John 10.22-30
22 The time came for the Festival of Dedicatione in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was in the temple, walking in the covered porch named for Solomon. 24 The Jewish opposition circled around him and asked, “ How long will you test our patience? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. ”
25 Jesus answered, “ I have told you, but you don’t believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, 26 but you don’t believe because you don’t belong to my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice. I know them and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life. They will never die, and no one will snatch them from my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them from my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one. ”
Let the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
be pleasing to you,
LORD , my rock and my redeemer.
If I wanted the easy way out this week, I’d preach Psalm 23. I’d ignore the Gospel reading and the reading from the Revelation to John. I’d just stick with the Psalm.
And it’s not that I’m a Type A personality. That’s not why I won’t do that.
It’s the guilt, really. It’s the Holy Spirit saying, “You don’t really want to cheat, do you?”
Yes. Yes, I do. But I won’t.
Because my sheep deserve better than the easy way out.
Anyway, as Tom Petty said, “Hey, baby, there ain’t no easy way out.”
So.
If you’ve watched the news at all this week, you know that we’ve had a rough go of it. And that’s not to say that we can compare to Baghdad or Somalia or any number of other places that see extraordinary violence every single day.
But we who are accustomed to the particularly privileged protections of living in this country become genuinely shocked when violence occurs within our borders.
Especially when it happens in an event as uplifting and empowering as the Boston Marathon.
Then the blind tragedy of a fertilizer plant leveling four blocks and killing dozens of people in West, Texas.
And the ricin-laced letters sent to the District of Columbia that brought to mind the terror when we started hearing about the threat of anthrax a few years ago, when every letter from someone I didn’t know or left suspiciously blank set my heart racing.
In the midst of that chaos and fear, and even in the midst of our own fear and grief, Jesus says:
[My sheep] will never die, and no one will snatch them from my hand.
But Jesus, someone did! But Jesus, they did die!
This is why proclamation is hard, y’all. The controversial stuff is easy. It might get me kicked out of the pulpit if the wrong person disagrees with me, sure, but the preaching itself is easy.
This is the stuff that’s hard.
They will never die, and no one will snatch them from my hand.
Well, the evidence of our own eyes disagrees.
Of course, there are easy answers:
The people who died weren’t in Christ’s hands.
God planned for them to die.
God is exacting punishment on a sinful nation.
And maybe you’ve said one or all of those at some point. Maybe even this week.
I don’t buy it. How often is the easy answer the right one? You can keep your pithy proverbs. I want a deeper faith than that.
Yes, people have died. No, it doesn’t make sense. But Jesus doesn’t exactly promise that it’ll make sense.
Heck, if life made sense, why would Jesus have to explain it in parables? It is the very nature of parable to portray what is ultimately mysterious.
Please don’t try to make sense of tragedy. All you’ll end up doing is undermining your own faith and the faith of the people who buy into cheap explanations.
God doesn’t tell us that this is going to be easy or painless. In fact, when John speaks to the elder before the Throne, he is told plainly:
These people have come out of great hardship.
They haven’t had an easy go of it. They didn’t get a “Get Out Of Trials Free” card.
They went through what we go through. Maybe more. Probably more, considering just how easy we have it.
And frankly, where we get it wrong, if we manage to get past the pithy excuses that people make up just to make us feel a lot more protected than we actually are, is assuming that when terrible, horrible, no good, very bad stuff happens, we have to cope with it completely on our own: one woman, one man, an island unto him- or herself, facing with courage and without tears the all torrent of hardship that the forces of hell itself can bring to bear against humanity.
That ain’t how this works.
If you’ve still got your thumb in the Revelator’s text (or if you want to just open your bulletin back up), look at the staging. I think it might just be relevant.
All the angels stood in a circle around the throne, and around the elders and the four living creatures.
The saints are encircling the throne, together, as one, surrounded by the very army of God.
Well, what else would you expect from sheep?
They herd. They follow each other, right?
There’s wisdom in that.
When you’re essentially defenseless, the greatest strength you can find is to stick together.
So in the face of violence, in the face of fear, in the face of those who would curse us, let us stand together and proclaim the good news that our Shepherd is with us! Let us proclaim with confidence that one day
They won’t hunger or thirst anymore. No sun or scorching heat will beat down on them, because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them. He will lead them to the springs of life-giving water,d and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
In our beginning, our Creator is with us. In our resurrection, our Savior is with us. And in the in-betweens, the Holy one walks with us “even when [we] walk through the darkest valley”.
The good news isn’t that we escape death. The good news is that we are rescued from the power of death.
Even in death, God is with us.
In our death is a resurrection. At the last is victory. It is unrevealed for now, but our trust is in our Savior and our Creator who has the power to breathe Patience and Comfort into us.
Fear not, friends. Even in the darkest valley, God is with us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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