Sheep, wolves, and the Kingdom of God
John 10:1-10, Acts 2:42-47
The Rev. Sara Fischer
I have been thinking a lot this week about sheep and wolves. Partly, of course, because we have our annual dip into a portion of the tenth chapter of John, where Jesus expounds at some length on the metaphor of shepherd and sheep. It is easy to get caught up in the meaning of this imagery, and unpacking all the pieces: the gate, the thieves, the sheep, the shepherd. Is Jesus the shepherd or the gate? Depends. This passage is often misused: I never pass up an opportunity to say that it is Jesus, not your humble parish priest, who is the Good Shepherd.
There is a guy named Mark who lives outside most of the time, whom I’ve known for about four years. He’s not a Hope & Bread person but he’s definitely a neighbor. He is someone who likes to quote the bible; I love it when people know the bible and want to share that with me. I ran into him once carrying a big stick. He said to me: “The Good Shepherd looks after the sheep, and sometimes has to fight the wolves.” I always nod appreciatively. But here’s the thing: nowhere is that in the bible. Kind of like people who say: “you know, God helps them that helps themselves.” Actually, not only is that nowhere in the bible, but more often than not, the opposite is true. God helps them—us—who cannot help ourselves. God helps us when we are beyond help. And, the Good Shepherd never actually goes after wolves. In fact, it may be that the Good Shepherd actually cares for wolves—while protecting the sheep—in the same way that Jesus cares for tax collectors, pharisees, soldiers, sex workers, ICE agents, traffickers, immigrants, thieves, drug addicts, drug dealers, the police...God doesn’t make the same distinctions that we make in the worthiness of human beings.
We’ve all heard the phrase “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Where are the sheep in wolf’s clothing? All around us. Each of us, in fact, might be wearing a defensive layer of some other identity. Jesus wants us to take that off, just like he wants the drug dealers and the tax collectors and the roman soldiers and the pimps and the car prowlers to take off their wolves’ clothing and let him care for them and lead them through the narrow gate to abundant life.
This is, I think, the most important part of today’s gospel: I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.
What is this abundant life? Life where we don’t have to put on wolf’s clothing. Life where a community of Jesus’ friends and followers like we have here looks, perhaps, like the community we hear about in this morning’s reading from Acts. It is in today’s reading from Acts that we get a concise definition of what it means to be church, what sets us apart from any other kind of community or service provider.
Those who had been baptized devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers. There we are! Right in the Book of Acts. We all renewed our baptismal vows at the Easter Vigil (and if you missed it, we’ll do it again on Pentecost, which is May 24), and we promised to continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers. This is what we do as baptized Christians. This is church. On Sunday evenings at Hope & Bread, we break bread, we share a bit about how broken bread connects us with others who are broken around the world and across the centuries. We invite people to share their prayers. That is church. (Also, this afternoon we’re celebrating our 2nd anniversary at Hope & Bread, and you’re all invited.)
Sometimes, the apostles’ teaching comes in the form of words, like the words of scripture we hear each Sunday. Sometimes it comes in the form of radical inclusion, sharing a meal, and the healing power of love that just might help people take off their wolves’ clothing. Abundant life.
All who believed were together and had all things in common. They would sell their possessions and distribute the proceeds to anyone who needed anything. They shared responsibility, vision, and hope. It is exhausting and dangerous to live outside, especially alone. And it can be exhausting and dangerous to feel alone in our ministry or our care for people who are struggling. I wish it were not so, but when I look around, I see that our world, and especially our country, has the appearance of a dumpster fire right now. Escaping that is not what church is about. Looking for light, looking for glimmers of hope, is what we’re about. One of the things we must hold in common if we are to be a sustainable community is our care for the world around us, our shared responsibility, vision, and hope for God’s sheep whose defensive layers—wolves’ clothing—cause them to harm themselves or others. That is church.
Day by day, they broke bread at home and ate with glad and generous hearts. Every day. Abundant life is life infused with joy and generosity every day, not just in this place, not just on Sunday mornings. Church is an inside job. And day by day, every day, God added to their number those who were being saved. God does it, and we don’t define what being saved looks like. All we need to do is show up for our common life with glad and generous hearts and take off our wolf’s clothing.
