4 Easter, Yr C (2025) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
4 Easter, Year C (2025) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Acts 9:36-43 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Revelation 7:9-17
John 10:22-30
In the name of the one, holy, and loving God:
who is, who was, and who is to come. Amen.
Being a city girl,
I have had relatively little experience with sheep and shepherding.
Not that my life has been totally devoid of sheep…
I remember seeing sheep grazing on the hillsides of Scotland
and wandering about with the Bedouin in Palestine.
I’ve seen pictures of sheep muddling their way down the middle of the road -
as if they had the right-of-way and everyone else best move over!
I’ve watched many an episode of Shaun the Sheep,
although I don’t think that’s too helpful.
And then there’s the ever-present pastoral scene in many churches
where Jesus stands with a sheep draped across his shoulders,
with a few more standing nearby.
To add to my minimal knowledge,
I surfed the net and learned some interesting things I have not witnessed before –
things which Jesus references in today’s passage from John.
Sheep are led.
Unlike cows, they are not herded.
Cows are pushed from behind with loud noises and cracking whips.
Sheep, however, follow their shepherd,
responding to a gentle word
or a whistle
or a few notes from a pipe.
Perhaps uniquely, sheep and shepherds develop a relationship with each other.
The sheep learn to recognize the voice of their shepherd,
trusting to follow where the shepherd leads
because the shepherd will not go into a place of danger.
If danger does arise,
the shepherd will step between the danger and the sheep,
putting the shepherd’s own life at risk.
One of the images I saw that struck me the most
was that of several flocks of sheep gathering together at dusk
at the same watering hole.
All the sheep intermingle with one another at one place of refreshment,
and where one came from doesn’t matter.
As soon as the shepherd decides it is time to go,
they will issue their call,
and only that shepherd’s sheep will follow.
They separate out from the rest of the sheep
and follow wherever their shepherd leads,
knowing they will be led to sources of life.
In today’s Gospel, as Jesus walks through the portico of Solomon,
the Jews gather around and ask when he will plainly tell them if he is the Messiah.
Jesus tells them that he has already spoken plainly through his life –
through what he has said
and through what he has done.
Jesus then says, “You do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice.
I know them,
and they follow me.”
Now, with this background of the intimate relationship between sheep and shepherd,
I want to turn our attention to today’s story in Acts.
In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, who became ill and died.
The disciples who were with her had heard that Peter was in a neighboring town,
so they sent for him.
As far as we know, all that they said to him was, “Please come to us without delay.”
And Peter got up and went.
Peter simply got up and went.
How remarkable!
If someone asked you to come over immediately,
wouldn’t you want to know what was going on?
And, did Peter know he was going to the next town over?
It’s not like he could just hop in a car and pop over.
This visit required stopping whatever he was doing,
or had planned to do in the coming days
and taking a journey to another town.
So, with no apparent information, Peter got up and went with these men without delay.
He heard a call…
and followed.
Peter arrives at the house to find many grieving widows who showed him all the tunics and other clothing that Tabitha had made.
We don’t know, but perhaps Tabitha was the life-source for these widows.
Widows were at the mercy of their deceased husband’s family,
and if there were no family,
they had nothing.
Perhaps Tabitha had taken them in and provided for them –
or at the very least had made their clothing.
So, having surveyed the scene,
Peter puts everyone out of the house,
and then he kneels down and prays.
Why does he put everyone out of the house?
Is he afraid that he may not be able to raise her from the dead,
and if he can’t, he doesn’t want everyone watching him?
Or, does he put everyone out so that,
in silence,
he can listen to the voice of God?
We don’t know.
After he prays, he turns toward her body and says, “Tabitha, get up.”
And she opens her eyes and sits up!
Now, there seems to be a whole load of shepherding going on in this story…
shepherding in the sense of the relationship between Shepherd and sheep…
a relationship of guidance, listening, compassion, protection, and Life!
This group of disciples,
when confronted with the death of one of their companions,
calls in someone else – Peter – to come pray with them in their time of need.
Peter responds twice to the voice of God speaking to him.
The first time is when he immediately leaves whatever he is doing
to follow where the disciples lead him.
The second time Peter listens to the voice of God
is when he puts everyone out of the house and kneels down and prays.
I imagine that his response to listening to God in prayer was to speak the words:
“Tabitha, get up.”
“Tabitha, get up” were words of new life…
words of resurrection in the midst of darkness and death.
The disciples, the grieving widows, and even Tabitha herself
heard words of resurrection in their lives.
I wonder:
When has some spoken a word of resurrection to us?
When has someone brought us the hope of new life?
Have we allowed others to do this for us?
Or, to turn the question the other direction:
When is it that we have turned toward “death” and spoken a word of resurrection?
We, too, can speak words of resurrection when we speak words of encouragement…
when we walk along with others on a journey of pain or confusion or fear.
In this life we live,
we all have times when we walk through dark valleys,
yet we have a loving God who walks with us
and guides us to springs of the water of life.
Sometimes we need to be taken by the hand and lifted up.
Sometimes we are the one who is offering our hand to another.
The Good News is that our shepherd is nearby…
can you hear the voice:
the sweet, melodious, strong, constant voice of the One who loves us…
the One who guides and protects us…
the One who leads us to new life?
And, God not only calls us to abundant life
but calls us to share the Good News of that abundant life with others,
speaking words of resurrection and new life in this broken and hurting world.
Amen.
