More Than Enough!
4th Sunday of Easter, May 15, 2011 (John 10:1-10; key verse is verse 10)
For you what would the "ideal" life be? (take some time to talk about that)
Share some responses. (Listen) Interesting...
I have said to my wife on occasion that an "ideal" life for me would be one where the sun was shining (if not always most of the time), where now after nearly 31 years of being a Pastor, I had little or no responsibility, and where we would be free from appointments. I have even put a face on this "ideal" life. We could live in the Mayan Riviera in the winter and the Okanagan Valley in the summer. Her response has been, "Good luck with that!"
Perhaps my definition of the ideal life is really about easy street. Wouldn't it be wonderful if? And yet as I seriously think about that now, is it real? By "real", I don't mean is it necessarily attainable? Instead I mean, is this dream of the "ideal" life being honest with myself and others, including the ones I so desperately want and need to be in relationship with, beginning with our children, our extended families, and others in the world who are in need of the so many blessings we have been granted: people who are financially poor and hungry, and or people who are financially wealthy and lonely, even despairing. Is my idea of the "ideal" life, the abundant life that God wills through Jesus for people, for all people?
In today's Gospel Jesus is attempting to communicate with people by employing various figures of speech. He uses metaphors such as gate, or door for sheep, even the romantic image (to we urban dwellers) of a shepherd. But the people Jesus is then addressing don't get it. I suspect that often we don't either. Then Jesus concludes this little section of the Gospel with verse 10. He puts it bluntly in a study of contrasts. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I (Jesus)came that THEY MAY HAVE LIFE AND HAVE IT ABUNDANTLY." The "they", I suspect are the sheep. For Jesus in John 10 the sheep are any who would hear his voice. Earlier on in John 3 we begin to realize that Jesus wills everyone to hear his voice.
If I am correct in such observations then Jesus wills abundant life for each and every person. But such "abundant" life does not necessarily mean having "more and more and more". If a sheep eats too much that sheep becomes overweight perhaps sickly, maybe even dies prematurely. In addition to providing sheep with what their nutritional needs this abundant life that Jesus refers to also consists of having a certain relationship with the shepherd who protects the sheep. For the Gospel of John that shepherd is unmistakably Jesus.
As I reflect on this I realize something. Much of my striving for my "ideal" life – being convinced that I don't have "it" quite yet, has to do with my concerns regarding security and identity. Do you have enough? Will you have enough? What about your kids, your grandkids, the rest of your family, your friends? Remember, that "enough" could be anything: food, clothing, shelter, transportation, education, friends, loving relationships, access to money. How much is enough? A few years ago the Evangelical Lutheran Women developed a study specifically titled "What's Enough?" Think about that. Don't we have insatiable appetites both for things and anxiety?
Yet my appetite for stuff and anxiety often arise out of a struggle with my own identity. Who am I? Yes I am the son of Ken and Vera. But my parents are changing every day. Now in their 80's what does that mean for me? Who am I? I also continue to serve as a pastor. Well that too is changing. One day I will no longer be standing in front of people every Sunday, attempting to communicate something of the incredible love of God to them and for them. Someday in the not too distant future I will no longer have the privilege of handing others such seemingly ordinary things as bread and wine but then offering this promise attached to them, the very promise of Jesus himself: "The body of Christ given for you. The blood of Christ shed for you." Who will I be then? Granted I am also a father and a husband. But those realities are continually changing.
Who am I? Who are you?
The imagery that Jesus holds up for his followers from long ago and for us involves intimacy. As the door for the sheep Jesus is the way in and out to pasture, for their very life and sustenance. Under the care of a good shepherd those sheep do not need to fret about every noise, every snippet of wind or broken twig. As our "shepherd" Jesus is the One who seeks to protect us throughout life and in death. His protection does not spare us from struggle but rather can free us from despair. Nothing and no one can separate us from Him, from His love. We are not alone!
Jesus is the One who gives us our identity as gift. We are marked by His cross and sealed with His Spirit, no matter what! Joined to Him we are God's children.
What an audacious claim. I am a child of God. So are you. And yet - that's exactly who I am – who you are, regardless of the ongoing changing circumstances of life and death. Nor is this something we "decide". This isn't something we could ever earn or somehow deserve, this love and commitment of God in Jesus to care for us.
I am a child of God, you are too, because God in Jesus Christ loves us, dies for us and is resurrected for us. By God's grace we are joined to Christ. To be sure God in Jesus Christ allows death and the evil one to do their worst to him. To be sure death and evil seek to seek to claim you and me and this world. But out of the jaws of hatred, of death and destruction, of violence, fear and exclusion, Jesus the Good Shepherd dies to rescue us.
In doing so He shows us a radically different way – His way. Our decisions then are daily ones, whether we will live with and from our true identity or seek some other, illusory "ideal"?
Could it be then that the abundant life has absolutely nothing to do with "more or less", with an ongoing striving for more? Might it rather be that the abundant life has to do with resting, trusting God in Jesus for our identity, our security and then seeking direction for our daily decisions? Such trusting, such following may indeed lead us to places we had never thought of before. It might be the Mayan Riviera or the Downtown Eastside, a hospital, a nursing home, a bank. It might be to saying, "I am sorry", or "I love you!" for the first time or for the first time in a long time. In such "places" it may be very dry or very wet, very hot or very cold. There may be a lot of money around or very little money available.
But know this: wherever we are led as God's children – there will always be love, the love of God in Jesus Christ. And wherever that risen suffering Christ is, that is where we belong, our home. With him as we listening and then speak, trust as we seek to forgive as we are being forgiven, love and life are born anew. There is the abundant life whether or not anyone else "sees" it.
May we so live and share this abundant life - for Christ's sake. Amen.