April 26, 2026 Fourth Sunday of Easter (Easter III)

April 26, 2026

Fourth Sunday of Easter

(Easter III)

Many voices call out to us in our noisy world. Some are telling us to be afraid -  very afraid. Others invite us to follow their programs, buy their products or support their candidates. Other voices give us strength and peace, even in the middle of dangerous situations.

Whose voice are you hearing?

Joan Mulholland was a Freedom Rider in the early 1960s. She was part of a group of Blacks and whites who rode on interstate buses in the South, challenging local segregated seating laws. Freedom Riders faced intense racial violence, including the fire-bombing of a bus. At one point, Mulholland was convicted of “breach of peace,” and she served two months in the Mississippi State Penitentiary.

Was this young woman afraid? No. “You should not waste any time on fear,” she says, looking back on the experience. “Fear paralyzes your brain and keeps you from thinking what you need to be doing in a situation.”

Mulholland and several other civil rights workers were in a car near Conway, Mississippi, when they were waylaid by Ku Klux Klan members. “We just knew we were going to die,” says Mulholland. “We talked about it, and none of us were petrified.”

Why not? Because they were hearing the Shepherd’s voice.

Mulholland believes her confidence came from her Christian faith. “Jesus died on the cross,” she says. “We’re all going to die sooner or later. It’s just a matter of when and how.”

The voice of Jesus was speaking to her during her freshman year at Duke University, when she attended Presbyterian youth group meetings. “To me this whole concept of love thy neighbor as thyself” was central, she says, and the love commandment of Jesus could not be aligned with segregation. She says, “This whole double standard to me just went completely against the teachings of the church.”

In the middle of a life-threatening situation, she felt strength and peace. All because she was listening to the Shepherd’s voice.

The work of the Freedom Riders was successful. By November 1961, the Interstate Commerce Commission had banned segregation in interstate bus transportation and facilities. But the voice of Christ is still speaking to us today, 65 years later, but are we listening? 

When Jesus speaks to a group of Pharisees and other Jews in the Gospel of John, he talks with them about shepherds, sheepfolds and sheep. They know that the Scriptures speak frequently of rulers and leaders as shepherds — both bad shepherds and good shepherds. We do not talk often about shepherds in America today, but it was a common image in ancient Jerusalem. To the bad leaders of his day, looking at a different passage of Scripture, the prophet Ezekiel says, “Woe, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?” (Ezekiel 34:2).

Ezekiel is talking about rulers of people, not shepherds of sheep. He criticizes them by saying, “You have not strengthened the weak; you have not healed the sick; you have not bound up the injured; you have not brought back the strays; you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them” (v. 4).

Doesn’t this sound familiar? Strengthening the weak, healing the sick, bringing back the strays and seeking the lost are the responsibilities of shepherd leaders, so says Jesus. Because the rulers of Israel will not do this important work, God says through the prophet Ezekiel, “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep. … I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strays, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak. … I will feed them with justice” (vv. 15-16).

Binding up the injured, strengthening the weak and feeding people with justice. Jesus makes clear throughout the Gospels that this was the mission of God in the time of Ezekiel, the mission of the Freedom Riders of the 1960s, and the mission of shepherd leaders today.

Jesus speaks of sheep and shepherds when he says, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.”. According to Jesus, the people of Israel are a flock of sheep, gathered in God’s sheepfold or sheep pen. They are safe in the pen unless a bad shepherd — a thief or bandit — climbs over the fence to make trouble.

In our Gospel today, Jesus is making clear that the sheep know the voice of the Good Shepherd, and they follow him when he leads them out. He knows them by name, and they trust him when he calls. The sheep will not follow a stranger, since they do not know the stranger’s voice.

Nothing is more important than hearing our Shepherd’s voice and following when he calls. That’s what Joan Mulholland did. She heard Jesus say, “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39), and then she followed him. She joined Black students for a sit-in at a counter at a five-and-dime store in North Carolina. She and another white student sat among the Black students in the “whites-only” area and refused to leave until the Blacks were served. For taking this stand, she was arrested and briefly jailed.

She was listening to the Shepherd’s voice.

When Jesus first talks about shepherds and sheep, the Pharisees and other Jews do not understand. So, he makes his words more personal.

