A pause in a busy weekend. I just completed a retreat that I was leading here in town. And I’m in charge of worship for the Conference clergy retreat that begins Sunday evening through Tuesday next week. Plus there are four services on Sunday (this is nursing home week) to prepare for. And I want to get this out before too much longer. Plus I made a quick visit to the hospital to pray with a woman needing gall bladder surgery, and I know that hurts a lot. So, it was worth the trip.
And it was as I was entering the impressive lobby of St. Francis Hospital that I discovered the problem with doors. They have those huge revolving door that sense when someone is wanting to go through and then they start revolving. Except it is not the normal walking speed. It slows you down, you have to take its pace, move at its leading, and not your own. You might have been rushing up to that moment, but as soon as you get to that door, you’ve got to slow down. Take a breath. Walk a slower pace.
But that’s not the problem. Oh, it can be frustrating, it can cause you to rethink, scale back, slow down. But that could be a good thing, we probably need more of that, to be honest. I know I do. No, the problem with doors is much more fundamental than that. It is in the very essence of doorness. The raison d’etre of gate. The problem with doors/gates is that you have to go through them.
Wait. What? What else are doors for? Why have a gate if you don’t go through it? Exactly! Why have a door if you don’t go through it? Jesus says I am the gate for the sheep. And the expectation is that they will go through. When all we want to do is huddle down in our sheep fold, with sheep just like us, same kind of woolly thinking, same kind of grass chewing, the sheep we’ve gotten used to, the sheep that look at lot like us. Why would we go out, go through into a different world, a different place? Aren’t we about safety and security above all?
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.
I Am the gate. Gates speak to us of access, of limited access. A gate usually is accompanied by a “no trespassing” sign. Or even a “keep out” notice. Gates are about keeping people out, about dividing, about separating, about filtering. And certainly in this passage there is a certain amount of that. Thieves and bandits abound, we believe, coming to steal and kill and destroy. So, keep out! Keep away. Let’s be careful as to who we let in, about who we admit into the community of faith. We have to be careful. We have to decide who is worthy of entrance into our midst. We have to build big gates to protect ourselves from a big bad world.
Except, look again. He doesn’t tell us to build a gate. He doesn’t tell us to become a gated community. He says “I Am the gate.” He is taking from us the responsibility of keeping the undesirables out. He is claiming the task of determining who is worthy and who isn’t. We can’t figure that out, we get confused, we are likely to follow any voice that sounds interesting.
Which means our job is very different. We aren’t to be the one ones passing judgement on those around us. Our job is to get to know His voice. We need to spend time in His presence. We need to listen to Him, to study His word, to follow His practice. We need to spend our lives getting to know Him so that when we hear our name called we will know who is calling. “The sheep follow Him because they know His voice.”
We follow because He knows us. We follow because He loves us. We follow because He defines us, we are His, shaped in His image, empowered by His love, transformed by His presence. Because He wants to be with us.
Traveling across the wilds of Scotland, we noticed these odd little shelters scattered around on the hillsides. They were sheepfolds, we were told. It was essentially a circular construction of walls, not very high, but with an opening on one side. There was no gate or door, just an opening. The shepherd, we were told, would lie down in the opening and thus provide the protection at night. He put his body in between the flock and the dangers of the world around them.
That’s what He offers, a place to belong, a place to be safe, a place of acceptance and grace and joy and love. A place where we can grow into what is within us to be. A place where we can test the limits of our abilities, where we can trust that we are valued. It can even be a place where we fail from time to time, but it isn’t the end of the world because there is always forgiveness and transformation. That’s what He offers, that is the life abundant that He so much wants to give us, wants to open to us. And, He promises He will be there.
He will be with us. No, He will lead us. We follow, because He is leading us. Leading us out. He is asking us to go through the Gate that He is. To find the pastures where He wants us to be, to engage in the mission that He wants us to perform. That’s the problem with Gates, we have to go through. To follow Him, follow His call. Even when it is hard.
This week I am sharing with my congregation here at Southport that a Gate has been presented to me. I was invited to consider becoming the Director of Preaching Ministries with Discipleship Ministries in Nashville, Tennessee. After much discernment and negotiation, I decided that this was indeed a call from the Lord I committed to follow. And so this summer I will again go through the door that Christ has presented and follow where He leads.
I am both excited and nervous about this transition. In some ways moving to a denominational position seems a risky move right now. Leaving a church who has welcomed us, loved us and responded to my ministry is a difficult thing. Yet, I have spent my ministry around the gift and craft, the art of preaching, and this position will use those gifts and that knowledge and experience in new and dynamic ways.
So, He leads us out. That’s what the text says. Sure there is an in too. In verse 9 He says “they come in and go out and find pasture.” In verses 3 and 4 He talks about leading us out. Leading us. He goes before. But it is the out that seems most crucial. We are called to be ready to go when He calls. That’s why we listen and learn to recognize His voice. So that we can overcome the problem with gates.
Shalom,
Derek
No comments:
Post a Comment