The following sermon was presented at Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia on May 2, 1993. The speaker is the Rite Rev. John W. Howe, Bishop of the Diocese of Central Florida. The title of this sermon is Hearing the Good Shepherd, and the scripture reference is the Gospel of John, Chapter 10, Verses 1-10. 

The Holy Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, according to St. John. Jesus said, by name, and he leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. For this figure Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not heed them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. The Gospel of the Lord. It's a tremendous joy to be back among you this morning and this weekend. John and I were here for the wedding of Susie and Tiger Terramura yesterday, and now to worship with all of you this morning is a very special treat. Particularly want to thank Martin for the invitation.

As I've said on previous occasions that you've welcomed us back, I hope you will consider us your missionaries sent out to Central Florida and me to the House of Bishops and the National Church. There is an awesome task out there. I think we're making a difference.

We depend upon your prayers. We took a little family poll about a month ago. I just asked everybody a question I hadn't previously asked.

If we had the chance, who would want to move back to Fairfax and back to Truro? The vote was four to zip in favor of the motion. And John, I think, spoke for all of us, he said, in a second.

Don't misunderstand. I'm not complaining and we're not unhappy. Florida is a fun place to be and God is doing some tremendously exciting things in the diocese and beyond.

More importantly, we know that we're where we're supposed to be. for now, but our hearts are still inextricably tied to yours, and we love you. We thank God for all that he has done over many years and continues to do right up to this moment, and I just needed to say it one more time.

Nearly 20 years ago, Karen and I visited England for the first time, and we were driving through the Lake District and we came to a few cars that had been stopped and something was happening up ahead and we sort of looked up there and it was a shepherd driving what we would call a fairly small truck, they would call it a lorry, and he was opening up the back of the lorry to let out the sheep that he was transporting from one place to another. could not believe it when I saw how many sheep he had in that blessed thing. They were packed in there like fuzzy sardines.

Three tiers of them. Obviously, he had loaded in the first group, and when the bottom of the lorry was full, there was a platform that came over that, and another tier, and then a third tier packed in wall to wall and top to bottom. And now he was letting them out in reverse order.

The top ones came down the ramp when they were all out, then the next ones, and finally the ones on the bottom. Sort of the first shall be last and the last, something like that. You thought you were going to get the best place by getting in there first, right?

For all the world, it was like, you know, clowns at the circus coming out of that little car. There is no way there could be that many in there. And they just kept coming and coming.

I would guess there were a hundred of them. Unbelievable number of sheep coming out of that lorry. And it took quite a long time, as you can imagine.

And out they come, and they scatter in every imaginable direction. Now, right next to the lorry is the gate into the pasture. Do you think those sheep could find their way through that gate?

No. See, you might have thought that God was paying you a compliment when he called you his cute little lamb, you know. That's really not it. The essential characteristic of sheep is that they have a built-in misguidance system.

Now, it is possible if they're in the pasture and there's a hole somewhere in the fence, they can find their way out. But do you think if their life depended on it, they could find their way back in? No. Walk right up to a wolf and say good morning.

Isaiah says, all we, like sheep, have... You got it. They're a strayness that qualifies them to be sheep.

So they're scattering all over the road, all over the countryside, not into the pasture, but everywhere else. and the shepherd all the while that they're doing this just stands there very unconcerned almost nonchalant he's got his staff in his hand and he's smoking a pipe just letting this all happen but there is a sheepdog seated at his feet doesn't move a muscle keeps his eyes on the face of the shepherd at all times. And when finally the last sheep is out, the shepherd just snapped his fingers like that.

And that dog took off like a bat out of the netherworld. And he began rounding up these sheep. It was fascinating to watch.

He's barking at them, jumping at them, nipping at them, snapping at them. They are scared to death. Mind you, he is not permitted to do them any real harm, but he's snapping at their necks, driving them back toward the shepherd, back toward the gate.

