Fourth Sunday of Easter, Cycle A
The beautiful Easter theme of “The Lord is Our Shepherd,” alluded to in the John 10:1-10 analogies and expressed so well in Psalm 23 and 1 Peter 2:19-25, is not mentioned in Acts 2:42-47. All or a portion of Ezekiel 37:15-28 would fit the theme of “The Lord is Our Shepherd” exceedingly well. If a Newer Testament selection for the First Reading is desired on this Good Shepherd Sunday, far better than Acts 2:42-47 would be Hebrews 13:20-21: “And may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, in the blood of the eternal covenant, make you successful in every good endeavor that you undertake, in order that you may always do God’s will, accomplishing in fellowship with us that which is pleasing in God’s sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever! Amen.” This doxology near the end of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not used in any place within the Easter season in this lectionary series. This raises the question of whether it may be appropriate in some instances for a congregation in its worship services to make a few adjustments in the lectionary readings, for example, on this Fourth Sunday of Easter in Series A using Ezekiel 37:15-28 or Hebrews 13:20-21 instead of Acts 2:42-47. There is more flexibility permitted in some denominations and groups than in others. Much depends on the leadership abilities in local congregations.
Psalm 23
In this psalm — so well known to us as Christians because we associate the personal name for the Lord God for Israelites and Jews with Jesus as the Risen Christ — we have the best proclamation of the gospel in the readings appointed for this day. We as Christians perceive Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior in much the same manner as the ancient Israelites and the Jews perceive the Lord God. Within a message based primarily on Psalm 23, we can tell how the Lord has been our Shepherd in our lives and in the lives of people whom we have known. Of course, there have been times when we have been lost and far from the Lord, but somehow the Lord has always found us, as indicated in this text. This message can be expressed in a variety of ways, for example in didactic sermon form, in proclamation form, and in story form.
1 Peter 2:19-25
There is a tremendous message in this fine text. The text should be read well, with good feeling, inflection, and intensity. Each of us, including our children, sometimes is made to suffer when doing the “right” thing rather than the “wrong” thing. We can relate to this text. It is a text that is helpful for all periods of human existence, not only for the period late during the first century when many early followers of Jesus were suffering privation and death at the hands of oppressive advocates of Roman Civil Religion. Jesus is our role model now just as Jesus was the role model for the early followers of Jesus when 1 Peter was written. Jesus is our Good Shepherd. Our parents and our church leaders are “under shepherds” for us. We are all “household servants,” as 1 Peter 2:18 indicates.
John 10:1-10
There are two differing analogies in John 10. In this Series A text (10:1-10), the Johannine Jesus is called the “Gate” for the sheep and the shepherd of the sheep leads the sheep through the gate. It is only in 10:11-30, beyond the limits of this Series A text that the Johannine Jesus is called the “Good Shepherd.” Strictly speaking, therefore, John 10:1-10 is not a “Good Shepherd” text; it is a “Gate for the Sheep” text. It is also a text in which — consistent with other portions of the Fourth Gospel — it is claimed that access to God is possible only through the Johannine Jesus. In this text it is claimed all who came prior to the coming of the Johannine Jesus were thieves and robbers (10:8), and the sheep did not hear them. With these exclusivistic claims, the Johannine community created a problem for us. If we take these claims literally, we say through them that Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Suffering Servant of the Isaiah traditions, John the Baptist, and all of the rest of the Israelite saints, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and Jesus’ father Joseph, were thieves and robbers. In their exclusivistic zeal, the leaders and writers within the Johannine community went too far. The best of Christian theology and practice has not and does not follow the writers in the Johannine community in their defamatory anti-Jewish polemic and in their “super-high” exclusivistic Christology. If it had followed them and if we were to follow them today, we would not use Psalm 23 or any of the other Israelite Scriptures passed down through the centuries to us by people who are called “thieves and robbers” in John 10:8. We can, fortunately, and should use the beautiful and pastoral analogies in which the Jesus of history is our primary role model and Jesus as the Risen Christ is our “Gate” and our “Good Shepherd,” our Lord and our Savior.
Acts 2:42-47
In the context of Psalm 23, the 1 Peter 2, and the John 10 readings, Acts 2:42-47 depicts the ideal situation of followers of Jesus who continued the work of the Jesus of history with “glad and generous hearts.” Acts 2:42-47 then may be said to describe the lives of followers of Jesus as they ought to be as sheep following their Good Shepherd. In this way, the Acts 2:42-47 text is supportive of the comforting theme that “The Lord is Our Shepherd.”
