Seeking that which is above.
11am 30th April 2023
Acts 2
1 Peter 2
John 10.1-10
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The vicar of a well to do suburban parish was speaking to the Sunday school. He told them that as the vicar, he was like a shepherd and the members of his congregation were the sheep. He then put this question to them: "What does the shepherd do for the sheep?" One very enthusiastic young boy, let’s call him Freddy, shot his hand up eagerly and said, "I know. He fleeces them".
I suppose it is true enough that shepherds go into the business of rearing sheep for the wider purpose of being able to maintain an income, but the work is hard and the rewards are not monetary especially and they do it because they love what they do and they care for the sheep. I don’t know how much you know about sheep or shepherding but it is a tough life, even in the modern era. It was something that came home to me a few years ago reading The Shepherd’s Life by James Rebanks, about a full year in his life rearing sheep on the hills of the Lake District. How much harder must it have been in the ancient world not least with all the various predators both human and animal.
In our service this morning, we have a great collection of themes and ideas dancing together and enriching our worship; and all of them seem to me to be brought together in the words of the Collect we heard just now for the 4th Sunday of Easter – where we asked Almighty God ‘to raise us from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, that we may seek those things which are above!’ Those things which are above!
Let’s go through these themes in chronological order. This morning the set psalm was the 23rd psalm which we have as a hymn twice, reinforcing as it does the gospel imagery which, as so often in Jesus’ stories, is rich with agricultural references to sheep and shepherding, things with which most of us are pretty unfamiliar. Initially he talked about a gatekeeper opening the gate for the shepherd and then went on to talk about actually being the gate. Then in the verses immediately after this morning’s passage, which we only hear in Year B (so next year) we have one of the many ‘ego eimi’/ ‘I am’ sayings in John. Elsewhere in John’s gospel we hear Jesus saying, ‘I am the light of the world’, ‘I am the bread of life’, ‘I am the way the truth and the life’, but here, ‘I am the good shepherd’, - it clearly goes with the rest of the imagery. And here ‘good’ means ‘noble’, ‘ideal’ rather than being good at something. And from all this comes the idea of Jesus as the chief shepherd, of clergy as shepherds to their flocks, and Bishops as the shepherd to the shepherds with their pastoral staff or crozier based on that of the shepherd’s crook. It is tempting now to add something about archdeacons, but you can ask me later if you want!
So we hear about Jesus as the shepherd, the gate, the protector the leader of the sheep, a person with whom the sheep are familiar and whom they know they can trust. We can only get familiar with Jesus if we spend time with him and that is what we do when we get together in church on Sundays and at other times. You cannot be part of a flock on your own – there is a necessary participation with others but when we do do that, it is then that we are more likely to find ourselves fulfilling that collect prayer - seeking after that which is above.
The passage from Acts comes almost immediately after the day of Pentecost in the Acts account, which we only celebrate in a month’s time. In it, we are given a snapshot of the very earliest church where they were adding to their numbers, listening to apostles, breaking bread and praying. They even sold their possessions, had everything in common, and shared out the proceeds as any had need. This idealised community model of the church did not last while it flowed naturally from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the very beginning, we know even from later passages in Acts and particularly from Paul’s letters that it became rather more challenging. And what we cannot deduce from this is that this idealised community model can be forced on people, either through taxes or moral pressure. This only worked because it flowed from love, care and compassion and the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We can still aspire to model it but it has to be done freely not compelled. This early Christian community existed at a time without opposition. If the resurrection and Pentecost were like the Big Bang for the early church, we cannot simply pretend to go back to that moment now. We have to wrestle with the realities we are given now. The point though was about praising God with glad and generous hearts, and again we have that collect prayer, reminder, expression of hope, calling us to recognise and celebrate the importance of dwelling on those things which are above.
And then we come to the First letter of Peter. This probably dates from around AD 65 and the Neronian persecutions. More interestingly, the last half of the passage we had this morning probably contains the words one of the earliest Christian hymns which is why it is expressed in the way it is: ‘He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live.
for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.’ In the midst of suffering and even abuse, we are reminded of the importance of the shepherd imagery for Christ, and called back to those things which are above and principally to Christ himself.
Today we are also celebrating Kitty and David’s 25 years of marriage in this place where they were married in 1998 by Bishop Kenneth, Kitty’s father, who was the Bishop of Portsmouth at the time and who represents yet another link to the shepherd imagery! And it is a great joy to do it with members of the family gathered here this morning, and remembering with love and fondness Bishop Kenneth whose ashes are interred in St Thomas’s chapel behind me. We do so in this place where they have lived, worshipped, and worked, over that time, David as consummate Organist and Master of Choristers, and Kitty as a teacher, and reader, and both also countless other things, and together they have midwifed and parented generation after generation of gappers with hospitality and care, and not forgetting several canine companions along the way as well, in what I can only describe as a long and holy Stevenson tradition! Their love, care, and work has contributed a huge amount to Cathedral life over the years, and we are grateful for all you have done and continue to do. There is a photo in the back of the order of service, and if you haven’t seen them before like that, it proves that David actually did once have hair! Even I don’t recall that! Your renewal of vows in a moment is a reminder to all who are married of their vows, and we celebrate with you today that milestone and wish you many more.
The joy of this celebration along with the music you make, brings us again to the heights of heaven and those things which are above.
I said I was working in chronological order, and so we have one more thing to consider, which is the coronation of King Charles III which is now less than a week away. The Archbishop of Canterbury, ‘shepherd to the shepherds’, with his ministry modelled on that of Christ the good shepherd and carrying his pastoral staff or crozier as a sign of his office, will anoint and crown as king, Charles III, the man waiting and preparing longer as an heir than anyone else in history! As monarch, he will continue to be ‘defender of the faith’ and be head of the Church of England but all of it under God to whom all of us without exception are accountable. The order of service was only published at 10pm last night. In it, we now know, King Charles will say that, after Jesus’ example, he comes not to be served but to serve, emphasising again that accountability. The celebrations will be huge next week but remember that at the heart of it all will be an Anglican liturgy with the finest music, and the crowning of a king in the beaty of Westminster Abbey, an Anglican place of worship. You can and should expect to be transported to the heavenly realms by that and it is good to enjoy the spectacle which no one has seen for 70 years.
So we have here images of sheep, gates, shepherds, leadership, the early idealised church, the later persecuted church, David and Kitty’s celebration of 25 years of marriage and of marriage itself, and the Coronation of King Charles III, all of which raise our eyes and our hearts to heaven as we give thanks to God, celebrate with joy in this Eastertide season, and in communion with Jesus.
Christ and one another, receive his body and blood reminding us we are more united than divided and united by the love, sacrifice and faithfulness of Christ himself the good shepherd. And we do all this for a reason or rather several reasons. Firstly, we do it to worship Almighty God, that is our first duty, but secondly, we are also called to make a difference in the world, and make sure that we leave it in a better state than when we arrived. The Big Help Out day of volunteering a week tomorrow on the extra Coronation bank holiday serves to remind us that as well as raising our eyes to heaven, we must also open our eyes to what is going on around us on earth and do what we can to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. Amen.