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Christ is risen! Hallelujah! We continue to celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Today, on this fourth Sunday after Easter, or of Easter, typically always the Scripture readings center around a theme that is referred to often as the Good Shepherd Sunday. The Scripture readings, the hymns, all of it comes together. And what an appropriate day to celebrate the confirmation of ten of our youth on Good Shepherd Sunday. Amen.
This is about 20 years ago when I first started out in the ministry, and I’d been visiting this lady for several months, six, eight months. This lady was in a nursing home, and she had dementia for sure, possibly Alzheimer’s. She had no idea who I was. One time I came, I was her uncle. The next time, I was her brother. The next time, her father. The next time, incoherently did she speak to me. I have no idea. Random words and random sentences woven together. And I was thinking to myself, am I doing anything good for this lady? Am I bringing her anything of any import, any value?
So an older pastor gave me some advice and said, “Pastor Knuckles, sing the liturgy to her.” Why? Because that’s God’s word. Sing it to her. That’s deep within her. That’s the voice of her shepherd. Okay, I shall try.
So the next time I went and visited her, I sang the liturgy: “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.” The Agnus Dei, the glory in excelsis. “This is the feast.” And as I began to sing, her eyes became lucid and her countenance changed. And she looked at me and she said, “You’re my pastor, aren’t you?” Yes, I am. She didn’t know me from Adam. But she knew the words of her shepherd, which this frail man spoke and sang to her.
That’s the point of the text this morning. For you and me as believers, this makes sense to us, what I’m telling you about. This is what brings us comfort to know, even as our own mind fades. The voice of the shepherd is still known to us, and he knows us by name.
Now the rest of the world listens to this story and says, it’s a coincidence. It’s merely a misunderstood phenomenon. It has no meaning whatsoever with the faith. And I say hogwash to that. In this morning’s text, Jesus is speaking some very powerful words to us as his disciples and as his sheep, but he’s also speaking it to the Pharisees in judgment.
Context is so important to understand this beautiful set of verses from John chapter 10. All of chapter 9 in the Gospel of John is about the story of Jesus healing a man born blind. And the entire chapter, this man is trying to confess the faith to these Pharisees who keep accusing him that he never was born blind to begin with. That it was all a misunderstood phenomenon. That it was all falsehood. Completely coincidental, that it has no meaning whatsoever. It’s exactly what the Pharisees kept accusing this man of.
If you remember, Jesus finds this man in the temple worshiping, and Jesus tells him, “Do you know who you’re worshiping?” “Not unless someone tells me.” He says, “I am he.” He believes. At the very end of that sermon, Ninth chapter. Immediately, the verses immediately preceding 1 through 10 of this morning’s text.
Listen again to the words. Jesus says to the Pharisees, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Now that stirs up the Pharisees, gets their blood a-boiling. They come back out of Jesus and say, “Are we also blind?” Trying to pick a fight, Jesus responds, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say, ‘we see,’ your guilt remains.”
Then he says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of the stranger.”
And then John comments about this when he says, “This figure of speech Jesus used with them,” meaning the Pharisees, “but they did not understand what he was saying to them.” Misunderstood phenomenon, a coincidence, having no meaning whatsoever, is how they viewed this. And that’s exactly how the world views this, but not you and me. That woman knew the voice of her shepherd, not because she knew me as her pastor, but because she knew that word of God sang to her.
Deep was it planted, as she said in her mommy or daddy’s laps when she was a little girl. She’d be well over 100 now. Just like you and just like me. This morning, it was mentioned about a little one in the confirmand class who sat in her daddy’s lap eating Cheerios, like many of you all did. Just like my kids did. The back row known as the Cheerio or peanut gallery. Just like that, you heard this, even though everybody thought, oh, this kid’s getting nothing out of the service.
There is nothing that this kid can get out of the service. It’s too far above his head. Funny, it wasn’t too far above this woman who had no memory of her own existence. It was deeply planted by God’s Holy Spirit, working mightily. And yet people still say, don’t understand, don’t believe it, can’t be true.
One of the questions that we ask the confirmands to include in their profession of faith is, what do you see yourself doing or being five years from now? Five years from now they will be gone. When my kids were this little, I remember my parents saying, oh, they grow up so fast. And I’m thinking, no, they don’t. I can remember just counting the days that they would begin to learn how to feed themselves and change their own diapers.
But they do grow up very fast. And it is an amazing thing. In asking them that question, even though in their own mind, they’re not thinking five years from now, I’m thinking like five days from now at the tops. Yes. But for them to think in these terms, because this is life.
