Sunday: 4th Sunday of Easter
Reading: John 10:10-18
Preacher: S. James Steen

We all know the expression "Familiarity breeds contempt." When you've been ordained as long as I have, there are Sundays that bring the phrase to mind. Today, Good Shepherd Sunday, is one of them for me. In my 40th year as a priest, I ask myself, "How many new thoughts can I have about this tired metaphor?" So, I've been on a search for new metaphors for Jesus this week, metaphors more apt for the 21st Century and for urban life; and I've tried putting these metaphors in the mouth of Jesus to check out how they sound. "I am the good teacher, the good physician, the good therapist." "I am the good mentor, the good friend, the good judge." "I am the good banker, the good chef, the good social worker, the good community organizer." Frankly they all leave me a bit cold. Each may touch some aspect of who Jesus is, but none comes close to being adequate to describe the whole person.

Peter Gomes, the Harvard preacher, who struggles with this image in much the same way that I do, reminds us that Good Shepherd would have been something of an oxymoron in Jesus' day.¹ Shepherds were not the kind of people who would have been welcomed into polite society, society like most of us inhabit. So Gomes suggests "I am the good migrant worker." For me, that has bite. It suggests that Jesus identified with the marginal of society before he identified with people like me.

Gomes claims that shepherds weren't only rough around the edges. They were often dishonest, the sort of people we might view with scorn from our position of moral superiority. So, he suggests another metaphor: "I am the good used car salesman." If you're like me, that's one of the least appealing images you can conjure up. I see images of a porcine fellow with slicked back hair, wearing a cheap, shiny suit. I wonder what metaphors for Jesus occur to you? Think about it, and if you email them to me, I'll publish the list.

Even the Bible uses a variety of metaphors to describe Jesus: Savior, Redeemer, Lord, Shepherd, Man, Son of Man, Servant, Mediator, and Messiah come right to mind. And each of these names points to one or more aspects of who Jesus is, but none of them, alone, is able to capture the whole. It may surprise you to know that Thomas Aquinas, the Medieval theologian, dealt with the metaphor challenge by writing that "We see the necessity of giving to God many names."²

What happens when we settle on too few and too narrow metaphors may be seen in the results of the disturbing Pew Research Center poll published earlier this week that shows a clear link between people's views of Jesus and God and their views on torture. Basically, the poll shows that Christian Evangelicals are more likely than any other group surveyed to condone the use of torture to gain crucial information from enemies, with well over half supporting this approach under certain conditions.

What do you think are those people's primary metaphors for Jesus and God? I doubt whether Prince of Peace would appear high on their list; but what about Judge, Vindicator, or Warrior? And we should be careful about making a "them versus us" division here. Although people affiliated with mainline groups, like Episcopalians, Lutherans, and Presbyterians, were less likely than other religious groups to condone torture, a shocking percentage nevertheless does condone it under certain circumstances.³ The glorification of the cross, an instrument of torture, can easily become twisted.

To my surprise, the more I look for alternative metaphors for Jesus, the more I am drawn back to the Good Shepherd. To begin with, when the author of John chooses this image, he is drawing on a rich Biblical tradition. Abraham, the father of the nation, was the keeper of flocks. Moses was tending flocks when God called him to confront Pharaoh, the oppressor. David was a shepherd boy when called to be the King of Israel. Using the shepherd metaphor, the beloved 23rd Psalm offers an image of God as caring enough to walk beside us and feed us, and powerful enough save us from death. Isaiah speaks of the Messiah by saying: "He will feed his flock like a shepherd! He will gather his lambs into his arms." Jesus himself told the Parable of the Lost Sheep, which suggests that the ideal community is one in which every single member is viewed as having infinite value. And looking further afield, this metaphor declares that even beyond this fold there are sheep that belong to this Shepherd: the car salesman, the non-believer, and the Evangelical; perhaps everyone?

Recently we lost one of those people who was so present to this community for so many years, that I feel as if a piece of SPR is missing. Virginia Garnett was 96, and until a few months ago she sat just to my right, next to her friend Naomi Haynes every Sunday Morning at 9:15. Virginia loved this community and she was intensely interested in its people and our lives. I'll never forget the day, not too long ago, when Virginia called shortly after I walked into my office. She told me that she had seen me drive into the church parking lot. I was nonplused, as she lived in a high-rise building on 56th Street, near the lake. But sure enough, she had seen me from her apartment, and even in her 90s, she never wore glasses. Virginia was intensely human. I loved that about her. Her interest in people could lead her to wonderful acts of thoughtfulness. She wrote myriad notes to people. She remembered birthdays and other occasion in generous ways. She adored the children of this community. But like all of us, her best qualities had a shadow side, too. She could become too interested in other people's lives, and sometimes her imagination got the best of her.

So, like all of us, Virginia needed a Savior as comprehensive and inclusive as the Good Shepherd: a Savior tough enough to keep the wolves away from the flock, strong enough to lead us back home when we stray from who we are, forgiving enough to take us in his arms and reassure us; and finally a Savior clear enough about love's demands to care for the flock even to the point of laying down his life for the sheep. It's actually a great image, even for 21st Century urban America.

Amen.

¹LSTC, Peter Gomes in Currents in Theology and Mission, August, 2003: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_4_30/ai_106941566/?tag=content;col1

²Summa Contra Gentiles I, 31:4

³http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/30/religion.torture/index.html#cnnSTCText