A RED LETTER SHEPHERD

April 30, 2023
4^th Sunday of Easter
Ps. 23; Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10
Rev. Denise Clark-Jones    

Years ago, when Tom was the organist and choirmaster at a large Presbyterian Church in Tennessee, there was a small group of silent protestors in the back row. When the hymns were sung. They clutched their old red-covered hymnals and stood in silence in protest over the new blue-covered hymnals, like the ones in our pews. Change can be hard. Sometimes that can be frustrating for leaders who believe they are proposing meaningful changes which would be in the best interests of their organizations. Fortunately, by the time the new purple hymns came out, technology and publication rights saved the day. In typical church fashion, Tom’s church in Pennsylvania formed a committee to study the pros and cons of purchasing the new purple hymnals and made the decision not to spend the money on replacing the blue hymnals. The purple hymnals included almost all of the hymns from the blue hymnals while adding some hymns which were not in the blue hymnal and some hymns written since the blue hymnals were published. The blue hymnals were still in good shape and the purple hymnal covers and bindings were not as well made. The hymns were printed on very thin paper to allow for a greater number of hymns without making the hymnal larger or heavier. By purchasing the publication rights to copy hymns from the new purple hymnal, the church musician and pastor would be able to use hymns from the new hymnal without incurring the expense of buying all new hymnals. If only all the changes were so easy to make in the church! And it only took 18 months!

When I began at my first church after seminary, I was taught by more experienced pastors to “pick your battles.” In other words, take a risk assessment in your discernment of making changes, particularly at the beginning of your pastorate at a church. “Is the change you want to lead vital to the basic tenets of the Christian faith.” “Will the change make worship or mission more in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ?” If not, I was advised, “Don’t die on that mountain.”

There are times when change is necessary because it is more faithful. In a clergy book group, I joined during my first year of being ordained, I met some older, longer-serving pastors who had risked losing their jobs, and more, during the 1960’s to break the social taboo of welcoming black worshippers to their all-white congregations. It is hard to argue using Jesus’ words and example that refusing to worship and have fellowship with people of a different skin color is being faithful. As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther expressed so eloquently in his letter to white pastors in 1963, now known as “Letter from a Birmingham jail”, it was disappointing that so few white Christian pastors led to change in their congregations and defended equal civil rights for all people.

What do you think of when you hear the label, “Red Letter Christians?” If I had heard that expression before this week, I would have envisioned a group who steadfastly adheres to the literal reading of the King James Bible with the words attributed to Jesus introduced with, “Jesus saith unto them,” written in red letters. But that would be red letter Bibles not “Red Letter Christians.” What’s the difference? Red Letter Christians is a Christian movement began in 2007 when a group of Christian authors and speakers, led by Tony Campolo, gathered to discuss what they considered to be important contemporary issues in light of Jesus’ teachings. They deplored that the word “evangelical” had become the label for a political voting bloc rather than its true meaning, which is spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Another movement, “Moral Mondays,” began in 2013 in Raleigh, North Carolina with a similar focus. The Rev. William Barber led peaceful protests every Monday against political actions that promoted injustice in the state. The movement grew to many other states, including Illinois.

Since those early gatherings, Campolo and Shane Claiborne, a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, began a blog that has grown into an organization devoted to emulating “Jesus’ love, mercy, and countercultural way of life.” The Red Letter Christian organization states its purpose with these words: “We, Red Letter Christians, are not partisan. God is not a Democrat or a Republican. Our allegiance is not to the donkey or to the elephant, but to the Lamb. But much of what we are seeing today is not about the Right and Left — it is about right and wrong.”

This is what the book of 1 Peter is all about, living out the ethics of following Christ day to day. This epistle, written by a Christian leader in the second century using the name of the Apostle Peter, explains how Jesus taught his followers to live was counter-cultural to the society in which early Christians lived. To live in the Roman Empire and not worship the Roman gods was considered a danger to the state and a threat to the well-being of the people. Each city had its own protective god or goddess. Elaborate temples were erected to worship statues of these mythical figures. In that, these gods and goddesses ruled the fertility of the land and its people and ensured their military strength and success, not to worship them was considered unpatriotic and even treasonous.

Barbara Brown Taylor, one of my favorite authors and preachers, describes this situation well: “Jesus was not killed by atheism and anarchy. He was brought down by law and order allied with religion, which is always a deadly mix. Beware those who claim to know the mind of God and who are prepared to use force, if necessary, to make others conform. Beware those who cannot tell God’s will from their own. Temple police are always a bad sign. When chaplains start wearing guns and hanging out at the sheriff’s office, watch out. Someone is about to have no king but Caesar.”

The author of 1 Peter uses the words, “exiles” and “aliens” frequently to describe the challenge of early Christians to live lives faithful to Christ in a society with very different values. In our reading for today, the author proclaims Christ to be the model of suffering from false accusations and assures Christians that Jesus will be the shepherd and guardian of those of the flock who are tempted to go astray like lost sheep.

The fourth Sunday after Easter is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” Sheep are not as important to our economy or way of life as it was in the ancient Middle East, so we may not relate as well to the imagery of shepherds and sheep. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the Good Shepherd was “Yahweh,” the unspoken word for God. Kings were called shepherds of their people. In John’s gospel, Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd.

The first line of Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,” is etched in our memories from hearing it so often. It is important to note that the authorship of this psalm is attributed to David – the Shepherd King who vowed to follow the Lord as his shepherd.

