Sermon - 4/30/23

<p>Whenever there is transition or change in our lives, we tend to experience an element of uncertainty and even fear. I know that as I leave you, I feel the uncertainty of a future that is not yet known. I have been experiencing this uncertainty for you as I deeply want you to be protected and cared for. So, as I am honest and acknowledge that sense of uncertainty and fear, it is comforting to me that our readings today focus on God as our shepherd, the Good Shepherd. It is reassuring because I know I can place my trust in the Good Shepherd, regardless of what happens and what the future brings.</p> <p>We just heard the words of Psalm 23, a psalm that we sang between the first and second reading.  It is a psalm we will also sing as the Hymn of the Day. This is probably one of the best known, best loved poems in scripture.  It is known by people around the world.  In fact, I am sure many of you know Psalm 23 by heart.  This psalm tells each one of you that God is like a shepherd, caring for you, protecting you and guiding you.  God is the shepherd who walks with you through all of life and provides you with what you need, even in dark valleys when we experience the shadow of death, even in trying times, even in uncertain times.</p> <p>In today’s gospel reading from John, we hear more about the one we call the <strong>Good</strong> Shepherd. For the community to which John was writing, living with fear and uncertainty was a familiar aspect of daily existence. John’s community lived with the reality of persecution and the threat of extinction. Their first-century Mediterranean world was a scary place. Persecutions were heating up, and the followers of Jesus were, in the eyes of Rome, just more lambs for the lions. The Jesus movement was still new, struggling to define itself against the threat of Rome as well as the threat of competing philosophies and counter claims to truth.</p> <p>So, within that social context, these early Christians told stories. Often meeting under the cover of darkness, hidden from the autho