Abundantly
Rev Dr Mark Porizky
4/13/08
John
10:1-10
In his book Building a Church of Small Groups, Bill Donahue relays a story from his time as a part-time youth pastor while attending seminary. He was visiting a farm where two of the students he ministered to lived. The father of those two children decided to teach Bill a lesson. Bill writes the following:
The
kid’s father asked if I could help call in the sheep. I enthusiastically
agreed. Sheep-calling was like preaching, I figured. We stood at the pasture
fence, watching 25 sheep graze.
"Go
ahead," he dared me. "Call them in."
"What
do you say?" I asked.
"I
just say, 'Hey, sheep! C'mon in!'"
No
sweat,
I thought. A city kid with a bad back and hay fever could do this. I began in a
normal speaking voice, but Tom interrupted. "You are 75 yards away, down
wind, and they have their backs to you. Yell! Use your diaphragm, like they
teach you in preaching class."
So
I took a deep breath and put every inch of stomach muscle into a yell that
revival preachers around the world would envy: "Hey, sheep! C'mon in!"
The blessed creatures didn't move an inch. None even turned an ear.
Tom
smiled sarcastically. "Do they teach you the Bible in that seminary? Have
you ever read, 'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me'?" Raising his voice only slightly, he said: "Hey, sheep! C'mon
in!" All 25 sheep turned and ambled toward us. Tom seized this teachable
moment.
"Now,
don't you ever forget," he said. "You are the shepherd to my
kids."
Let’s
take a moment to reflect now on the words of the Great Shepherd.
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. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’ Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
John
However,
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?
It
seems to me that 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 all at once.
For
instance, I have always presumed 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 again, 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.
In fact, the text suggests that 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.
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.
Friends,
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 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.
God’s 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.
And
what it the abundant life? To be
honest I don’t know…exactly. But
I do know this. Abundance always
requires a stretch and will be defined by what we have given away, not what we
have held onto.
And
it will require us to get out of the pen and trust the shepherd…
[Group
Workcamps]
Will you pray with me now?
St.
Andrew Presbyterian Church, Groton
,
Web Site: WWW.SAPC-CT.ORG
Office Email: OFFICE@SAPC-CT.ORG
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