Fourth Sunday of Easter (Good Shepherd Sunday)

Jesus says the shepherd calls his own sheep by name, and the sheep follow because they recognize the voice. That is the core question today: whose voice do you recognize? You hear a lot of voices every day - social media, friends, the culture, your own anxious thoughts. The sheep follow the voice they recognize, and they run from the voice of strangers. If you have been following a voice that leads you somewhere you do not want to be, the problem is not the destination. The problem is the voice. You followed the wrong one because it was the one you had been listening to the most.

The Good Shepherd says: I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. Abundant life is not about having more stuff or more followers or more success. It is about fullness - the kind of life where you know who you are, who you belong to, and where you are going. That kind of life is not available from any voice except the shepherd's, and the shepherd is calling you by name right now. Can you hear him over the noise?

Peter preaches and three thousand people are baptized in one day. The promise, he says, is made to you and to your children and to all those far off. That includes you. You are one of the ones far off who was called. The shepherd did not stop calling just because you were not in the front row.