5-7-17
Grace to you and peace from God our Shepherd and from our
risen Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, amen.
If I were to ask you what your favorite Psalm was, what
would you say? Yes, the 23rd Psalm, a very popular answer. It’s the
one many of us know the best. How many of you memorized it in Sunday School as
kids? Actually let’s see if we can remember the whole thing together!
The Lord is
my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he
leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He
leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk
through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your
rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the
presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of
my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Well done! We got through it, using one version or
another. But the images that we find there are the same, no matter how we say
it. Life-giving pastures and waters, safety through dark valleys, and feasting
at the banquet table, all provided for by the Lord our shepherd, which is a
great beautiful for God. It’s so awesome that every year on the fourth Sunday
of Easter, we hear the 23rd Psalm and call it “Good Shepherd
Sunday”!
The Gospel of John, which we are revisting, also has most
of the well-known metaphors and “I am” statements” that Jesus uses for himself,
including “I am the good shepherd.” Also included in John are I am the Light of
the World, I am the lamb of God, I am the bread of life, and today we have…. I
am the gate.
What? Huh? What happened to “I am the good shepherd?” So
why aren’t we calling today “Good Gate
Sunday”? I guess because it doesn’t have as nice of a ring to it. It’s not one
of the more popular I AM sayings of Jesus. So what is it doing here? What is
Jesus talking about?
Well, with Palm Sunday, Holy Week, Easter, and Doubting
Disciples Sunday, it’s been quite a few weeks since we heard from John what
came right before this. It was the story of the man born blind. Remember that
guy?
Jesus saw him begging by the road, healed him, and
disappeared for a while, while this poor man was grilled mercilessly by his
neighbors and then by the religions leaders and Pharisees. No one could not
believe that Jesus had healed him. The once-blind man was then cast out for a
second time from the community by the very people who were supposed to be
acting like shepherds on God’s behalf. The first time for being blind, and the
second for believing in this upstart preacher from Galilee. But Jesus came back
to this rejected member of his flock.
A shepherd takes care of his sheep. The sheep hear his
voice and follow. This man heard the voice of Jesus and followed, even though
it cost him dearly.
But what does a Gate
do? And why is Jesus calling himself
a gate?
An illustration from the “Revised Comic Lectionary,”
which is of course a play on words from the Revised Common Lectionary, our three year cycle of readings, shows a man
exploring all these Jesus metaphors. “Oh, wait, I got this one!” the man exclaimed
so Jesus, “you’re the FENCE, keeping all the sinners from the good people!” Jesus looked at him, aghast. “No! I’m not the
fence!” He says. “Never the barrier!
But, I am the Gate, breaking through the boundaries you set up!”
Gates are supposed to close AND open, letting the sheep
INTO the safety of the pen, but also opening to let the sheep back OUT to
follow the voice their shepherd to good pasture. OUT to experience abundant
life.
This kind of abundant life that Jesus is opening up for
us and leading us to is not just about what happens to us after we die. Green
pastures and still waters and banquets and experiencing the abundance of God is
for our lives right now, too. Yes, the 23rd Psalm gives us comfort
when we have lost a loved one, after they have been led into the presence of
God for their eternal rest.
But. Goodness and mercy are for our lives as we live them
NOW. In fact, goodness and mercy are not just following us, like a game of Simon
says or follow the leader. Goodness and mercy are CHASING us down, pursuing us with the intention of running us over
with God’s abundant life, pretty much. This is the kind of shepherd that is
leading us and calling us, one who is concerned about our lives RIGHT NOW.
We follow in Jesus’ steps, and are called to follow his
lead in love, service, and suffering. But not all suffering is created equal. I
was reading some material from the Lutheran World Federation Assembly I will be
leaving for early tomorrow morning. Next week’s week’s theme is “liberated by
God’s grace,” and one of the day’s themes is “Human beings are not for sale.” One
of the essays I read was by Ebise Ayana is a lecturer at the Makene Yesus
Seminary in Ethiopia, a country that sees a lot of human trafficking. This is
not just a problem in places far away like Ethiopia. Human trafficking happens
right here in THIS country too.
Ebise Ayana wrote in an essay that the idea of Christian
women are taught that any kind suffering is acceptable, because Jesus suffered.
This too often keeps women in harsh and dangerous situations, like being
trafficked. They blame themselves instead of their captors, and lose their
God-given sense of self-worth.
Instead, she calls on all women to resist oppression and
exploitation in all its forms, because we are called to follow in the footsteps
of a liberating God. We may be
called to suffer in this resistance for the sake of following Jesus, but
suffering does not save us - only Jesus does that. Ebise Ayana insists that
when one person is oppressed, the whole human family is diminished. Abundant
life means that all people get to live the way that God has created us to live
– liberated by God’s grace to work toward the liberation of others.
Choosing suffering for the sake of becoming like Jesus,
in being open gates rather than building fences…..suffering for the sake of
breaking DOWN the barriers of race, gender, sexual orientation, economic
status, perceived disability, religion, and other things that divide us….THIS
is the example that Jesus gives us, THESE are the steps we are to follow as part
of Jesus’ flock.
There are plenty of other voices out there to try to lead
us astray. Voices telling us to give into selfishness, fear, hate, closing our
ears, & building fences instead of gates. The voices are everywhere, and they are persuasive, and they will lead you down the wrong path, and
away from the abundant life that you deserve.
And at times it seems that we are powerless to resist
them, and end up being led down the wrong path anyway, despite ourselves.
But Psalm 23 reminds us that Goodness and Mercy will
always be there to chase after us, to pursue us even when we follow the wrong
voices down the wrong paths. Even as we walk through the darkest, death-filled
valley. They will find us.
So where is the voice of our Good Shepherd calling us to
go, right here and now?
In a few weeks, we’ll be having a town hall meeting to
check in on how we’re doing as a church so far this year. Between now and then,
I will be greeting our Lutheran sisters and brothers from around the world in
the city of Windhoek, Namibia. Between now and then, I would like you to think
about the direction you think our Shepherd might be calling Family of God.
I
believe it is a direction that causes us to lay
claim to our name – Family of God – and to embrace who we are as PART of the
LARGER Lutheran and Christian community, the ONE WHOLE family of GOD.
What if God used us to draw all those around us into that family? What if God used us to remind
all people that there is a place
for you here in this family, and that there is a place for
you in this flock. After all, we are not a flock of ONE, but we are ONE flock, under ONE shepherd, whether
we are in Windhoek Namibia, Delhi, India, or Buckingham, PA. Just as together
we said the 23rd Psalm, together we can help each other in following
the voice of our shepherd Jesus.
The gate is open, and together we are about to begin the
next phase of our new and abundant life in Christ. Jesus is our Gate, too,
because it is THROUGH Jesus that we are given this life. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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