READINGS

1. John 10:27-30
2. Ezekiel 34-5

HOMILY

It's a very logical next step from last Sunday's Gospel.

If you think what we've been doing over the last Sundays is we've been being taken into the different ways in which the resurrection is revealed amongst us, and we are invited into it.

First, it was with the apostles and the different appearances immediately after Jesus's death and the resurrection.

And it was later beside the sea of Tiberius with Peter.

And if you remember, one of the things about that was that Peter didn't recognize the voice of Jesus.

It was the beloved disciple who said: it is the Lord.

Only after the fish were caught, Peter then jumped into the sea and there was this discussion by which it became clear that Jesus knew Peter.

First of all, you know: I love you; then - I love you. And then the third time, when it was clear that Jesus was bringing Peter face to face with his own betrayal, then that's when he knows that he is known, and he says: Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you.

After that Jesus prophesies the manner in which he's going to die. And then says: follow me.

So, the three key phrases: hearing the voice, my knowing them - Jesus is knowing them; and following me - are absolutely apparent in that text.

And that's what we have today: my sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me - those are the three things which he's been talking about.

Remember, he is appointing Peter to do that, and the way that Peter will become a shepherd like him is by following him.

In other words, it's in the following that we get to hear the voice and become aware that we are known.

Remember that this had started earlier in John's Gospel with Jesus giving the image of the shepherd's corral, the shepherd's patio where the sheep were kept - the sheep pen.

And the question of the voice was important. Why?

Because in ancient Palestinian husbandry different sheep owners would pass to their feed their sheep at different places in the hillsides, but being a poor community they would then bring them all back, and they would all put them in the one local village sheepman.

And there would be a porter, doorkeeper whose job it was to watch over the sheep pen on behalf of all the local sheep owners.

And the interesting thing was, of course, that then amongst themselves the sheep would be thoroughly mixed up.

And the way that the sheep were separated was precisely they would hear the voice of their owner.

They would recognize it because the owner would have taken them out before, would have talked to them, they would have become used to following that voice, so when the door was opened the owner would come in, would take them out, and they would follow him.

And they would naturally separate themselves from the other sheep because of the voice.

And that's genuine, so there's nothing mystical or mysterious about that.

That's just how it happens.

So Jesus is talking about that process, about how following him, listening to him opens up to us the awareness that we are known by him.

That was seen particularly in Peter's penitence when Peter knew himself known.

He saw himself through the eyes of another and said: oh, you know everything, you don't need to get me to protest things, you know and you also know that I love you.

Why do I bring this out?

Because the process of following, hearing the words and discovering yourself known, and therefore trusting the one who is leading you on is a process of growing in safety.

That's the sense of safety and security, that's the language of shepherding is about.

It's about being safe. Salvation is after, all about being safe.

So, my sheep, hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish.

In other words, following him don't need to be frightened of death.

He has shown that he's not manipulating people into dying for him.

He is dying for them, but he shows that he lays down his life and he takes it up.

It's a voluntary thing. He's not an obstacle for people. People can follow him without stumbling.

The harlings, if you remember, they're the ones who get people to follow them on, but then the moment there's an obstacle they run away.

You can never trust that someone won't become your obstacle if they're going to run away when they're going get stuff.

The one who gives his life away, that one is someone who you can follow without fear.

There's no manipulation, they're not using you for some project of their own and then running away and hiding when they're going get stuff.

I give them eternal life and they will never perish.

In other words, you follow through this, and this whole process of you're following me you're hearing me is the process of my giving you abundant life.

As you follow me, as you allow my life to take hold of you, so you will find yourselves being held in safety.

No one will snatch them out of my hand.

Why? Because it's not a transactional belonging, it's a being built into being belonging.

It's the work of the creator, because that's what as you follow someone, as you get used to their voice, actually who you are becomes formed by them, so that you become part of them.

They start to live in you and you in them.

You are actually being built up into being an imitation of them, an image of them.

No one can snatch you away because your belonging is not transactional, you're actually inhabiting in them.

There's something tremendously safe about that.

No one will snatch them out of my hand.

Snatching is something that can only happen to people whose belonging is temporary, transactional, whatever.

It's: I want to belong to the good guy for the moment, rather than I am allowing my whole being to be built into being who someone is. Even if I'm killed I can't be taken away from.

And then: what my Father has given me is greater than all else.

So what his father has given him is the capacity to take people into life.

His father has given him the ability to be becoming inside us and turning us into him as part of a mutual interpenetration.

It can't be snatched away. It's greater than anything else. Why?

Because it's the creator who's at work.

Snatchers-away can only snatch away at things that are loose elements.

But someone who is actually part of the dynamic of creation and is being brought into being by the creator can't be snatched away.

It can be hated, can be mistreated - all of those things, but knows that they are, in fact, safe on the inside of the project of being brought into being.

What my father has given me is greater than all else and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand.

Again, this sense of safety that is part of this interpenetration that's going on.

And then, finally, the Father and I are one. The father is completely interpenetrated.

In him, he is completely interpenetrated.

In us, what he's saying quite clearly here is: that he is the fulfilment of the promised Davidic shepherd from the prophet Ezekiel where says:

I myself will come and pasture my sheep.

That will be part of the Davidic line.

Jesus here is answering what a few verses before our Gospel today, the Jews, the regime and its addicts have been saying to him: how long will you keep us in suspense? If you're the Messiah, tell us plainly.

And Jesus answered: I have told you, and you do not believe.

The works that I do in my Father's name testify to you.

And he's not only talking about the miraculous science.

He's talking about this process of leading people into life.

It's actually this long process of leading people into life without obstacles, without stumbling blocks.

That is the sign that he is the Davidic shepherd who has come to shepherd the sheep.

But that's not something you say.

If you say the didactic definition, it leads to transactional relations.

But the hearing the voice and following is the inductive relation into the interpenetration.

The inductive relationship in interpenetration is how God does these things.

If the Messiah is of God, that is how the Messiah is doing these things.

That Jesus is doing these things is because he and the Father are one.

And he said earlier: you won't get it because you're not of my sheep.

In other words, you haven't been prepared to enter into this following and discovering yourself on the inside of me, such that your voice, my voice are in complete harmony.

You can pick up who I am, who is speaking to you, you could discover that you are known through my eyes, and that you grow as you are known.

But you don't engage in this interpenetrative following, so you're never going to get it.

So when then he says: the Father and I are one, all they hear is a blasphemy.

And so they took up stones again to stone him.

And after a brief discussion, he leaves the Temple for the last time since the last time in John's Gospel that he appears in the Temple.

What I wanted to bring out here is how what we're being asked to enter into is the dynamic of how the risen Lord comes into our life through producing in us a following that teaches us to recognize his voice.

And as that happens, we discover ourselves known.