Collect

Almighty God, your Son Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life:  raise us, who trust in him, from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, that we may seek those things which are above, where he reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

A reading from Genesis chapter 7 / 8 / 9

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights  

On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.   For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water.

By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.” So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives.

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

This is the word of the Lord.

        Thanks be to God.

 

Psalm 23

1    The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

2    He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;

3    he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

4    Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff - they comfort me.

5    You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

6    Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.  Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it is now, and was, and ever shall be.  Amen

 

A reading from Acts   (4.5-12)

 

The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, ‘By what power or by what name did you do this?’

    Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders, if we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick and are asked how this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. This Jesus is “the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.” There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved.’

 

This is the word of the Lord.

    Thanks be to God.

 

Listen to the Gospel of Christ according to St John   (10.11-18)

    Glory to you, O Lord.

 

‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away – and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.

    ‘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, one shepherd.

    ‘For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’

 

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

    Praise to you, O Christ.

 

Reflection - AE

As well as being the fourth Sunday of Easter, this is also what’s traditionally called Good Shepherd Sunday, and its linked to the time when people look at their vocations, and what kind of ministry they might be giving, or be ready to move into.

 

Shepherding, looking after people, in something we’re all called to do as Christians and good neighbours, just being kind, even if we don’t make a specific formal commitment or covenant to it - its also something plenty of people do who aren’t Christians at all.

 

There’s a lot in these readings, clearly, about shepherding, but also a lot about covenants.

 

This first one, with Noah, one of God’s very early covenants.

 

And that one isn’t just with mankind.  That is with all of creation - with every living creature on earth - never again would God use flood to destroy everything.

 

It’s funny how rainbows, which we see as signs of peace, hope and joy, and now they’re used to symbolise all sorts of different kinds of love, started off with such a close link to what was really God’s own weapon of mass destruction, what he used to wipe the earth clean.  You could describe it as the nuclear option, to totally clear creation because of mankind’s wickedness.

 

Quite harsh for the unicorns and the birds and animals that didn’t get into the Ark.

 

But he made a commitment to never do it again, but cherish all creation.  And he’s kept that commitment, despite natural disasters, and maybe disasters with less natural causes, including the weather.  I’m not sure mankind has responded to that very well, and there was surely irony in Dubai being so badly affected by rain this week.

 

This care for mankind has continued through the generations, and most especially through the name of Jesus - his identity and authority.

 

I think we’ve all heard before this comparison Jesus made to himself as the Good Shepherd - the ultimate covenant to care for his flock, to lay down his life for the sheep.

 

And he was very clear who the sheep were then, and still are now.

 

He was talking to the Jews, in Jerusalem, when the debate among those listening was whether or not this was the Messiah, who would save specifically the Jews.  “I know my own,” he said, “and my own know me.”  But he also said, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.”  So not just the Jews.

 

“I must bring them also … one flock, one shepherd.”

 

Could not be more clear.

 

But also, could not be more generous, a completely open handed commitment to caring - to the point of laying down his life - for everyone.

 

And of his own free will.

The hired hand does what he does because he has to, and when the reason to not do it gets greater, like life threatening, he will run away.

 

Jesus had a choice.  Although he was God he was human too, and he had free will, but he chose to lay down his life, to keep us all safe within his one flock.

 

And since the Resurrection, since he came back, he has continued to do that.

 

He came back to the Apostles, locked fearfully in their upper room.

 

Then he came back again for Thomas, the one who had been still missing.

 

His Spirit filled Peter as he spoke to the Jews, after having healed a cripple in the Temple, and it was Jesus’s name, identity, authority that Peter invoked to do that.

 

Not very surprisingly for something called Good Shepherd Sunday, we have also read Psalm 23.  This is one of our most popular, the psalm most often used at funerals, even by families who rarely come to church, or think about God.

 

These are wonderful, comforting images in the first few lines, reminding us of our own quiet brooks and meadows here.

 

The table spread in the presence of our enemies I find a bit un-nerving, an image of sitting down to eat with the enemy thundering towards us, but it’s fine because God has our back, and our cup overflows - how generously we are provided for, and how lucky we are.

 

The lines that have always troubled me slightly are the last two - it would be lovely if goodness and mercy really did fill all my days, and I earnestly hope to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, but that is always going to depend on God’s grace, not anything I can do, and I’ve never been able to say those lines with total confidence.

 

But someone recently led me to look at this a different way.

 

If goodness and mercy means God, God will follow me all my days.

 

God will come after me, not chasing, but searching.

 

The Good Shepherd will come and look for me, all the days of my life, and bring me back to the safety of his fold.

 

Jesus will keep coming back for me, and for all of you, gathering us in, all the days of our lives.

 

Amen

 

Merciful Father, you gave your Son Jesus Christ to be the good shepherd, and in his love for us to lay down his life and rise again:  keep us always under his protection, and give us grace to follow in his steps;  through Jesus Christ our Lord.

    Amen.