A sermon preached by The Reverend Canon Dr. David Anderson at St. Jude’s Anglican Church, Oakville, on The Fourth Sunday of Easter, April 21, 2024.
I speak to you in the name of our risen Lord. Amen.
How long should a sermon be? What is the optimal length of a homily? That’s a provocative question. The retired Methodist bishop, William Willimon—who in my estimation was the best preacher of the twentieth century from North America—begins a sermon for this Fourth Sunday of Easter with this question. How long should a sermon be?
Willimon tells the story of having accepted an invitation to preach at a little summer chapel where vacationers worshipped when visiting an out of the way beach area. Willimon said that it was there that he learned that beach vacationers were not to be trifled with. He recalled that the little chapel had a small vestry where visiting clergy donned their vestments and prepared for the service. In the vestry, there was a small frame that surrounded beautifully printed words. They said the following:
The Gettysburg Address is one of the finest pieces of oratory known to humanity, yet its words scarcely fill a page. The parables of Jesus are pithy and expressed with few words. If both Lincoln and Jesus could be so economic with words, then we ask you, our dear preacher for today, for God’s sake, keep it short. (Willimon).
Since I’ve shared that story at the beginning of my homily today, some of you may be getting your hopes up for a short sermon this morning. Don’t be encouraged.
Jesus preaches some very long sermons. At least we can assume so since we have at least one of them recorded for us in John’s Gospel. If you have one of those Bibles with the words of Jesus printed in read, its quite striking to see all the red ink. Jesus is speaking with his disciples on the night in which he was betrayed, and he has quite a lot to say.
John describes Jesus’ miracles as signs. Lest the miracles be misunderstood as being merely demonstrations of Jesus’ authority, power, and glory, when in fact they point to the abundant life that he offers through a relationship with him and his Father, Jesus interprets these signs with words.
In John 9 Jesus has healed a man who had been blind from birth. It is important for us to be reminded of that because in today’s reading, we have only a portion of Jesus’ interpretation of that sign.
Some of you may be aware that every year on the Fourth Sunday of Easter we hear Jesus say something about sheep. For that reason, the Fourth Sunday of Easter is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Ironically, we give this Sunday several names by which it may be known which may or may not have anything to do with Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Today is Climate Justice Sunday and you will hear more about that later. Today is also Vocations Sunday, a day set apart to ask people to prayerfully consider God’s call to the priesthood. Jesus is looking for under-shepherds. Today is also Jerusalem Sunday, a good day for us to remember our solidarity with Christians in Jerusalem and Palestine. My point, however, is that on this day we reflect on the fact that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Each year, we read portions of John 10 as a way of marking this day. But these sections are separated and read a long time apart, concealing the fact that Jesus has quite a lot to say about his identity as the Good Shepherd and the healing of the man who was born blind. Jesus has quite a lot to say, and he also says quite a lot about having a lot to say. Jesus makes the claim in today’s reading that his sheep “will listen to [his] voice” (v. 16).
Abundant life for the man who was born blind is more than being healed. He is now a sheep of Jesus’ fold. While the man born blind gains his physical sight, the fullness of the sign comes in Jesus’ promise, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock and one shepherd” (v. 16). Long before the man born blind ever saw Jesus, he heard him and followed the voice of his shepherd (10:3-4). Having heard his shepherd, he washed in the pool of Siloam, and was able to see. His recognition of the identity of Jesus grows over the course of all the events that happen in John 9. The religious authorities treat the healing of the man as a scandal, since the healing took place on the Sabbath. The man is eventually thrown out by the authorities when he speaks the truth of Jesus’ identity as he had come to understand it. “If this man were not from God, he could do nothing” (9:33). What is implied by the man is obvious to the authorities and to us as John’s readers: Jesus is from God and can do anything.
Eventually Jesus hears that the man has been thrown out and so he seeks and finds his sheep, the man born blind, for a second time (9:35). Incidentally, the word that John uses for “find” is the same verb that Jesus uses in the call of his disciples. What we have here is the man born blind being called to be a disciple of Jesus.
Before Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd, he makes another, rather enigmatic claim about his identity. He says, “I am the gate for the sheep” (10:7). To me, the meaning seems two-fold. First, he is the one who calls us into the community of discipleship. He calls and invites us in. I fear, however, that as twenty-first century people we very likely have some difficulty in thinking of being associated with sheep as a positive thing. Most of us are far removed from the life of shepherds. We might not particularly like the thought of being referred to as sheep. We tend to accept the idea that sheep are stupid. I think that view has been sold to us by people who heard cattle. But cattle must be herded from behind. They are driven by people on horseback who push them forward; they often must be prodded to move forward with electrical appliances. But shepherds cannot lead the sheep from behind. Sheep will instinctively move behind the people who are trying to herd them. Sheep must be led. They will not go anyplace where the shepherd seems to be unwilling to go. They trust the shepherd to lead them, and they follow the shepherd. Sheep are smart that way. Jesus is the gate for his sheep. He leads them and welcomes them into his fold.
But the gate also has a second function, not only as a place of entrance and welcome, but as a gate that can be closed for protection and safety against the wolves. When Jesus says that he is the gate for his sheep he fulfills that promise when he comes out of the garden the night that the authorities came to arrest him. He stands between his sheep and the soldiers (18:4). He is the gate for the sheep when he willingly gives himself up, asking the angry mob, “Whom are you looking for?” (18:4) and leaving his disciples safely in the fold of the garden. Before ever going to the cross, Jesus has already laid down his life for the sheep, by handing himself over to the authorities, leaving his disciples safe, protecting them from harm. All of this is also for the man born blind. All of this is for the sheep who hear Jesus’ voice. All of this is part of Jesus’ reflection upon the healing of the man born blind and answers a very fundamental question that the man’s healing seems to beg: Why listen to Jesus?
Why listen to Jesus? This is the question at stake when the man born blind does exactly that; he listened to Jesus and gained abundant life by becoming a sheep of Jesus’ own fold. Lazarus will hear Jesus call his name and will walk out of the tomb into resurrected life and recline at the table of Jesus (12:2). Mary Magdeline will hear Jesus call her name, and in hearing her name Mary will recognize her teacher—and recognize herself as one of Jesus disciples, becoming his first apostle.
What makes the Good Sheperd good is his words that lead to life. His words lead to abundant life. As the Good Shepherd, he leads us in the way of life. On the matter of whether sermons should be long or short, I will take the opinion of Goldilocks: I think that they should be “just right.” But whether they are long or short, it is the words of Jesus that we need to listen for. He is the Good Shepherd. His words lead to life. Listen to him!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