You who have remembered your own confirmation day, however big your class or however small your class was, you can look around even from within your own church and wonder where are they? They heard. They memorized. They were instructed just like I am, but why don’t I see them in the pew with me? And you don’t have to go through youth confirmation to have that same question. You can be confirmed as an adult and see one of the fellow adults in your class and wonder, why aren’t they coming regularly?
And you can even grow old and see others who have stopped coming for whatever reason. You see, Satan entices our flesh, whether we are confirmand age, whether we are young in our 30s, or whether we are old in our 90s, Satan still entices our flesh to keep us away. But the shepherd voice still calls us.
There are many thieves and robbers, but they don’t dress like thieves and robbers. If they dressed like thieves and robbers, we would know them by sight. They dress like just you and me. And they talk just like you and me. And they say, “It’s a misunderstood phenomenon. It’s merely coincidence. It has no meaning whatsoever.” And by golly, some begin to believe it.
The shepherd’s voice was known by that woman and it’s known by you confirmands and you parents of the confirmands and you grandparents of the confirmands and you brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and family members of those confirmands. The shepherd’s voice you know.
Here in America, we drive sheep from a totally different way than they do in the Middle East. I’ve seen sheep being driven and led in the Middle East, in Iraq, in Jordan, and in Palestine. And they do not drive them from behind. They lead them. They walk in front of them, and like happy-go-lucky puppies, they follow their shepherd’s voice.
Just as the text spoke of, even a story was relayed to me about two shepherds with two small flocks being caught out in the wilderness in a storm. Found a little alcove in the side of a hill to get out from underneath the rain and the wind and bedded down there for the night, their flocks intermingling. In the morning, one shepherd went that way, one shepherd went the other way. All they needed to do was call and the flock divided to each shepherd because the sheep know their shepherd.
There are many voices that call you, brothers and sisters, in this world. And many voices that call you are not the shepherd’s voice, but thieves and robbers who don’t look like it, and yet are pulling you away from the one door through which we all enter, the sheep pen, Jesus Christ. Just as was said, we think that they don’t hear, but they heard; they all have heard, just like you did on your mom and daddy’s lap. Or if you came in as an adult, just like what drew you in.
Remember Mary at the tomb? Mary at the tomb struggled. She struggled with complete, utter despair, not knowing where the body of her Lord was to be found. She was at the tomb completely distraught, and in her being distraught, she had standing in front of her the Lord of life, her Lord Jesus, and she did not recognize Him because of her being overwhelmed. Many of us keep our own sin, allow our sin to keep ourselves away from this church. Many allow the sins of other people to keep us away from this flock.
What got Mary and got her to know her shepherd was that Mary heard her shepherd say her name, “Mary.” Her eyes were opened, and she saw her Lord because she heard His voice calling her by name. What brought that prodigal son back to his father? The shepherd’s voice working mightily in that word that had been planted in his heart since he was a little boy.
What brought David back after having sinned with Bathsheba, killing Uriah? The voice of the shepherd spoken through Nathan. What keeps bringing you and me back on the shoulders of our Lord Jesus, but the same voice that calls us back.
Remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees. He said very clearly, “If you were blind, you would have no, the G word confirmands, guilt.” But now that you say, “we see,” your guilt remains. It is guilt that keeps us away, keeps our loved ones away, keeps our friends and family members away. And this is the place where guilt is washed away.
This is the place where you are led beside still waters to drink deeply there and know you are the Father’s child. This is the place where the Word comes and is planted again in your ear and you remember because you’ve been remembered by the Father. And this is the place where the trough is set in, and we feast upon the very Paschal Lamb.
It’s interesting. We think sometimes mistakenly that confirmation or catechesis, as it’s also called, ends at this point. It doesn’t. It still continues every Sunday here where you know the voice of your shepherd. And it doesn’t just continue here. It continues over in the fellowship hall where Sunday morning Bible class is at. And it doesn’t just stop there. It continues weekday through the year, here and during the week, on Mondays and Wednesdays. And you know the voice of the shepherd.
It is what brings joy to your heart because guilt is removed. And it’s not sitting upon your shoulders. You heard one of the confirmands talk about that. We want you to grow old with us, pastor and I, and your parents. You may not grow old with us at St. Paul in Austin because your job or education or something takes you to a different church, but you will grow old with us because we will share the same feast even though we may be miles away from one another. And we share the same faith.
We want to grow old with you that we would continue to hear the voice of the shepherd and be called back by name so that guilt can be removed. This is the will of the shepherd who has called you. He said very clearly, “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved.”
And we’ll go in and out and find pasture. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” In the front part of your hymnal, the Psalms of our Lord are written. Open it to Psalm number 23, but a few pages into your hymnal. Help each other out if you can’t find it.
This is the psalm written by a man who heard the voice of the shepherd and was called back and had his guilt removed, King David. We read together, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
