Rector's Sermon
15 May 2011

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Acts 2:42–47	Psalm 23	1 Peter 2:19–25	John 10:1–10

       I’ve never felt entirely comfortable with the analogy of Jesus as a shepherd and we disciples as a flock of sheep. While at the end of many a church meeting I’ve wanted to say, “Baa, baa, baa,” I’ve rarely thought of you or me as just as one of a herd. We like to think of ourselves as bright, independent thinking individuals who can assume responsibility and accept challenges. Yet behind the shepherd and sheep images in today’s Gospel is likely the greater and quite serious concern over the evil, bad leaders can cause. It’s never been a new problem. In Jesus’ time there was a succession of self-proclaimed messiahs and would-be liberators from Roman rule. They whipped their followers up into frenzy and usually led them out to confront the Roman army, thinking God would intervene and send armies of reinforcements to defeat the Romans. What happened, of course, was that the professional and well-equipped Roman army had no mercy and slaughtered them. Some of us can remember the tragedy at Jonestown or Waco, Texas where trusting and sincere people were bewitched, as it were, and led to their death. This decade has been overshadowed by the notoriety of Osama Bin Laden, but history makes it clear that bad leaders may arise in any culture, religion, ethnic group or social class and the result is far reaching sorrow and lasting tragedy.

      I recommend renting or downloading, if you have not already seen it, a film entitled “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.” This is not a film for grade school or younger children, and don’t view it when you are feeling depressed. It is an excellent film of how an especially evil leader can drag down large numbers of people and cause them to go mad with hate. The plot centers on a boy whose father is in Hitler’s military. The father and his family are moved to a new post, out in the country far from the front lines. They take up residence in a beautiful chateau. Out a second story window across a narrow patch of trees the boy spies another boy about his own age sitting on the other side of a barbed wire fence. He sneaks out and befriends the boy. The boys don’t realize what we quickly deduce. The boy in the striped pajamas is a prisoner in a death camp, and the other boy’s father is the new commandant. As unbelievable the initial set-up is, the script does not make the characters into caricatures. The horror is greater because the family, the wife, sister, father and boy are so ordinary and normal at first.  Yet soon, they all become sucked into and trapped in a vicious whirlpool, not realizing it. The film doesn’t fall into the obvious stereotypes and it is all the scarier how easily evil can seduce you, just a little bit at a time. Again the film is called “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.”

       Jesus warns us to be on our guard for leaders who are wolves in sheep’s clothing, bad leaders deceptively disguised as good. Disciples need to be well educated on ways to distinguish between good leaders and bad ones. As always, Jesus set the example. Jesus welcomed questions. Jesus didn’t put people like Thomas down. Jesus didn’t compel followers to have homogenous opinions. Jesus accepted reservations. The disciples were never molded into lock-step conformity. Think how different they all were — Mary, Martha, Peter, Thomas, and Mary Magdalene. They were quite an independent group, not a uniform flock. Jesus did insist that they show respect for their differences, a reason he scolded them for arguing among themselves over who was the greatest and most deserving of prestige.

       Jesus wants us to come closer, to listen, to reflect and to wrestle with his teaching. Jesus encourages us to think in terms of metaphors such as going on a journey or embarking on a pilgrimage.  Jesus is comfortable with a process of learning and venturing into greater truth rather than insisting that we have to arrive at a definite destination. Jesus respected the pace of the individual disciples, and never beat them into a narrow conformity.  Jesus is not a jailor and we are not his prisoners.

       So I’m sorry, I don’t know my animals that well, so I don’t see disciples as a flock or herd of any of them. I picture Jesus making breakfast along the seashore, or breaking bread at an evening meal in Emmaus or in a room in Jerusalem. Yes, I could see Jesus as a welcoming matre‘d at a nice restaurant or the chef at our parish breakfast, for Jesus feeds our minds. Jesus expands our minds and doesn’t put them on a restricted diet; a healthy diet, maybe, but never a bland one with tofu or broccoli and that’s no baa, baa, baa. 

       And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.