You are beloved of the crucified and risen Good Shepherd, and so are all: in that love, learn to see as your Shepherd sees and love as your Shepherd loves.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Fourth Sunday of Easter, year B
Texts: John 10:11-18 (with reference to John 12); 1 John 3:16-24; Psalm 23

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

You are God’s beloved. You have a Good Shepherd who loves you now and always.

That’s the most important truth you need to know today.

Jesus, God’s Anointed, the Son of God, knows you by name, and willingly laid down his life for you, dying and rising to draw you into God’s embrace of life and love.

Your Good Shepherd also promises never to abandon you or run away in danger or threat, or even when you fail. There are lots of people like the hired hands he mentions, who you don’t trust will be there if things get bad. But your Good Shepherd, who guides you to still waters and green paths, walks with you through the shadows of death, fills your inner spirit’s cup to overflowing, will never leave you.

Trust that. Your life and freedom depend on it.

They also depend on this: Your Shepherd has other sheep.

This is inseparably part of the same important truth you need to know today. “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold,” Jesus says, “and I must bring them also, so there will be one flock, one Shepherd.” Other sheep not in your fold, your group, so you probably don’t know them. But your Shepherd does, and urgently wants you today to open your eyes and your heart to see these other sheep.

Here are some of the other sheep your Shepherd knows and loves: George Floyd. Daunte Wright. Adam Toledo. Ma’Khia Bryant. There are so many more living and dead who are marginalized and thrown aside because of the color of their skin that Jesus knows and loves, that you may not know. But today start with saying these names to see with your Shepherd’s eyes and love with your Shepherd’s heart.

Because your life and freedom depend on the love and care of the Good Shepherd, so they are bound up with the life and freedom of the Shepherd’s whole flock.

Naming your fellow sheep makes them known to you, not some “other.”

Now they are your siblings, your cousins, your children, your parents, same flock as you. If some of us view a police traffic stop as an irritating annoyance, your Shepherd needs you to see that some of your children, your parents, your siblings, your cousins see police traffic stops as terrifying threats to their lives. If I wake up and hear of another person of color shot during an arrest, my Shepherd needs me to feel that my family suffered that loss.

And here are some other sheep of your Shepherd: Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, Alexander Keung, Kim Potter. Whatever they have done, they must be held accountable, yes. But they are also beloved sheep of the same Good Shepherd who holds you forever. If I can’t see them as part of the same flock, my family, my Shepherd needs me to learn to see better, feel more truly what my Shepherd feels.

That’s the challenge of being part of a flock. The Shepherd gets to choose the sheep. And Jesus knows the names of all of these as well as he knows yours. And needs you to know and care for them as your own, too.

Somehow we who follow Christ got it into our heads that we get to decide who to care about.

We see oppression and systemic racism and injustice and too easily re-focus on our own lives, not thinking about what we can do, or even talking with others about what we can do. Today our Good Shepherd says “start seeing those suffering these things as part of you. You belong to me, they belong to me, so live as if you all belong together.”

We see people who oppress and use power to hurt and destroy, who actively participate in injustices we deplore, and too easily write them off as evil and worthless. We are glad of Derek Chauvin’s conviction because it is the right accountability, and it’s a baby step to beginning the change of how we police our cities. But the Good Shepherd cannot rejoice that Derek is now suffering, cannot hate him. Because he, too, is a sheep of the flock. You belong to me, our Shepherd says, and he belongs to me, so live as if you all belong together.

Nothing can take you from your Shepherd’s arms. Rejoice in that. Just also remember how broad those arms are.

Our work for justice and peace in this world isn’t done from guilt and shame. If, like me, you’re white and privileged, there’s much we need to be aware of and let go of and unlearn. There are uncomfortable, painful truths people who look like me have to face, sins to confess. But I and people who look like me are still beloved of the Good Shepherd, too.

That’s our starting place for following the Shepherd: we begin by knowing we are beloved, always, embraced and wrapped in God’s life-changing and life-giving love, always. As beloved sheep we find the courage to see what needs changing in our lives, the courage to face our participation in injustice, the courage to speak out and demand change for the sake of our family – because, the Shepherd says, all who suffer are your family, my family, Jesus’ family.

If you are beloved, and all are beloved (Jesus was lifted up on the cross to draw all things into God), then joyfully setting aside fear, we can start talking about what needs to be changed.

This is what the elder of 1 John says today.

We know God’s love because Christ laid down his life for us. But if you are filled with God’s love, the elder says, and have goods and wealth, and see a sibling in need and refuse to help, how does that make sense? And the key word here is “sibling.” Can you see the one in need is a member of the same beloved flock as you? Your child. Your cousin. Your sibling. Your parent.

See as I see, love as I love, the Good Shepherd says, and you’ll figure out what to do. You won’t avoid conversations about changing policing because they’re too hard, and people get riled up. You’ll be led by love for all involved to say, “we need this conversation and we need to use our love and wisdom to find a better way.” Even if that hard conversation is with a member of your family you don’t like talking with about it.

The same goes for all that ails our world – racism, poverty, oppression, sexism, violence, guns, war, climate destruction – we have enough imagination and creativity and genius and ability among all the people of the world to fix all these things right now. But only by seeing and listening to each other as one family can we have the heart, love, and compassion to join together to do it.

What does this mean for Mount Olive’s little part of the great flock?

I don’t know. But our Good Shepherd has given us the place to start the conversation. Not out of guilt or shame, but out of the joy of being God’s beloved, always, and the equal joy of opening our eyes and hearts to how broad and deep the group of God’s beloved really is.

Because here’s the miracle your Good Shepherd is doing: Christ changes you and me and all who desire it from hired hands who don’t care for all the sheep, just some, and run at the first sight of trouble, into sheep who stick around and help the whole flock find the good water and green pastures and safe pathways, who walk with each other through the shadows of death and the places of evil. Who make room for everyone in God’s life and love so all can know God’s goodness and mercy all the days of their lives.

There is one flock, one Shepherd. Let’s start living that way.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen