Christ offers you abundant life, found in following him into the world and being transformed in the care of your Shepherd.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Fourth Sunday of Easter, year A
Texts: John 10:1-10; Psalm 23; 1 Peter 2:19-25
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
The thing is, you can’t stay in the sheepfold and live.
The idea of Jesus as the Good Shepherd who came to provide abundant life for those who trust in him, and also as the Gate who keeps the sheepfold safe, is a wonderful one. Like our Emmaus story last week, it promises a warm place inside the fold of our Shepherd, where we are cared for and loved. Where we meet God. Like in this room.
And it sounds pretty abundant just to stay in the room with Jesus. But that’s not where abundant life is lived. Last week, the Emmaus couple couldn’t stay in their little home where they met Jesus in the breaking of the bread. They needed to go out, back on the road. To witness to the others, to the world, what they’d experienced and seen in the risen Christ.
And we sang today that our Good Shepherd leads us out on right paths, to still waters and green pastures. Even though sometimes those paths lead through the valleys of the shadow of death, and in the presence of enemies. But it’s only out there that there is food and water and life for the sheep.
This image of a protected sheepfold sounds awfully familiar.
It sounds a lot like the locked upper room in which the disciples placed themselves Easter week.
But Christ met them inside their locked room, and met them at the Emmaus dinner table, and led them all out into new life. As the Shepherd calls the sheep out to pasture. They couldn’t stay locked away, because true, abundant life for them was only found out there. Stay inside, and you eventually starve to death.
And where they found life, so will we.
But if you and I stay locked up, closed in the sheepfold so we’re safe, how can we follow Christ in this world and find abundant life?
If we’ve locked away any possibility of Christ calling us to a new way of being, how can we begin to think about loving our family or our neighbors in the community or in the world?
If it’s off limits, locked away, for God to ask us to change how we react to people, how we treat others, how can we become like Jesus, how can we follow?
If it’s off limits, locked away, for God to ask us to give up getting our own way, to ask us to let it go when others seem to disregard us, how can we become like Jesus, how can we follow?
If it’s off limits, locked away, for God to ask us to understand faith as a calling to love, not a possession that keeps us safe, how can we become like Jesus, how can we follow?
And if we can’t follow, we can’t find abundant life.
Abundant life is when you and I follow Christ out of the sheepfold to be blessed and to be a blessing.
Because living in the servant love of God in Christ for you, such a rich, abundant blessing, only expands and deepens when you share that servant love with others.
When you bear the love of Christ in your life, in your neighborhood, you are blessed in turn. When you are transformed as Christ in a world of pain and oppression and fear, you are blessed while you make a difference and bless others. Whatever life is out there is only abundant when it’s shared, when all are safe, and fed, and clothed, and loved, and blessed.
And you can’t do this, I can’t do this, if we stay locked inside the sheepfold where we think it’s safe.
The good news is, the risen Christ is really good with locked doors.
As much as we think we’ve locked away all our problems and the things we don’t want to change, Christ is already there inside your locked doors, wanting to give you peace. Wanting to fill you with the Spirit. The One who is the Gate can open all locks and call you out of the sheepfold into abundant life.
But your Shepherd will also not force you out, force you to be Christ, force you to follow. Your Shepherd would rather you hear his voice and follow willingly.
There’s a lot that seems unsafe in all of this, and frightening.
Peter today says that suffering for doing good is often the result of following Christ, because Christ also suffered for loving others. We know Christ’s path is a challenging one.
But you are loved by the God who made all things and who cares for you as a shepherd, who is known to you in your Good Shepherd, your risen Savior.
Your Shepherd is standing outside the door, calling to you, to me, and asking us to follow. Don’t be afraid, because even though this path will lead to loss and change and through frightening places, even in your own heart, you are walking with and behind your Shepherd, who faced all such pain and suffering already and is risen. Who will keep you safe: from your enemies – both those inside of you and outside of you – and safe even in valleys of shadow and death. Who will transform death into life and enemies into beloved family.
Listen: your Shepherd is calling. Offering abundant life. Opening the door to go out from here as Christ’s love in the world. Follow, and find that life. Be that life for others. And rejoice in your Shepherd’s abundance.
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
