One With One Another, April 13, 2008

John 10:1-11
Acts 4:32-5:11

The passages we read this morning are not what immediately come to mind when the Church imagines Easter and the Resurrection. These are blunt, crass, direct, intimate descriptions of relationship between members of the early Christian community, and relationship of Christ to the flock and the world.

There may seem a radical gear shift here, that we have gone from the glory and exuberance of the Resurrection, preaching on the Empty Tomb and Christ who returned from death to life for all humanity; of Thomas among the Disciples who locked themselves away with their fears unable to believe unless they could touch his wounds; of the Wedding at Cana in Galilee mystically, miraculously changing water into wine; then we are given a terse, newsy description about money and possessions, of wealth, the sale of real estate and how to get things done in life. Yet, when you think about it, the “REALITY OF THE RESURRECTION” is not our most elaborately orchestrated pageant of the Empty Tomb, not the most eloquent description of the Resurrection of he who died for the sins of the world, BUT RATHER whether the reality of that drama changed the world, especially in tangible daily activities like how we relate to one another? Resurrection is not so much about the HISTORICAL and SCIENTIFIC of HOW COULD THIS BE? as the CHRISTOLOGICAL and COMMUNAL of whether we BELIEVE and ACT DIFFERENT?

Recently, I was reflecting with friends about the Church when one described that it seemed all we ever talk about is MONEY. In recent years, we have focused on CAPITAL FUND I, overlapping with CAPITAL FUND II, and after less than a year's hyatis THE ORGAN FUND, then the paying down and off of DEBT, and the raising of money for building a CLINIC IN SUDAN. She wondered when we were ever going to focus on the Spiritual Things.
Another described that the Church they came from in another part of the country had been fighting for and about SOCIAL ACTION, they were fiercely divided and questioned WHY THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN SKANEATELES IS NOT MORE OUTSPOKEN ON THINGS THAT MATTER LIKE RACE, SEX and SEXUALITY and the WAR.
We discussed that while SPIRITUALITY, New and DIFFERENT MEANS OF PRACTICING FAITH, RACE and SEX and SEXUALITY and WAR and PEACE had all been active parts of discussions, education forums and meetings, NOTHING in life is as divisive and volatile as our discussions and family arguments about money and possessions. Without being partisan, I would share the hope and dream that perhaps finally in this unending series of campaign primaries our CANDIDATES who personify our Nation's divisiveness over RACE and SEX and SEXUALITY and WAR and PEACE, would address those issues in ways that can challenge and change how we relate to one another. The starting point for politics involves defending a position on an issue that leads to defining who we are one versus another; The starting point for faith involves claiming we are ONE with ONE ANOTHER that leads us to helping one another confront the issues of our lives.

In the Mid1970s Ernest Becker was a Pulitzer Prize winning Anthropologist from Seattle who proposed that as Western Cultures move further and further away from personal relationships with God, and Cultural faith in the Divine, that A DENIAL OF DEATH takes over, and Money, Wealth, Possessions, Power take on a God-like IDOL identity. Our QUEST FOR IMMORTALITY leads to attempts to preserve or even redeem our name through our possessions. The sin of ANANIAS & SAPPIRRA was not that they gave only a portion of all they had to share with the community, or that they did not give enough, but that they CONSPIRED to LIE about it saying to the communion, saying to God, this is All and Everything, when it was only a portion of all they had. Their SIN is what we all do at differing times, of justifying our materialism. I need to have this, that and the other, rather than being satisfied.

What Peter says, what causes them to drop dead, is that this is not simply a justification, not a lie to the community but a betrayal of our COMMUNION, and Betrayal of GOD. This passage from ACTS as well as Jesus' words in John are personal, intimate, real. The issue at stake is not whether we get caught on our TAXES, whether we will have to pay a fine, whether we go to COURT to Settle Disputes, but that when SIBLINGS fight over the dispersal of family possessions, what is broken is not the value of the Tea Set or the hand of the Grandfather Clock, but the Relationship of FAMILY.

This is a WONDERFULLY FREEING and HORRIBLY DEMANDING DESCRIPTION. How much easier we could deny this, if the passage named as LAW that EVERYONE SOLD ALL THEY HAD FOR A COMMON TREASURY. Or if the passage NAMED A TYTHE of GIVING 10%. I have long believed, that if each of us would write out our WILLS and give 10% of our ESTATE to the CHURCH before dividing among Family we would lower the family's Inheritance Tax, and benefit the Family by teaching Giving. BUT this passage actually demands yet a THIRD OPTION, that we would RESPOND TO EACH AS ANY HAD NEED. We have been privileged to witness this giving in our midst. When it came to establishing relationships for trust, as your PASTOR I went to Sudan. When it came to Construction, others went who have contracting experience. Then Doctors and Nurses. While others have given their time and expertise at the Food Pantry, and others Sharing a Meal at the Manor, others Serving on Committees and Teaching. I hate to imagine, and cannot envision what this community would be like, if the flock did not share their gifts as you do, serving on the Symphony Board and the Festival, Substitute Teaching and Tutoring, maintaining the woods and Nature Trails and Scouting programs. FROM EACH AS THEY HAVE RESOURCES TO EACH AS THEY HAVE NEEDS.

John's style is different than the other Gospels, who introduce “Jesus told a Parable:The Kingdom of God is a Like a Mustard Seed, Like a Woman Kneading Leaven into the Loaf”. John skips over verbage like “TOLD A PARABLE” and corollaries of “LIKE”, and John states that Jesus Said “I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD, I AM THE SHEEP GATE”, which is evolving one analogy upon another. IF, we only focused on Jesus being the GOOD SHEPHERD, we focus so much on the humanity of the man, we miss the point. Like a Shepherd Jesus cares for and watches over the flock, but even more, that shepherd becomes the gate for the sheep to be included. TOO OFTEN, we envision a GATE as being to keep others out, or to keep some in, WHAT IF the GATE is the means of access and the Shepherd's role is to extend the gate as a bigger opening? Every Sunday morning, there are the doors of the Church for strangers and members to enter in, and we make it a point to go outside, in all kinds of weather to go out on the sidewalk, greeting those passing by, welcoming out on the street, to come to the door to come inside.

Strangely, we tend to make “THE FLOCK” more exclusive than Jesus did. For Jesus does not identify this as MY FLOCK, as if to say there are other flocks that do not belong, but rather NAMES his IDENTITY as the SHEPHERD OF the WHOLE FLOCK. The stumbling block has been the 16th verse, that describes “I HAVE OTHER SHEEP, THAT ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. SO THERE SHALL BE ONE FLOCK ONE SHEPHERD.” Some have interpreted that this was Jesus reference to the Gentiles as well the Jews, long before his crucifixion or the binding of Saul on the Road to Damascus. The Latter Day Saints have used this passage to mean that Jesus later appeared to the North American Indians and diverse later cultures in time that were not descended from the Old Testament Covenant. Personally, I believe that this describes that as human beings we have a tendency toward exclusion, claiming this is our flock, our members, and those people are different. BUT God, particularly as we know God through Jesus is about INCLUSION, and that the purpose of the Christ has been for God to send him into the world to Call people to claim relationship as ONE WITH ONE ANOTHER, as a visible COMMUNION in the world.