25th April 2010 - "In or out? Our group or his?"

Stephen Fielding - Ayot St Peter
John 10:22-30

Over the last 10 days, we've seen the power of group think more powerfully expressed than at almost any point in my lifetime. The extraordinary response to that first ever televised debate between the party leaders has shown up the power of group allegiance - and group defection - more strongly than could possibly have been imagined when the general election was called just a few weeks ago.

When the Liberal Democrat leader’s support soared by 10%, the two main party leaders sensed a threat to their group dominance, and viewed the outsider as a threat to an established order. The two main party leaders did not like it, and do not like it, and they have gone on the offensive against it.

Why am I mentioning this? Well take a look again at what we've just heard in our gospel reading. The established religious party - the Jews, and in particular the ruling Pharisees - are outraged that this man Jesus is threatening their position and undermining their dominance. They are the ones who rule the religious establishment, they are the ones who maintain order in the face of Roman rule and here from among their number is one who is saying ‘You’ve got it all wrong. You've been told from the first that you've got to mend your ways, but instead you're only interested in power and position, and are missing the claims of the most high God, are missing the need for justice and fairness and care for the poor; and you are failing to act as God requires his people to act. My own people understand this very well. I am their shepherd. I know them, I love them as God loves them, they hear my voice and they trust me. So when you ask me, ‘Are you the Messiah?’ I say,’ Look at what I've done in God's name, and believe that these deeds are God’s deeds. My own group know who I am, they recognise what my words and actions mean, but you don't. And so you're trying to destroy me in order to win them back’.

To be a Christian today, or at any time, is to be a member of Christ's flock, to be people who listen to the call and voice of Jesus. It is to take what he says seriously. It is to understand what those first followers of Jesus understood really clearly - that God is for them, that he wants them to enjoy a full life, the life lived with him for ever, which is what eternal life of course is. A life that only being linked to Jesus the Messiah can bring them.

The Jewish establishment did indeed ask Jesus the right question - are you the Messiah? Only they didn't want to be open to the possibility that the answer was yes, that he might indeed be the Messiah, God's anointed one - the one through whom all God's children would be rescued and saved.

I do not for a moment suggest that the disruption in our current political arrangements, which may of course be temporary, is to be compared to the revolution - the cosmic revolution - which the death and resurrection of Jesus must mean for the world's salvation. Of course not. Political loyalties will fluctuate in any healthy democracy. But what I do suggest is that it is infinitely important for us to remain loyal to the Lord of heaven, who calls us into his group and urges us to stay with him, united with him, to work for others, to care for the poor and marginalized, to be the agents of his kingdom, and to enjoy the life lived with him for ever. We are to stick with the Shepherd, as he sticks with us.

Amen