A Homily for the Second Sunday after
Easter
The Lord is my shepherd, therefore can I
lack nothing.
—Psalm 23: 1
The Second Sunday after Easter is
known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” In our
Gospel lesson this morning we heard Jesus say, “I am the good shepherd, and
know my sheep and am known of mine.” And
in our Epistle lesson we heard Saint Peter say that we “were as sheep going
astray: but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of [our] souls.”
At Morning Prayer, the Old Testament
lesson included Isaiah’s prophecy that “He shall feed his flock like a
shepherd”; and the New Testament lesson was the paragraph of
Jesus identifies himself as the good
shepherd, and thus is fulfilled of the ancient prophecy, written in the book of
Isaiah: “Behold, the Lord God will come
with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold his reward is with him and his work
before him. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his
bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.”
The Lord is
[our] shepherd; therefore can [we] lack nothing.
He shall feed [us] in a green pasture, and lead [us]
forth beside the waters of comfort.
Perhaps
the principal task of a shepherd is to make sure that his sheep have all that
they need; and sheep, being simple creatures, need green grass and fresh water. A shepherd who who
can always find fresh grass and still water is a shepherd who can tend to all
of the sheep’s needs.
We human
beings are a bit more complicated than sheep.
We believe that our material needs are more complicated than the needs
of sheep; but it may be that we are just a bigger problem for the
shepherd. Nevertheless, to say that
Jesus, the good shepherd, feeds us with green grass and leads us to still
water, is to say that he knows what we need and will provide for us, most
especially in a spiritual sense. Truly,
with the Lord as our shepherd, we can lack for nothing that we truly need.
He shall convert [our] soul[s],
and bring [us] forth in the paths of righteousness for his
Name’s sake.
In Saint
Mark’s Gospel and it Saint Matthew’s, it is recorded that when Jesus came out
of the wilderness he saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward
them, because they were as sheep without a shepherd, and he began to teach them
many things. Sheep without a shepherd
are pretty helpless. Such, too, is the
condition of human beings when we do not know God or when we refuse to be led
by him.
Sheep
without a shepherd are unlikely to find the straight and level path from the
sheepfold to the grazing land. Human
beings, who do not acknowledge God as the guiding force in our lives cannot
help but stray from the paths of righteousness.
Human beings, wandering in their own headstrong ways wander down paths
that lead to abortion and euthanasia, sexual immorality, domestic violence,
gang violence, violence even in our schools, substance abuse, greed and theft
(both on a small scale and on a large), neglect of the poor, abuse of the
elderly, exploitation of the weak.
Behind
all of this is human pride and vainglory:
the easy belief that we are free to make our own rules, choose our own
goals, run our own lives just as we see fit.
Truly, human beings without a dependence on God are sheep without a
shepherd. The human soul is in need of
conversion, of repentance; and of the suppression of our own will to be led by
the will of God. All this is offered to
us by Jesus, our good shepherd.
Yea, though [we] walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
[we] will fear no evil; for [he
is] with [us]; [his] rod and [his] staff comfort [us].
Jesus,
our good shepherd, is both our guide and our defender. Even in the hour of our darkest despair, when
death and hell seem about to overwhelm us, Jesus is with us.
In the wilderness, a shepherd carries a staff to gather
the sheep together and to guide them in the right direction, and he carries a
stout stick to ward off predators.
Sheep, being sheep, are often unaware of the danger they are in; and
even when they are aware of danger they have no ready means of defense. When they are frightened, they scatter. When they are lost, they have no innate sense
of direction to bring them home. But
sheep learn to trust their shepherd, to rely on him to protect them from wolves
and mountain lions, and from rustlers and others who would do them harm. The safety of the sheep lies in their trust
for the shepherd.
So, too,
it is with us human beings. We are in
danger from a multitude of sources, from the ancient enemies: the devil, the world, the flesh. We often lack the good sense to know that we
are in danger, or the cunning necessary to resist and overcome. But Jesus, our good shepherd, is ready with
his rod and his staff to keep us safe.
We need, like the sheep who learn to trust the
shepherd, to trust in the Lord. That is,
after all, what is meant by faith: that
we put our trust not in our own resources, but in the Lord.
[He shall] prepare a table before [us] in the presence of
them that trouble [us];
[he hath] anointed [our] head[s]
with oil, and [our] cup shall be full.
The good
shepherd tends to the wounds of his flock.
The sheep, in daily contact with all of the perils and dangers of this
world, are bound from time to time to incur some injury: from a sharp rock, or a low-hanging branch,
or an unseen hole in the ground. And, to
be sure, they sometimes injure each other by butting heads or biting
backs. It is part of the shepherd’s job
to tend and heal such wounds. As a good
shepherd dresses the wounds of the sheep with soothing oil, so has Jesus given
us the sacraments to be medicine for our spiritual healing.
Indeed,
Jesus, our good shepherd, has prepared a table for us: this
table, this altar, at which he offers
himself as bread and wine. “My body is
bread indeed,” he said, and “my blood is drink indeed.” He who eats this bread and drinks from this
cup shall never die. He has prepared a
table before us at which we may partake in the royal banquet of heaven. The table is spread before us, even in the
presence of all that troubles us, even in the face of the enemy.
Surely [his] loving-kindness and mercy shall follow [us] all the days of [our]
life;
and [we] will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
The good shepherd is he who gives
his life for the sheep. The guardian and
protector of the sheep does all that is necessary for the protection of the
flock—against wolves and other predators, against rustlers, against false
shepherds—even at the cost of his own life.
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd, . . . and
I lay down my life for the sheep.” Saint
Mark records that on the evening of Maundy Thursday, when Jesus and his
disciples had risen from the Last Supper and had walked to the Mount of Olives,
Jesus quoted to them the words of Zechariah the prophet: “It is written: ‘I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered.”
But in this Eastertide, as always,
we know that death could not hold him.
He rose again on the third day and he ascended into the heavens; he has
gone to prepare a place for us, that where he is, we may also be.
Jesus is the door of the sheepfold,
and if anyone enters in by that door he shall be saved: he shall go in and out and shall find
pasture. All that the Father has given
him shall come to him; and anyone who comes to him shall in no wise be cast
out. This is the will of the Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him shall have everlasting life.
Jesus said, “I am the good
shepherd.” Others come only to steal,
and to kill, and to destroy; but he came that we might have life, and that we
might have it more abundantly.
And when he comes again in his
glory, sitting upon the throne and surrounded by angels, and shall gather
before him all the people, he shall separate them as a shepherd separates the
sheep from the goats, and he shall set the sheep on his right hand and shall
say unto them, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for
you from the beginning of the world.”
“Receive a crown of glory that fadeth not
away.”
Index of the Deacon’s homilies.