The psalmist’s statement: “The Lord is my shepherd” means no other earthly king has authority over his life – only God. This attitude defines one’s perception of the world and how he or she makes choices in daily life. When combined with the statement, “I shall not want,” the psalmist affirms that every physical, emotional, and spiritual need or desire is fulfilled by God. This doesn’t mean that if one trusts in God, they will be prosperous. Too many of God’s children do not have what they need in life. Ironically, the people who have the least are most often the ones who stand by Jesus’ command to his disciples to “Feed my sheep,” and are willing to share what little they have with others. We, the sheep, have the responsibility to help the members of our flock who don’t have the same access to the abundant life God intends for us all to live. This is the premise of the common sharing of goods, which the author of Acts describes in our reading today. Without using the word sheep or shepherd, Acts gives an answer to the question; How do we, the sheep, follow our Good Shepherd?

Whereas last week our reading from Acts emphasized baptism, this week our reading speaks to us about the day-to-day benefits of our communal worship and our other sacrament, the Eucharist or Holy Communion. We read: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42) That is what we are doing today, minus the breaking of bread, which has been done only on the first Sunday of the month for so long, we cannot bring ourselves to change. Since I have been the pastor here, we have added the celebration of Communion to the special days commemorating Christ’s life and ministry, which are designated on the Presbyterian Church, USA worship calendar. The PCUSA Book of Order states:

“The Lord’s Supper shall be celebrated as a regular part of the Service for the Lord’s Day, preceded by the proclamation of the Word, in the gathering of the people of God.”

IF the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is not done in every worship service, the Book of Order requires it should be done frequently. Never mind that this practice was instituted by Christ himself and done at every worship service of the early Christian church until some 17th-century Protestant Reformers decided it was wrong because the Roman Catholics, Lutherans and later the Church of England did it. Also, life in the New World made having an ordained pastor administer the sacrament every Sunday at every church was logistically difficult due to the limited number of ordained pastors and the geographic distances between congregations. This is why the Book of Order includes this caveat: “When local circumstances call for the Lord’s Supper to be celebrated less frequently, the session may approve other schedules for celebration, in no case less than quarterly.” In most churches of the Presbyterian Church USA, “local circumstances” are not the reason for limiting the celebration of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper – unless you call “but we’ve always done it that way,” a local circumstance that justifies infrequent celebration of the sacrament. Jesus said: “Do this in remembrance of me,” which can be found printed in red letters in some Bibles. How often are we supposed to remember Christ in our worship?

In our passage from John’s gospel, one of three in which Jesus refers to himself as “the Good Shepherd,” it seems even Jesus was concerned his audience would not catch his sheep talk. He clarified for those in his audience, who may not have gotten it the first time, that he is the Shepherd of the people. We might surmise that the “thieves and bandits,” who Jesus describes as “all the ones that came before me,” are those who falsely claimed to be the Messiah. But in verse 10 Jesus switches to the present tense, saying, “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” So, who are these thieves? Who were the ones who were threatening the flock in the gospel writer’s time? Many have interpreted this phrase to mean the religious leaders of the day who found Jesus’ interpretations of the Hebrew Scriptures to be threatening to the status quo they enjoyed. Who are our “thieves and bandits? The thief comes to kill and destroy the flock, but Jesus comes so that the flock might have abundant life. There is the answer. All we must do is decide who the propagators of death are who take us away from God and we will know who the thieves and bandits are who seek to steal that abundant life from us. But it isn’t so simple, is it? There are thieves and bandits running around the pasture in shepherd’s clothing.

And then, we have that second figure of speech, Jesus as the gate. Jesus says, “no one enters the gate except by me.” For centuries there are those who have used those words to fence in God with human-made fence posts. Yet if we look at the third “shepherd text” in our lectionary cycle we read the words: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice,” calls into question literal interpretations of the gate’s function.” Could it be that these other sheep in these other flocks hear Jesus’ voice in other languages than King James English? Could it be that these other sheep in other flocks hear the voice of Jesus through different rituals and customs than we do, but their hearts and minds are still listening to the same voice? It is through active participation in the worship and mission of Jesus Christ that we show others how to recognize Jesus’ voice calling to them to direct their life journeys to the kingdom of God. What is the heart of evangelism? Telling people what Christ has and is doing in your life and then, without words, show it.

Christ, as the gate, does not mean that Christians circle the wagons around their congregations. Jesus never taught his disciples to live inside a fortress. He told them to go out into the world to teach, preach, baptize, worship, and to come to his table and share a holy meal together. Back in Jesus’ time, the sheep had to leave the gated field to find green pastures to get their nourishment. Yes, it was dangerous. There were predators out there. But Jesus promised he, the Good Shepherd, would be with them to protect them. If a shepherd stayed inside the gate, the job would be easy, but eventually, the flock would die of starvation. Staying close to the Good Shepherd allows the flock to have the abundance Christ offers. This is the only way for the Church to survive – to follow Christ, hand in hand, not being dragged kicking and screaming. If the Church follows anyone or anything else, it ceases to be Christ’s Church.

In John’s gospel, Jesus uses these words: ²⁷My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27,28) We belong to God, and it is God, not us, who is the initiator of our faith. The Good Shepherd gave his disciples simple, straightforward directives as to what they were to do after he was gone: ‘Remember how I loved and cared for you and others.’ Then he directed Peter, and the other disciples: “Feed my sheep.” And I’ve even seen that in red letters!

Amen. May it be so!

1. https://www.redletterchristians.org/our-mission-our-story/

© Rev. Denise Clark-Jones, 2023, All Rights Reserved
Westminster Presbyterian Church | 1420 W. Moss Ave. | Peoria, Illinois 61606
WestminsterPeoria.org  | 309.673.8501

“What goes through your mind as you sit in the sanctuary and look around?

As I sit in my pew and look up at the cross with the wonderful light illuminating it, I am reminded of why I am at Westminster on this particular day. The cross reminds me that Christ died for me and, in a sense, I am to do the same in my daily life. The brightness of the cross illustrates for me the brightness of living my life in the way of Christ.”