Acts 20:17-35 & John 10:22-30

4^th SUNDAY OF EASTER | 05/08/22 | Sermon on Acts 20:17-35 and John 10:22-30 | by Paula Murray |

When I last wrote a sermon when Good Shepherd Sunday and Mother’s Day “collided,” for want of a better word, I made mention that the pastors of liturgical churches rarely preach a “Mother’s Day” sermon.  We stick to the texts of the day, unless we want to drag the Virgin Mary into the discussion as a sort of super model of the good mother.  I’m not fond of this approach as a mother because it seems to me that the blessed Virgin’s job was very unlike that of a run of a mill mother in a lot of ways, but primarily because of the nature of her Son.  I have raised two sons, and I can assure you that while both of their parents are proud of them, neither son would strike you as having angelic or divine attributes.  So, it seems to me that in those years of Jesus’ childhood Mary had it a bit easier there than all other mothers raising thoroughly human children.  Of course, that last week for Mary was hellish as she watched her Son, as an adult, suffer the cross and all that came before it.  Nonetheless, only Mary’s adult Son could win our salvation and creation’s redemption through His willingness to die on that cross.  Every mother hopes and prays that her son or daughter makes the world a better place.  Mary’s Son fulfilled that hope as only the Son of God can.

After God the Father, we do call our crucified and risen Lord the Good Shepherd for His care of the people the Father has given into His hands.  Jesus Himself says, “I am the Good Shepherd,” in the tenth  chapter of the Gospel of John, although that part of the chapter did not make it into this week’s readings.  That’s verse 11, and today’s reading began at verse 22.  That last time I preached a Good Shepherd/Mother’s Day sermon I began with the image of verse 7, where Jesus says He is the door or the gate of the sheep, and I noted that Jesus is not the only one to respect a good gate when it comes to caring for His flock.  Mothers also appreciate a good gate, for it keeps her little ones in a safe place until they should be old enough to see to their own safety.

There is an old maxim that a mother’s work is never done, and there is a lot of truth to this because even older lambs, um, children, can find themselves in trouble, often serious trouble.  When it comes to adult children, there is a limit to what a mother can do to herd them in the direction of safety.  Jesus can surely commiserate with mothers everywhere, for we who are His sheep are also prone to wondering in scary places or toying with ideas or behavior which can bring down a life and maybe even end it.  The difference between Jesus and mothers is, of course, His nature, for while Jesus has already won our redemption and all things will be made new, a mother can but try to persuade.  After that, she prays, consistently and fervently, for those she loves whom “gang oft astray.”

Like sheep,  people tend to stay with the herd.  There is the odd sheep out for an adventure or the young adult who must try all the adult world has to offer, good and bad.  But when we “gang oft astray,” we tend to be following someone else.  It is astonishing how easy it is to follow someone else to perdition.  Jesus warns us of this very thing, also in the tenth chapter of John’s Gospel (verses 1-7), when He said outright that many of those who look like they might care for God’s sheep are really there to rob them or steal them away from He Who is the true Good Shepherd.  If that is not enough, there exist also those who are to care for the sheep but who neglect them or fail to care for them because they don’t own the sheep.

There has never been a time in the history of the Church when false shepherds did not exist.  St.  Paul rages over those who would teach a false Gospel and steal away Christ’s lambs from his earliest days as an Apostle.  One of the primary problems then was those evangelists from Jerusalem who insisted that Christians keep Jewish Law like Pharisees, thereby teaching a false gospel that they could, on their own, win their salvation rather than receive it as a gift from Jesus Christ.  These false shepherds stole from the baptized their freedom in the Gospel, a fact that Paul’s background made abundantly clear to him who spread the Gospel to the Gentiles.  Paul’s concern is well documented in his argument with Peter (Galations 2), who seemed at least occasionally complicit in the work of the false shepherds from Jerusalem.  Paul was relentless in his criticism of those preaching a gospel other than the saving grace of Jesus Christ.  “I know,” Paul said, “that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among  your own selves will arise en speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.  Therefore, be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.”  (Acts 20:29-31) Well, that sounds like a mother, doesn’t it?  False shepherds also abound in these current days when it is so very fashionable to insist either that Jesus would wholeheartedly endorse the trends of this day or that He never existed.  And our children, even those raised in the cradle of the Church, listen to those false voices, and follow after them into dark, dangerous, and ultimately, murderous places.

What’s a mother to do?  Or a father, for that matter?  First, consistently point your son or daughter to Christ and His Church.  Once, that was easier to do as the time for Church was respected widely within the community.  That is no longer the case; in fact, it seems the community is bent on diminishing if not eliminating the Church.  Nonetheless, we will find it difficult to teach consistently about false gospels and the false shepherds that spread them if more Sundays than not we attend sports games, drill or dance events, or do the weekly grocery shopping.  Faith does not become an integral part of who we are just because we occasionally walk through a church sanctuary or share a fellowship event.  Faith forms us, molds us, transfigures us, when we commit to putting ourselves in the place where the Holy Spirit lives to work on us.  We are vastly different if we attend church three or four times a month rather than once a month.  We are happier with our family lives and work, more at peace with ourselves and the world, and more trusting in God.  You would not want your children to share in these wondrous things?  Do we want them desperately unhappy, vulnerable to drug and sex abuse, and unable to love themselves and their neighbors?

We want what is best for our children and so we need to take our children to church, and we need to remember who is mom and who is child.  We do not let our children stay home from school if they whine about going; we still put them on the bus.  We put them into team sports for their health’s sake and so that they may learn to work with others.  We do all these things even when they’re whining at us because these things, and church, are necessary for life.  In the same way that we purchase insurance to provide for their health, so also we take them to church to insure that they do know and love Jesus for the sake of their spirits.  And their futures.  So, we take them to church; we read the Bible with them;  we pray with them and for them; we forgive them and teach them to forgive others.  And bit by bit, our young ones learn to discern lies from truths, false shepherds from good shepherds.

I wish I could say that all this provides a guarantee that each child of Christ and His Church will never wonder from the fold, but I cannot.  The likelihood is that our sons and daughters will traipse through stony ground and wicked climates; that they will listen to the false shepherds rather than the good.  But, we persevere and we pray, trusting in the God Who has led them from their infancy to lead them gently back into the fold.  So, hold onto your own faith, Mom and Dad, and persevere.  Those kids of yours may be turning gray and developing crows feet, but you are still their parents and your voice still matters.  Tell them the truth about their Lord and His creation, because you never know when they will hear you and through you, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Pr. Paula Murray