Year A - Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 30, 2023
Good Shepherd Sunday
Open the gates of abundant life, that we may know your voice and respond to your call. In the name of the Holy Trinity, Amen.
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. Yet, in our reading today, Jesus is the gate, or the door, through which the sheep enter into the safety of the sheepfold. Many people try to present the door as an exclusionary tool, but for John, the door is an invitation and an opportunity, a floodgate that pours out abundant life.
In finding meaning for Good Shepherd Sunday, we often draw upon examples of Palestinian shepherds and their sheep. But this morning, we’re going to look within the Book of John itself as an interpretive tool. Just as we compared the stories of Nicodemus with the Samaritan woman at the well, today we read Jesus’ figure of speech regarding the shepherd in light of the story that precedes it: the man who was blind from birth whom Jesus healed. The Pharisees were amazed, and said, “Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind.” And it’s significant that the blind man heard the voice of Jesus and did as Jesus instructed him, just as the sheep hear and know the voice of the shepherd. Jesus saw the man, made mud with the dirt on the ground, put it on the man’s eyes, and instructed him to go wash it in the pool of Siloam. The man who was blind heard the voice of Jesus, followed his instructions, and received abundance of life.
The blind man discovered the abundance that Jesus came to offer. This abundance is nurtured by dependence on Jesus, knowing that Jesus sustains us and makes us whole. Abundance is birthed out of prayer and worshipping God, which equips us to turn around and fill someone else’s cup. Just as the blind man received sight and came to believe in Jesus, the sheep pass through Jesus’ gate, into the abundance of safety and pasture.
When I think of abundance, I am drawn to the many stories of the grant recipients for the United Thank Offering.
One grant recipient is a community of and for the unhoused population of Boston called Manna, located at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul. Throughout COVID, they were able to continue to provide bathrooms, hot meals and worship opportunities for the oppressed populations that surround them.
Another grant recipient last year was to help a retreat center in an Episcopal diocese in Equador, to support their efforts toward reforestation and the creation of nature engagement sites at their location.
A third grant recipient received funds to construct wells to increase access to safe and sustainable water in Tanzania.
On Mother’s Day (which is now just a couple of weeks away!), we at Trinity, will have our ingathering for this year’s United Thank Offering campaign, and all are invited to participate. And certainly this morning, we will live into the abundance that Jesus offers as we listen to the voices of our Sunday School Choir, hearing the voice of Jesus incarnate through each one of our young people!
Just as Jesus invited his listeners to live out of abundance, each one of us this morning are invited to do the same. God calls you by name, inviting you each and every day into relationship with God through Jesus. And in that place, we find abundance of life, comfort in our sorrows, and healing.
Think about some of the people that Jesus calls by name. When Jesus called the name of Lazarus, he rose from the dead and came out of his tomb. When the resurrected Jesus saw his close friend, Mary Magdalene, it wasn’t until he called her name that she recognized him, and discovered the abundance of life that the resurrection offers. And I believe that Jesus calls each of us by name today.
As Jesus calls us, we have the opportunity to rise out of our tombs of fear and into the abundance of right relationship with God and others.
What does right relationship look like for us here, today? It starts in the pew next to you. Who in this community needs you to reach out to them and let them know they are loved?
What are some ways that we can demonstrate that fellowship and breaking of bread that we observe in today’s well-known account in Acts? Do we remember to praise God for every good thing in our lives, and to share with others out of the abundance that God has given us?
We have racial reparations that need to be made! We have trans-siblings that – more than ever – need our support and affirmation. Who among us is hurting, either within our walls or within our city, and how must we reach out to them, opening Jesus’ floodgate of abundance?
I have the privilege, here at Trinity, to witness so many examples of Christ-followers living into the abundance that Jesus offers, and I think we can do even better. Don’t get me wrong – I am not saying life is easy. Life can be so hard and has especially difficult seasons. And that is why we have each other within this amazing community that we call the body of Christ, so that each day we can seek how to respond to Jesus, who calls each of us by name. Amen.
Mtr. Lisa Aguilar+