April 30, 2023 St. Andrew Church Rev. Anne McAnelly
First Lesson: Ezekiel 34:11-15
11 For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12 As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God.
Second Lesson: John 10:1-10
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
During my trip to Palestine and Israel, as we were going down from Bethlehem to Jericho we were having our morning devotions on the bus. Our tour guide Farage was leading them that morning. A strong Palestinian Christian, Farage was reflecting on the beautiful morning and God’s blessings, and he closed our time together as the bus winds back and forth through the hills. He led us in the 23 Psalm. 39 Christians praying this rich theological promise of God’s care as our shepherd. I glanced out my window, the familiar words rolling off my tongue, and spotted a herd of sheep which had been camouflaged in the stony hillside. Reciting “the Lord is my shepherd” as God revealed to me a Bedouin shepherd caring for his flock. Tears of awe filled my eyes, witnessing a shepherd’s care as God promises to be my shepherd. These words came to life, God’s promise felt incredibly real. You might think sheep and shepherds were everywhere, but that was not the case. So to have our prayer to God align with witnessing a modem shepherd caring for his flock, collapsed the-time from the Old Testament til now. So the 23 Psalm permeates this service in hopes of bringing that same awe into worship.
Ezekiel tells of God being our Shepherd, searching for the sheep, feeding them and tending to them. God searching for us, feeding us and tending to us. God as Shepherd is comforting and supportive, especially as we move farther away from the pastoral life. A life most of us never knew.
In her book The Preaching Life, Barbara Brown Taylor tells of a conversation she had with a friend who grew up on a sheep farm in the Midwest. According to him, sheep are not dumb at all. “It is the cattle ranchers who are responsible for spreading that ugly rumor, and all because sheep do not behave like cows. Cows are herded from the rear by hooting cowboys with cracking whips, but that will not work with sheep at all. Stand behind them making loud noises and all they will do is run around behind you, because they prefer to be led. You push cows, her friend said, but you lead sheep, and they will not go anywhere that someone else does not go first. Their shepherd-who goes ahead of them to show them that everything is all right.”
Sheep know their shepherd and their shepherd knows them.
He went on to say that “it never ceased to amaze him, growing up, that he could walk right through a sleeping flock without disturbing a single one of them, while a stranger could not step foot in the fold.without causing pandemonium” (Christian Globe Illustrations, sermons.com).
Our gospel lesson speaks to this, both the sheep following their shepherd and the bandits and thieves who mess with the flock. Yet Jesus also doubles up on metaphors. He is both the shepherd and the gate; the caretaker and the way to keep the sheep safe. Well, I guess I am getting ahead of myself. God was the Shepherd ir1 the Old Testament, and in the next verse Jesus declares he is the good shepherd, without saying so in these verses. So what does Jesus mean when he said, “I am the gate,” “I am the door”? This is one of the many “I Am” statements in John seeking to help us understand who Jesus is The Shepherd idea makes sense but what in the world does Jesus mean about being a gate? It was a common practice for shepherds to gather the sheep at night within a cave or outcropping. Then to sleep near the opening of that area to protect the sheep and keep them together.
George Adam Smith, the 19th century biblical scholar tells of traveling one day in the holy land and coming across a shepherd and his sheep. He fell into conversation with him, and the man showed him the fold into which the sheep were led at night. It consisted of four walls, with a way in. Smith asked him, “This is where they go at night?” “Yes,” said the shepherd, “and when they are in there, they are perfectly safe.” “But there is no door,” said Smith. “I am the door,” said the shepherd. He was not a Christian man and wasn’t speaking in the language of the New Testament. He was speaking from an Arab shepherd’s viewpoint. Smith looked at him and asked, “What do you mean you are the door?” “When the light has gone,” said the shepherd, “and all the sheep are inside, I lie in that open space, and no sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body; I am the door.” (George Adam Smith, Sermons.com)
“I am the door,” Jesus said. “If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture” (10:9). Once again Jesus takes a real everyday practice of shepherds and turns it into a theological statement.. Yes, Jesus cares for us, loves us, forgives us, and Jesus is also the door, the way, to abundant life! One commentator writes, “Jesus turns to a clar statement of identity. I am the door. I am the proper way, the right way into the sheep fold. Pasture, that is, life, is through me, the door … (Jesus is) the true way to enter into that amplitude, that fullness of life.” (Working Preacher, Sarah Hendrich). Jesus is the door, Jesus is the gate, Jesus is the way to abundant life. Diana Butler Bass in a sermon ba$ed on .Freeing Jesus talks about Jesus as the Way, while looking at another passage in John. Soon Jesus will be leaving the disciples and they are nervous, scared about what will come next. They don’t know.what will happen when Jesus leaves. As comfort, mission; and promise, Jesus gives them a new commandment, to love one another as I have loved you. Then you remember Thomas asks, “but how will we know the way?” Jesus replies, “I am the way, the truth, the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:6). Just like the shepherd was the gate for the sheep to come and go, Jesus is the door, the way, for us to live in God’s love, for us to have abundant life. We know God because Jesus dwells with God, dwells with God in love.
Bass tells of dropping her daughter off at preschool and how those can be tough times. You don’t want to go, but work _calls. Your child may _be feeling anxious about you leaving. So what do we do in those moment of departure? We tell our child “I love· you.” “I’ Ube back soon, !Jove you.” She likens Jesus giving them the :commandment of love as a similar expression. God loves you even when Jesus has to go away. Live in God’s love. Bass writes, “Jesus uses the way the truth and the life to explain how he embodies a way of being in this world so close to the ·heart .of God that God can be known in and through Jesus” (Freeing Jesus, p. 168) .. Jesus opens the way to love, Jesus embodies the way to love. Jesus is the gate, the door, to love.
Then Bass reinterprets the second part, the one used to clobber people of other faiths and tell them that they are going to hell. Except can have two meanings, one is exclusion, and one is save for this path. So often this verse is used to exclude everyone else. But Jesus was not talking about other faiths, he was comforting his disciples before he was to be crucified. The second understanding of except means no one knows God except through what Jesus has shown them, the promise of love, the way of love. Then the following verses make so much more sense, “If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know God and have seen God” (14:7). Bass writes, “‘Except’ is like a window that lets light into a closed room. It fits what the Gospel says about Christ coming as the light into a world of darkness and serving as the door … that enables people to enter God’s sheepfold. Rather than restricting access to God the word ‘except’ creates access to God. There would be no way except that the love of God has made a way … Invitation, not exclusion” (Freeing Jesus, p. 169-170).
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Jesus is the door, the gate, the way to abundant life. Dwell in God’s abundant love. Amen.
