"The Gate, The Gatekeeper and The Invitation", April 29, 2012

John 10: 1-1-18 Acts 4:1-12 The Tom Troeger poem "Traveler, Are You Passing Through" The entire testimony of the Bible, from Adam and Eve being put out of the Garden, through Noah and the Tower of Babel, down through Jesus walking the road toward Jerusalem, and the Apostles being sent out to the ends of the Earth, is that as human beings, we are travelers, travelers through time and space. With ever new forms of media, we are the most informed, most socially connected culture that has ever existed. Where during the Viet Nam war, our governments and media debated whether we should be shown pictures of the violence, today we know of revolutions, earthquakes, fires and tsunamis around the world, by streaming video from smartphones. But with all the points of connection, with all the friends we may have on Facebook and people following us on Twitter, we are more isolated and lonely than ever before. According to AARP over 35% of us as North Americans describe ourselves as lonely, isolated, alone and fearful; over 1/3 of us, and that is up from 1/5 of us just a decade ago. TRAVELER, ARE YOU PASSING THROUGH? WE ARE ON A JOURNEY TOO. HERE WE MEET TO FEAST AND REST, EACH OF US LIKE YOU A GUEST. WE HAVE FOUND A DEEP SPRING HERE, CONSTANT WATER, PURE AND CLEAR, A FIRE TO KEEP US WARM THROUGH THE NIGHT, THE COLD AND STORM. The great travesty of the Church is that, as Shepherds imitating The Good Shepherd, our role and function in life was to provide INVITATION and instead we have too often been GATEKEEPERS. The purpose of the Church, the purpose of the Christian life is not to exist unto ourselves for eternity. We are to be The GATE, the doorway, the point of entry by which all the world might come to God. We have throughout Millennia named the Scriptures and the Sacraments as being Holy and Sacred. To be “Holy & Sacred” are words which literally mean set apart for a Divine purpose, NOT to be worshipped unto themselves, but designated by God for use. TRAVELER, HAVE YOU LOST YOUR WAY? WE HAVE ROOM FOR YOU TO STAY. COME ON IN AND SPEND THE NIGHT. WAIT UNTIL THE MORNING LIGHT. TELL US WHERE YOU STARTED FROM, WHERE YOU'VE BEEN, HOW FAR YOU'VE COME. WE WILL TELL WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED: WHERE WE DOUBLED BACK AND TURNED. I am told that generations ago when shepherds worked the land, one of the responsibilities of a shepherd was to watch for lambs to be born. After the Ewe had dropped her lamb, the shepherd would clean it, then pick up the lamb and hold it around their own neck. In this way, the lamb came to identify the breathing, the scent and voice of the shepherd. The imprinting would be so strong, that when a shepherd was near a village, they could put their sheep with the flocks of several other shepherds over night, and in the morning when the gate was opened the sheep would separate themselves to follow their master's voice. Sheep are different from herding cattle. You can control cattle with a sharp pencil, or a loud noise. Cattle are pushed and prodded and frightened to go where you direct. Sheep are different, if standing behind sheep, you make a loud noise, they scatter and reform behind you. Sheep cannot be pushed where you want them to go, but must instead be led. Sheep need to be invited, to be shown the way is safe. Sheep need to be shown where the pastures are green, and the water is clean. If you have ever seen how absorbent a wool blanket can be, you understand why sheep are afraid of calm deep waters. But also, that when a shepherd was not near to a village, they looked for a canyon or enclosure that had one opening, and the shepherd would lay down and sleep across the opening using their body as the gate. Years ago on mission trip with male and female Senior highs, I recall sleeping on the floor of the hallway between their rooms, for much the same purpose. Any escapees, or predators, must step over the shepherd to reach the flock. TRAVELER, HAVE YOU FAR TO GO? UP AHEAD IS HARD AND SLOW. AT OUT TABLE TAKE A SEAT. WE HAVE MORE THAN WE CAN EAT. JOIN US AND RENEW YOUR STRENGTH, NEEDED FOR THE JOURNEY'S LENGTH. YOU, OUR GUEST, BE HOST INSTEAD. BLESS AND BREAK AND PASS THE BREAD. In earlier generations, what united people was belief in Freedom. When there was no middle class, when the masses were poor, or bought and sold in slavery, freedom seemed an elusive goal, an unattainable dream. As a Nation we were founded on a search for Religious Freedoms, then tempered and tested like the forging of steel, in the desire for Freedom from foreign tyranny. In each of these historic battles, like the hearing of Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, the underlying question is of POWER and AUTHORITY. There was no question whether John and Peter had been part of a Miracle. There was no question whether puritans and pilgrims wanted to be free, or whether the inhabitants of this new land wanted self-determination. The question has continually been, by whose Authority, according to what Proof, what Power, what Law gives you your rights? The purpose of the LAW was to give people Identity, relationship. If we obey these basic laws of the sanctity of life, the sanctity of truth, the rights of others, and above and beneath all our individual laws to trust God, then we can be free to live life and enjoy relationship with God and one another. But those with power guarded and protected that power. Where the Law had been established to grant and to protect our freedoms, instead the Law became a burden and obligation and threat. Years ago, I was advising a church, and meeting with their Session they read this passage of the Shepherd and the Gate and claimed authority that as the Church we must keep sinners out, we must guard the gate from those who might come in. How different this, from an understanding that as the Church, our purpose and identity is to open the gate, even to extend the gate wider to welcome others in. The great blindness of those within the church is that we have cut out individual verses or phrases to use as a club to protect the church as a club. Simon Peter is recorded as having said that: “There is Salvation in no one else, there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Christianity is the only way that has focused on SALVATION. Others have focused on FREEDOM, on ENLIGHTENMENT, on PURITY. The Saducees did not believe in resurrection to eternal life, whereas as Christians our Baptism, the devotion of our lives is for RECONCILIATION WITH One another, to try to forgive and be forgiven. We do not need to know how. What we need to know are the words of Jesus, “I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. I KNOW MY OWN AND MY OWN KNOW ME, JUST AS THE FATHER KNOWS ME AND I KNOW THE FATHER; AND I LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR THE SHEEP. I HAVE OTHER SHEEP THAT ARE NOT OF THIS FOLD; I MUST BRING THEM ALSO, AND THEY WILL HEED MY VOICE.” Listening to the Bell Choir rehearse the last few weeks, a recurrent phrase has been said. With the Spitzer family here, with the church enjoying this music, we wish Margaret herself were sitting in the pew. But the point is that she is! All those who are to come, all those who have gone before are part of the Body of Christ. The identifying feature of the church, our greatest treasure, is living our lives as an invitation to one another to the Table. TRAVELER HAVE WE MET BEFORE? SHARING BREAD, WE SHARE FAR MORE. SHARING STORIES, SONGS AND PRAYERS, SHARING COMMON HOPES AND CARES, UNTIL IT DAWNS ON US TO TRACE IN ONE ANOTHER'S EYES AND IN THE LINES IN YOUR FACE, WHAT WE SENSED BUT HADLY KNEW: CHRIST OUR FRIEND IS HERE IN YOU. A friend was a Presbyterian missionary on the West Bank in Jerusalem. He describes that one evening there was a knock at the door. Outside were a small group of College students, asking to pitch their tent in his yard over night. Jerusalem is such a contentious place between differing powers, that in such circumstance you have to file a registration permit, which they did. The following morning the travelers were gone. A few days later the police arrived saying he was under arrest. What he had not realized was that there are two permits required, like a Visa, one to enter and stay, another to leave and they had not. During the week, his colleague, the local Rabbi invited him to preach on the Sabbath. Every preacher knows the sinking feeling when they step out of the pulpit to walk down the aisle at the end of the Worship service, questioning if you connected with people and the Scripture. In Moby Dick, Ahab preaches, and doing so, pulls the ladder up after him into the pulpit. On this Sabbath, as he stepped out of the pulpit, six gargantuan men stood up and surrounded him. As he approached the door they kept him walking, out into the air, down the main street, into the Market place. At the center of the Village was an immense long table laden with food, with bread and wine. At the end of the meal, he spoke to those gathered, saying: “Friends, thank you. But tomorrow when I stand before the authorities, do not bring problems upon yourselves, allow me to go and stand alone for what I have done.” They responded with hurt and indignation. “If we abandoned you, God would judge us!” May we stand beside one another, and draw them in to God's care.