Flock Together

For "Good Shepherd Sunday," April 25, 2010

What is a witness to do? is the question we are exploring together in this Easter Season. We are witnesses to the risen Lord: That is what we proclaim on Easter Sunday: "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, Alleluia!" The life of Jesus changed everything for the first disciples. In the company of Jesus they experienced the presence and the power of the living God. And then he was killed. And then, they experienced his presence after death. They were witnesses of the presence and power of the Christ and as witnesses they were obliged to tell others how they have seen the Lord.
These miracle stories from the Acts of the Apostles proclaim that the power that was in Jesus is now in the church. It isn't Peter who raises Tabitha, but the power of Christ working through the church that raises Tabitha as Jesus raised Jairus's dauthter. "Talitha, get up," Jesus said. "Tabitha, get up," Peter said. And the miracles that Jesus accomplished echoed back to the stories of Elijah, the prophet. The raising of Dorcas/Tabitha is a testimony that the presence of God which has always been at work in the world continues through the church.
The Acts of the Apostles also testifies that being part of the church meant being subject to suffering. The church endured persecution from the start, and we know from multiple sources that the persecution of Christians and Jews intensified after the Roman-Jewish war. The gospel according to John and the Revelation both arose out of this period of intense persecution.
This is important. To read scripture without an inkling of the experience of the writer and the intended audience is like listening to half of a phone conversation, without knowing who is on the other end of the line. Context matters.
When we hear Jesus say, in the gospel of John (and only in the gospel of John, Jesus doesn't say anything like this in the other three gospels), "You do not believe, because you do not belong to the sheep," it is vital to know that John was not addressing a congregation full of prominent, privileged citizens of the Empire. John was addressing a people who were under siege, a people who were forced into hiding, a people who were as likely to wake up in jail as to wake up at all. John's gospel is about comforting believers, confirming their faith, and assuring them-- during a period of intense persecution of the church-- that though they suffer, their suffering is not evidence of God's abandonment, or of their failure to believe strongly enough or correctly. My sheep hear my voice (I know them) and (they) follow me. In other words, because you belong to the flock, you believe.
We need each other. When our faith founders, when we wonder if there is any point to this life at all, when we are moved to shout with the psalmist and with the crucified Jesus, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me," we need the church to believe for us, and to assure us again, that God is for us, God is with us, and God will be with us always.
What is a witness to do? Flock together, and follow the Christ. Even when the way leads through suffering, follow the Christ. Stick together, help one another. Come together regularly to drink from the streams of the water of life. Feed the lambs. Carry the old sheep. And follow.