I preached this sermon for a gathering of pastors in the Bridge for Early Career Preachers<\/a>\u00a0program in April 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n The shepherds they had trusted to protect and guide them with God\u2019s commands of justice and righteousness turned out to be thieves and bandits. They cared only about preserving their own power.\u00a0 They exploited and abused the sheep.\u00a0 And no one seemed to be doing anything about it!<\/p>\n There was a whole system of corruption among the shepherds that enabled them to cover for each other.\u00a0 They got away with violating God\u2019s covenant without any apparent consequences.<\/p>\n Not only that, but their leaders sold them out! Powerful entities got their claws into the shepherds and convinced them to betray the sheep in order to amass untold amounts of wealth and power.<\/p>\n Didn\u2019t God see what was happening.\u00a0 Did God not care?\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t God do something, anything<\/em> to help them?<\/p>\n No one seemed to have the courage to tell the truth about what was happening and to stand up for what was right. The sheep were afraid.\u00a0 Frankly, the shepherds were afraid, too.<\/p>\n This was the situation in Jerusalem when Jesus was preaching and teaching in the temple and surrounding towns. The people lived under the oppression of Rome\u2019s military occupation. Their land and goods were taxed so severely that many of them lost everything and lived as peasants on their ancestral lands. But it was the corruption of their religious leaders that kept them in a demoralized state of collective depression.<\/p>\n Maybe you can relate to that feeling of collective depression.<\/p>\n It is demoralizing to see some clergy in our own time side with the powers of fascism and preach hatred to their flocks while reaping enormous wealth.\u00a0 It is infuriating to see political and military leaders weaponize biblical imagery to justify war.\u00a0 And the fact that you don\u2019t know if I\u2019m talking about Russia or Israel or the United States should tell you just how pervasive this problem is.<\/p>\n They care only about preserving their own obscene wealth and power.\u00a0 They exploit and abuse the common people.\u00a0 And no one seems to be doing anything about it!<\/p>\n There is a whole system of corruption among our leaders that enables them to cover for each other.\u00a0 (Exhibit A: Epstein files.) They get away with crimes against humanity and the planet without any apparent consequences.<\/p>\n Not only that, but our leaders have sold us out! Powerful oligarchal tech-bros got their claws into the shepherds and convinced them to betray the sheep.<\/p>\n The sheep are wondering, where was God in all this?<\/p>\n Doesn\u2019t God see what is happening?\u00a0 Does God not care? Won\u2019t God do something, anything<\/em> to help us?<\/p>\n No one with any power to change things seems to have the courage to tell the truth about what is happening and to stand up for what is right. The sheep are afraid. Frankly, the shepherds are afraid, too.<\/p>\n And yet into this depressed, demoralized desert came One who preached about abundance<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cI came that they may have life and have it abundantly.\u201d<\/p>\n He organized communities to feed themselves instead of relying on corporate agriculture that gave them junk food and charged them a week\u2019s pay.<\/p>\n He provided free healthcare to people who came up and just swiped their hand across the hem of his robe, bypassing the insurance industry that denied them coverage.<\/p>\n And he gave people a free education that didn\u2019t require student loans or a wealthy tax base to get it.<\/p>\n Jesus agitated the system because static systems lie about who they serve. His disruptions revealed that God\u2019s power was a networked intelligence that moved across stormy seas and herds of pigs to liberate with the leverage of love.<\/p>\n Remember that this teaching comes right on the heels of Jesus healing the man born with blindness (John Ch. 9<\/a>).\u00a0 \u201cThe sheep follow him because they know his voice.\u201d The man who could not see heard a voice say, \u201cHis blindness is not a result of sin. His disability does not make him less of a person. In fact, his blindness is going to reveal the power of God.\u00a0 And it\u2019s also going to show just how petty, heartless, and cruel the religious gatekeepers are.\u201d<\/p>\n Notice how Jesus\u2019s uppitiness usurps the ugliness masked as propriety. That uppitiness inspired others to find their own voice, exercise their own power and agency.\u00a0 In John 9, neither the blind man nor his parents allowed themselves to be coerced into playing a game they couldn\u2019t win. They stated the facts about Jesus\u2019s healing and were not polite about it.<\/p>\n Because Jesus showed them that politeness is not going to help you survive.<\/p>\n Jesus is not polite with the thieves and bandits!\u00a0 Jesus is not polite with the wolves! Because he knows that moving the system toward justice and righteousness means that we must exert pressure. This is how we discern just who is the good shepherd and who is the thief. It\u2019s how we sus out who is a heartless gatekeeper and who opens the way to flourishing, while also swinging the gate shut to protect the vulnerable.<\/p>\n In John\u2019s Gospel, Jesus is no cuddly teddy bear. Jesus ain\u2019t your boyfriend.<\/p>\n He deliberately doubles down on direct speech to the directors of diabolical deviance.<\/p>\n He draws on the images of sheepherding that they see all around them.\u00a0 In doing so, he\u2019s referencing the ancient Hebrew prophets \u2013 Jeremiah and Ezekiel \u2013 who called out the theocrats of their time abusing their power.<\/p>\n Jeremiah called out: \u201cWoe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, says the Lord\u201d (Jeremiah 23:1-4<\/a>).<\/p>\n Ezekiel cried: \u201cWoe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?\u00a03\u00a0<\/sup>You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock.\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup>You have not strengthened the weak or healed\u00a0the sick or bound up\u00a0the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup>So they were scattered because there was no shepherd,\u00a0and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals.\u00a06\u00a0<\/sup>My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill.\u00a0They were scattered\u00a0over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.