Sermon 4/21/02
Easter Week 4 - John 10:1-10
(view lectionary notes for this text)
John 10:10 has always been my favorite Bible verse: The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly. There is something so powerful about the image of abundant life, something so appealing about the thought that Jesus doesn't just seek life for us, but full, abundant life. It is the nine verses leading up to this one that leave me a little confused! Jesus shares a vivid metaphor full of images of sheep, shepherds, gates, gatekeepers, and pastures. It all sounds very lovely until you try to work your way through the metaphor. We are the sheep. Jesus is the shepherd. But Jesus is also the gate. And there are thieves and bandits - who are they? And who is the gatekeeper? Commentators and preachers point out that clearly Jesus did not heed the well-known rule that you should not mix your metaphors! No wonder his audience did not understand what he was talking about! The message that Jesus tries to convey is not immediately clear - the metaphor is several layers thick, and every time you read it, you find something you hadn't noticed before, or some word catches your ear like it hadn't before. Like Jesus' promise of abundant life, his words too are full, overflowing with meanings for us to discover.
I had always assumed that the gate in Jesus' metaphor represented the entry to eternal life, the gate of salvation. If Jesus called himself the gate, I assumed that Jesus was trying to say that sheep could only come into the fold through him, that people could only come into eternal life through him. I was struck, then, in reading the text over, that leading the sheep into safe-haven of the gated area was only one part of the shepherd's responsibilities. In fact, Jesus talks more about how the shepherd leads the sheep out of the safe place into places of pasture. "He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. He goes ahead of them and the sheep follow." The sheep, Jesus says, come in and go out and find pasture. They move between the place of safety and new places where they can eat and wander, under the guidance of the shepherd.
The gated area does not represent eternal life, and Jesus' function is not to keep unwanted sheep from getting in! In fact, Jesus' aim is to get the sheep out of the gated area, out of the safe places and into places where abundant life can be experienced. He calls the sheep out to pasture. In Jesus' time, the sheep of many villagers were kept together in one gated area. When a shepherd came to lead his sheep out, he would have a unique call, so that his sheep would know who he was and follow behind him. The shepherd calls his sheep by name and leads them out. Jesus promises us abundant life, but we must leave the gated area to take part in it.
As seminarians, we are often encouraged to talk about God's call in our lives. How were we called? To what kind of ministry are we being called? We talk about our call in classes, before ordination boards, and in essays and papers. I've had to share my call to ministry in 5 pages, or in 500 words. But everyone, it seems, is very interested in hearing about this call from God. Through the years, as I've revised and reflected on my call, my statement has changed quite a bit. If you asked me five years ago what kind of ministry God was calling me to, I would have told you, anything but ordained ministry was fine with me! I know others have similar stories - how they were headed in one direction, but felt God turning them another way. This call from God - it's always constant, yet always changing and growing. We're always hearing something a little different in God's voice.
The shepherd calls the sheep by name, and because they know the shepherd, they trust the shepherd and follow where he leads. The safest place for the sheep might be inside the pen, where the gatekeeper can watch out for thieves and bandits, and where the sheep are protected. But to find the pastures, the sheep have to leave the safety of the pen. Day after day the shepherd calls them out again, finding new places where they can feed. Yes, out of the pen there are risks: of getting lost, or stolen, of meeting fierce predators. But with the shepherd guiding them and watching over them, the flock can go anywhere.
God is never content to leave us in our safe places. God is always calling us, to new pastures, to new ministries, to new experiences of life. We can resist and refuse, but when we do so, we are missing out on the promise of abundant life that Jesus shares with us. We can't experience this abundance from the safety of the pen. We must go out and take risks. But we don't go alone - God always goes with us.
There are so many voices pulling on us, telling us to follow, urging us to go in a certain direction. Society tells us that we're called to be as successful as possible. Friends and family wonder at our choices, suggesting we might be better suited for something else. We even wonder to ourselves - isn't this ministry path too frustrating, too hard, too long, too much? Among all these voices, sometimes it is overwhelming to figure out what's what. But God's voice has a unique sound, and God calls us by name. The shepherd calls his sheep by name and leads them out.
So, will we follow, or will we stay in the pen? Inside the pen is safety, but outside the pen is life. Abundant life - full of pains and sorrows, of stumbling blocks and many risks, but also full of promise and pasture, joy and hope. Gods call is constant yet always changing. Our path of ministry will probably look like nothing we've ever imagined five years from now. But God promises to go with us whatever path our ministry takes. We are called by name. Jesus has come, that we might have life, and have it abundantly. Amen.