The Good Shepherd
Easter 4: 7th May, 2006
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
Good Shepherd Sunday comes up on Easter 4 each year – there are different readings but the same themes: care, relationship, interdependence, concern, protection, trust, confidence. The one who today declares himself to be the good shepherd is the one who has already laid down his life for his sheep. That is what a good shepherd does, is prepared to do, we are told.
Just coming out of our cars or off the train to get here, in the middle of a large city with a striking absence of sheep or shepherds, some of us might just need a bit of a deep breath here. Think Middle Eastern documentary. Think reasonably manageable groups of 20 or 30 sheep or goats. Think fairly hostile country with the odd wolf about. Think danger and think of competence. All that will help. Think poetry and imagery.
We need to try to get our heads around what a shepherd might be in the generality. And then there is the ultimate shepherd of all – the Lord himself. We will find it easier to think of sheep in the generality (though we may not be about to find it flattering to have ourselves cast in that role), and then there is the idea of a sacrificial offering for the honouring of God, that is also a lamb. We need to grapple with each of these ideas today if we are to come to grips with these lessons.
We are still close enough to Easter to have the images of the sacrificial lamb coming down through the centuries of Passover celebration and Old Testament observance – an unblemished and perfect offering to God; honouring God and bringing creature and creator close. We are not so far away from the beginning of Lent as to have forgotten John the Baptist's welcoming cry which we keep in our liturgy: 'This is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world'. And we remember our own response to the assertion: Happy are those who are called to his supper – Lord I am not worthy but... only say the word. Healing is to be found here. We pray at every mass that the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world will have mercy on us, and give us peace. And so we believe that he does. The paschal lamb with fluttering triumphal banner is at the centre of the tabernacle cover on the High Altar and in the painting behind the altar in the Handfield chapel. It is after all only because this once sacrificed, now risen one has already travelled this road, that the language of lamb becomes the more encouraging and comforting language of shepherd.
Today's gospel from John 10 is part of the Lord's teaching to his disciples of himself as their shepherd – not just any shepherd, but the 'good shepherd'. He and the father are one, a complete unity. If there is relationship with him there is relationship with God. If we come to Jesus, for the moment using the imagery of all the nuances of the relation between the flock and the one who cares for them, then we come to God. There are various sheepfolds but just one overall flock. One God who knows and calls and loves. One God who in the Easter mystery is able to lay down his life in order to take it up again. One God then, who in the context of the continuing life of the people of God this side of the resurrection, speaks the language of inter-connectedness, of relationship, of care with responsibility, of protection and if necessary self-sacrifice. Hugely importantly, this understanding has in turn has offered a model of leadership, pastoral care and potential reproach that is presented to every succeeding generation, down to the present.
Our diocese is presently involved in a rather long process of the discerning of the person called by God to be archbishop. It has not proved to be easy. The Ordinal begins the ceremony for the ordination of a bishop with a prayerful pastoral assertion:
'Almighty God, by your Son Jesus Christ
You gave many excellent gifts to your apostles,
And commanded them to feed your flock.'
This is the context into which a new chief pastor is called. The verbs used to describe what a bishop is called to offer as the exhortation continues are instructive:
The bishop is to guard, to promote, to ensure, to lead and guide, to be faithful, to watch over and to serve, to teach and to govern and to be hospitable, to know and be known and to be a good example.
Little wonder that these duties are described as being 'weighty'. They are indeed. Yet it is clear that the underlying principles of leadership are those that we are in part hearing today in this good shepherd discourse. A few individuals have already been asked to consider whether this is the call for them in the diocese of Melbourne.
The other side of this discernment process however is the discernment of the representatives of those with whom this leadership is to be exercised. There has been one go at this process and the next attempt is in August. It is going to take all that time. In this selection process as we have it in Melbourne, we sheep get some say about the shepherd and we need to have substantial agreement. That is the current challenge. We do not have to carry this agricultural imagery too far but if something has rattled the sheep or if they have become very scattered or not particularly healthy, it is going to be more difficult to get a flock acting as one.
In some of the discussion that has already been taking place in our region there has been a lot of talk about the diversity that is Melbourne Anglicanism and then the harder discussion about whether we are really talking about diversity or actually division, ever deeper and more intransigent. People from a place like this have an important role to play as this unfolds. We do actually need an archbishop – and even now the gap is going to be well over a year – but we need a candidate who is acceptable to a two-thirds majority of both clergy and laity in synod represented. No wonder we have been called to pray and then to talk across the more obvious dividing lines. Perhaps the one who will be able to achieve this has not yet been presented to the synod for consideration. Or perhaps we have not noticed.
But if there is one Good Shepherd, the model of leadership flowing from that vision and understanding needs to be collegial. No bishop is the Lord himself nor should that be expected. There is a college of bishops, and in our system there are supportive and complimentary councils and processes involving clergy and laity as well. A bishop is a bishop in council, in context.
Similarly with a parish priest. But the task and the commission at the parish level is the same, and also in context, welcoming and sharing the responsibilities with the lay officers of the parish. In the ordination for priests, we have the same scriptural basis from this gospel this morning. The exhortation there includes the following:
'Be a pastor after the pattern of Christ the great Shepherd,
who laid down his life for the sheep.
Be a teacher taught by the Lord in wisdom and holiness.
Lead the people of God as a servant of Christ.
Love and serve the people with whom you work....'
This is rather more than just a job description.
But finally we can never forget that all the people of God, ordained and lay, are invited to share in the vision that is summed up in the introduction to the order for confirmation:
There is one body and one Spirit;
There is one hope in God's call to us.
One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism,
One God and Father of all.
That is some distance from fairly mindless sheep. With the Good Shepherd, it is just possible.
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