The Other Sheep John 10:11-18 (16)
Sidebar: This morning we were ministered to by the music ministry of the community choir based out of 1st Congregational United Church of Christ in Fairmont. They sang an Easter Cantata which recounted the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is the Good News of God in Christ that God’s love for humanity extends to all people.
The text for the sermon is taken from our Gospel reading – John 10:11-18 – from which we want to look at verse 16 - I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
Jesus is not one to avoid conflict. Some might even say that Jesus invites conflict. He runs right up against the norms of social and religious thinking in order to get people to think anew about how the kingdom of God might be perceived. He challenges us to put to death our preconceived notions of good and bad, right and wrong, in and out, us and them.
In John 4, Jesus challenges his own people’s designation of Samaritans as the other. He tells the woman at the well that one day the place of worship will not matter, but only that God’s people will worship God in spirit and in truth. When she in faith runs to bring others, Jesus declares the good news of God.
Later in John 4, Jesus discerns that the centurion, a Roman official, is a faithful believer, though he is not a part the faith of Israel. On account of that faith, the centurion’s son is healed.
Jesus constantly and emphatically call us to come out of our exclusive existence into a relationship of inclusivity. He calls us to constantly and fervently accept and love all as all are a part of God’s creative and re-creative action. When God renews God’s mercies daily, God renews these for all people…for all of creation.
We experienced a piece of that inclusivity, that ecumenical reality of life in Christ in the voices and ministry of 1st Congregational United Church of Christ. The purpose of their being here was not in order to show off their magnificent voices, as wonderful as they are. The purpose was to hear that old message anew, in a new format. To hear that old, old story in a new, new way. So we welcomed this community choir into our ministry of Word and Sacrament, and, in converse, they welcomed us into their ministry of the Word. Two denominations finding the unity of faith to worship together. That’s not hard, is it? We can see that reality very easy.
However, when Jesus speaks of the “other sheep,” it leaves the door open to us as readers and hearers of the Gospel and warns against any kind of exclusive claim on the door-shepherd Jesus. What if though, it were that these “other sheep” are not your typical “Jesus sheep?” What if they are from outside the normal pen or pasture or Christian traditions as we know them?
Who are those other sheep? In what other fold? And how shall we come together? Deciding who is in and who is out is really not the business of the sheep and remains a mystery to us. Jesus does not offer any explanation, and, in fact, takes responsibility for bringing the sheep together onto his own shoulders. We are not responsible for converting others. We sheep-folk are told only to stick with Jesus, to love, and to testify to Jesus’ love for all the sheep.
Jesus' promise is that he knows us, and he lays down his life for the sheep… for all, sheep. If we are among the sheep, might that not be enough to know? Do we have any responsibility other than to know Jesus, and to be welcoming when we find ourselves together with other folds?
Amen
