prophet Ezekiel, bound to explain the reason for judgment and exile, used these words:

1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. (ch. 34)

Like every corrupt government before and since, the Kings of Israel neglected their shepherdly duty to care for the most vulnerable. By refusing to strengthen the weak or heal the sick or bound up the injured the shepherds condemned themselves and invited their downfall. They ignored the "job description" of king outlined in Psalm 72, the very same Psalm that is the source of Canada's motto "sea unto sea."

[The King] will deliver the needy when he cries for help,
The afflicted also, and him who has no helper.
He will have compassion on the poor and needy,
And the lives of the needy he will save.

The root, it seems, is a lack of intimacy. The king can only deliver the needy if he can hear their "cries for help," the very same sound that the shepherd must be attuned to in order to care for the sheep. When the voice of the needy is ignored, when the cries are of the vulnerable are not heard, then king and government have lost all credibility and can rule no more.

The season of Easter is about implications. It is the "so what" of the death and resurrection cycle that we live year-by-year. We mine the scriptures for words that describe how we could respond to the themes of suffering, sacrifice and new life, and God's Word delivers. Listen to 1 John 3:

16 We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.
17 How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?

This is a question for kings and governments and people who enjoy God's gifts and them listen to the voice of others: "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?" This is the question that our food bank asks, by simply being there Thursday after Thursday. And this is the question for those who hear the voice of the suffering ones but tune it out, like a phantom cell phone, thinking instead that it is the voice or moral failure or an unwillingness to work hard.

The model we hold up, the model we cling to, is the shepherd of the sheep. The shepherd strengthens the weak and heals the sick and seeks the lost and insists that we do too. The shepherd speaks and guides us but also listens for cries for help. Intimately bound, we listen too, and are led in "paths of righteousness for his name's sake." May goodness and mercy follow us, as we dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.

(*National Post, Friday, May 5, 2006)
(**Resources for Preaching and Worship, p. 135)

posted by michael jacob kooiman @ 9:00 AM