May 15, 2011 - Easter 4A

Jesus Leads To Abundant Life
John 10:1-10
Easter 4 – May 15, 2011

Once upon a time, (okay, just a few summers ago), shortly after Andy & I had gotten our dog Kosar, we needed to go out of town overnight for a wedding on the 4th of July. Not knowing that we could board him at any of the local vets, we ended up hiring a dog-sitter – someone who would come to the house to feed him & let him out & keep him company a few times a day. This seemed like a great plan. We met the sitter in advance – she met the dog, all was going well.
Until Andy got the call in the middle of the wedding reception. The dog-sitter was all in a panic. She couldn't find the dog. She had been to the house a few times already, and things had gone fine, but this time around, she came to the house, and found the door unlocked, & no sign of Kosar. She'd looked upstairs & downstairs, calling his name – but to no avail. It seemed the dog had disappeared.

Well, Andy told her to look again & call him back in a little bit – and in the meantime, he filled me in. Both of us were upset – but then it dawned on me. “Did you tell her to look under the table?” I asked.

See, Andy & I have this dining room table that has the leaves that fold and hang down on the sides – it's called a gate-leg table, from what I'm told. And when Kosar was a puppy, he used to like to squeeze underneath the chairs and lie down there – and since the leaves are pretty much always down, and the table's a dark wood, and Kosar's a black dog, when he'd lie there with only his little nose sticking out underneath, you'd never find him there by accident – he just blended right in!

And if you've met Kosar, you also know he's not the friendliest or bravest of dogs. So there was no way that he was coming out for this strange woman who was calling his name over & over again. Better just to stay where he was, hidden from the world.

Ever since this story happened, it's what I think of when I hear this story from John's gospel, with Jesus talking about the sheepfold and thieves and bandits, gates and shepherds and sheep – these sheep who will follow their shepherd, the one who calls them by name and leads them out. But, “they will not follow a stranger,” Jesus says, “but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers” (v.5). And I hear this story, and I think – that's exactly what Kosar did!

But then I remember that at that stage of the game, when he was still a puppy, and we'd only had him a few months, he didn't always come to us either. How else do you think I knew to look for him underneath the table? It's because he had hidden from us a time or two. Even though he knew our voices. Even though we took care of him, and fed him, and took him for walks, and gave him treats and toys and played with him and loved him, there were times when his built-in nervousness would exert itself – and no matter how we called or cajoled him to get him to come, he'd stay put.

I think that's sometimes how we are with Jesus. We hear his voice, but we're not 100% sure it's him calling us to come out from under the table. We're not positive we recognize him, and it feels so much safer sometimes to stay where we are, hiding out under tables, or safely penned up in sheepfolds. As individuals and as congregations, it's easier to stay where we are, enclosed by what is known and familiar, instead of taking a chance of listening to that voice and following it out into the unknown. It is a risk to trust this voice that calls us to move beyond the pen, to venture out beyond the gates of the ways we've always done it before, to go out into the wider world where danger may lie in wait, where we feel vulnerable and on edge, not certain about the road in front of us and where it may lead. Why not just stay where we are? We have what we need & besides, it's safer inside the gate, isn't it?

It's such human nature to want to stick with what's familiar, to avoid changes, to feel insecure when we are called to step out into new territory, to take on new challenges, to see the world in new ways. Churches face this all the time as we live in between the comfort of “We've always done it this way” and the uneasiness of “We've never done it that way before!” We get in our groove, we get used to our way of doing things, and we don't like the idea of change. We'd rather stay where we are.

But that's not the life Jesus longs for us to have! Imagine if Kosar had never learned to trust Andy & I – if he had always wanted to stay hiding out underneath our dining room table. Think of the fun he would miss – the trips to the dog park, the car rides to visit family, the new stuffed animals to pull apart and unstuff! If Kosar had never learned to trust us, to believe that we have his best interests at heart when we call him, he could still be living under the table. He'd be safe there (especially now that Norah is crawling and likes to crawl after him!) - but it wouldn't be anything like an abundant, full life.

That is the invitation of this story. Jesus calls himself a shepherd, he calls himself the gate for the sheep. He calls his own sheep by name – and when they come to them, he leads them out – and when he has brought them all out of the sheepfold, he goes ahead of them. He says, “Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come 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.”

Hear that again. Jesus comes so that we may have life, and have it abundantly. He comes to lead us out of the sheepfold, out of the things that pen us in (even if they feel safe). He comes to lead us to fresh green pasture, to new places and new visions. Abundant life does not come to us if we remain in the sheepfold. We have to follow Jesus out there, wherever he leads us, to find it. May we learn to trust his voice when he calls our names, trust him enough to follow into the abundant life he promises.

Amen.