On this Fourth Sunday of Easter, as we bask in the glory of the Resurrection, many Christians continue to be preoccupied with the Empty Tomb.  We hang on to the memories of the lillies that graced our sanctuary on Eastern morning.  We take delight in once more being able to sing “Alleluiahs!” in our hymns and anthems.  But there is much more to the story of Easter than the splendor of the Empty Tomb, the fragrance of the Easter lillies, and the trumpet sounds of “Alleluiahs.”

In fact, if you take a look at the stained-glass windows on the south side of the sanctuary, you will see there – in the third window from the back – a wonderful vision of these symbols of the Resurrection – the empty tomb, the angel, the Easter lilly, and the golden trumpets of heaven above. 

Back in 1990, at the time of the Centennial celebrations here at Trinity, these stained glass windows were added to this sanctuary.  According to the pamphlet issued at that time, these six windows were intended to highlight the “sweep of the Christian year,” beginning with Advent and Christmas on the north side; then continuing with Epiphany, Lent/Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost on the south side.  Each window was designed with a major theme and a minor theme.  The major themes are obvious in the upper part of each window, whereas the minor themes reflect a few of the numerous “I am …” statements found in the Gospel of John. 

Looking to the north side of the sanctuary, we see that the minor theme for the Advent window is taken from John 6:35, “I am the bread of life.”  Then, in the Christmas window, the minor theme comes from John 8:12, “I am the light of the world.”  Turning to the south side of the sanctuary, the Epiphany window proclaims the words of John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd.” Then, the Lent/Holy Week window offers “I am the true vine,” taken from John 15:5.  Finally, in the Easter window, we have the saying “I am the resurrection and the life,” from John 11:25.  By the way, the last window – symbolizing Pentecost – offers us the logo of the Presbyterian church (U.S.A.) instead of another “I am …” saying from the Gospel of John.  In effect, the PC(USA) logo offers a “We are …” saying to complement Jesus’s “I am …” sayings.

At this point, some of you may be puzzled as to what a tour of the sanctuary windows has to do with the title for this morning’s sermon.  But, I suspect, others of you are way ahead of me  . . . and already have it figured out!

Well, my first problem this morning is reconciling two of the “I am …” statements found within the windows here in the sanctuary.  First, we have the Epiphany window with the “I am the good shepherd…” statement from John 10:11 that began our Gospel reading a few minutes ago.  According to the Centennial pamphlet,

 

Probably no other image has been used more in Christian art to embody the actions and teachings of Jesus than that of a compassionate herdsman who carefully watches over those in his care.  Christ in this scene holds a small lamb and one is reminded of the shepherd who seeks out the lost little ones gone astray.

On the other hand, for the Easter window, we have Jesus proclaiming “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).  Again, according to the Centennial pamphlet,

 

The standing lamb bearing the cross emblazoned banner of victory came to signify very early in Christian art the resurrected Christ.  The lamb is called the Agnus Dei, Latin for the “Lamb of God.” This imagery of the sacrificial lamb was most important for the early church as they viewed Christ’s death in the light of the Passover – the night in Israel’s history where the death of the lamb meant life for their ancestors.  Early Christians would say in the eucharistic liturgy, “Christ is our Passover.”  Recalling also the imagery from the Book of Revelation, Christ is the Lamb who is crowned in glory (Rev. 21:22-26).  His divinity is noted by the nimbus [the circle around the head of the lamb].  The banner he carries is a swallow-tailed pennon and the staff has a cross on top.

     So, here in our sanctuary windows we have the symbols of shepherd and lamb together in the Epiphany window and the symbol of the sacrificial but victorious lamb in the Easter window.  But it is not that simple.  Whenever Jesus is involved with us human beings, there is a twist in the story, there is a paradox:  Jesus is our shepherd, but Jesus also is the Lamb sacrificed for the sins of the multitude.

As Christians, we believe in the reality of this paradox.  In the metaphorical language of the 23^rd Psalm, which the choir celebrated in this morning’s anthem, we call upon Jesus as our shepherd and see ourselves as his sheep. We then go on to lay claim to Jesus’ words in John’s Gospel, as we heard them in this morning’s Gospel Lesson: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. . . . I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.”

          The phrase “good shepherd” requires a bit of explanation.  The Greek word for “good” [kalos] is a multi-purpose term, conveying the sense of “beautiful,” “excellent,” “virtuous,” and even of “fitting,” “useful,” and “serviceable.” In the particular passages here in John 10:11 and 10:14, the word expresses the absolute claim of Jesus to uniqueness.  [ho poimnē ho kalos] The true shepherd is the one who really has a right to the title.  The basis of this “right” is the fact that he gives his life for the flock.  He overcomes the wolf and saves the sheep from being lost.  He takes up his people into common fellowship with God, a fellowship or community based on knowing and trusting one another.  So, Jesus becomes the true shepherd – beautiful, competent, worthy of praise, ultimately “good.”  This sense of the “beauty of Jesus” remains with us today in our Presbyterian Hymnal, especially in #306, “Fairest Lord Jesus,” a hymn that dates back to the late seventeenth century.  The sense of “fairest” in the hymn has nothing to do with “justice” and everything to do with “beauty,” as the words proclaim:

 

Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all nature,

O Thou of God to earth come down,

Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor,

Thou, my soul's glory, joy, and crown.

 

Fair are the meadows, Fairer still the woodlands,

Robed in the blooming garb of spring:

Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer,

Who makes the woeful heart to sing.

 

Fair is the sunshine, Fairer still the moonlight,

And all the twinkling, starry host:

Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer,

Than all the angels heaven can boast.

