St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
Easter 4C: May 11, 2025
Acts 9:36-43; John 10:22-30
Last week we witnessed an intimate conversation between Peter and the resurrected Jesus. Three times Peter responded to Jesus’ questioning about his love for him in the affirmative. Each time, Jesus responded to Peter with call-to-action commands, “Feed my lambs;” “tend my sheep;” “feed my sheep” (Jn 21:15-17). In our first reading in Acts, we witness Peter doing just that. In the verses just before this passage[1], Peter had healed the paralytic, Aeneas, in Lydda, with the words, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed.” That healing brought all of the residents of Lydda and Sharon to the Lord.
Many of us have heard the saying, “it’s not about what you know, but who you know.” Peter, along with the other apostles, were certainly in the know—they knew Jesus and they knew that he had been resurrected. After many years of navigating corporate networking circles, I’m convinced that the power of anyone’s impact is rooted not in what you know, or who you know, but who knows you. Who knows you long after you are out of sight? Who knows about you, through a third party, having never met you?
This is what happened in the passage in the ninth chapter of Acts. Peter’s healing of the paralytic in Lydda increased awareness about the works he had been empowered to manifest in Jesus’ name. Something tragic had happened in Joppa. As a result, the disciples in Joppa sent two men to bring Peter from Lydda, which was nearby. The illness and death of a disciple by the name of Tabitha had compelled those with hope in the resurrection of Jesus to find Peter who was still nearby in Lydda.
The disciple, Tabitha, was described as one who was devoted to good works and acts of charity. As a disciple of Jesus, Tabitha’s care for others was an expression of feeding Jesus’ lambs, and tending and feeding his sheep. Tabitha was Jesus’ beloved sheep—a sheep that heard his voice and followed him. The holy action of tending Jesus’ precious sheep, Tabitha, even after her life had ended, manifested through the disciples who sent for Peter; through the weeping widows who honored their beloved friend by showing Peter the clothing that Tabitha had made; and through the holy action of preparing Tabitha’s body for burial.
The disciples sent for the Apostle Peter because they knew that there was a reality greater than death, and that Peter, witness to the resurrected Jesus could, by his actions, bring forth belief in that new reality in others. In the midst of the dark cloud of death, the disciples shared the understanding that death was not the final answer.
Having cleared the room, Peter knelt down, prayed and turned toward the body. Peter commanded the deceased disciple by name saying, “Tabitha, get up,” and she did. Peter then restored Tabitha to her community by showing her to be fully alive to the saints and widows present. The resuscitation of Tabitha brought many to belief in the Lord AND it was the means by which relationships were restored from brokenness to wholeness.
By contrast, our Gospel passage in John takes place before Jesus’ crucifixion and underscores the human factor in rejecting Jesus’ sheepfold with the exchange between Jesus and the Jews in the temple. The Jews demanded that Jesus tell them plainly that he was the Messiah. Jesus said, “I have told you, and you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep” (v. 26). The Jews in Jesus’ presence were deaf to the voice of Jesus. According to Jesus, his previously spoken words, attesting to his identity, had not brought the Jews to belief. The Jews, also, did not believe the works that Jesus did in his Father’s name because they were blinded by their unbelief. Belonging to Jesus’ sheepfold, and belief in the good shepherd of that sheepfold, are inextricably entangled.
Jesus died on the cross once for all for the salvation of the world. While there are people in the world who, when Jesus calls to them by name into a new life of abundance, liberation and healing, their response, like the Jews in the temple, is rejection. The good news is that spiritual deafness and blindness need not be spiritually-terminal conditions.
As comfort seekers, human beings often look for lasting comfort from people and things of this temporal world—which, by their very nature, are passing away. But what will not pass away is Jesus’ eternal Words. In all three of the synoptic gospels, Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”[2]
When people find themselves in the low places of life, the danger is not the low valley; the danger is getting stuck in the valley paralyzed by the cacophony of human voices. The danger is the inability to focus on listening intently for the only voice that speaks in and through the soul—the only voice that is life-giving and soul liberating. The voice of our Good Shepherd, Jesus.
As the body of Christ in the world. The Church is the beacon of Christ’s light in this dark world, uniquely providing souls that seek, and souls that suffer, sacred space in which ears and hearts may be inclined to the voice that calls his own by name. It is this voice of Jesus, the good shepherd, that cuts across the many manifestations of death. It is this voice of Jesus that calls all souls into unity with God through him—both the sheep of his fold and those who do not, yet, belong to the fold—so that there will be one flock, under the one good shepherd who laid down his life to conquer death; and took his life up again so that all may have eternal life in God.
As 21st century disciples, we must take seriously our responsibility to imitate Christ, the good shepherd, in order to lead the suffering from the spiritually-terminal condition of faithlessness to the spiritually-enlivened condition of faithfulness. We who are baptized into Christ’s body carry the burden of salvation, to help bring the condition of faithfulness about.
The life of the faithful is not about showing up on Sunday to maintain a routine. The life of the faithful is a constant exercise in building spiritual muscle memory through soul searching, truth-telling, vulnerability, trust and accountability to God, to others and to oneself. On this Mothers’ Day, I am reminded of my beloved mother’s words which she inscribed on my ordination gift. She wrote, “Continue to follow Jesus and your path will always be clear.” May the Lord so incline our ears, and hearts, to instinctively recognize Jesus’ loving voice, calling us each by name, as we follow where Jesus leads, on the path that He has cleared for each one of his beloved. Amen.
[1] Acts 9:32-35
[2] Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33 (NRSV)
