Acts 6:1-9; 7:2a,51-60
1 Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10
Psalm 23
Once by some social worker's miscalculation, we ended up with two teenage foster kids from different families and of different gender living in our home at the same time. That's a formula for trouble and the trouble arrived rather quickly, somewhere between starry-eyed romance and blazing passion. Sometimes it is necessary for the shepherd or the parent literally to BE the gate to keep those loved ones safe. So I got out my sleeping bag and slept all night in the hallway between the kids bedroom doors. They only had to trip over me once that night. And a social worker dutifully arrived the next day to relocate one of the kids so the romance could continue in the usual frustrating fashion rather than under the same roof.
Middle eastern shepherds will sometimes lie across an opening like a gate to keep their sheep safe. The only way for the sheep to come in or go out is by the shepherd. The shepherd is the gate to the pasture and the gate to comfort and safety.
For those who follow the Good Shepherd, the gate is open to abundant life. Jesus is the entry way to all that is good: Comfort and healing and goodness and mercy; still waters and green pastures, just like in that beloved 23rd psalm.
But still there's the gate and the fence. And everyone knows that "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence."
Whichever side of the fence we're on: whether we're the strangers on the outside looking at the valuable sheep, or the sheep on the inside looking out at the green pastures. We see it and we want it. We may even try climbing fence to get it. Or we try working hard to get it. Or being good to get it. We are looking at that green grass and wanting somehow to make it ours. We want success and prosperity.
But that's not what Jesus is talking about. Jesus says that he came that ‘they might have life and have it abundantly.' Abundant life is not the same as. prosperity, anymore than true love is sneaking into someone's bedroom in the middle of the night. Think of the people you know who are most filled with life. Are they the wealthiest? The most successful? The most powerful?
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There were once two brothers who farmed together. They shared equally in all of the work and split the profits exactly. Each had his own granary. One of the brothers was married and had a large family; the other brother was single. One day the single brother thought to himself, "It is not fair that we divide the grain evenly. My brother has many mouths to feed, while I have but one. I know what I'll do, I will take a sack of grain from my granary each evening and put it in my brother's granary." So, each night when it was dark, he carefully carried a sack of grain, placing it in his brother's barn. Now the married brother thought to himself, "It is not fair that we divide the grain evenly. I have many children to care for me in my old age, and my brother has none. I know what I'll do, I will take a sack of grain from my granary each evening and put it in my brother's granary." And he did. Each morning the two brothers were amazed to discover that though they had removed a sack of grain the night before, they had just as many as before. One night the two brothers met each other halfway between their barns, each carrying a sack of grain. Then they understood the mystery. And they embraced, and loved each other deeply. There is a old Jewish legend that says God looked down from heaven, saw the two brothers embracing, and said, "I declare this to be a holy place, for I have witnessed extraordinary love here." It is said that it was on that spot that Solomon built the first temple. |
Abundant life is a gift.. It is not something that anyone can steal or earn or get for themselves. Abundant life is a gift.. And abundant life is about giving. It is about knowing that whatever fortune or misfortune the world has dealt you, you still have some gift to share.
Abundant life is knowing that, even when things seem at the worst, the table is spread and your cup is running over.
Jesus, the Good Shepherd gave his life for us, and in giving he became the gate to abundant life. Those who hear his voice and follow him in that path of giving, and those who enter through Jesus, the Gate, will have the blessing of abundant life and will come and go freely, perhaps even leading others to the Gate of life.
When you follow Jesus, God's abundant life bubbles in you like a fountain.
May the overflowing life in you so bless the lives of others
that they, too, may recognize the Shepherd and live.
Amen.