May 11, 2025: Following the Shepherd

Fourth Sunday of Easter

New Testament Reading: Acts 9: 36-43
The Gospel:    John 10: 22-30

I get up at 4 am most weekday mornings in order to prepare for school and church. I have a routine - get up, brush my teeth, get the coffee started and then walk the dog using his glowing leash to light the way in the darkness. The other morning as I turned the corner to the road behind our home, something caught my eye in the sky - a shooting star. It had been at least a decade since I had seen one, they are so rare yet there it was, ever so briefly just for me and Beau to see. It was one of those Wow! Thank you God moments. 

While shooting stars are rare, there are other aspects of the night sky that are more constant, like the North Star, Polaris, which sits above the Earth’s North Pole and is always visible in the Northern Hemisphere, even though it is not the brightest star. Because it is always visible, it is used in navigation whether by sea or land to find North. Its guaranteed presence is often considered a sign of hope and stability. 

In the busyness and craziness of life, in a world where there sometimes seems to be more division than unity, more war than peace, it is nice to have a constant like the North Star to look up to. We need something that will not change, that we can count on to guide us. 

For people of faith, God is our North Star. Amid the chaos of the world, God is a constant, the shepherd leading us. While the politics and challenges of the day or the decade or even the century will pass, God will remain and will be visible to us, like the North Star if we only look with our hearts. 

In our John scripture today it is the Festival of Dedication, Hanukkah, and the Jews have gathered around Jesus seeking answers to their question - is Jesus the Messiah who will usher in a time of peace and justice? Jesus answers them, “I have told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my father’s name testify to me, but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me,” he tells them.

 It’s not that Jesus was not open to adding more sheep to his flock, it is that, those asking the question had the evidence before them already- the works that Jesus had done such as healing the sick, helping the blind to see and the lame to walk- and yet they still had to ask the question. The things that he did and the lessons he taught such as to love your neighbor and your enemy were about peace and justice. However,  they could not see Jesus as the North Star because they just did not look up. They could not follow that Shepherd because they did not look with their hearts as well as their eyes to see that the Messiah was right in front of them.

Psalm 23, often read at Celebrations of Life, offers a comforting image of God as the shepherd leading her sheep to a place of beauty and rest. We often use it as a heavenly image - our final place of rest in a green field beside a beautiful lake, where God spreads out a delicious picnic and we know that we can relax and be safe taking in all of the beauty and tranquility. This is certainly a beautiful way to envision our final rest under God’s sheltering love.

And while this is a comforting final image, we don’t need to wait until death to feel God’s presence calming us, reassuring us, and inviting us to take a breath and rest. Let’s take a closer look at the words of Psalm 23 using Eugene Peterson’s The Message translation. It begins like this:
 God, my shepherd!
    I don’t need a thing.

Or in the original - “I shall not want” - while this world often makes us feel that he who has the most stuff wins, if we think about it, we know that is not true. While we have needs such as food, water, safety, and shelter, most of us here have those met. Anything else is extra. If we center ourselves on God the Shepherd, our constant North Star, then we realize we already have what we need. And if we have more, we are called to be like the Shepherd God, sharing our extras with others. 

The psalm goes on:
You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
    you find me quiet pools to drink from.
True to your word,
    you let me catch my breath
    and send me in the right direction.

Whether it is the rest of a good night’s sleep or a walk in the woods, neighborhood or garden, taking the time to pause - that time of rest - of quiet in nature or inside does let us catch our breath and does restore our souls - equipping us to deal with the challenges that we will have to face in this world. Taking our time in that lush meadow, ski slope, or garden bench is God’s way of helping us reset so we can keep going. 

Life will have its challenges as the next portion of the Psalm reminds us but we never face these challenges alone:


Even when the way goes through
    Death Valley,
I’m not afraid
    when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd’s crook
    makes me feel secure.

God walks with us - guiding us and protecting us through dark moments and days whether from illness, sadness or struggle. We just need to make room and time to stop, listen and feel God’s reassuring, protective presence or even to get help from the Angels God sends into our lives to help shepherd us through those dark days. 

You serve me a six-course dinner
    right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head;
    my cup brims with blessing.

God provides sustenance for our bodies and souls, courage to face those who oppose us and energy in the form of blessings to keep us going. 

Peterson’s translation of Psalm 23 ends with:

Your beauty and love chase after me
    every day of my life.
I’m back home in the house of God
    for the rest of my life.

I particularly love the image of the beauty of God, of God’s people and God’s earth chasing after us - supporting us,  inspiring us, energizing us, and reminding us that we are always loved just as we are and we are never alone. We can feel the presence of God right now, while we are still living, this place too, this earth is God’s house, not just Heaven above. 

 Jesus is our Shepherd who reminds us that we need to take time to rest and refuel in order to get through the good days and the hard ones. Like a good shepherd, God has our backs, standing guard as we rest, strengthening us. God as creator of our Mother Earth has given us everything we will ever need as well as the role model of Jesus the Shepherd in how to care for it and all people. 

You might be at a place in your life where you need to sit down beside that quiet pool, looking at the pink azaleas and purple rhododendrons in bloom, watching the hummingbirds and bees get sustenance from this beauty. You might need to reach into the picnic basket for some bread, cheese and grapes, to just breathe it all in. If so, enjoy that time of renewal. 

If life is challenging and you feel like you are walking through Death Valley, reach out through your heart and feel God’s presence taking your hand and leading you to the oasis where you will be refreshed.

And if you have rested up and been nourished by God’s bread, living water and the beauty of Mother Earth, and can now clearly see God as the North Star guiding you, then take the staff that God is reaching out to you and use it to guide and protect some of God’s other sheep. 

That is what Peter did when he finally got to work after Jesus’ resurrection and his third visit to his disciples. He got out of his fishing boat and began teaching and preaching, healing and saving. When he was called to Joppa after the disciple Tabitha’s death, he went realizing that her work on earth was not done. God still needed her to do her good works and acts of charity: feeding his flock and Peter’s raising her from the dead was another way to both keep that going and to expand the flock because when this became known throughout Joppa, many believed. 

Our lives have many cycles and God is with us through each one: sometimes we need God to carry us,  sometimes we just need God’s hand to lift us up and get us moving, sometimes we follow behind and sometimes, God asks us to be her presence on earth: a North Star of loving kindness that can bring more sheep to those lush meadows and quiet pools. Amen. 

Pastor Michelle Fountain

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