Well, it’s "Good Shepherd" Sunday, which comes around every fourth Sunday of Easter. Today we read the Twenty-third Psalm, and we hear Jesus telling us that he is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. So let’s start with a story about sheep.

Once upon a time, there was a flock of sheep. These sheep were very afraid, and for good reason. The wolves threatened them and sometimes killed them. And they lived in a very difficult, dry land. Often the sheep could not find the green pastures or the still waters. And so they lived in fear. Fear of the wolves. Fear that they would not find the green pasture. Fear that they would not find the still waters.

And then one day, a new shepherd came. They had been watched over by shepherds before, but this shepherd was different, very different. The other shepherds had viewed this as a job, and one which involved unacceptable risks and acceptable losses.

And so, when the wolf came and the sheep were terrified, the other shepherds would run away. "Unacceptable risk," they would say. And then the wolf would kill one of the terrified sheep. "Acceptable loss," the shepherds would say.

But not this shepherd. The sheep came to call him the Good Shepherd. He would not run away. He would stand between the flock and the wolf, and he would risk his life to save theirs.

And so, they came to trust him. Over the course of time, they would follow him, even when he lead them in surprising directions. Sometimes he would lead them toward the wolves. Sometimes he would lead them into the desert, away, they were sure, from the grass and the water. But he taught them that the obvious path, the path their sheep instincts told them to take, was usually not the right path. And he taught them that there were other paths, paths not so obvious, paths that were harder to take, paths that were sometimes scary, paths toward the wolves, paths into the desert, paths that required imagination to see, paths that were the right paths to take. "You must dream as God dreams," he told them. "When you dream as God dreams, then you can see the paths. Then you can know the way."

And they learned, over the course of time, that he was right. That when, against everything their sheep fears told them, they followed him, they would not be in want; they would lie down in green pastures; they would drink from clear, still waters. And, over the course of time, many of them began to dream as God dreams, to imagine the world as a different place, as a world that he had shown them, a world where even between wolves and sheep, there was harmony. And they began to be able to see the paths.

But one day, a wolf attacked, and the Good Shepherd did not run away. The wolf killed the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd laid down his life for the sheep.

The sheep were very moved by his sacrifice, but, of course, they were also very sad, and very frightened. Some of the sheep, the ones who had been able to imagine the world the Good Shepherd had showed them, and who were able to see the paths the Good Shepherd had seen, those sheep said, "We must see as he taught us to see, imagine as he taught us to imagine, dream as he taught us that God dreams. We must follow as he taught us to follow."

But it was hard to hold onto the dream of God, a dream that showed paths into the desert, paths toward the wolves. The dream went against their instincts. It was frightening. And they were, after all, sheep.

So they decided not to take the scary paths any more. Instead, they decided to invoke the protection of the Good Shepherd by worshipping him. And so they taught their lambs that the most important thing was to say that the Good Shepherd was their savior. And so they said it, "The Good Shepherd is my personal Lord and Savior," as they saw the world only as it is, and walked the old paths.

And so, nothing changed. They did not ever leave the paths they had taken before the Good Shepherd came. And the dream of God remained only a dream.

Okay, there’s a story about sheep. Thank goodness we are not sheep. Huh?

In her book, The Dream of God: A Call to Return, Verna Dozier rather boldly says:

I believe Jesus is the word made flesh, the definitive action of God for our age to offer human beings a new possibility for participating in the dream of God, and the Christian church is missing the mark. The church missed its high calling to be the new thing in the world when it decided to worship Jesus instead of following him.

Now, Verna Dozier and I both believe that Jesus was the Son of God, and that the Son of God is God. But, as Dozier says, "Jesus came as the Way, a new possibility for encountering God ever anew in the fluid, changing experience of life," and Jesus never asked anyone to worship him, but to follow him.

Last week, we talked about our hands and our feet, and I asked you to reflect on whether your hands and your feet touch the world in a way that proclaims that you believe in the really preposterous story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. This week, I want you to think of your shepherd. Many times, when we use the metaphor of the Good Shepherd protecting us, making us to lie down in green pastures, leading us beside still waters, laying down his life for us, we can easily slip into a mode of thinking "this is all about me." My nourishment, my calm, my protection. I want to encourage you to think of this as being all about the dream of God.

Verna Dozier reminds us that the dream of God is for a world characterized not by violence or hatred, but by compassion. The dream of God is for a world in which each shares to ensure that all are cared for. The dream of God is of a society in "which there will be no prestige and no status, no division of people into inferior and superior. Everybody will be loved and respected, not because of education or wealth or ancestry or authority or rank or virtue or achievements, but because each human being is created by God and loved by God." This leads to strange paths, strange ways. When Jesus dreamed God’s dream, he understood love as solidarity; he understood that when we love our enemies, we call them enemies no more, even if they are wolves.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with worshipping Jesus. We do it with hymns, and stained glass, and prayers in our Prayer Book. But if our hymns and stained glass and prayers allow us to worship Jesus so that we don’t follow him, there is something very wrong.

And, I’m sorry to say, in two thousand years, little has changed. As a culture, and all too often as the Church, we continue to take the same old paths, paths of war, and intimidation, and power, and possessions, and rank, and prestige, and wealth, and superiority — the same old paths. And so, we continue to be afraid, afraid of the wolves, afraid of the desert, afraid of not having enough, afraid of not looking right, afraid of losing face, afraid of being one of the poor, afraid of the poor, and, for some of us, afraid, even, of God.

Verna Dozier challenges us not to ask, "What do we believe?" but "What difference does it make that we believe?" Does the world come nearer to the dream of God because of what we believe?

Does it? Worship Jesus, but remember that the stained glass, the music, the prayers are not for you to spend your life reflecting on. The Way of Jesus leads us into this church so that we can support one another in dreaming of the world of which God dreams. And then the Way of Jesus leads us out of this church so that we can follow him into the world that exists outside these doors — and change it.