Sermon on John 10:1-10

Sermon on John 10:1-10 and Acts 2:42-47
Originally given 30 April 2023 at St. Alban’s Church, Coventry

Human nature seems to gravitate toward false gods. I don’t think we do it on purpose, but often these false gods offer something easier or more appealing. The most obvious false gods are things like ‘get rich quick’ schemes or ‘lose weight fast’ fads. But with elections approaching, I can’t help but notice false gods among politicians. And as an American-born British citizen, there are disturbing similarities on both sides of the pond.

Now before I go on a political tangent, I have to address the fact that people will often say clergy and politics don’t mix. In recent news, when Archbishop Justin Welby spoke out against the inhumane government refugee policy, he was met with criticism to stay in his lane. A few years ago, after the murder of George Floyd, our own Bishop Christopher and Bishop John took a knee in the Cathedral ruins as a sign of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, which ruffled more than a few feathers. Personally, I often preach against racism, sexism, and homophobia as well as all other forms of prejudice which have been politicised, and on my social media account I ensure everyone knows I wear red on election day. In response, I have had a handful of critics reminding me that it’s not my place to be political. 

I have to say, I don’t quite understand how someone can come away from reading the Gospel and suggest religion and politics don’t mix. In our Acts reading today we heard that the life of the new believers involved selling all their possessions and redistributing their wealth for those in most need. This suggests that the early church was, shall we say, almost Communist, or at least Socialist. And in the Gospel reading when Jesus referred to thieves, he was making a veiled attack against those in power. In fact, in all of Jesus’ teachings he is critical of the establishment and seeks to bolster the marginalised. The Gospel message is a political one; the Good News is about subverting authority and giving power to the lowly. As we see from the Beatitudes in Luke’s Gospel, those who are poor, hungry, weeping, and hated are the ones that Jesus speaks blessings to. So since I believe as a Christian leader it is in fact my place, and even responsibility, to speak into political situations, I’ll return to these false gods within politics.

Politicians seem to have a way with words, and quite often also a way with the truth. Our Gospel reading talking about sheep and shepherds reminded me of a cartoon that highlighted this fact about politicians. In August of 2016, The New Yorker printed this cartoon from Paul Noth.

It shows a wolf on a billboard proclaiming, ‘I’m going to eat you’ and a few impressed sheep underneath explaining, ‘he tells it like it is.’ By razzle dazzling the sheep with his honesty, the wolf is able to escape any scrutiny concerning his policy of eating sheep. Of course the sheep will die, but the wolf can’t be blamed since he was telling the truth, or rather ‘telling it like it is’. Political honesty is a very complicated false god, and one could easily use the metaphor of a wolf in sheep’s clothing to understand this concept of political honesty. It’s the corruption of politics dressed up with the morality of honesty, making it difficult to discern our own best interest. So the easy way is to just listen to what sounds like truth from the political mouthpieces. It’s much more difficult to research actual platforms and policies. The easy way is to vote for policies that sound like we will personally benefit the most. It’s more difficult to vote for policies that benefit all people. The easy way is to ride along with the status quo. It’s more difficult to challenge unjust structures of authority.

When we properly look at all the false gods of wealth, health, and politics, I think the overarching false god is that of ease or comfort. I’ve quoted before the former Archbishop Michael Ramsey who once said, ‘the duty of the church is to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable,’ and this is what I am pushing for. As people of the Church, if we feel comfortable with our lifestyles, something must be out of place. Or rather, if we feel comfortable, but our sisters and brothers who are our neighbours both near and far are struggling with poverty, war, prejudice,  then we cannot remain comfortably silent. When you go to the polls on Thursday, I remind you to bring your ID, but I also encourage you to vote in a way that will comfort the disturbed, a way that will subvert the false god of power and uplift the marginalised. I encourage you to do the hard work of researching the policies and seeing past the wolf’s false honesty.

But what’s all this got to do with Jesus as a shepherd? At the time of Jesus, a good shepherd, among other things, would lay across the sheep’s pen to act as a gate, preventing wolves and thieves from getting in. Jesus is our shepherd, and we are his sheep. Jesus protects us from the wolves and thieves, from those who use trickery to scam us and those who use power to subjugate us. But it is our responsibility to listen to our shepherd, to listen to Jesus. To recognise his voice over the shouts of false gods. It may not be easy, but the path to abundant life is through our true, good shepherd, not the false gods that give us false hopes.