For The Sheep

April 22, 2018

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Thank you for your welcome, and greetings from St Paul’s in London.

A little while ago the deans of the Church of England heard a talk by Lord Richard Wilson, who was head of the British Government’s Civil Service under Prime Minister Tony Blair, and worked at high level under Margaret Thatcher before him. He’s a Christian man of great intellect and integrity. And he said that in many Cabinet meetings there was a question that kept coming back to him as he listened to politicians discussing government policy: are the sheep being fed…? In other words: are the poor and the sick being cared for? Are those without jobs or hope being helped? Do these politicians care for the people they’re supposed to shepherd?

Today’s readings are on the theme of the Good Shepherd. In John chapter 10, Jesus says: ‘I am the good shepherd… and I lay down my life for the sheep.’ Jesus models the caring leader who will sacrifice her or his own life for the sake of the poor, the powerless, the needy. And Jesus contrasts the good shepherd with the hired hand, the person who’s leading because they’re paid to do so, but who have no love for those they lead.

When there’s danger, the hired hand runs away to save their own skin while the sheep perish. But the good shepherd will face loss and danger on behalf of the sheep. Jesus said ‘I lay down my life for the sheep.’ Before becoming Dean of St Paul’s, I was Dean in Bradford, a proud but poor city in the north of England. The Church there was linked with South West Virginia and with the church in the north of Sudan, in Africa.

After many years of war and oppression, South Sudan became independent in 2011, with much rejoicing and hope for an independent future as a basically Christian country; but almost straight away there was civil war focused on the personal rivalry between South Sudan’s President and his former Vice-president.

The politicians on each side in South Sudan blame one another for a conflict which has displaced millions and killed tens of thousands, in one of Africa’s poorest countries. And there are many other countries, from Myanmar to North Korea to Russia to Congo to Venezuela to Zimbabwe to Eritrea to Syria – and the list can go on and on – where men, nearly always men, want power over others instead of to serve others. How many of their leaders would act like Jesus? ‘I lay down my life for the sheep.’

In Britain at the moment there’s a shameful scandal erupting that black immigrants from the Commonwealth after the 1940s have been denied the rights of British citizens because they have no documentation, having come to Britain at a time when they were automatically counted as citizens. Since 2012 the government has been clamping down on illegal immigrants and has caught up these legal residents, many of whom came as small children and have been denied access to jobs, education, and healthcare. The greatest scandal is that the government knew about their plight but decided they could be ignored, and destroyed the immigration records which would have validated their citizenship. Of course, these legal immigrants are black, and many are poor, so they have little political power. ‘I lay down my life for the sheep.’

In ancient Israel, the king was charged by God to uphold justice for the poor against the oppression of the rich, to protect the powerless widow, orphan, and stranger; to be a good shepherd to his people. The prophet Ezekiel chapter 34 castigates the shepherds of Israel as those who, instead of feeding their sheep, eat them instead. God promises to judge those shepherds and feed his people himself. ‘I lay down my life for the sheep.’

These words of Jesus in today’s gospel come after his criticism of the Pharisees in the previous chapter, criticism because the Pharisees condemned Jesus for healing a blind man because it was the Sabbath day.

Being a good shepherd isn’t only about politicians. It’s also about religious leaders, like me, who are also called to feed our sheep, yet can exploit them for our own ends instead: sometimes because, like the Pharisees, our commitment to dogma, and the fear of God’s judgement, is stronger than our care for the sheep we are called to love but don’t like, who we throw out of our sheepfold.

I was at a conference recently listening to a young woman called Vicky Beeching, a Christian songwriter and worship leader.
She spent over 20 years of her life repressing the knowledge she was gay while working in churches hostile to gay people, and as a result, ended up in a hospital almost dying of an auto-immune disease.

But when she finally accepted who she is and publicly told the truth about herself, many evangelical churches in Britain and the USA who had previously loved her, denounced her and boycotted her music. God still loves her – but good religious people won’t. ‘I lay down my life for the sheep.’

During the month of March this year, an independent government inquiry into child sexual abuse in Britain was looking at the history of abuse in one diocese in southern England. There had been collusion in abuse, incompetence, and inaction by bishops and other leaders, while clergy had abused those in their trust. The inquiry saw bishops and others justifying themselves, rather than admitting their failings and reaching out in genuine compassion to those who are victims and survivors of terrible abuse which has badly damaged the victims’ lives. ‘I lay down my life for the sheep.’

The first letter of John says that, as Jesus lays down his life for us, so we also should lay down our lives for our sisters and brothers, and help them out of their poverty by sharing our resources with them. But we get tempted to define people as not being our brother or sister, a temptation that Jesus addresses towards the end of today’s Gospel passage, where he says: ‘I lay down my life for the sheep. And there are other sheep I have, not of this sheepfold, and I must lead them also.’

For Jesus, there is no ‘other’, no ‘us and them’, no group or tribe or race or orientation which we should exclude from the love of God in us. There is no ‘them’, no ‘other sheep’; there is only us all, the sheep whom Christ loves. 'I lay down my life for the sheep.’

Good shepherds in politics, good shepherds in religion – we can criticise other leaders, but what about you and me? Are we good shepherds to the sheep whom God has given us to care for? It doesn’t matter how powerful or how powerless we are: God calls us to be filled with the self-giving love of Christ, calls us to lead those around us to feed on the unconditional love of God which heals and changes us.

A month ago, on 23rd March this year, a police officer called Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame was called to a hostage-taking by an Islamist gunman in southern France. He was 44 years old. He negotiated with the terrorist to exchange himself for a female shop assistant being held hostage, and he was then shot by the gunman in the course of the hostages being rescued.

Colonel Beltrame had been born into a non-religious family, and had been converted at the age of 33 to become an active member of the Catholic Church; he had recently married, and in 2012 had been given the Legion of Honour, France’s highest award, for his bravery. He died in hospital with his priest praying for him and his wife praying with him. His brother said, ‘He gave his life for strangers. He must have known he didn’t really have a chance. If that doesn’t make him a hero, I don’t know what would. We were shocked when we heard what had happened, but we were not surprised.’ ‘I lay down my life for the sheep.’

We had a reading from Acts chapter 4 a few minutes ago. The apostles Peter and John have healed a man in the Temple, a man crippled at birth, a man over 40 years old, completely beyond any hope of healing.

People are amazed, Peter and John preach the gospel to them, the priests and elders are annoyed and put Peter and John in jail overnight – and that’s the point where the reading begins. If we could re-write history, perhaps this is what it should say in the reading from Acts chapter 4: ‘The next day the rulers, elders, and teachers met in Jerusalem, including the men of the high priestly family. They had Peter and John brought before them, and began to question them saying: By what power or by what name did you do this? Could we do it too? We’ve got hundreds of poor and sick people in Jerusalem and Judea: can you please help them? And Peter replied, Rulers of the people and elders, thank you for your loving concern for those of your people who are in need.’ I wish. We wish. We should.

Jesus said: ‘I lay down my life for the sheep.’