No Snatching

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 10^th Chapter

At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. 

The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

On Monday I got an email that Dave’s health had taken a turn for the worse.  I knew Dave from my church in Albuquerque and a year ago he was diagnosed with lung cancer.  He was never a smoker, so that wasn’t how he got cancer.  What he was, was a nuclear engineer, both for the Air Force and for Sandia National Labs and although nobody really knows what he did, it’s likely that a nuclear scientist working in the desert Southwest in the 60’s, might have picked something up along the way.    

I always joked when I was a pastor there that between the Sandia National Labs folks and the folks that had retired to Albuquerque from Los Alamos, it would probably be easier for me to pull together a chuch committee that could build a nuclear missle that it would be to pull together a stewardship committee!  But when I think about it, Dave was one of the few who would have been comfortable and good at both. 

On Monday night I got another message that if I wanted to come and say goodbye, I should come right away.   I tell you about Dave, because even though Dave understood to the molecular level the most powerful weapons on the planet, I think Dave, unlike the religious leaders who cornered Jesus in the Portico of Solomon, understood THAT kind of power had limits.  Those leaders wanted to know if Jesus was the Messiah, and clearly they didn’t think that healing the sick, giving sight to the blind or feeding the hungry were things that showed a Messiah sort of power.  I’m sure they were looking for the sort of Messiah power that would raise an army, train the troops, give patriotic speeches, drive the Romans out of the country and make Israel great again!  

Jesus wasn’t the kind of Messiah that got his way through force or fights.  Jesus embraced a different kind of power.  Jesus knew… and I think Dave knew too… that while military, strong-arm kind of might can be very powerful… God’s love, grace, and compassion is an unlimited kind of power that has the power change the world more completely than megatons of anything ever could.  

Dave believed that.  The thing is, I know Dave believed that not because he told me he believed it or wrote a paper on it or signed a statement of faith about it.  I know Dave believed it because Dave filled his life by doing Jesus things, walking a Jesus walk and following a Jesus sort of path through life.  In last week’s Gospel we were reminded again… and this week we’re reminded again-again… that believing isn’t what happens between our ears, it’s something that happens at the end of our hands and at the end of our legs and that pours out of our hearts.  You can quote scripture all day long with chapter and verse, but I’ll really KNOW you believe when you do something like spend hours making sure that Habitat House isn’t just good enough, but is it’s very best.  You can argue doctrine and quote St. Augustine in Latin if you want, but I’ll really know you believe when you sit with a kid who’s away from home at camp for the first time and make them understand that they are the one child there who makes that mountain so very, very special.  

Faith isn’t about what we think so much as it is the path we walk in this life.  And as we walk that Jesus kind of path of love, grace, generosity and compassion we do more than just fall in step behind the Messiah.  As we walk in our lives with that Jesus kind of walk and fall in step on a Jesus kind of path, what we’re doing in the process is continually unwrapping the gift of eternal life we have been given.  Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.  I know them.  They follow me.  I give them eternal life.”  The gift of eternal life isn’t just living forever.  After all, living a terrible life for all of eternity wouldn’t be that wonderful of a gift, would it?  No, eternal life is an abundant, joy filled, life filled with meaning, purpose, self worth and grace that is meant for us to live RIGHT NOW and then continue to the end of our lives and beyond.

When we walk that Jesus walk and put one foot in front of the other on that Jesus path, we unwrap a tiny bit more of that gift with every step we take.  That gift of eternal life… the gift of God’s presence... was given to us all in our Baptisms; walking like Jesus helps us with each step to become more and more aware of the gift we’ve already been given! 

I got to Albuquerque late Tuesday night and in the morning Dave’s daughter Kris picked me up and we went to the hospital.  Dave was very weak.  I managed to provoke a smile when I told him we now had the same hair style!  That’s all the energy he had.  At noon, his granddaughter Carly was married in his room.  He was going to walk her down the aisle this summer, but things got moved up and the location changed and after we all went home to let Dave rest, his breathing changed and later that afternoon, Dave died.  

Dave’s daughter Kris and I talked that evening.  She said he was what they used to call “A Churchman,” those sorts of men who were the cornerstones of their church and Dave was that for sure.  But as I flew home Thursday night I began to think, “Churchman” just wasn’t the right word, because for him, church was not a destination.  For Dave, faith was no destination.  Faith was a path and he was a walker of The Way.  He heard the Good Shepherd’s voice and hit the road, following Jesus out into the world, not stuck just contemplating the Gospel, but out DOING the Gospel… passing on the power of God’s love, to his family, to his friends, around the Lazy Susan at camp and through a chopsaw at a Habitat build, all in each of those steps he changed the world with God's love.  

Dave was a remarkable man, but he had nothing more remarkable than you or me.  He was named and claimed by God and given eternal life in the Waters of Baptism just like you and me.  He was fed at God’s Table and sent into the world, just like you and me.  But what he did with those gifts was something those religious leaders in the Portico of Solomon just couldn’t seem to manage.  With those gifts in hand, he walked the path Jesus called him to travel, and with every step, he found that he could unwrap more and more of the splendor of the gift of eternal life he had been given.

Listen to the Shepherd’s voice.  Hear again that you ARE God’s beloved child, named and claimed and given eternal life in the Waters of Baptism and fed with the abundance of God’s Table.  And then when you get up from the Table, start walking.  Put one foot in front of the other and share God’s love with whomever you meet along the way.  With each step you will find that the power of God’s love flows without end through everything and everyone you touch and that love is something that can never, never be snatched away, not even by death.  Amen.