“I Am the Good Gate”
John 10:1-10
April 13, 2008

The Message: 1-5 "Let me set this before you as plainly as I can. If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen instead of going through the gate, you know he's up to no good—a sheep rustler! The shepherd walks right up to the gate. The gatekeeper opens the gate to him and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he gets them all out, he leads them and they follow because they are familiar with his voice. They won't follow a stranger's voice but will scatter because they aren't used to the sound of it."

 6-10 Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. "I'll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good—sheep stealers, every one of them. But the sheep didn't listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for—will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”

We don't like to be thought of as sheepish. It's difficult for us to identify with anything that we either wear or eat. Nevertheless, our scripture lesson asks us to think of ourselves as sheep. Our lot in life depends completely upon our shepherd. Sheep are utterly dependent upon their shepherd for food, shelter and protection. They have no means of self-defense. Also, they cannot function alone, outside the flock. Sheep belong together. They are easily frightened. But like humans, even sheep can be competitive. There is a butting order in the flock, a struggle to be top sheep, which seems pretty silly in the presence of the shepherd. The mere presence of the shepherd in the fields calms the sheep. They forget their fear and their butting order. Someone has said, "When my eyes are on the Master they are not on those around me."  

We belong together. And Jesus is the Shepherd of the whole flock, not just of an individual.  Look around you; learn to recognize other sheep in the same flock. We're all in this together.

We also are asked by this scripture reading to think of Jesus as the gate. Jesus is the gate to the fold, the pen where the sheep are safe. Jesus is the entrance to the abundant life. Jesus is the open door to God.

Fences are really important in this country—we need to keep the cattle off the roads. But without gates we couldn’t get anywhere. I’ve had a devil of a time with fences and gates at my place. We need to keep our two dogs, Timber and Indy, from constantly chasing the deer and roaming the countryside. We don’t want them shot. But when Kia visits, she climbs the fence and ignores all civilized attempts to control her activity. Now Timber has learned to push through the fence, even push open the gate, which is now wired shut. Fortunately Indy is afraid to push or jump. We tried the wireless ouches to keep them in. But they just ignore the pain.

“Cowboy Logic”

An old cowboy and a young buckaroo were workin', ridin' fence
The old hand was testin' the kid - on his skill and common sense
He said "Son, if you seen three men in a pickup truck, dressed alike from boot to hat,
could you tell which one was the real cowboy, just from where he sat?"

The kid scratched his head awhile and then he said "Well, there ain't no way to know".
The old hand grinned and then he said "Kid, you've still got a ways to go.
The real cowboy's the one in the middle. He ain't there just by fate.
'Cause first he don't have to drive, and then he don't have to mess with the gate"

If Jesus is the good gate, and if we claim to be Christians, then can we be Christ-like in this story? How can we be good gates? How do we open the door to others who may need a safe place to explore their relationship with God? How can we be the gates that provide an entrance to protection, but also food, water, and a good night’s sleep? How can we be the gates that lead to abundant life?

When people see you, do they see a solid wall or an open gate? Do they bounce off your iron fence, or do they feel invited to enter a lovely garden? When the gate is closed, is someone excluded? Is the gate to keep the sheep in, or keep the dangers out? Does the security of the gate give the sheep courage to live in the world?

Should Jesus open that gate and move us sheep out to the real world once in awhile? Can we see the gate as a threshold, as a passage to a new life?

A pastor tells this story: When I was in college, Cindy, the Presbyterian campus minister, had a way of drawing us outside the gate of our college. Occasionally I would find myself eating lunch at the soup kitchen that was housed at a church. Cindy had this idea that there were plenty of people handing food to the hungry, some people should share the meal with them. So there we sat, healthy, taut-faced, well-fed, well-dressed, clean college students eating lunch with smelly, dirty, disheveled, hard-living hungry people.

Many of them were cordial, several were endearingly sweet, a few were angry, bitter, and mean. One day, sitting in awkward silence, I decided to ease my discomfort by engaging one of the men nearby. I don’t remember what I said, but whatever it was, the man saw through it – he saw through me.

“You kids come over here from your pretty little campus, where you live safely behind that fence, and think you’ve figured out the world by reading a few books. You have no idea – and you’ll never have any idea – what it’s like to live like me. While you sleep tonight, warm, full, clean, and safe, I’ll be on the streets somewhere, cold, hungry, dirty, and God only knows what will happen to me. So don’t talk to me, just go back to your island and pretend to know about the real world.”

Going outside of the gate added depth to what happened inside it, but what happened inside it informed how I experienced what happened outside.

In this scripture story, we are also cautioned to beware the sheep rustlers, the thieves—competing religious, social, economic, political, or ideological "shepherds" which haggle for control of our lives, which claim to change our lives, to bring us to pastures of happiness, success, self-fulfillment. Who or what is stealing our soul? Perhaps it's our own willful desire to go our own way. How do we know a good shepherd from a bad one?

1. PROTECTIVE HANDS - Few people in the western world can picture accurately the Palestinian sheepfold.  It usually consists of a low circular enclosure, on one side of which is an opening about 6 feet wide- the only place where entrance can be gained without climbing over the wall.  There is no door that can be closed and locked- no gate or barrier of any kind.  They are unnecessary, and were never provided, for at nightfall the shepherd will stand in this breach and call his sheep, counting one by one until all are safely within the shelter.  Then, with his staff by his side, he lies down in the doorway and sleeps with his body across the opening.  The door, therefore, is not an ordinary one of wood or iron, but is actually a LIVING PERSON!  For the intruder to reach the sheep, he must first pass over the body of the watchful shepherd.  Jesus used this figure of such an enclosure when He said, "I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture."

2. COMFORTING HANDS - When I was 9 or 10 I had a little dog I loved dearly named Bobo. One day Bobo took off across the road and was killed by a car going way too fast through our little town of Gessie, Indiana. Of course, I was devastated. I had watched it happen. I remember collapsing on the couch in the living room, bawling my eyes out. My dad kneeled beside me, stroked me with his hands, and loved me. I don't remember what he said, but I remember the love and the comfort his hands gave me that day.

3. GENEROUS HANDS - A little girl and her father went to the general store. After putting together a rather large purchase, the store owner invited the little girl to get a handful of candy from the candy jar. The child held back. "What's the matter, don't you like candy?" asked the owner. "Yes, I like candy," replied the little girl. So the owner put his hand in the jar and gave the little girl a handful of candy. On their way home, the father asked the child why she had held back when offered the candy. She answered, “Because his hands are bigger than mine!" Jesus says, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

Jesus is the shepherd we can trust—not political, social, or economic trends, not ourselves alone. But the divine human, who leads us into green pastures where we discover ourselves as beloved children of God.

Being one of God's sheep in obedience and discipleship means not always knowing where we are going, but finding joy in knowing that we go there with the Good Shepherd.

As you know, the elephant is so large and powerful that he doesn't need to fear anything in the jungle. But the cartoons have taught us that the little mouse can send an elephant into frenzy. In this story, however, the elephant had somehow overcome his fear and become best friends with a certain little mouse. They went on many long walks together, talking about the noisy birds and the grumpy alligators and the gossiping monkeys. They went everywhere side by side. One day they found themselves at the edge of a deep gully, spanned by a long, narrow suspended bridge. They looked at each, took a deep breath, and walked carefully over that bridge. When they got to the other side, they stopped and looked back over their path. The little mouse said to the elephant, "Wow, we sure made that old bridge shake!"