\u201d (Ezekiel 34:1-6<\/a>.)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Jesus evokes this prophetic imagery when he points out that the people are following him, not the religious leaders, because he is a shepherd they trust.<\/p>\n Yet the leaders apparently don\u2019t get it because he has to try again with a different image. \u201cI am the gate. I open the way to freedom, safety, peace, and a healthy ecosystem that can support everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n I know people sometimes wonder why Jesus mixes metaphors here. But he is intentionally stress-testing the language and images of his time to find out what words can bear the weight of his divine mandate.<\/p>\n Jesus recognizes that you cannot build the Beloved Community without disrupting and throwing sand in the well-oiled gears of imperial power. He does this throughout the Gospel of John to demonstrate how power responds under the strain of prophetic observation and accountability.<\/p>\n Well, we saw on Good Friday how it responds. It will use any means necessary to shame, silence, wound, beat, smackdown, cancel, and kill the love and grace that brought this world into existence in the first place.<\/p>\n But on Easter morning, we saw how that grace and love responds in turn. Jesus\u2019s risen body is \u201cdocumentation with a pulse.\u201d (And I thank Afro-futurist Shayla Lawson for that phrase<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The documentation of a future that was not just wished for, but proclaimed.<\/p>\n Not just hoped for, but activated.<\/p>\n Not just imagined, but birthed.<\/p>\n So I want to encourage you, my fellow shepherds, to write yourselves into that documentation.<\/p>\n When they come for your sheep, swing the gate closed!<\/p>\n When they dress up their bombs with biblical language, declare God\u2019s judgement upon them!<\/p>\n And when they pollute your pastures with plastics, proclaim the protection of our Creator God!<\/p>\n You don\u2019t need to be polite.\u00a0 I mean \u2013 I know you need to keep your job.\u00a0 But when you discern that the time is right to push, don\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n And if they come for you, stand firm knowing that there are fellow shepherds standing alongside you who join you in refusing to cooperate with the idolatrous self-mythology of empire.<\/p>\n Live<\/em> into this abundance as an act of resistance.<\/p>\n Organize<\/em> this abundance as an act of communal resilience.<\/p>\n And rest<\/em> in this abundance trusting that God has prepared a table before you in the presence of our enemies.\u00a0 Our cups runneth over!\u00a0 Goodness and mercy are following us, pursuing us, like a shepherd who will not let us go.<\/p>\n Follow his voice.\u00a0 Do the Shepherd\u2019s work.\u00a0 And rejoice in the abundance of our God.\u00a0 Amen!<\/p>\n Reclaiming 1 Peter 2:19-25 From Abuse: Sermon for Resistance<\/a><\/p>\n Beware of Wolves in Shepherds\u2019 Clothing: Jeremiah 23:1-4<\/a><\/p>\n When Psalm 23 Shepherded Me<\/a><\/p>\n Thanks to:\u00a0Shayla Lawson, \u201cKarma is a Bitch: Angel with Footnotes,\u201d April 9, 2026. https:\/\/open.substack.com\/pub\/shaylalawson\/p\/karma-is-a-bitch?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web<\/a><\/p>\n The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade<\/strong>\u00a0is a seminary professor, ordained minister, and co-founder of the\u00a0Clergy Emergency League<\/a><\/em>. Her opinions are her own.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Leah is the author of<\/em>\u00a0Preaching and Social Issues: Tools and Tactics for Empowering Your Prophetic Voice<\/a>\u00a0(Rowman & Littlefield, 2024),\u00a0<\/em>Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide<\/a>\u00a0(Rowman & Littlefield, 2019)<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecology, Theology, and the Pulpit<\/a>\u00a0(Chalice Press, 2015). She is the co-editor of\u00a0<\/em>Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis<\/a>\u00a0(Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). Her book,\u00a0<\/em>Introduction to Preaching: Scripture, Theology, and Sermon Preparation<\/a>, was co-authored with Jerry L. Sumney and Emily Askew (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This sermon on John 10:1-10 for Good Shepherd Sunday explores Jesus\u2019s teaching about abundance as an act of resistance to oppression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2929,"featured_media":14408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140,311,1328,1399,31],"tags":[2948,2945,2511,2942],"class_list":["post-14402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clergy","category-ecofeminism","category-leadership","category-religion-and-politics","category-sermons","tag-ezekiel-34","tag-good-shepherd-sunday","tag-jeremiah-231-6","tag-john-101-10"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Shepherd](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/764\/2026\/04\/Good-Shepherd.pexels-tkirkgoz-35616200-1024x683.jpg\")
It was a tough time to be the sheep. <\/strong><\/h2>\n
The sheep wondered, where was God in all this?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
An ancient dilemma . . . <\/strong><\/h2>\n
\u2026 with modern contours<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The wolves<\/h3>\n
The Good Shepherd in John 10:1-10<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Female](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/764\/2026\/04\/Good-Shepherd.pexels-quang-nguyen-vinh-222549-3232005-1024x683.jpg\")
And, by God, did this tick off the powerful!<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Politeness only preserves the powerful.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Jesus is a provocateur with a purpose. <\/strong><\/h3>\n
Those prophets had scathing words for the leaders who used their positions and their religious garb to cloak their evil actions. <\/strong><\/h3>\n
The trustworthy shepherd<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Female](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/764\/2026\/04\/Good-shepherd.pexels-cottonbro-9906537-1024x889.jpg\")
Throwing sand in the gears<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Write yourselves into the documentation!<\/strong><\/h3>\n
If they come for you<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Read also:<\/h4>\n
\n![\"Rev.](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/764\/2026\/04\/Rev.-Dr.-Leah-D.-Schade.headshot1.1200-150x150.jpg\")