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.
