Sunday, May 7, 2017

May 7, 2017 - Easter 4A

Lectionary Readings

In the name of the Crucified and Risen Lord. Amen.
            Context always matters. When you only know part of a story, it can be easy to overlook its significance. There’s a story from the great Sufi master, Mullah Nasrudin. One evening he was out in the street on his hands and knees searching for something. A man comes along and asks “What are you looking for?” The Mullah responds “I lost my house key.” So the man joins him in search for it, but with no luck. The man asks “Are you sure you lost it around here?” And Mullah Nasrudin replies “Oh, no, I lost it a few streets over.” “Then why are you wasting my time by searching for it here?” the man wants to know. Nasrudin replies, “Oh, well, the light is so much better over here.”

That bit of context would have helped in their search for the lost key. Context always matters, and the context of our readings from Acts and John this morning greatly shape the way we read them.           If we were to try to read Acts or John in isolation from their surrounding contexts, we could come up with some rather inaccurate interpretations, which would be unfortunate, as both are full of meaning for us today.
Jesus’ saying about sheep, shepherds, bandits, and a gate is a fairly well-known one. Given the shepherd imagery in today’s readings, often this Sunday goes by the moniker of “Good Shepherd Sunday.” But what leads Jesus to offer this saying? This speech occurs immediately after a reading we had a few months ago in Lent: the healing of a man who was born blind. You’ll remember that Jesus heals this blind man on the Sabbath and the Pharisees didn’t like what was going on. They were used to being in control and to deciding who was worthy of being healed by God. So that story is about Jesus’ power to heal as much as it a story of the growing conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders.
As that passage concludes, Jesus says “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” Then, right on the heels of that encounter, Jesus offers this lesson about thieves and bandits. It is an indictment of a religious system that seeks to control the grace of God.
Though we often think of this as a passage where Jesus is elaborating on the metaphor of his being the Good Shepherd, he doesn’t actually use those words here. Rather, Jesus says that he is the Gate. This is a rather strange metaphor. You can find stained glass windows with Jesus appearing as a shepherd, but I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a window depicting a gate. Historians tell us that there is more to this metaphor than we might know. Often, there wasn’t a physical gate to the sheep pen, but rather the shepherd functioned as a gate. The shepherd would lie down at the entrance to the enclosure and use his body as the gate. The sheep knew not to walk over him, and if they did, he’d know it. And if any wild animals or thieves tried to enter, the shepherd would also know it. When Jesus says that “the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep,” he means it both literally and figuratively.
Jesus functions as the gate by bringing us, bringing all, into the flock. People like the blind man, who had been discarded and rejected, are welcomed by Jesus. Jesus notes that he came that we might have life, and have it abundantly. Though religions and governments sometimes forget that every single person is a child of God who is deserving of dignity, respect, love, and abundant life, Jesus as our Gate welcomes all into this abundance of life.
What does abundant life look like to you? When you hear that Jesus offers you abundant life, what do you expect? So often in our capitalistic society we define abundance as having lots of things: lots of homes, lots of clothes, lots of gadgets, lots of food, lots of money, lots of friends, lots of options. But I think it’s fairly obvious that this isn’t the sort of abundant life that Jesus has in mind. The easiest way to discern whether or not our vision of abundance is the same as Jesus’ is a simple question: if I lost this thing, would my soul be troubled.
For a glimpse of what this abundant life looks like, we turn to the reading from Acts. Again, without the larger framework and context for this story, we might easily miss the point. The verses we heard this morning came from the end of chapter two. That chapter though begins with a very familiar story: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”
The way the lectionary is structured, we might forget that this story of the early Christian community comes as a result of the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. When we think of Pentecost, we remember speaking in tongues, we remember Peter’s preaching that leads to the Baptism of 3,000 people, but we don’t always remember that people’s lives were transformed that day.
Faith is to be the catalyst for a chain reaction in your life. The fact that you have been Baptized should impact that way you live and move in this world. The Holy Spirit which dwells within you transforms you. And this is what we see in the reading from Acts. Because of Pentecost, because of faith, these Christians experienced the abundant life that God intends for them.
Notice the pattern that they followed: they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, they broke bread, they prayed. That should sound familiar. For one, that’s essentially what the Church is all about. And that also is a part of the Baptismal Covenant – Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers? And in response, we say “I will, with God’s help.” So not only is this a Biblical pattern for us, not only is it a means to encounter abundant life, but it is also a promise we have made to God and each other.