Jesus describes himself as the gate for the sheep. He is the passage to abundant life, pictured in Psalm 23 as “green pastures … still waters … right paths” (vv. 2-3). Abundant life is a gift of the risen Jesus, celebrated with particular joy during the Easter season. By contrast, Jesus says, the thief “comes only to steal and kill and destroy” — that’s abundant death, not life.

Joan Mulholland found abundant life by following Jesus, but first she had to endure the attacks of various bad shepherds along the way. When she took part in a sit-in at a drugstore in Arlington, Virginia, she was abused by members of the American Nazi Party. When she did a sit-in in Jackson, Mississippi, a thug manhandled her. It was only when she was dragged outside that a police officer finally helped her.

Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Clearly, Jesus follows God by binding up the injured, strengthening the weak and feeding people with justice. Jesus also commands us to love one another, to feed his lambs, and tend his sheep. He even goes so far as to lay down his life for us, so that we can enjoy forgiveness and everlasting life. Jesus wants us all to “have life and have it abundantly.”

We live in a world of competing voices, and many of them want to steal or kill or destroy. Some are trying to scare us, while others want to seduce us. Many promise that real happiness will come through bigger televisions, more stylish outfits, a brighter smile, a slimmer waistline or a dream vacation. Still others want our votes, our loyalty or a donation to a particular cause.

On top of this, many of these voices are fake. Using the tools of artificial intelligence, almost anyone can now create fake images and messages that are hard to distinguish from accurate information. “From elections to wars,” says Jieun Shin of the University of Florida, “those with ill intentions can mass-produce and disseminate propaganda on social media.” In an age where some politicians would like us to think they are the shepherds of the nation, they are really the bad shepherds using the back door, hiding their true intentions attempting to fool us into believing they are the ones to believe, not the actual truths.

The voices are endless, real and fake. But only one really matters: The voice of the Shepherd.

As followers of Christ, we are challenged to hear the Shepherd’s voice and follow his teachings. Rather than wasting our time on fear, we can love our neighbors, pray for those who persecute us, strengthen the weak and feed people with justice. We can follow the Shepherd in our homes, our schools, our workplaces, our congregations and our communities. As we walk this path, we will gain courage and strength. We will find that the Shepherd is leading us to new and abundant life.

The challenge is to hear and to follow. The Shepherd is always ahead of us, leading us on the right path. We can much more easily recognize this by simply taking more time each and everyday in prayer to our Lord. In So doing, you are opening yourself to hear the true shepherd – Jesus Christ.

Let us pray.

In today’s gospel Jesus reminds us that He is the Good Shepherd who cares for us and that He is the gateway through which we can gain entry to eternal life. We pray for the wisdom, strength and perseverance to live by His commandments and earn the rewards which He has so generously promised us. We pray to the Lord.               

Today with the dwindling number of priests.  We pray that more men and women will hear and respond to the call to ordained clergy. We pray to the Lord.

We pray for all those in our church, men and women, ordained and lay, who have been called to the role of shepherd, that they may follow closely the example of Christ and bear witness to His goodness. We pray to the Lord.

We pray for all those who volunteer in our Church, carrying out the mission of Christ, proclaiming His gospel, comforting the sick and bereaved, feeding the poor and hungry. We pray to the Lord.                       

We pray for our suffering brothers and sisters in war-zones throughout the world,  that the Just God bring their suffering to an end and that all may enjoy peace, justice and healing in their daily lives. We pray to the Lord.

We pray that those with generous hearts may be led to our small church and give generously to our mission so that we may continue to be a church open to all peoples . We pray to the Lord.

For those on our parish prayer list, that they may receive swift answers to their needs and that they may find consolation through Christ’s healing presence. We pray to the Lord.

We bow our heads and remember in silence our own personal intentions and the intentions of those who have asked for our prayers (pause). We pray to the Lord.        

O great and glorious ruler of the universe and ruler of our hearts, each and every day, we, your people, are judged. We are judged by others, and we judge ourselves. But what are we measuring ourselves against? Are we just trying to keep up with society? Are we seeking the approval of our teachers, our bosses, our neighbors or our friends more than we seek your approval, God? Help us hear again that still, soft voice that beckons us to a new reality, a new way of measuring ourselves. Not by the car we drive or our ZIP code but by the condition of our souls and by how we treat others. God, speak to us again your high callings and remind us who our Judge really is. We pray that you will walk with us each and every step, as we work to live up to your heavenly standards. Amen.

God Love You +++

The Most Rev. Robert Winzens

Pastor – St. Francis Chapel

San Diego, CA.