Fourth Easter
John 10:1-10; Acts 2:42-47; I Peter 2:19-25; Psalm 23
I was in the grocery store standing in the check out line. There were two people with their grocery carts in front of me and one person behind me. I glanced at the magazine covers on display--surveyed the candy assortment. looked to see if there were any shorter checkout lines but all were very busy. I glanced at the various items in the grocery cart behind me and then at the rather professionally dressed woman with long dark hair attending the cart. Our eyes met for a moment and suddenly she smiled and said "Hello". I was a little surprised by the warmth of her greeting and stammered back my own "Hello". She seemed to look at me more intensely for a moment and then she said, "How are you?" I suddenly wondered if I should know her and I began to quickly run through faces and names in my mind. "Fine" I replied to her and then I added "What's new with you?" hoping that her response would give me a clue as to her identity. "Oh," she said glancing around at the other shopping carts and appearing to be assessing the other check out lines, "Tom and I are back together again." Now this seemed like information that was supposed to be meaningful to me. I mentally began to tabulate all the Toms I could think of and how she might be connected to them. Using my best conversational counseling training I responded, "How do you feel about that?" She continued to look away--as if lost in thought and said, "It will be better for the children." She seemed to be almost lost in a trance as she added "How about you? I understand you've been seeing a lot of Bill lately." Bill? It was then that I realized she was talking on a hands free cell. While I thought I was entering into a conversation I was in fact talking to the air. to myself--or the magazines. I was reminded of one of my old great aunts who used to talk to herself all the time. Family members used to worry about her. Now days she would be accepted as just another hands free conversationalist with a rather select audience. Our world is filled with voices. the loud speakers in the stores keep up a steady stream of music mixed with advertisements and announcements. Almost every third shopper is talking to someone on their cell. We have almost become deaf to the sounds of another human voice because we do not expect it to be saying much of significance for our lives. And yet we yearn for the voice that speaks to us--responds to us. That's how I was lured into the curious one sided conversation at the grocery store. A smile and a greeting. unexpected yet welcome in the midst of the grocery shopping routines of daily life. A seemingly humanizing moment. We all yearn to be known and accepted. to have our self worth affirmed that our lives might have meaning and value. But it is so easy to misread the signs--fail to find our place. mistake the voices we hear for real conversation and meaningful social intercourse when they are only empty words. Jesus knew well the human yearning for place, community, value. Our gospel lesson for today is another instance of his attempt to lead his disciples and those who would follow him into a deeper understanding of their lives and the faith community that they were becoming. In the past I have commented on how Jesus often used metaphors. images that are intended to stand for something else. I've also noted how easy it is for these parables to be filled with mixed metaphors.. In our lesson for today Jesus begins by describing himself as a shepherd who leads his sheep and knows them by name. but then he also identifies himself as the gate through which the sheep must pass to become part of the flock. Both images are intended to reveal to us the form through which we come to know the truth. One who calls us into a true community by providing a way to enter into that community. Be it the shepherd who leads or the gate that allows entry. Jesus is the means by which we move from being outside to inside. from risk to safety--from lost to found. The way by which we enter is not always easy--or open.. One of my earlier memories from childhood is being locked out of the house. Not just me--the whole family. One summer evening coming home and finding that both of my parents had left their keys to the house inside the locked house. I know this is an early memory because after this incident there was always a key with the neighbors and eventually one on a nail under the one eave behind the garage. But this time there was no key--the doors to our own house were all locked. One of my brothers began to cry. but my father said not to worry and he started walking around the house checking all the windows until at last he found what he was looking for--an unlocked window. I remember him prying out the screen. pushing up the inside window and then turning to me and saying "it's your turn". and with that he lifted me up. I squeezed under the screen and through the window into the darkened silent house. I remember having a very strange feeling as I dropped through the window to the floor. I was breaking into my own house. I felt like I was doing something wrong. something that I should be keeping from my family only they were standing outside cheering me on. I went to the door--unlocked it and let them all in. It was a strange feeling--welcoming as if visitors those who belonged. Jesus presented himself as the gatekeeper. the one who knows by name those who belong. To be known by name--that's what baptism is all about. our being named before God. and from that day forward we are welcome to enter. Unfortunately there are many who become deaf to the voice of the shepherd calling. there are many who fail to recognize the place where they belong and the way that has been opened to them. Part of the problem is that we often go looking for God in all the wrong places. If Jesus is the gate he is but one of many gates that we discover to be open to us in our modern world. It is part of the journey of life to encounter various opportunities to make our home in communities--among ideas. with people. who may not be of the true community that Jesus the good shepherd would have us to join. The challenge of discernment--of recognizing the true--the just--the good. the holy and loving is not always easy. A gate is only a gate--or so we want to believe. Yet the gateway may be a passage that leads just as easily to darkness as to light. In my work with substance counseling groups concerned about the use of drugs and alcohol at the area high schools I have come to learn that there are what we call "gateway" substances. Tobacco and alcohol for example. Research has revealed that a teenager who smokes cigarettes before they enter high school has almost a 100% certainty that they will use