And for the first time, I understood why in so much Christian art and iconography down through the ages, the devil has been pictured as a dog. See the image here. This sheepdog threatening and scaring the sheep, in fact unable to do anything more to harm them than the shepherd permits, and yet his threats are causing those wayward sheep to get back to the shepherd from whom they've strayed.

Meanwhile, he is striding quite purposefully through the gate, speaking quietly to the sheep nearest him, who recognize his voice and follow him, and by the by they become the leaders. Martin Luther was fond of saying, of course there's a devil, but he's God's devil. I can't read of Jesus calling himself the Good Shepherd without remembering that afternoon in England.

It's one of his most familiar sayings. It's one of our most popular images of him. I want us to notice four things about that statement.

Number one, Jesus calls himself both the Shepherd and the gate or the door of the sheepfold. You may know that in the ancient world, and indeed in many places in the world today, when the shepherd brings in the sheep at night, it's time to bed down for the night. No more grazing in the pasture.

And they come into the fold. After the last sheep is in, the shepherd himself lies down in the gateway. Powerful image.

His very body becomes the gate. And so Jesus calls himself not only the shepherd, but the gate. to the sheepfold.

But he makes that comment in the context of saying there are those in this sheepfold who did not come in through the gate. If you read that in a superficial, casual way, you might think that he's saying there are many ways into the sheepfold, many ways to become a member of the flock, that he, rather than being the way, is a way, folks who say that all religions are equally valid and all roads lead to God would love that interpretation. In fact, he's not saying that at all.

He's not talking about sheep who got in in some other way, but false shepherds. Be forewarned, dear friends. Imposters, thieves, bandits, he calls them, who dress up like shepherds, but who come to steal and kill and destroy.

You do get the point. There are some would-be leaders and clergy in the church whose ministry, if you follow it, will destroy you. Just because somebody is called a priest or a pastor or a bishop does not mean he got in through Jesus.

We need to tune our ears very carefully. We need to listen closely and ask whether it's the voice of Jesus that we hear through our shepherds or that of a stranger. Over against that, a second point.

I want us to see who Jesus is really claiming to be. Who is He claiming to be? There is a background to this passage, background to this statement that any Jew in Jesus' day would immediately recognize and be familiar with.

You might care to turn to Ezekiel 34 in your pew Bible. I think you'll find it on page 744. You may know this, but if it's new to you, it's going to send a chill up your spine to see what's really going on at this point.

Ezekiel 34. These words were spoken and then written somewhere around 590 B.C. on the eve of the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity.

And God Himself is denouncing the shepherds, the priests, the clergy, if you will, of ancient Israel. He says they have totally, utterly failed to do the work that He has entrusted to them. They have failed to care for the flock.

Let me just summarize the first part of that chapter. There are seven things, he says, that the shepherds have failed to do. Number one, to feed the sheep.

That's what shepherds are supposed to do. To provide good feed for the sheep. But he says, you've fed yourselves.

Number two, to strengthen the weak. Number three, to heal the sick. Number four, to bind up the crippled.

Number five, to bring back the strayed. Number six, to seek the lost. And number seven, to care for the healthy.

That's the job description of a shepherd. That's what I have commissioned you to do, says God. You are to care for my flock.

And you have totally blown it. That's a devastating indictment, isn't it? He says, therefore, I am against the shepherds.

In terms very similar to what Jesus has just said about the thieves and bandits and imposters who have made their way into his flock. That, by the way, is a pretty good job description of what a pastor is supposed to do. You might use that as a grid for your annual clergy review.

Don't get nervous, Martin. Now listen to what he says in verse 11. The shepherds have totally failed, therefore I, this is the Lord God speaking, I myself will feed my sheep, strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the crippled, bring back the strayed, seek the lost, and care for the healthy.

They have failed to do it, therefore I will do it myself. They are bad shepherds. I myself will become the...

