Sermon by Rev Sydney Maitland for Sunday 11 May 2025.
• First Reading: Acts 9: 36-43 (Death of Tabitha in Joppa – Peter summoned from Lydda. Raised her up)
• Second Reading: Revelation 7: 9-17 (Vision of the worship in heaven of the Lamb: who had come out of the Great Tribulation)
• Gospel: John 10: 22-30 (You are not My sheep. My sheep listen to My voice; I know them and they follow Me)
Like almost all of you, I had a fairly conventional schooling. There was a daily act of Christian worship, which was formal and rather impersonal. It was required by law and it was the ‘done thing.’
But the idea of a personal faith in a personal Lord, the idea of speaking about it to others, and of getting excited and even impassioned about it was definitely not done: these things were just not on the agenda.
The saying was that in polite society, you did not discuss sex, religion of politics. Certainly not religion, anyway.
So imagine my surprise when, stuck overnight in an airport terminal in New York waiting for a flight back to the UK, I came across a group of people who were saying things that I had never heard before – and saying them to total strangers.
Things like ‘I know Christ’.
Personally – heart to heart if not face to face. This was direct and personal – they would talk to Him, and they would listen to what He had to say.
Now for a rather reserved Briton, all this coming from some rather excitable Americans was something of a culture shock. We might get excited about sport, the monarchy, the planners or other bureaucrats, and of course the weather.
We would speak of homes, families, husbands/wives, children and relatives. Definitely pets. Never about God, or Jesus Christ. Complaining about the church was of course quite acceptable. Provided it was only the church.
Now look at the gospel. They were beleaguering Jesus about who He was. Well, are You or aren’t You? Enough of this havering and faffing about. Be straight about it.
Well, Jesus had a few comments to make about this.
‘Are you going to get rid of the Romans and deal with the Scribes and Pharisees?’ Err, No. Certainly not just yet. Even to Pilate He said that ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’
‘So, who are You?’ Did you ever hear John the Baptist? Did you ever think about his replies? What did you do in response to him? Can you even remember?
‘What kind of sign?’ Haven’t you seen enough signs? Just what do you want? The feedings of the 5000 and the 4000. The healings. Never mind the debates with the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and the rest. Just what are you looking for?
Politics, like overthrowing the regime ? Entertainment, like more healings and deliverances? Welfare, like feeding the masses?
No, the witness is already out there and there were those who have already seen and perceived, heard and understood. They have prayed and waited for the reply. They have studied the scriptures with open hearts and they rejoice at the revelation that they receive from them.
These are the sheep of the Lord. They know His Name and rejoice in it; they hear His word and they follow it; they honour one another who are also His sheep. They have that instinctive sense of being in His presence when they are with others who also seek His face.
These are the ones who know His Name and hear His voice. And yes, they know the difference between what is authentic and what is not. They know the inner voice of the Holy Spirit and can tell it from the clamour of permanent distraction.
They know that voice of truth when beset by permanent campaigning and attention-seeking. They also know it from the background noise of wall-to-wall entertainment. They know it when surrounded by the cries of the hurt, the disillusioned, and angry, the enraged, and the grieving.
But the sheep in the flock of the Lord also know that still, small voice. It is persistent, authentic and carries its own conviction.
And that is why they can say, without making a scene of themselves, Yes, I know Christ. He is Lord. He is my Lord.
This witness does not have to shout out loud, as if volume was enough to make it carry. But it does have an authority. It does not pretend to be without personal issues and faults, without personal stories and wounds.
It knows when things in its own life are still incomplete, flawed, still works in progress. But it is not defined by guilt but by salvation: that already achieved by Jesus Christ on the cross.
So yes, it was there in Peter as he raised Tabitha from the dead, doing the work of Jesus Christ who had said that the apostles would do the things He had done and even greater things besides.
But it was also there in those down the centuries who have faced persecution for their faith – and who will face it in persecutions yet to come.
Ordinary people who know their Lord and who refused to deny Him, even under the most extreme penalties.
And, in persecutions yet to come, made worldwide by the global data links and by global ideologies, given wings by doctrines for total conformity to whatever is the fashionable cause, and enforced by the most intrusive control of money and personal data and identity.
But despite all of this, Jesus was content to say, ‘I know My sheep and they know Me.’