marijuana before they graduate from high school. Society attempts to close the gate to tobacco use until the young person is old enough to have some discernment of the consequences of an action or decision. But not all adolescents hear the voice of reason or health. So it is that each parent attempts to open certain pathways to their children and close others both in order to protect and guide them. The challenge, of course, is that the gateway to faith is seldom as attractive as others. Discernment is a gift that comes through experience and discipline. To hear the shepherd's voice is no easy task in our audible age. the sounds of our world are constant. and if you don't like the sound you hear. you simply put on your head set and surround yourself with your own sounds. Every teenager knows that the first thing you do when you get in the car is turn on the sound system. If it is the radio--you hit the seek buttons until you find the sound. that means no commercials--the sound-music is what matters. or you put in your favorite CD or MP3 mix. the sounds you have created for yourself or the ones your friend gave you because they are "so your sound". There have always been voices that we recognize in our lives--and voices we are wise to flee. Each Saturday morning on NPR (National Public Radio)--after the "car guys". there is the program "Wait, wait, Don't tell me" which is a quiz of the week's current events. One segment features the challenge "Who said it" in which quotes from the previous week's news are read and the challenge is to identify the speaker. Sometimes the voice is too easy--a politician--movie star--or sports figure. But other times the voice is that of someone who simply had their ten seconds of fame. There are historic voices that have become immortalized like " I regret that I have but one life to give for my country" and there are voices that capture a moment's feeling or mood. "All you need is love" But what about the voice of Jesus? Does it sound familiar or do we flee it? Can we recognize it at all? Earlier this week I came home and noticed the flashing light on my answering machine. A message had been left by mistake on our machine that sounded extremely important for someone else to hear. Fortunately we have caller ID on our line and I had a phone number to call. Imagine what it would be like to have a Caller ID for God. to be able to know when God is calling and why God is calling and what Jesus wants to tell us. There are moments when we might prefer to have voicemail to receive God's word. I explain to our confirmands that one of the purposes of confirmation is to help them begin to recognize God's voice. to discern Christ's presence in their lives. to recognize the moments when the Holy Spirit is leading them. This is no easy task with all the sounds and distractions of our modern age. That's why I think Jesus quickly mixed his metaphors in our lesson for today. turning himself from shepherd into a gate. the one who leads the way and the one who is the way. The voice of the shepherd calls us on--the gate opens to us the way to pasture--to life. as Jesus said--abundant life. Living an abundant life--now that is something our society has a lot to say about. Life with all its richness and variety--triumphs and tragedies Annie Dillard wrote a little essay on "How to Live". "Yours is the human struggle, or the elite one, to achieve...whatever your own culture tells you: to publish the paper that proves the point; to progress in the firm and gain high title and salary, stock options, benefits; to get the loan to store the beans till their price rises; to elude capture, to feed your children or educate them to a feather edge; or to count coup or perfect your calligraphy; to eat the king's deer or catch the poacher; to spear the seal, intimidate the enemy, and be a big man or beloved woman and die respected for the pigs [you raised] or the title [you had] or the shoes [you wore]." To live the abundant life--abundant--we strive to take the measure of our lives. So many voices--a world so diverse that we can scarcely contain it in our minds. or embrace it with our hearts. Jesus opened the gate for us to enter into the world. to following the voice of the one who goes before us--mixed metaphors and all. We build our places of worship and study and fellowship and call them church. they are really Caller ID locations. reference points for young and old to help us recognize the voices around us. Jesus knew that the divine voice is not instantly known to all. although it can sound very familiar. We go looking for God--seeking after faith. Unfortunately much of our quest is like the old vaudeville act. Where a lone actor comes out on the darkened stage obviously looking for something on the ground. As he moves to the front left portion of the stage that portion is lit. A second actor enters and watches the first looking and searching until he finally asks, "What are you looking for?" The first actor replies, "I'm looking for the keys to my house?" "Oh," says the second, "did you loose them around here?" "No," comes the reply, "I lost them over there" and he points to the back portion of the stage. "So why are you looking for them here?" comes the question. "Because," comes the reply, "the light is better here." The audience knew the punch line too well--It is a parable of our lives. Time and again we go looking for purpose, meaning, direction, truth, God, love and the list goes on. but we go looking where ever the popular cultures or latest fad or slickest advertisement or production has led us. Usually that place is very well lit. and we can see very clearly almost from the moment we arrive that this is really not the place to be at all if we are going to find what we are really looking for. but the light is so good and the people smile and they seem to know us. there is the sound of human voices. even if they are not in real conversation with each other. Those whom Jesus calls hear something else. We listen for the voice--We seek to enter the gate. We prayerfully consider what God would have us do. So many words--so many images. so many possibilities to be true and right and just. The week of Sundays of Easter continue by inviting us to mix the metaphors of our faith and life and hear the voice once more. the familiar voice that opens for us the way of life. Jesus said, "The gate keeper opens the gate...the sheep hear his voice....they know his voice. I am the gate. Who ever enters by me will be saved... The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." She smiled at me and said "Hello"--I never thought to ask what voice she was hearing? The quotes from Annie Dillard are taken from her article in Image--A Journal of the Arts & Religion, Fall 2001 pp. 50-52
Amen