Happy Sheep
Happy Sheep
"I came that they may have life, life beyond measure" (John 10:10b)
Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth
Clap along if you know what happiness is to you
Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do.
Are you happy? I hope so. Why else did you get up on a Sunday morning, but to hear the one we call our Lord saying, "I came that they may have life, life beyond measure"? What could make one happier than a life overflowing with friends and the beauty of holiness that spills over into the rest of your life, overflowing into our laps so much that we just have to share it? So for Jesus to speak of abundant life beyond measure is another way of saying that Jesus wants us to be happy, in this life and the next. So, Jesus wouldn't disagree with Williams that "Happiness is the truth." I do suspect that Jesus would then ask where one's happiness comes from. Does it come solely from within each individual? That would imply that there is no one right way to happiness. Some might decide that whatever makes them happy is right for them regardless of the consequences to anyone else. At the other extreme, certain people or institutions would have the power to dictate to people what they must do to be happy.
Then I suppose we'd be like sheep, with sheepdogs barking at us and nipping at our tails to keep us in line. Some shepherd. Which bring us to the Gospel for today. At least one view of sheep is that they not the brightest bulbs in the world and have to be led around. But sheep are good at some things. Their hearing and their memory are much sharper than most city folk know. They learn very quickly the voice of their shepherd. In Jesus' time, shepherds would bring their sheep into the village and lead them into a corral that was actually connected to the house by a wall for the night. If the sheep saw someone climbing over the wall instead of coming through the gate, they would know that wasn't their shepherd, and would bleat accordingly. Even if an imposter got in through the gate and called them, they would remember their shepherd's voice and would not follow the imposter.
As Jesus says, the sheep know their shepherd's voice. They know the name their shepherd has given them. They don't follow their shepherd because they're scared of him, or crave his approval. They follow their shepherd because they are happy to hear the shepherd's voice. That voice comes from the outside. But it strikes the most pleasant chords in their hearts, and they are happy to follow their shepherd.
We cannot create our own happiness, because we didn't make ourselves. We were created. “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you,” so said St. Augustine, son of our patron, St. Monica. To riff on Pharrell Williams, happiness is the truth that we were made by God, loved to the end by Jesus Christ, and to find happiness, we must look outside ourselves. But to riff further on Pharrell, no other human being can dictate what happiness is to you. That is a conversation between you and God.
So the source of our happiness is outside of ourselves. But if we patiently dig through all those other desires that the imposters of the world advertise to us, or seduce us into, we will find that the deepest desire of our heart is in harmony with the Good News according to Jesus Christ. Sadly, the Church has too often been one of those institutions dictating to the world, with little care for the world’s happiness. “Untethered from God, there is little call to locate happiness in a spiritual-moral framework,” writes Ellen T. Charry. “Christian doctrine,” she continues, has not adequately linked piety to pleasure, thus leaving a theological gap between goodness and happiness. Happiness unlinked from goodness and linked to excitement instead has moved in to fill the space.”* "Salvation,” she concludes, “is growing into the wisdom of divine love and enjoying oneself in the process.”
To discover this kind of "life beyond measure," where wisdom and truth and happiness and joy come together will probably take most, if not all of our lives to grow into. But if we try, then Jesus the Good Shepherd will follow us, wherever we go, whatever detours we take. But if, in the words of Pharrell Williams, we don't give up searching for what happiness is to us, our Good Shepherd will lead us there, step by step.
* Ellen T. Charry, God and the Art of Happiness, Eerdmans, 2010
April 26th, 2026
The Fourth Sunday of Easter
The Rev. David Kendrick