This 4^th Sunday of Easter has for a long while now been referred to informally as ‘Shepherd’ Sunday.  No, nothing whatsoever specifically to do with our beloved Liz, but on account of the opening words of today’s gospel!

Many moons ago now, I well recall a springtime trip to Paris with a friend, during which we hoped both to see and hear as many of the great organs of that city, of which there are many, as we possibly could.  Starting at about 0800 one  Sunday morning, we must have managed 5 or 6 churches during the course of the day, where invariably there was a Mass taking place, only to hear ‘Je suis le Bon Pasteur’ each time at the start of the gospel.  Strangely, after more than 40 years, this, rather than the music is the overriding memory of that holiday!

Whenever Jesus told one of his parables – earthly stories with heavenly meanings, to teach the people, he invariably used scenarios and metaphors with which his hearers would have been very familiar.  In days long before industrialization, economies were almost exclusively rural, and so everybody would know exactly what a shepherd was, and did.  The shepherd was absolutely essential, not only to the wellbeing of his flock, but also very often to their physical survival also, preyed upon, as they were, by wolves, who hoped for easy pickings to satisfy their hunger.

And so the opening words of today’s gospel, to which I’ve already alluded – “I am the Good Shepherd”.  Jesus describes himself thus, and then goes on at some length to explain the duties of the shepherd, as someone who not only knows his sheep, but is also recognised and trusted by them, so that they will respond to his voice and follow him – no reference to any sheep-dog companion, but it is highly likely nevertheless that he had one.  Jesus is very scornful of the hired hand, whose own the sheep are not, and is likely then to run away and abandon his flock at the first sign of danger, rather than risk his own life fighting off quite possibly a whole pack of wolves.  The Good Shepherd must be prepared to love his sheep sufficiently to lay down his life for them, which is of course exactly what this Easter season is all about.  Jesus gave himself up to death on a cross for ourredemption, and then rose from the dead, thereby destroying death itself and giving to us the promise and hope of eternal life in him.  He goes on to explain that he does this willinglyand not under duress – “I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again” must surely refer to the Resurrection!

Then we come to the phrase, “I have other sheep, who do notbelong to this fold – them also I must bring, so that they toowill listen to my voice and there will be one flock and one shepherd!”

Now, some of you might be beginning to see a problem.  Christianity has always been a ‘proselytising’ religion – that is, one which seeks to convert others to its beliefs, and of course, down through history this has caused a very great deal of trouble.  One of the first objectives of any colonising power was to convert the natives to Christianity, by fair means or foul.  Sometimes of course this would involve bloodshed and torture – we have no need to look any further than the Spanish Inquisition of the Middle Ages to know just how cruel Christians could be in their zeal to ‘promote the faith’, and after the Reformation it became Catholic against Protestant.  Even in England, as religious polarities swung from one extreme to the other with a change of monarch, any number of people were burnt at the stake or hung, drawn and quartered for their faith.  How many of us would be prepared to follow Our Lord in this way – I hope you’ll forgive me if I suspect that we’d all fail and like Peter, betray him when the pressure was on!  However, we might take heart from the idea that none of us knows just to what degree of bravery we might be capable until the chips are down – the Church always seems to be at its strongest when under persecution, from the time of the Roman Empire to the present day!

That brings us to confront to what degree ought we to be trying to ‘proselytise’ and bring people of other faiths and none to ‘the Church of Christ’?  Islam has always felt itself particularly threatened in this way, as is borne out by the Crusades in the Middle Ages.  Things though have really boiled over during our own lifetime – most dramatically with the events of ‘9/11’, which brought the matter to the very forefront of public awareness.  For far too long ‘the West’ has sought to exert its will over Moslem peoples, and interfere in the running of their countries and their own affairs, brought about assuredly by the existence of oil on their territories. Not only have we striven to impose our religion, but also our so-called ‘democracy’ upon people who are clearly unsuited to such things.  One has only to look at the countries of the Middle East, Africa and Asia to see just how misguided this has been.  Thailand has struggled, and never really managed to take on what we would consider a true democracy – nepotism, greed and corruption seem always to trump any sense of fairness, and the idea that all human beings are supposedly created equal.

But I digress – to what extent then should we be seeking to ‘convert’ people?  In the light of what I’ve just been saying, how are we as Christians to set about trying to follow Our Lord’s command?  My own stance has always been to answer questions about my faith when asked, and to explain to the best of my ability what is involved in the Christian life, but I would never go further and even suggest that they might like to be baptised.  My Mick used to ask lots of questions about ‘the faith’, but then he got severely ticked off by his younger sister, herself an extremely devout Buddhist, who obviously feared that her brother, always a practising Buddhist and strangely, a better Christian in many ways than am I,  was drifting away,  and in danger of being ‘converted’!  How willing are we all to do what we can to ‘spread the word’, without overstepping the mark, and making the same grave error as our ancestors?  Have we the courage to speak up for Jesus Christ, or are we very careful to put our faith on the back burner and make no reference to it whatsoever outside of our own little worshipping community here in Pattaya?    This is the challenge for each and every one of us in today’s gospel – to try to ‘lead the horse to the water’.  Whether or not it will then chose to drink must remain to be seen.  Let us pray that God will indeed cause some seed to fall upon good ground and not all be choked off by the thorns and thistles.  Priests are also described as ‘pastors’, but am I in any shape or form a ‘good’ shepherd.  All I can claim is to be at least ‘trying’ – ‘very’, I hear some of you thinking, but much dripping wears away stone.  Never underestimate your own contribution, however minor it might appear!

A story to conclude:  a mouse and an elephant crossed over a bridge together, and when they got to the other side, the mouse looked up at the elephant and proclaimed, “We made that bridge shake!”  Now the elephant may have weighed a ton and the mouse an ounce, but because the mouse went with the elephant, there was one ounce more than if the elephant had crossed over on its own, so the mouse could rightly say, “We made that bridge shake!”!  God needs our contribution, both yours and mine – it will never be too small.  Amen.