 

But, remember the paradox – Jesus is both shepherd and lamb, the one who cares for the flock and the one who suffered for the multitude.  The “beautiful” shepherd also is the “beautiful” sacrifice – the “excellent,” “virtuous,” “fitting,” “useful,” and “serviceable” sacrifice.  This is not a shepherd who fails to take full responsibility for his flock.  This is not a shepherd who lies down on the job, but a “beautiful shepherd” who lays down his life for the flock.

          Now, this brings us to another problem in dealing with the symbols in the sanctuary windows and in the Gospel of John.  In the Epiphany window, we witness Jesus carrying a little lamb, presumably the lost sheep – as in the parable found in Luke 15:4.  I am sure that you recall the question,

“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” 

Yet, the reference at the base of the Epiphany window is to this morning’s lectionary passage – John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd.” – not to an Epiphany text!

          So, when we see this window and its “minor theme” of Jesus holding the lamb, we should be thinking of all the sheep – that is, the whole flock.  The symbolism is not just about Jesus and one of the sheep which he saved from disaster.  The one sheep matters because it needs to be reunited in the flock with the other ninety-nine who have remained together, presumably safe in the fold.  And, conversely, the rest of the flock remains incomplete while the one has gone missing.

          This brings me to the last piece of the puzzle.  In this morning’s lesson from John’s Gospel, we find the following proclamation:

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 (10:16).

Here it is clear that Jesus recognizes a distinction between the place – the fold – where the sheep are maintained in safety and the flock, the entire complement of sheep wandering over the landscape, seeking solace and survival “in the green pastures and in the still waters,” as we heard it expressed in the Twenty-third Psalm.

          The parallel for us is that the “fold” is rather like our church – a safe place for us to be Christians, a safe place to practice our faith, a place where the wolves, if present at all, at least must be wearing sheep’s clothing to come through the door.

          The “flock,” on the other hand, is not a place of safety but a broader community of purpose.  In congregational terms, we claim to be Christ’s “flock” to the extent that we live our Christian faith in the broader world, not just here in this building, not just here in the “fold.”  By the way, both of these words – “fold” and “flock” – go back to Old English and beyond, although the King James Version of the Bible confused their use in its translation of John 10:16.  The KJV used “fold” instead of flock, even though the original words in the Greek N.T. are distinctive. 

The word “fold” is auvlh, aule {ow-lay'}, with the meaning of an uncovered space around the house, enclosed by a wall, in which the stables stood; or a roofless enclosure by a wall, in the open country, in which the flocks were herded at night, thus, a sheepfold.  A secondary meaning of the term was as an uncovered court-yard of the house, a meaning that is retained in the Spanish word for a school classroom, (el) aula.

 So, we need to be careful – as the translators of the KJV of the Bible failed to be – in misappropriating the term “fold” for the broader and more significant term “flock.”

          After all, it is the “flock” that matters to Jesus.  He makes very clear that “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.”  So, Jesus has a wider claim on humankind that any specific “fold,” even our own here at Trinity or in the entire Presbyterian Church!  He goes on to say, “I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.”  Note the use of the strong word “must.”  And if we intend to act on behalf of our Lord and Savior in this world, then it becomes necessary that we, also, must bring them in to know their shepherd.  And then Jesus proclaims the reason, the necessity, for this openness: “So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”

          Jesus is not interested in protecting one “fold” or another “fold” – after all, the “fold” is just the enclosure for the sheep, it is not the sheep themselves!  In the same way, God is not concerned about protecting one congregation or even an entire denomination against disaster and demise.  If we take seriously the message that God “has other sheep that do not belong to this fold,” then we also must recognize that we do not have an exclusive claim to knowing what God intends for all of humankind.

We need to remember that our Christian faith, as transmitted through the stained glass windows in this sanctuary, is not just about us as the sheep – individually or collectively – but is about how we worship God through the year, from Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany to Lent, Easter, and Pentecost – year after liturgical year.  As Christians, we must understand that first comes the shepherd, and then comes the flock, and lastly comes the fold. 

Let me be very clear what I understand John’s Gospel to mean: First place belongs to God; second place is reserved for the “flock,” all of the people that Jesus “must bring” into the community of faith; and finally, way down in last place, comes the “fold,” the particular “safe places” (enclosures, sanctuaries) in which we as God’s people can rest from our labors in the fields.

If we take seriously this way of understanding the relationship between God, God’s people, and God’s places, then we will worry less about what goes on inside this place (this “fold”) and pay more attention to what we are doing to bring more of God’s people (the “flock”) to know their God (“the shepherd”). 

In the end, our understanding of the church in the world, our interpretation of congregation and community, our goals for Trinity Presbyterian Church here in Oak Cliff and Dallas can be reduced to a simple goal.  It is the goal for which Jesus laid down his life: “So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”  In the Greek language of the Gospel, this word sequence meant that the “shepherd” was the more important of the elements – because in Greek, the last element was considered the focus of the phrase.  Of course, in modern English, we tend to give pride of place to what comes first in a sequence, rather than what comes last.

For those of you who are statistically inclined, we might say that the sheep are the “dependent variable” and the shepherd is the “independent variable.”  We depend on God, not the other way around.  So, in the end, if we are to be faithful to the Gospel, we must humble ourselves.  And we must be open to the wonderful possibilities that will come to us when we get our priorities straight, joining together with the broader community of believers to proclaim, “One shepherd, one flock.” 

 Amen.

 © 2003 Robert V. Kemper (e-mail: rkemper@trinitypresdallas.org)