Jesus is the Gate

Sermon John 10:1-11 May 3, 2020 Good Shepherd Sunday Easter 4A

Jesus is the Gate

Good morning. As you saw me share with the children about support animals; we lean on God’s special creation of critters for comfort, company and courage. 

We pour our emotions into them. We hug them tighter than they can manage. 

We pull them into our covers to protect us at night. 

We depend on them to be our friend. 

Its no wonder that God created the world full of amazing creatures. As humans we are nothing without them.

We know Jesus is not a squishy critter for us to hug and adore, yet, sometimes, just sometimes, when we are deep down in a funk, in a miserable mess, it’s nice to know he’s there with us as we hide under the covers. Sometimes, we think of Jesus our shepherd like that.

 Jesus is our shepherd. He is our guard and guide. He is the one we run to when we’re in need. He is the very one we trust with our whole heart. And we do whisper our secrets to him so no one else can know. Today, on Good Shepherd Sunday we think about all the ways Jesus is for us.

Photo from HK Farms in Florida. A real gift they offer their community. Look them up.

Before Jesus tells us he is the Shepherd he starts out telling us that he is the Gate.

Which considering how all of us are feeling these days, that’s a really appropriate description. “Jesus, be the gate for us and let us out, keep us in”. Which really, really, makes me glad that I can count on Jesus to be the one standing there holding the Gate that he says is his, not mine, but his.

What is a gate? In order to have a gate it means it is attached to some kind of boundary. Fences, walls, hedges, personal space are boundaries. They surround, define, protect, keep out, and keep in. Our boundaries all possess the presence of a gate.

Can you think of any boundary that does not also have a way of entrance and exit? I can’t.

Even when Berlin was divided by a wall there was a gate to open one way or another. Even the most negative way we can look at things that create barriers have a way in or out. Countries have borders. Boundaries and Gates seem rather exclusionary.

Do we look to Jesus as this kind of gate; exclusionary?

I like to think of gates as gates of welcome. Garden gates reinforce that for me. A beautiful gate made of pickets covered in English ivy swinging on a barely fastened hinge. Barely touching it causes it swing wide open as one gazes on beds of flowers bursting in full bloom. I remember reading ‘The Secret Garden’ and being carried away by the scent of the flowers in the story.

Jesus is in control of the gate. Jesus is the one who manages grace. Jesus is the one who makes the invitation swinging wide open the gates of heaven. Jesus welcomes us all.

And that’s important to know as these words are shared after he has healed the blind man. The blind man was not welcome in the sanctuary while he was disabled. And then when he was healed and should have been allowed in the sanctuary of worship he was forced out by the leadership for speaking the truth.

Jesus wants us to know that he does not exclude and that his sanctuary gate is open to all. Jesus does not engage with us through religious rhetoric or political stigmas, or social justice, or moral, or educational ideals. Jesus turns us upside down and inside out with his grace. It is continuously paradoxical.

So here we are: Every country and state has had challenges with this pandemic. Every community. Every home. Every one. Not one of us is alone in this crisis, yet all of us are facing different challenges because of it.

How will we understand Jesus as the Gate in times like this?

I know there are those who are putting their lives in danger every day. 

How do we respond to them? 

Do we seek to protect them? Do we remain at home while they risk their lives? 

What do we do?

How do we wrestle with this dilemma and wonder what Jesus wants us to do?

It’s so hard. 

I wish we had hard solid answers as we live our lives of faith. 

I wish Jesus would come directly to each of us and tell us how to make decisions. 

Jesus tell me which team to be on. 

Jesus tell me which job to take. 

Jesus tell me who to trust. 

But, Jesus doesn’t it make it that easy for us. And, that’s the challenge of our faith…to discern, to pray, to hope, to trust and to act as God has called us to.

That’s it, we can all be followers of Jesus with varying opinions about the world in which we live. 

And Jesus welcomes us in. 

I just love that more than anything about Jesus. 

He lets my neighbor who I’ve disagreed with for years about how to trim the hedge in through the same gate as me.

We are all at home anxious to return to be together. 

Some of us more eager than others. 

Yet, all us are loving Jesus and each other more than we’ve ever known or realized.

We don’t need to let the gate of our life be so locked and fastened that we only see out through the peephole.

Let Jesus really be Lord of our conscience. 

Let go of our control of the gates of our life and listen to Jesus for a bit. 

Talk to him. 

Ask him to enter our thoughts. 

Ask him to enter our habits. 

Ask him to be with us as we do our chores. 

I guarantee you that you may not still have the answers your seeking. 

But, you will know he’s there. 

You’ll get a sense of comfort. 

You’ll get a stirring in your heart. 

You’ll get a conflicting feeling in your mind about your views. 

You’ll get that Holy Spirit turning you topsy turvy tugging at everything you’ve always believed and causing you to think hard again. 

Our hard heartedness to others and our digging in our heals to each other and the world; gets hammered by the love of Jesus-look out. 

It’s true this Gate-this Jesus Gate-is welcoming and challenging, it is full of grace and full of love and full of transformation. 

Be on the lookout to your heart ‘cause God’s gonna open it up and welcome you.

Jesus is our shepherd. 

He is our guard and guide. 

He is the one we run to when we’re in need. 

He is the very one we trust with our whole heart. 

It’s true friends, no storm can shake our inmost calm, 

We hear the music ringing, since Christ is lord of heaven and earth, how can we keep from singing?  Amen.

Reverend Monica Gould 

Resources: NIB John, NRSV Bible translation.