You got it? along comes Jesus and he says I am the good shepherd don't you love it when some dopey theologian or pontificating bishop comes and says well of course Jesus never really claimed to be God right and the Pope never claimed to be Catholic either just happened to be there at the right place at the right time you know even prior to that David in the most famous psalm of them all says the Lord God is my shepherd and Jesus says c'est moi it's even stronger than that because as many of you will recognize, this is one of the great I Am sayings of Jesus. It's a play on words.

It's a play on the unspeakably holy name of God that He gave to Moses when He went up on Mount Sinai. God says, I'm calling you to lead My people out of slavery in Egypt. And Moses says, I don't even know your name.

What name shall I give to the God who's calling me to do this? and God says, I am. We usually translate that, I am that I am.

Or I am what I will be. It's a word, it's a complex word, and we don't even know exactly how to pronounce it, because the Jews considered it so holy that they never pronounced it. When they came to it in their scriptures, lest by chance, inadvertently, I take the name of the Lord my God in vain, I'm not going to pronounce it at all.

They substituted another word, Adonai, which simply means Lord. And by the way, we got the word Jehovah by taking the consonants out of Yahweh and the vowels out of Adonai and putting them together. So if you want to make sure that you don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain, feel very free to use Jehovah because it doesn't come close.

that's just a little prove that I did my homework kind of the Jews never pronounced that name and yet Jesus repeatedly and consistently not only spoke that name but referred it to himself you do see what's at stake here I am Yahweh the way, the truth, and the life I am the resurrection and the life I am the door, I am the gate I am the true bread from heaven I am the light of the world I am the true vine, I am the bread of life in the book of Revelation he says I am the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the end and here I am the good shepherd I am, I am, I am, I am when he stood before Caiaphas the high priest on trial for his life. Caiaphas only asked him one question. Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?

And he said, Yahweh, I am. And Caiaphas whirls around and says, What need have we of any further witnesses? He has condemned himself already.

Don't miss it. It's there on every page. Jesus was claiming to be God.

Come among us. in this instance as the good shepherd, in contrast to all those bad shepherds out there. Number three, what's behind the claim?

What allows him to call himself good? What allows him to call himself shepherd? Well, He tells us, I have come that the sheep, that you might have life and have it in all of its fullness.

Evidently, there is no other way to get it. Jesus did not come at such an expense to give us what we already had or to give us what we could in any other way get. He came to give us life, a quality of life, lived at a different level than anything we could otherwise know.

I have come that you might have life abundant. And in the very next paragraph, he says, I give you that by laying down my life. No one takes it of me.

I lay it down of my own accord. There is a caricature that we have of the good shepherd. I know it comes immediately to everybody's minds because it's been painted so many times.

You know, the shepherd's strolling through this idyllic meadow, surrounded by woolly little lambs, and he's got one over his shoulders. And, you know, he's wearing this long flowing robe. There's no dirt on it.

You know, there's no grass stains on it. His hands have just been washed in dove. You know, you've got the picture.

That is not what he's saying here. I am the good shepherd because I give my life for the sheep. This is a picture of violence, of conflict, of tearing, of ripping, of bloodshed, and of death.

This is not a pretty picture. When the wolf comes to kill the sheep, I put my body between the sheep and the wolf. That's why I'm the good shepherd.

The false shepherds flee at that point. The bad shepherds run for their lives. I am the good shepherd because I give my very life.

Not pretty, but gospel. The heart of the gospel. There are at least four ways to understand that.

The most common way we picture Jesus taking upon Himself my punishment, your punishment, He takes upon Himself our guilt and He takes upon Himself our death. Well, that's a good biblical picture. I'm the good shepherd because I take upon myself the death that should have come to you.

But it's only one picture. The book of Hebrews puts it in a different context altogether. says the Gospel is really the story of the death of the testator, the one who makes a will.

Even on a human level, if you've been named in a will, you have an inheritance coming your way. Only there's a catch. The person who is leaving you all that inheritance has to die.

