Torrent of Love – River of Fire
Easter 4B
John 10:11-18
5/3/2009
Jim Melnyk

I don't know about you, but it always seems strange to me when we get to the fourth Sunday of Easter each year and we leave the resurrection stories behind and jump back into the middle of John's Gospel and what might be called the parable of the Good Shepherd. It's almost like entering a theological time warp of sorts. “Hey, weren't we just in the upper room a few minutes ago? I could have sworn...the, uh, broiled fish...the fear and trembling…peace be with you....”
        
One week the Resurrected Christ is showing us his hands and feet; sending us out into the world to proclaim the Good News of God's reign; and the next thing we know we're back in Jerusalem – months before the cross – listening to tales of shepherds, sheep, and wolves! It just seems strange to be talking about sacrifice and death in the midst of the Resurrection season. After all, it's because we're in Easter that we put away the confession for the season – just as we put away the “alleluias” during Lent.
        
So why the shift in stories to talk about sacrifice and death in the midst of a season that has just brought back to us the glories of alleluias? What great theological truth are we seeking to proclaim with such a whiplash-like shift in focus in our Gospel lesson?
        
One possible answer is that the Great Fifty Days of Easter are about more than the resurrection of Jesus. The Great Fifty Days are also about the death and resurrection of Jesus – as those events are experienced over time and space – in the lives of countless people throughout the ages. In other words, Easter is not only about Jesus – Easter is about us – about the whole of humanity. And it is not something for the faint of heart! Because nothing can be born anew – nothing can rise to new life – unless, and until, it has died in one form or another. Easter is a season for those of us who know that we have died even though we still seem alive to those around us. Easter is for those of us who know that death is real – for those of us who know something about walking in the valley of the shadow of death. And perhaps even if we don't know that – or can't acknowledge that on a cognitive level – I suspect that's one reason we may be drawn to the celebration of Easter on a deeper, more primitive or sub-conscious level.
        
Easter is about a love from God and by God that invites all people – all people – into relationship with God – into a relationship which restores dignity and wholeness to the human race – overcoming the power of evil to separate and destroy. Easter is about dying and death and about being born to new life. As Jesus says a bit beyond today's lesson from John, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).
        
And so we come to this fourth Sunday of Easter and we hear the story of the Good Shepherd – the One Who Lays Down His Life for his sheep – the one who gives his life for the life of the world – the one who gives his life for us. And if we pay attention to the context of this story in John's Gospel we realize that it's not some sort of idyllic look at shepherds and sheep, set in a verdant pasture with cobalt blue skies above and softly bleating lambs gently grazing below.
        
No, John's setting is smack-dab in the middle of Jerusalem – right after Jesus has healed a man who was blind from birth, much to the suspicion of several Pharisees who seek to discredit Jesus. On top of that, in response to the Pharisees' challenges, Jesus all but calls them a bunch of blind sinners! By the time Jesus finishes his parable about the Good Shepherd, proclaiming “The Father and I are one,” the leaders have taken up stones to kill him! No, being a Good Shepherd is not for the faint of heart at all!
        
In his parable, Jesus sets before us what it means to be a good shepherd. The imagery of his parable – the imagery of shepherds – would have caught his first century listeners' attention. They knew all about shepherds. They had Moses as one example – someone who was willing to stand in the breach – stand in harm's way – for the people of Israel and remind God of God's heséd – God's steadfast love and compassion for God's people. Moses was a shepherd who was willing to remind God that God's justice was to always do good, and to show mercy and love for God's people – whether they or we think people deserve it or not. They have Psalm 23 as an example: God as a shepherd who leads us in the darkest, most fearful moments of our lives and stands by us – not because we're good, but because God is good.
        
And those first century listeners know of the shepherds of Isaiah 56, and those Jesus just finished talking about in what we call John 9, shepherds who remind them of how life falls apart when those called to proclaim the love of God forget what it means to show mercy – forget what it means to show compassion – forget what it means to act justly as God acts justly – with love and desire for the good of God's people.
        
And the earliest followers of Jesus – those who became the first followers of the Way – and those of us who follow centuries later – have Jesus to remind us what it means to be a good shepherd. Jesus, who willingly offered his own life to show us how deep and enfolding God's love can be – how fully encompassing God's steadfast love and compassion can be – how fully encompassing God's heséd can be.
        
The parable of the Good Shepherd is a fitting image for us to consider in the midst of the Easter season. Like resurrection, the parable is about God's unchangeable love. It's about what Dom Gregory Dix once referred to as “a torrent of love” poured out for God's people. Resurrection has nothing at all to do with us and it has everything in the world to do with us. In a world that again and again chooses alienation and death – that chooses power over others and the exclusion of those who differ from the rest – in a world that chooses alienation and death – God chooses compassion, mercy and heséd, God's steadfast love. God calls us to be good shepherds of that love as well. And sometimes we're better at it than others – we may even fail miserably – but as Bishop Curry says, we don't give up – we keep going!
        
So if the Great Fifty Days are also about the death and resurrection of Jesus – as those events are experienced over time and space – in the lives of countless people throughout the ages, then we have before us today an example of what resurrection life means for us. That same torrent of love is our gift to know for ourselves and to share with others. Whenever we are compassionate, we are shepherds of God's compassion. Wherever we show mercy, we are shepherds of God's mercy. When we're willing and able to celebrate the diversity of God's people, care for the outcast and welcome the stranger, we are shepherds of God's steadfast love. When we're willing to confess our failings – when we're willing to struggle to forgive, and seek reconciliation, we are good shepherds. From sun up to sun down, in small and large ways when we love one another, we are shepherds of God's love. When we call the world around us to choose life and relationship – open arms and open hearts – we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
        
As we consider what it means to be bearers of God's heséd – God's loving kindness, I am grateful to our own John Wall who sent us a link to a powerful essay written by Dr. Alexander Kalomiros regarding the immeasurable love of God (Well, it actually started out as a challenge how the western church does theology, but undergirding it all is his understanding of the goodness and love of God). In the spirit of the Good Shepherd, Kalomiros suggests what might be God's final word on love as he concludes his essay, The River of Fire, with these words: “But wherever you go in the darkness of your hearts, My love will follow you like a river of fire, because no matter what your heart has chosen, you are, and you will eternally continue to be, My children.” Amen. (http://www.geocities.com/trvalentine/orthodox/riveroffire.html)

©2009 Jim Melnyk