Easter 4 May 11, 2014 The Sheep Fold is as Varied as the Stars in the Sky

+The Parable of the Good Shepherd, the first ten verses of which Pete just read as today’s Gospel, is, when you give it a careful and thoughtful read, a challenging text. But, because the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is so familiar to most of us, it’s hard for the more challenging parts of the story to come through.
Yes, Jesus is the Good Shepherd and we are his Sheep-- no matter how lost we get, no matter how tangled up in the bramble we get, He will always seek us, find us and bring us home. It is a nice image and Jesus does do all of that, BUT, there’s more to this story than cute little lambs and a gentle, loving and committed shepherd.
All that imagery comes in the middle of the parable and we don’t get the middle this year, we only get the beginning. And in the beginning, well in the beginning we hear a lot about the gate. It sounds, at first listen, that Jesus is saying there is only one gate that there is only one way into the arms of God that anyone who doesn’t follow this way, His way, is out of luck.
Now, while I agree that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life and that my salvation is gained through my belief and trust in him, I don’t believe that the way we know Jesus, the way we access God, is the only way God is reached nor do I believe that it’s the only way God reaches out to us.
I believe that God reaches out to humanity in various ways, ways that look very different to us but ways that, I think, all lead to the same place: the one sheepfold of God, the one kingdom of God. As Jesus says elsewhere in John’s Gospel, My father’s house has many dwelling places. Many dwelling places that are all under one roof.
Am I saying that you can get into heaven even if you don’t believe as we believe?
Absolutely. And I think Jesus is saying that too.
Now, before we go one, there are a couple of things you need to know about this story.
When Jesus talks about the gate of the sheepfold he is talking about the Shepherd. You see, as shepherds pasture their flocks they cover a lot of territory …sheep eat a lot of grass so they must keep moving along the country side to avoid overgrazing …so… when it’s time to stop for the night they have to create a sheepfold—a corral of sorts—along the way. Nowadays some shepherds carry lightweight portable fencing with them, but back in Jesus’ day they stopped for the night when they found a cave or some other enclosure to use as a sheepfold. The shepherd would get all the sheep in the cave and then would stretch out over the opening to keep the sheep in and the thieves bandits and wolves out. So, quite literally, the Shepherd functions as the Gate.
Jesus, by saying “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,” is telling us that the only right way to get into the sheepfold is through the gate. He’s saying that he’s the gate, so the message is clear, right: You get into the sheepfold of God only when you enter the sheepfold through Him, through Jesus?
Well I don’t think so…
Here’s another thing you need to know about shepherds in the time of Jesus. They were despised by everyone except other shepherds. Their work was dirty and they were transient, so they had few friends and family… they had no real home village to speak of…. The shepherds had their sheep, and other shepherds…that was their community. Therefore, because they only had each other, it wasn’t uncommon for several flocks to gather in one cave for the night. Several flocks led by several different Shepherds meant the shepherds would take turns  being the gate throughout the long, cold night.
 So is the only way to God through the gate of Jesus, as we know Him?
No.
I believe that the sheepfold of God is immense and that the gatekeepers of the sheepfold are as wide and varied, as unique and as numerous as the stars in the sky.
And I think it’s why Jesus mentions the sheep knowing their own shepherd’s voice it suggests that more than one flock was in each sheep-fold-
It’s right there in verses 3-5:
The gatekeeper---the shepherd—opens the gate, calls His or her sheep and they Hear their shepherd’s voice. They recognize their shepherd and respond to their shepherd.
It’s the same message we’ve heard throughout Easter. Mary Magdalene hears Jesus’ voice and realizes that it isn’t the gardener at all, it is her beloved teacher, Lord and God. Thomas denies that Jesus is raised until such time as he hears Jesus’ voice and looks into his eyes and realizes that this man, this teacher is indeed his Lord and God. It’s what we heard last week in the Emmaus story---the disciples hearts burned as the stranger spoke to them and then, in the familiar act of sharing a meal they realize, they recognize that this is no stranger at all, but their friend, their teacher, their Lord, their God.
Jesus, as experienced through our sacred scripture, our worship and our traditions is our shepherd, we hear his voice and we recognize him.
This doesn’t mean that other sheep don’t hear another voice that they recognize and follow.
They do. Jesus tells us they do. He says: They will not follow a stranger, because they don’t know the voice of strangers. Right here, smack dab in the middle of the cozy little story about sheep and their shepherd, Jesus tells us that there are many ways to know God, to worship God, to love God. The issue isn’t how we do it, the issue is that we do it.
So my fellow sheep, my fellow shepherds, may we come in and out of God’s incredible sheep fold to find the lost and bring them home to live that life of abundant joy, promised to us by God, through our Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.
Amen and Alleluia!

Easter 3, May 4, 2014, Knowing the Easter Story

An Easter Poem

We believe that God is alive.
then God meets us on the road and opens our eyes.
And we know that God is alive.

