Who have you left behind? And who will you be in God’s story?: Sheep, Shepherds, and Wolves

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4th Sunday of Easter – 21st April 2024

Preached at Grantchester Church

Readings: Acts 4.5-12 and John 10.11-18

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In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Have you ever been left behind?

There are surely moments in our own lives that we remember being forgotten, or left behind. Maybe friends or family that you thought would always be there failed to turn up when you needed them the most; friends forgot your big day or birthday; perhaps even those you thought would stick by your side forever – friends, family, partners, or otherwise – ended up disappearing or fizzling away.

Today’s reading from the Gospel of John teaches us what good and bad shepherds do. The hired hand, the Gospel writer says, would run away at the first sign of trouble. They’re not really her or his sheep; the shepherd doesn’t actually care. The hired shepherd, the contracted employee if you will, would rather save their own life than risk it for this group of animals under attack. But a good shepherd, a good shepherd would stick around and stay by the flock regardless, even in the face of danger.

Its quite easy, and very common, for us to read the obvious metaphor into this passage. Jesus is the Good Shepherd – he says that himself. We are always the sheep – the ones scared of being left behind. The hired hand might be those institutions, groups, or people that claim to look after us, the ones that we affiliate ourselves with, that actually have no care or consideration for us personally when we come under attack.  

But, when parables are told in the Bible, or when pictures like this are painted, we aren’t told into them in a static way – or at least we shouldn’t be. We are invited in: what would it mean to swap around the imagery a little, to ponder who else we might be in the passage…

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So the first thing to think about is when we find ourselves in positions of privilege or power? Or positions of leadership or care? What if people around us, the flock, consider us their shepherd and look up to us? When are we the caregiver, or the sole support, or even the one who pays or sustains, those around us?  

Therefore, being that shepherd, with that responsibility, how often have we been the ones to let other people down? Who are the people we have forgotten about, or ignored, or left behind? When we just didn’t have time, or didn’t want to face the risk of danger – for a friend that needed support, for a crisis we could have helped, for the person in the street begging to us.

I wonder how they feel. I wonder what they think of us. When we are like the hired hand of Jesus’ story – unreliable, easily scared off, even indifferent and uncaring.

How often have we been the ones to let people down and leave them behind?

So, How often have you been the careless shepherd?

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Then, the other, perhaps even more worrying thing to contemplate is rather than being the heartless and selfish shepherd who runs away, who just lets things happen, it is when we are actually the inciters of violence, the perpetrators. What if we are the wolves?

I wonder what things come to your mind as the things we regret – things we said that hurt others, relationships we destroyed, guilt for ways we have acted. And its broader than that too: we contribute to systems of power that degrade some groups of society, and elevate others. We have a government that actively participates in war. We have a world that leaves people on the streets without food or shelter, the elderly without heating, or families without enough to pay their bills.

That is the work of wolves – and perhaps we are part of that system. Even when we think we are the sheep, are we actually wolves in sheep’s clothing?

How often have we been the ones who hurt others, who incite violence, who do harm to those around us?

So: How often have you been the wolf?

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The story of the Passion of Jesus that we heard over Easter shows us that we are often the wolves, and the bad shepherds. We fail to live up to expectations. We fail to fight for what is right. In our first reading from Acts today, Peter says to his audience ‘It was YOU’ who crucified Jesus, and it was God who raised him up from the dead.

Part of what it means to be Christian, to know deep in our hearts the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection, is to recognise our own accountability, our own part in the ways that the world works. Not for a sense of self-flagellation or shaming of sin – but to fully recognise what it means to be human in this world, for all its good and bad, and to be in community with each other as God’s flock. In the imagery of today’s reading, we may sometimes be sheep, needing to be protected. But we may also sometimes be shepherds, tasked with protecting others. And sometimes, although we may not like to hear it, we might be the wolves who bring trouble to the doors of others and cause danger.

Kelly Brown Douglas, American Womanist theologian, says that ‘Insomuch as faith is about partnering with God to mend an unjust world and thus to move us toward a more just future, then faith communities, by definition, are accountable to that future’ (Resurrection Hope, p. 148). It is our job to hold justice to account; to recognise in society who are the sheep, the shepherds, and the wolves, and to notice when we fail to lift each other up and look after each other. Parables, and stories, and the gospel readings invite us in… to wonder how we might participate in God’s unfolding Kingdom of love, peace, and justice.

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Ultimately, what today’s Gospel reading tells us is no one, not one person, not me, not anyone in this room – and no, not even you, however much you doubt it, or however much you are unsure if you are worthy of it… not even you – are going to be left behind. God, our Good Shepherd, stays with us – whether we have been sheep, shepherd, or wolf – through it all.

What I love about this reading is that it does not say the Shepherd will fight off the wolves and there will not be trouble in our lives. Instead, it implies that the Shepherd will not scarper at a sign of trouble, but will stay, even unto death. God’s solidarity with us, through suffering, through celebration, through abundance, and through difficulty, is what should drive us on as Christians. Remember: We are never left behind, we are never left alone: we are never left without God.  

And so as Christians, it is our task to remember God’s presence with us. But it is also our calling to bring God’s presence to others, to help God to be known in the world through acts of kindness, peace, love, and justice.  We are accountable to make sure we do not leave others behind, that no sheep is left to the wolves. The Justice of God is in our hands, too.

So I invite you to wonder once more…

As a sheep: When have you been left behind?

As a shepherd: Who have you left behind?

As a wolf: Who have you failed to look after?

As you go through this week, how will you share God’s love and justice with those you meet? Who will you be in God’s story? Who will you stand beside when hard times come? And when the True Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, asks of us what we have done to bring God’s glory, and love, and light to this world, what will you say?

Amen.