Mothering God

Easter + 4

Year C

11 May 2025

Isaiah 61:1-3

Psalm 90:13-17

Revelation 5:11-14

John 21:1-19

Eternal God,

from whose gentle hands

none can snatch us away:

give us faith to believe

that we are known and loved

with a passion strong enough

to bring the whole world back to you;

through Jesus Christ, who is one with you,

the Source of life. Amen.

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Today’s Sunday seems to get a lot of titles!

Today is the 4^th Sunday of Easter. Today is Mother’s Day. Today is Vocation Sunday and today is Good Shepherd Sunday.

This means that there are a lot of different ways that we are able to approach and interpret today’s readings.

Will we look at the readings then from the point of view of being a mother? Or from the idea of finding and living into a vocation?

But then being a parent, a mother, is also able to be defined as a vocation, and continues to honour our mothers, our grandmothers, our aunties, and our single parents.

Will we look for interpretations that fit with the idea of the Good Shepherd? Or will we just work from the idea that this is the fourth week since Christ’s resurrection?

And from that perspective, I have to say that what drew my attention, in today’s gospel, wasn’t just Jesus’ repetition of words, but that all of our themes are, in reality, interrelated through today’s texts.

John’s gospel tells us: “²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”” (Jn 10:27-30)

Jesus tells us “No one will snatch them out of my hand” (Jn 10:28b)

So, looking at the interconnectedness of all of today’s themes, we’ve already identified that to be a mother, to be a parent is to follow a vocation.

To be someone following a vocation is to follow where God leads and how, of which being a parent is only one path.

To follow where God leads is, really, to follow the Good Shepherd, the one who laid down his life for all of us who believe, and this leads back to the gospel, and to Jesus’ assertion that we are safe in his grasp.

The Lord tells us: “²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” (Jn 10:27-28)

But this may be a contested train of thought, these days because we’ve stepped away from vocational language quite a while ago in society. After all, you are able to be a mother, a parent without necessarily believing that you are following a particular vocation.

A vocation is an occupation that doesn’t feel like a job. It’s an occupation that is able to be a joy and daws upon our natural skills and talents for fulfillment.

So, a vocation, then, is able to include parenthood, but it’s not restricted to just one thing in life. Many clergy follow a vocational path in their sense of a call to ministry, and really, anyone who use their talents and abilities in their day-to-day occupations follows a vocation.

All vocations, then, follow the will of God, and in this way we see Jesus, in Isaiah’s passage, living not only into his vocation as the Messiah, as the Christ, but also into his role as the Shepherd.

Isaiah tells us: “he took up our pain    and bore our suffering,yet we considered him punished by God,    stricken by him, and afflicted.⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,    he was crushed for our iniquities;the punishment that brought us peace was on him,    and by his wounds we are healed.⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,    each of us has turned to our own way;and the Lord has laid on him    the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53:4-6)

And following a vocation doesn’t mean we are the rockstars of our age. Isaiah points out that the Messiah looks like just the average face in the crowd.

“Who has believed our message    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,    and like a root out of dry ground.He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (Isa 53:1-2)

But that doesn’t mean we take Jesus’ teachings at face value. Even those in the gospel express their doubts.

John tells us: “Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. ²⁴ The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

²⁵ Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe.” (Jn 10:32-25a)

To follow where Christ leads is not always clear cut or straight forward.

Rather it’s a path, it’s a vocation that has switchbacks and forks in the road when we least expect.

Even in my own life to follow where Christ leads has meant stepping away from the well-intentioned advice of professionals.

Coming out of high school I was diagnosed with a learning disability. Because of this diagnosis, I was offered a series of vocations from which to choose, but none of them included education greater than a college diploma. In fact, I was advised against trying to go to university.

But then God called. God called me to a path that led straight through a university degree and beyond.

Sure, it took me an additional time to accomplish what others accomplished in four years. Sure, it took me five years as opposed to four to attain my masters, but in the journey toward a vocation, encouraged at each step by the Shepherd, by the Father, brings us back to the heart of today’s gospel.

Jesus tells us: “The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, ²⁶ but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. ²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (Jn 10:25b-27)

So, where do we go from here?

Mothers, aunties, grandparents, and parents, you are honoured, not only today, but every day for the work you do, for the work that God has placed into your keeping.

You are the guides and the voices of reason that encourage the next generations in their paths of contributing to society, to being good adults and parents in their own right, and to being followers of the Shepherd.

When we follow where God leads, then we step into our talents and abilities, and we provide vocational examples in a world where the word ‘job’ keeps us with our heads down watching where we place our feet and just paying the bills that come our way.

But when we don’t need to look down to dance the dance that is our vocations in the world, then we are able to look up and see all those who are in the dance with us, and such a grand sight this is, to see us all dancing and through that coordinated effort contributing to the world all around us.

At the same time, we follow the Good Shepherd. We follow where the Messiah leads, and we strive, daily, to not only understand the teachings of Christ, but how to share those with those who are all around.

We are the ones who hear the shepherd’s voice.

We are the ones who strive to follow where he leads.

The gospel tells us: “²⁴ The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

²⁵ Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me, ²⁶ but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.” (Jn 10:24-26)

This brings us back to the fact that Jesus repeats himself, in today’s gospel, and I still think that this is significant, this is huge.

Jesus tells us: “no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”” (Jn 10:28b-30)

Throughout our lives as we strive to follow where and how the Shepherd leads us, we often feel we are working without a safety net. But here, Jesus says he will not lose even one of us who believes, who follows, who don’t need extra proofs at every turn to establish Jesus’ identity.

We are reassured as he tells us “no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Wow, it’s no wonder that the doubters in the world still doubt.

But for those who are blessed to be parents, isn’t this how you felt when you first held your newborn child?

Such feeling, such emotion never changes.

Today, we are assured that through Jesus’ teaching we are able to come to a better understanding of the role of the Messiah and the love of the Father.

We are assured of God’s encouragement to enter into the vocations of our lives. Vocations that will open the hearts of the generations to come, through our actions, our words, our hearts on display in the occupations of our lives.

At the same time, the gospel assures us that we are, each one of us, cared for and loved to such a degree that the Shepherd will lay down his life for each one of us to protect us, and to take up his life again in order to bring us home to the Father.

Amen.