The fourth Sunday of Easter is a kind of unofficial church holiday - Good Shepherd Sunday. Each year on this Sunday the assigned readings include Psalm 23 and a selection from John 10 about Jesus the Good Shepherd. Though the metaphor of a shepherd is perhaps less resonant for us than it was back in Bible times, I think we can still relate to the image of God as someone who knows us by name, cares for us, and offers guidance and protection.
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As I was picking the date for Confirmation Sunday back in August of last year, I don't recall looking ahead to see what the readings would be (risky, I know!), but I'm so delighted that it happened to be this Sunday and these readings. While the reminder that Jesus is our Good Shepherd is meaningful for all of us, it seems to fit particularly well with the affirmations that Thomas, Xander, McKayla, and McKenna will make shortly.
Here's what I will ask them: "You have made public profession of your faith. Do you intend to continue in the covenant God made with you in holy baptism: to live among God’s faithful people; to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper; to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed; to serve all people, following the example of Jesus; and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth? I do, and I ask God to help and guide me."
Did you hear that first question? Do you intend to continue… Though today marks the end of their formal instruction in our Confirmation program, it is certainly not the ending or culmination of the life of faith. Instead, this is a life-long journey; a life-long relationship, with God and with the gathered community we call the church. It is a journey that began in baptism, as God called each of us by name.
On that day, parents and sponsors and congregation made promises. Promises to place in your hands the Holy Scriptures; teach you the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments; bring you to worship; nurture you in faith and prayer, and more. It is in Scripture, in worship, in the sacraments, in community that we most clearly hear the voice of the Good Shepherd, who offers us guidance and care, and calls us to follow. It is in Jesus, the Good Shepherd, that we find abundant life.
And yet, we live in a world where there are so many competing voices promising life and success and prosperity, and so many voices that threaten to lead us astray. How can we be sure that we’re following the right shepherd?
We learn to recognize the voice of Jesus in some of the same ways we learn to recognize the voices of our friends and loved ones: through relationship, shared conversation, and time spent together, talking and listening. If we want to know what the voice of Jesus sounds like, we do well to immerse ourselves in Scripture – the living word of God – and in prayer and worship.
And as we train our ears and hearts to discern the voice of the Good Shepherd, we can ask questions about the voices we hear: Is the voice, the message, you hear rooted in deceit, death, or destruction? Does the voice whisper shame, or disdain, or hatred? Does it parrot fear and suspicion? Does it try to convince you that the people around you aren’t worthy of love? If so, it’s not the voice of Jesus. Is the voice promising life that sounds too good to be true – perhaps life without pain or heartache, or life that revolves around you and you alone? Is it a life that depends on your ability to be a good person and do the right thing? That’s not the voice of Jesus, either.
Is the voice calling you to abundant life, both now and in the future, a life that is inseparable from relationship with God and with one another? That sounds like Jesus! Is the voice calling you to love? Does it promise that death doesn’t get the last word, that you’re worth more than the worst thing you’ve ever done? Is it a voice that proclaims welcome, forgiveness, and grace? That sounds like Jesus, too! Yes, the voice of Jesus is the voice of love and grace. The voice of forgiveness, and hope.
Our confirmation program here at Our Redeemer is called "Crossroads" because it takes place during a span of time that is a crossroads in the lives of our young people. They are at a crossroads between childhood and adulthood, making more decisions for themselves and also needing to take more responsibility. They are at a crossroads in their understanding of themselves and the world, sorting through the beliefs passed down to them and deciding which ones they want to continue to hold on to. At this crossroads, they are figuring out how to discern many things - what voices to pay most attention to; what "abundant life" looks like; how to live in a world that so often seeks to steal, kill, and destroy.
If you hear anything today, hear this - none of us is on this journey alone. These young people are growing into freedom and independence, true, but navigating this road is not a solitary venture. At every crossroads in life, we know that Jesus the Good Shepherd is with us. God’s promises never leave us. As each of us strive to live into this covenant, know this: God's love for you does not depend on your ability to do all these things. The baptism you affirm today was never about your goodness, but rather God's unfailing love for you and for all creation.
It is, after all, the job the job of the shepherd, and not the job of the sheep, to make sure that the sheep are headed in the right direction. As we hear elsewhere in the Gospels, God is the kind of shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep in the wilderness to find the one who is lost and missing. So take heart! You can never be so lost or so far away that God cannot find you. In those times when we cannot hear the shepherd’s voice, we trust that God is seeking us out and leading us back.
On this Good Shepherd Sunday, we give thanks for a God who leads and guides us, for a God who never stops looking for us when we are lost and afraid, for a God who protects and cares for us. In the midst of competing voices calling us to follow, we rejoice in a God who calls us by name and invites us into life that is abundant and everlasting.
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