And Jesus, the only Son of God, with all of the rights and prerogatives and privileges that appertain thereto, has named you in His last will and testament. Only one catch. It took His life.

Do you get it? Everything that Jesus had is yours. Everything that Jesus was and is is yours.

Because He died and named you in His will. Number three, I think just in the imagery of this very passage, the Good Shepherd, he says, goes after the lost sheep. He leaves not only heaven to come to earth, He leaves the comfort of the fold to go off into the darkness to find the sheep that have wandered away.

If He's come to rescue us, then He's got to go to where we are, which is in a condition of death. he's got to march into hell for a heavenly cause he's got to go into the very jaws of death if he's going to rescue us from it if we've wandered like sheep out into the wilderness the thorns that hold us are going to scratch and pierce him I've come that you might have life and I'm willing to pay whatever price to rescue you from death. I think the most profound level of understanding follows from seeing, at least beginning to see, what Jesus is claiming about Himself.

Because all these others picture Him as a sort of an innocent third party. But it's more than that. if Jesus is who he claims to be God come as good shepherd then what does it mean for him to die well stop and think about it he's saying in effect I will allow you to treat me just as you've always treated me you've despised me you've spurned my law, you've broken my covenant, you've had it your way.

Oh yeah, you've come running back when you needed something. But by and large, you have turned your back, you have ignored, you have spit upon me, you have tried to cross me out of your life. And I've told you I love you.

And I forgive you. And I want you to come home. And you've said, well, that's a nice story, but how do I know it's true?

Well, I'll demonstrate that it's true. I will come among you as a human being. And I will allow you to treat me exactly as you've treated me all along.

And I'll treat you exactly as I've treated you all along. And maybe somehow in the midst of all of that, you'll recognize my voice. You'll know who I am, that I am who I am, that I am the Good Shepherd, that I have come that you might have life, and you'll begin to follow me.

that's quite a risk isn't it that's what it's all about the world laughs him to scorn the world laughs at you and me here we are 2,000 years later worshipping a would-be messiah who died the most ignominious death on a cross of crucifixion and we're here worshipping him as if he were still alive as if it mattered. Because we've begun to recognize His voice. That leads to the fourth and last point.

In such a world, we need to know His voice. We need to spend time with Him so that we'll know His voice. We need to recognize His voice by reading His Word.

We need to recognize Him by being in His presence and fellowshipping with Him. Have you begun to do that? You need to renew it.

Ultimately, ultimately, ultimately, there's a valley ahead. There isn't one of us that's going to escape that valley. And it's a scary valley.

Deep shadows. You can't see very much. You can't see who's with you.

You better have learned to recognize His voice when you go through that valley. If you have, then you'll be able to say, yea, though I walk through that valley, I will fear no evil because thou art with me. Even though I can't see you, I've learned to recognize your voice.

And I'm not going to be scared. when it's my turn to go through that valley. David Watson, the great British pastor, just before he died, wrote a book that was published under the title Fear No Evil.

And this is almost the last paragraph. In one sense, the Christian is not preparing for death. Essentially, He's preparing for life.

Abundant life in all its fullness. The world with its fleeting pleasures is not the final reality with heaven as a shadowy and suspect unknown. The best and purest joys on earth are only a shadow of the reality that God has prepared for us in Christ.

Eternal life begins as soon as we receive Christ as our Savior. We can start enjoying it now in increasing measure and should be preparing not for death, but for the consummation of that perfect quality of life when we are completely in God's presence forever. Quantity of life is not nearly so important as quality, even for terminally ill patients.

By the way, I don't like that word terminal, which means the end of something. In reality, when the body of the Christian dies, the really wonderful journey has only just begun. Even my secular dictionary defines heaven as a place or state of supreme bliss.

So it is. Death, for the Christian, it is sometimes said, is like the old family servant who opens the door to welcome the children home. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen. Amen.