Lectionary Gospel: John 10:11-18

Fourth Sunday after Easter, Year B

Mercy

By W. Rian Adams 

I’ve always found “Good Shepherd Sunday” a bit forced. In my experience the church uses this Sunday to show, prove even, that we are in the hands of a good God. A God who will take care of us. The message is, we are the sheep in the Christian fold and Jesus is the good shepherd. While this message is heartwarming and filled with nostalgia, it seems to overlook a small portion of the passage, the “other sheep.” It piques my curiosity. I wonder if the other sheep are, in fact, sheep because of mercy.

Traditionally the church has taught that there is one way to God. Of course, the way is through the church. The church has taught that receiving its sacraments, praying it’s prayers, or giving one’s heart to God was the means of salvation. That is how one gets into fold. The church says that the sheep fold is surrounded by precise boundaries. On one hand we have those who are “in” and on the other hand those who are “out.” This division is unfortunate.

This past week I saw a video of the Bishop of Rome embracing a young boy who suffered through the pain of his father’s death. The boy, perhaps four or five, asked the pope if his father went to heaven even though he didn’t believe in God.

Pope Francis continues to amaze me as a pastoral theologian and spiritual teacher. The boy’s father baptized all his children. The pope said this was an act of faith and should tell the boy what kind of man his father was. He went on, while the boy cried, to embrace him and tell him that it takes more faith to baptize when you don’t believe than when you do. He told the boy that his father was with God.

You can watch the video here:

Understandably traditionalists were upset because the pope didn’t hold a hard line on church doctrine. One person said, “He let the man off the hook.” One woman commented that the pope is a “heretic who used a child to promote the destruction of the church.” However, I see the pastoral exchange differently.

The pope highlights a theme that is great among the spiritual and mystical… mercy.

I’d like to use my imagination and apply the passage, not to myself, but to my treatment of others.

I do not think the passage is just a simple story about God loving us, the in-crowd.

Such a reading insults the complexity of the relationship of the shepherd and sheep of other pastures. I hear this passage as a call to be the shepherd, the Christ, to the world. If we want to follow Christ we begin by following his example and, like the pope, focusing on God’s mercy. The “other sheep” – the ones who do not met our standards of behavior and belief – need mercy too. They need someone to show compassion when they disappoint us. Jesus never ostracized a sheep, quite the contrary, he left the ninety-nine to find one. May his mercy be my guide.

If you would like to read more of my lectionary blog each week, it can be found here.