We believe that God is Love.
Then we are loved beyond all reason.
And we know that God is Love

We believe our faith is food indeed
Then we are fed
And know that Faith is Food.
Indeed!

We believe
And then we know

It's called living our faith.
It's called doing our faith
It's called being our faith.

We believe.
We know.
We do.
We are.

An Easter people.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++





I wrote this poem to use in the Ascension liturgy during Easter season. It plays off the believing vs. knowing theme that, if you have been paying close attention, has been the underlying concept of most of the sermons preached here these past four or five weeks. The idea of belief vs. knowing, or perhaps better put belief becoming knowing, was presented in the book we read this Lent: Selling Water by the River, by Shane Hipps.
Hipps says that our faith, to be relevant in our 21st century world must be more about knowing rather than merely believing. That our worship, to be relevant to the vast number of non churched people in our world, to be relevant to those people who find (football games, dinner, doing yard work) (brunch, sleeping in, a round of golf or some ice time) more appealing than anything we offer here; that our worship, that thing that fuels and propels our faith, must be less about creeds (what we believe) and more about what we know (what we do, what we experience, what we observe and how we respond), that it needs to be less about endowments and buildings and rite one vs. rite two, inclusive language vs. traditional and more about taking what we believe and experiencing it in the world so that it becomes something we know, something we do and something we are.
Our two travelers on the Road to Emmaus believed a lot. They were disciples of Christ and like many of Jesus’ disciples they had a clear creed that they held dear. They believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Now Messiah is a very specific concept in Judaism. the Messiah would oversee the ingathering of the exiles; the restoration of the religious courts of justice; an end of wickedness, sin and heresy; reward to the righteous; rebuilding of Jerusalem; and the restoration of the line of King David. The Messiah would accomplish all of that. The messiah would not allow himself to be arrested beaten mocked and executed.
The travelers tell this stranger who walked among them that they had hoped Jesus would have been the one to redeem Israel, that Jesus would have been the promised Messiah.
It’s what they believed, it’s what they expected, but it’s not what Jesus delivered. So, as they walk along, they’re disappointed, disheartened, disillusioned, sad and even a little angry.
And Jesus? Well Jesus, as he walked along with them, was disappointed, frustrated and angry, that these disciples of His were still seeing through a glass darkly, oblivious to the reality of resurrection, blocked from the realization that death, darkness and all forces of evil had been defeated—beaten at their own game. And so he begins to teach them, beginning with Moses and heading right through all the prophets leading up to Jesus himself, he talks, he lectures, he teaches. And he waits for them to…
Notice….
to
Accept….
to
Know….

This is our Easter story…we experience the Risen Christ and then we notice Him. We experience Resurrection and then we know it.
We take, we break, we eat and then we DO.
This is the story of us, an Easter People.
Knowing the Easter story is so much more potent than just believing the Easter story.
You see, we can believe the Easter story inside these doors, sitting in this beautiful familiar space. But believing it without experiencing it, believing it without doing it, believing it without knowing it will, as Shane Hipps cautions us, lead us quickly and unceremoniously into irrelevance and extinction.
Jesus, through his Resurrection appearances—to Mary Magdalene, to Thomas and today to our Emmaus travelers -- takes what has always been expected and turns it into something completely new. All Jesus wants us to do is move beyond belief toward experiential knowing, living and doing. He wants us to move from simple belief to incredible, astounding and miraculous knowing.
• Believing the Easter story doesn’t make Buffalo Public School students learn how to read. Living the Easter story, knowing the Easter story, Being the Easter story does.
• Believing the Easter story doesn’t change the systems of poverty that keep the poor poor and the rich, rich. Living the Easter story, knowing the Easter story, Being the Easter story does.
• Believing the Easter story doesn’t solve the problem of violence in this city, the country and the world. Living the Easter story, knowing the Easter story, Being the Easter story does.
• Believing the Easter story doesn’t take guns off of our streets, out of our schools and away from those who wish others harm. Living the Easter story, knowing the Easter story, Being the Easter story does.
• Believing the Easter story doesn’t give the elderly the respect and dignity they deserve. Living the Easter story, knowing the Easter story, Being the Easter story does.
• Believing the Easter story doesn’t give disabled people the respect and dignity that they, too, deserve. Living the Easter story, knowing the Easter story, Being the Easter story does.
• Believing the Easter Story doesn’t give those who look different, act different, believe different, love different the freedom to do so. Living the Easter story, knowing the Easter story, Being the Easter story does.

Believing the Easter story doesn’t feed the hungry; clothe the naked or stop injustice. Living the Easter story, knowing the Easter story, Being the Easter story does.

And so my brothers and sisters in Christ, your job, our job today and for as long as we take breath is to BE THE EASTER STORY to everyone everywhere, always.
If we do that, when we do that, the Kingdom of God will reign here on earth. And that, my friends is the point of this, our Easter story.
Amen.