May 7, 2017
Easter 4A

“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. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:1-10

In this passage from John, Jesus says that he has come so that his sheep — his followers, all of us — may have life and have it abundantly. Life, obviously, is good, desirable, important. How much more so, then, abundant life. The chance to not simply persist, but thrive, to not simply exist, but flourish. To have a sense of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment; to know and be known, accept and be accepted. I believe that if there is one thing that pretty much everyone in our congregations (and outside of them!) desires — even if they can’t name that desire — it’s this. More than that, I believe we regularly make all kinds of sacrifices in the hope to earn or achieve or purchase this life, and each time we fail it kills us just a little.

I think we need to reclaim…the responsibility to name how often we have…cheated ourselves — by settling for something less than abundant life. Because the fact of the matter is that after all of our seeking and searching and shopping, we still end up far short of experiencing the abundant life Jesus promises. Perhaps we don’t know how to achieve such life (and of course naming it an “achievement” is part of the problem!). Or perhaps we’re afraid of what it takes to receive it. Why, we might well ask? I suspect that authentic abundant life — which Jesus here describes as flowing from relationship with Jesus and through him with God — demands that we be more vulnerable than we’re most often prepared to be. So much of our life is about protecting ourselves: giving the impression that we really do have it all together and in this way guarding ourselves against vulnerability. The difficulty, though, is that we cannot experience abundant life without exposing, even lifting up, those very vulnerabilities we want to hide. For the truth of the matter is, as Brene Brown has said in her book The Gifts of Imperfection (Hazelden, 2010), we cannot go selectively numb. And in trying to protect ourselves from hurt and disappointment, we have so numbed ourselves that we have cut ourselves off from the opportunity to really feel alive.

It is this very real human condition and dilemma that God embraces in the incarnation, taking on our lot and our life in the flesh and blood of Jesus. The man born of woman, born under the law; the one who experienced love and laughter, sorrow and disappointment; the teacher of love and peace who was executed on the cross — this one knows the deepest recesses of our fears and insecurities and has embraced them all. And when he is resurrected, he comes bearing the peace he has offered all along accompanied with the promise that his love is greater than fear and that his new life is greater than death.” (David Lose, workingpreacher.com website, Abundant Life, May 8, 2011)

Now, as the church, as the body of Christ, well this “sheep-pen” should always be assessing how we are doing as sheep. If we want a model of what a church of Jesus Christ should look like, well we just need to review the scripture from Acts that gives us five marks that a “Joyous, Spirit-filled, following Jesus” church should look like.

1.      They devoted themselves to the teachings of the Apostles – which means they devoted themselves to the teachings of Jesus. We too need to devote ourselves to the teachings of Jesus – through bible study, through regular bible reading, and through solid Gospel centered preaching. I think we are doing ok offering these opportunities – I think more people could be partaking in those opportunities.
2.     They emphasized fellowship – the Greek word is “Koinonia”. It means breaking bread together – in meals and in the meal of communion. Again, I think we are doing right in our fellowship and in our frequency of communion.  But our fellowship does not just stop with our own members – we are offering fellowship with the community – and we should do more.
3.     They were a caring community. They distributed to those in need from their own possessions. God has blessed us with an abundance – and we need to share with those who are in need. We do well with this – with caring for our community. We could always increase our foot print in this community by looking for other ways to help those in need.
4.     They were joyous – they gathered together with glad and generous hearts. I think we are a joy-filled group. Nothing hurts the efforts to increase our numbers of worshipping Christians if people come into our midst and sense that people do not like each other. We are joy filled – people need to know we are people of the Spirit.
5.     They devoted themselves to prayer. We too need to pray always – individual prayers, intercessory prayers, frequent prayers – we need to lead prayerful lives, trusting the Good Shepherd hears our prayers.
And then we go out to live, to move, to love, listening for the voice of our Shepherd who wants to breath new life into each one of us and into our church through the Holy Spirit – the same Holy Spirit who builds faith. My friends, that is what church is about –both listening for the voice of the Shepherd, and then following him into the wilds of life and faith. The choice is ours – our shepherd is leading us out of the sheep-pen – and we better follow because, even a weatherman can’t predict which way the winds of the spirit are blowing.

Pastor Dave