The Lord Is My Gate, The Reverend David R. Williams, Easter IV--Year A--April 17, 2005

 “Anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit,” Jesus admonishes the disciples.

I recall a certain Chemistry teacher back in my school days. He had a football player’s frame. I was half his size. His voice was twice as loud as mine. He was an excellent teacher especially when his students did their homework, answered questions honestly, and struggled with integrity to get to right answers.

At times some of us attempted to fudge an answer or hide our ignorance and lack of preparation.

“Williams” his great voice would bellow, “Is the equation balanced or is it not balanced?”

There was no way to sneak into the sheepfold by another avenue with Mr. Quinn. “God hates a coward,” he would add, making the established wounds just a bit more painful.

This Sunday in the Easter season is known as Shepherd Sunday. In the Gospel lesson John portrays the gate, the door, the passage to the way of faith. John clearly says there is but one way to enter the sheepfold.

In my Chemistry courses in school, I would go into the laboratory and work on projects, experiments, tests – mixing various chemicals into compounds, taking notes, precise measurements, quantitative and qualitative analysis and then drawing conclusions.

Bottom line, “Would the equations balance?”

The early followers of Jesus often meandered with questions of faith, the origin and location of Jesus – the Jesus who preached, healed, cared for the stranger, was executed on a tree but then reappeared, as some of the disciples would say.

The early followers of Jesus go into the laboratory: “Who is this Jesus and who are we in relationship to this man? Is there but one gate to this sheepfold? Some would claim Jesus to be the real Savior. Others would dispute such absurdity.”

On the past two Tuesday evenings, a group of us have met in the parlor first to explore the Jesus story, focusing on those first few decades after Jesus’ death. With Kathy Hykes’ inimitable “shepherding,” we have been guided through questions such as: “What do we today have in common with those early communities of believers?”

Being a typical group of Episcopalians, questions lead to more questions: “Who, in fact, was Jesus? What do we mean by Son of God? Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Do we believe that literally? What is literal? What is truth?”

The laboratory is alive as we listen to history and myth, as we each listen to the other and seek the gate, the Shepherd.

Remarkably, we realize, as we watch PBS video tapes of early Christian struggle, that these followers of Jesus did share at least two things in common with us today: early Christian communities shared a meal as they gathered to talk, confer, pray and learn. In other words they did as Jesus asked of them: they broke bread together. And, like us, they were initiated into the fellowship by means of baptism.

Also familiar to us was the telling of the story not only of Jesus but also of Abraham, Moses, the prophets – and the faith journeys of the people of God. And these early communities cared for the stranger, the Gentile, slave, soldier or Jew who was new to the story of Jesus.

“O God, whose Son Jesus Christ…” begins the Collect for this Sunday morning. Our wanderings of mind and spiritual wonder momentarily have a focus. Together we pray “O God, whose Son Jesus Christ…”

Does the equation balance? Jesus is Christ, Jesus is divine, we pray. We shall return later to the lab. For now, we gather together and center ourselves around this statement of faith, “Oh God, whose Son Jesus Christ…”

bviously, there are other ways of getting into this sheepfold. John implies this. But John does say clearly that there is only one gate. There is one Shepherd to guide and leading our lives, to care for and nurture our spirits.

“Oh God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the good shepherd of your people…”

The paths of our lives take us into relationship. We may labor over difficult issues and decisions. We create opportunities for ourselves and those we love, and we are moved to touch and feed the hungry. We gather in groups for task, discernment and play. We are engaged in day to day routine, the business of living.

Perhaps on Sunday, we return to the gate. We come home. The time we spend together here in this sacred place reminds us of our center, offers us clarity and sustenance as we hear the story of God, recite our statement of faith, sing to God, pray for those in need, and break bread. We begin this corporate worship with Alleluia—and we go back out to our worlds with Alleluia.

“Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name…” the collect says. How personal can this shepherd, this gate be? Calling us by name… To know that our name is on the lips of our Lord is to possess the richest intimacy with him. “He calls his own sheep by name and leads them…”

This morning we officially welcome several new people into the particular church family of Holy Comforter. We welcome you through the same gate we all enter on a weekly, even daily basis. And we invite you to join in this fellowship.

A brunch for newcomers, hosted by Holy Comforter’s family of Shepherds, Vestry and staff will be held in the Great Hall following this morning’s 10:30 service.

Names of newcomers offered:

______________, we welcome you by name and applaud you.

Do we have other newcomers in the pews? Please stand! And welcome to you!

“O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads.”

Amen.