First reading: Acts 4:8-12
Psalm: Ps 118:1,8-9,21-23,26,28-29
Epistle: 1 John 3:1-2
Gospel: John 10:11-18

Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said…

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is truly risen! Alleluia!

Peter said:

Isn’t it interesting that on this Good Shepherd Sunday we open with Peter and John standing before the Jewish court. Peter speaks to the Jewish leaders, confronting them with a tremendous and fearful truth. He tells them that they killed the Messiah. He tells them that the Messiah is raised from the dead. He tells them that the cripple was healed in the name of the Messiah, and lastly that their place, the position, is worthless in light of the Messiah’s coming.

Peter tells the Jewish leaders that their time has ended and that all salvation comes through the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Jewish leadership has nothing to offer. They have nothing, no power and no words, nothing that will draw man closer to God.

Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, put the truth to them. Truth — clear, unequivocal, a truth proven through the invocation of Jesus’ holy name in the healing of the cripple.

Peter is shepherding these obstinate and hard hearted sheep. He shepherded them by showing them the truth of their position. They were in trouble, and without recourse, except to grasp hold of the Messiah, to acknowledge Him as the Son of God come among them.

Of shepherd and sheep:

This isn’t the picture we get when we imagine the Good Shepherd is it? We picture the shepherd gently carrying the sheep, caring for the sheep, feeding the sheep, loving the sheep. When we picture the Good Shepherd we do not picture Peter, the other apostles or ourselves.

Think about Peter. If there ever was an unruly sheep he defined it. Jesus had to put Peter on the right path numerous times. He had to love and care for him and he had to set him straight. Peter was a sheep like the rest of us —“ but like the rest of us he was called to something more.

We see ourselves as sheep. We see ourselves as unruly. We see ourselves as sheep in need of love, care, and gentleness. We can even see ourselves as sheep that need guidance and direction. Sometimes, as with Peter, the Shepherd has to use his staff to get us out of trouble. It’s hard to see ourselves, like Peter, as something more, as a shepherd, but that is what we are called to be.

What does it take to shepherd?:

We are shepherds. We have no need for a lesson on being a sheep; we’re all good at that, but what does it take to shepherd? Why are we to shepherd? How can we shepherd? Should we even try to shepherd?

Reading through the Gospels we hear Jesus telling us to go and do:

Jesus tells the young lawyer: “You have answered right; do this, and you will live.” After instructing him via the parable of the Prodigal Son Jesus tells him: “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37)

Jesus sent the 72 telling them: —Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.— (Luke 10:1-24)

—Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit— (Matthew 28:19) and “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.— (Mark 16:15)

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” (John 20:19-23)

Finally in John 21:15-17 Jesus tells Peter, tells us, to do the work of the shepherd. He tells us to: “Feed my lambs.” To “Tend my sheep.” To “Feed my sheep.”

We are commissioned:

Jesus words are a commission. He calls us to be something more than sheep.

In hearing the Good Shepherd we realize that Christianity cannot be boiled down to a religion or a system of belief. Christianity is more than a religion, more than a system, more than a process, more than a collection of do’s and don’ts. Christianity is an active process of doing, of shepherding others. Jesus requires each of us to be a shepherd in the model of the Good Shepherd. Some are called to formally shepherd via the sacramental ministry as deacons, priests, or bishops; but never forget that each of us is called to shepherd. All of us have been commissioned, by baptism, to go out and to teach, to preach, and to proclaim. We are to go out to tend and feed His sheep.

We speak with one voice, one heart:

Some would make shepherding complex. Some would demand great deeds of daring-do. Those things really aren’t key or even necessary. What is key, what is necessary is that we shepherd with one voice and one heart. Our voice and heart must be that of the Good Shepherd. He tells us that we must feed the sheep, teach them, sacrifice for them, forgive them, and tend or look after them. The sheep are those who do not know Jesus as the the cornerstone, the one name under heaven by which we are to be saved.

The sheep, the people who do not know Jesus, need to be shepherded. It won’t happen through words alone, but rather through our work in making His words, His voice, and His work a reality in the lives of our neighbors. Jesus’ work must be our work, Jesus’ life is the life we are called to lead.

One love:

When we study the work of the great saints we study the lives of those who lived up to Jesus’ call to shepherd His people. Their ministries crossed the boundary between words and deeds. They lived a life that was one with the life of the Good Shepherd. They spoke words that were the words of the Good Shepherd. They loved greatly, because the Good Shepherd loved greatly.

That one love, that powerful love, the love of the Good Shepherd, is in our hands today.

Go and shepherd:

From this day forward we are to bring the life of the Good Shepherd to all of our brothers and sisters.

Why are we to shepherd like that? To show God’s great love.

What does it take to shepherd like that? It takes great love.

Should we even try? Yes, because Jesus has given us great love — He has put it right into our hands — and has commissioned us to go and to do: to feed, teach, forgive, look after, and sacrifice for the sheep that do not belong to this fold. St. John makes it clear in saying:

See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.

We are. We are equipped with God’s love so that the sheep might hear His voice through our words, through our acts of love.

How can we shepherd? We shepherd by loving in the smallest ways. We must grasp the opportunities that God places before us. We cannot approach our ministry like Peter did in today’s reading from Acts, by lecturing. That was a unique situation. Rather we must make our Christian love personal and real. Buy a stranger a cup of coffee, take care of someone’s need, do it out of love. Do the smallest of things with great love every day and change the world. When people ask you why just tell them that you are sharing God’s gift of love — the love of the Good Shepherd who cares for His sheep. Amen.