The Spirit transformed this early Christian community. Acts tells us that many wonders and signs were being done, that all things were held in common, and that the needy were taken care of. They spent time in prayer, they had Eucharistic gatherings, they praised God, and they had glad and generous hearts.
I do need to point out that this is a description of what happened when people allowed faith to be a catalyst for transformation. This is not the platform of the Democratic party. We would be remiss to ignore the idea of holding all things in common and distributing goods to all those in need, but we also ought not to use this passage to argue for a Bernie Sanders presidency. The clear difference is that this is a vision of what the Spirit can do through us, not an example of democratic socialism, but an example of community in the fullest sense of that word. So let’s all make sure that we don’t apply this story out of context.
There are two aspects of this abundant life that I want to point out. The first is that the text notes that these followers of Jesus had “glad and generous hearts.” Can you imagine how much less contentious our nation might be if Christians were known for having glad and generous hearts. How much less anxiety would we have if gladness and generosity described us? Our culture is full of entitlement and resentment. The rancor of the election hasn’t stopped. The stress about your child who is struggling, the stress about your health, the stress about finances, the guilt you feel, the doubts that you have, the lack of peace that we have all remain. We try to cover over these struggles with things like possessions, alcohol, pain killers, affairs, sugary foods, binge watching television shows, endless hours on social media. But none of these lead to abundant life.
The Greek word that we have translated as “glad” means exultation and great joy. It is also the word used for oil which was used to anoint people at festive gatherings, not at all unlike the oil that you were anointed with on the day of your Baptism. And the word that we have rendered as “generous” means “simple, sincere, or humble.” And therein lies one of the secrets to finding the abundant life that Jesus bestows upon you – simpleness.
We have sayings from Scripture that we all know about this truth: “And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand” and “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.” A singular focus on the love, grace, and mercy of God is the doorway, the gate, into abundant life. Exceeding joy is found by following the call of our Good Shepherd. Many thieves and bandits will try to call our names. They will offer shouts of great things – follow me and you’ll be very rich, do things my way and you’ll be very powerful, listen to me and you’ll be famous, come with me and I’ll give you a comfortable life. And because many people don’t know how to listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd, they follow these thieves and bandits that go by names of Mammon, fame, and power.
These voices though never lead us to abundant life, they do not lead us to a peace which passes all understanding, they do not love us without exception, they do not transform us, they do not lead us beside still waters, they do not revive our souls, they do not accompany us in the valley of the shadow of death, they do not anoint our head with the oil of exultant joy, they do not provide a house for us to live in forever. The Good Shepherd has become our Gate, our way to enter into abundant life.
The other point to be made about this passage from Acts is a cautionary one. There never has been a “golden age” of Christian community. Just a few chapters later in Acts, a husband and wife sell some land and give some, but not all, of the money to the community. When it was found out that this couple held back some of the money, Peter confronts them, saying “And after it was sold, were not the proceeds at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You did not lie to us but to God!” The point is that Christians have never been perfect in balancing our commitments to our families, to ourselves, to the community, and to God. But don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good. We’re probably not going to achieve perfect peace and love on earth during our lifetime, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t try our best.
Wouldn’t you love to have a glad and generous heart? I know I would. And I wish there were more glad and generous hearts in our society. As we see in Scripture, the Gate to this abundant life of glad and generous hearts is found through a simple and single-minded focus on God. We can draw closer to this abundant life by committing ourselves to the apostles’ teaching, which really is all about knowing the love of God. We do it by partaking in the fellowship of the Church. We do it by coming together to break bread together, both at the Eucharist and around the dinner table. We do it by praying with and for each other. When we do these things, we will be training our ears to listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd who calls us. And when we are better able to hear that tender voice of love, we will be able to drown out the Siren call of the thieves and bandits of consumerism, of resentment, of entitlement, of selfishness, of doubt.
Spend some time this week listening for the voice of the Good Shepherd who calls you by name. Spend time in prayer. Spend time sharing meals with people you care about. Maybe you can write a note to remind you to have a glad and generous heart, and put it on your bathroom mirror, computer screen, or refrigerator door. Context always matters. And the context of your life is that God loves you deeply, that Jesus welcomes you into abundant life, and that the Spirit dwells within you to be a catalyst for faith. Amen.