Quicksilver

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

“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. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Toilet paper, coffee, chicken, green beans and maybe some of those crispy cookies.  That’s the kind of list I might get before I head home from Augusta.  The least important item is at the bottom and the item I simply can’t forget or I’ll be headed right out the door again to get it… THAT item is at the tippy top!  TOILET PAPER, Coffee, chicken, beans and cookies… in that order.  

In Jesus’ day and culture though, that’s not how lists were made.  If Jesus was to text me this same list for the grocery store he would text it the other way ‘round, which would mean… eh, maybe some of those crispy cookies, green beans, chicken breasts, COFFEE is important and in the name of all that is holy, please don’t forget TOILET PAPER!  

This Gospel lesson was written the way Jesus made lists, with the vital, most important, do NOT forget piece, right at the very end.  “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  But read from the perspective of our time and culture, Jesus buried the lead, while in his time and culture he was building to this quadruple forte, pinnacle, crescendo of the entire symphony… “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” 

I’ve been fairly obsessed with this verse for a while now.  I think this is our core… it is WHY we do what we do, as Christians in general, but very specifically, I think this is the core “WHY” of the Church @ 209.  There are other churches out there with this core as well, which is good, but I think this is the core that persists, through all the colorful history that happened in both our congregations, through downsizing, through vacancies and moving and coming together and all the rest.  All of that colorful history and all the rest… that’s not our core.  That stuff is all thief and bandit stuff.  Our CORE is the most important part, right there at the end, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  THAT’S Jesus’ core.  OUR core matches Jesus’ core.  Jesus came that they may have life and have it abundantly.  That’s WHY Jesus came and YOU come week after week so that THEY may have life and have it abundantly too.  It’s like little balls of mercury rolling around until they find another ball that’s just the same and IMMEDIATELY, they become one!  “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  That’s WHY we do what we do.

How do you do that?  HOW does Jesus bring us life and not just regular life, but abundant life?  And HOW do we JOIN with Jesus to make it so that those around us have life, and have it abundantly?  How Jesus does that is by being being God’s Son… through his life, death and resurrection.  HOW we do it is to come in and go out by way of Jesus who is the gate… and the shepherd.  

A quick aside to answer how Jesus can both be a gate and a shepherd… In Jesus’ day and where Jesus lived, sheep were put into a stone walled pen at night.  The pen had one opening.  The shepherd would herd the sheep into the pen and then they would lie down across that opening and sleep right there.  The shepherd used his body as the gate with a built in alarm.  If anything stepped on them going in or out, the shepherd woke up!  That’s how you can be a shepherd and a gate… and a high tech alarm system all at the same time.  

So HOW do we join with Jesus in bringing abundant life?  We go in and out through Jesus.  We follow Jesus’ voice, not just with our ears, but with our feet as well!  Jesus goes ahead and we sheep fall in line behind him, one foot in front of the other… out to new, unknown pastures to be fed, back into the familiar safety of our pen and through all the rocky hills and shadowy valleys that lie in between.  

WHY did Jesus come?  It’s right here, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”  How do we, with the same core, also wanting to bring abundant life to the world, join Jesus in doing that?  He tells us right here, “we follow, because we know his voice” in and out of pen, to green pastures and also through the valley of the shadow of death… we follow.  And WHAT does following Jesus and bringing abundant life to the world look like?  What are the steps we take?  The steps are striving for justice and peace in all the world.  Building the dignity of every human being.  Doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly with God.  Those steps look like putting clothes into a bag at Addie’s Attic.  It looks like a fabulous cityscape made of a thousand boxes of Mac & Cheese.  It looks like toilet paper and shampoo and making space for people of place, religion and ability.  

Here’s the thing I want you to hear today… I think this group of sheep… YOU… I think YOU do BEAUTIFULLY what Jesus calls his sheep to do.  I think this group of sheep does those things beautifully because YOU hear the Good Shepherd’s voice and you go in and out to pasture and pen and through all the dark valleys in between and I think this group of sheep does ALL OF THAT because at your CORE... you share Jesus’ core.  BECAUSE you have received abundant life from God as a gracious, free and generous gift through Jesus… YOUR core matches with Jesus’ core and you too can't help it but to pass that on and do ministry and live your lives, “So they may have life and have it abundantly.”  

I also believe that because we live in our culture and in our time… because we build lists with the most important thing at the top and the throw-away thing at the bottom, we have, for much too long, inadvertently buried the lead when we talk to others about our church and our faith.  The lead is, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly!”  That is WHY we do what we do!  THAT is what Jesus wanted us to understand as THE…MOST…IMPORTANT…THING!  THAT is what we need to share with our friends and families and neighbors as the VERY FIRST THING!  

We've been burying the lead less and less, which is good.  But it’s time for us to start every conversation among ourselves and out there in our day to day lives with WHY we do what we do.  Because God gave us abundant life, we do what we do so that everyone may have life, and have it abundantly as well!  I've seen it work in our collaborations with the city, the faith community, the United Way and others.  It's working!  People hear our core, it resonates with their core and they join us in bringing life to the world.  

When we start there, the people in our community who are not yet here, but who share the passion of bringing abundant life to the world at their core... Those folks will roll together, like little balls of mercury and join us in following the Good Shepherd, out of the pen, out to good pastures and into, not just life, and not just eternal life, but into an ABUNDANT life filled with meaning and purpose and joy for all of creation.  Amen.