Fourth Sunday of Easter
John 10:1-10
"Life Abundantly"
1 ¶ "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber;
2 but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."
6 This figure Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them.
9* I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. RSV
I would I like to share a parable from Pastor Schmalenberger’s Book, ’’Iowa Parables’’.
"Today, we go to central Iowa, to a little cottage up the Valley of Honey Creek about half a mile from the Des Moines River. This is in Boone County, in 1881 the evening of July 6th. It began raining, a welcomed rain in the hot, dry months of summer in Iowa. The corn needed the welcomed moisture, but then the rain began coming in sheets and Kate Shelley and her brothers and sister watched the tiny Honey Creek become a raging river. Kate, who was 15 at the time; feared whether the railroad bridge across the Honey Creek would hold against the flood of fast moving water, which was now filled with trees, logs and all sorts of other debris. Kate’s father had been a section foreman for the railroad and had often told stories of how dangerous the flood waters could be to the railroad brides. He had died recently, but the memory of his stories lived on in Kate’ s mind. She decided to let the animals out of the barn so they might f find higher ground just in case the creek would overflow and, come into their tiny farm.
Around 11:00 that evening, Kate heard the rumble of a train-- it was the "pusher", a switch engine, stationed at Moingona. It crashed into Honey Creek, because the bridge wouldn’t hold. She knew the midnight express from the west, a passenger train, would be a long soon. So she decided to see if she could help the crew of the pusher and try to stop the express.
She started out, lantern in hand, into the frightful night to do her duty as she saw it. Unable to give aid to the ill-fated crew and knowing the midnight train was soon due. , she headed west toward to save the lives of the w passengers.
She had to cross the railroad bridge over the Des Moines this in n the black of this night, to attempt this in the black of night was a scary deed.
Kate dropped to her knees and began crawling on all four across the long wind swept trestle. She felt; her way from tie to tie. A flash of lightning revealed an enormous uprooted tree coming down the river, its limbs slapped her and the water ran over her as she held on for dear life.
At last she felt the solid ground beneath her feet. She caught her breath and then ran to the station half mile away. The agent recognized her and listen carefully to her news. He blew the whistle of an engine in the yard and men came running to see what was the matter. They heard about the crew in Honey Creek and went to help. The agent flagged the west bound train and Kate became the heroine of Boone County . She was honored through out her life for this act of courage, daring, and unselfish giving in this time of danger and need."
Now I don’t know what kind of faith Kate Shelly had, I don’t know what kind of relationship she had with her Lord,but I would imagine that that kind of courage had to come from somewhere and I would like to believe it come from her faith and trust in Jesus.
This is what Jesus is talking about in our gospel lesson this morning. This is the prelude to the section about the Good Shepherd.
In this parable, Jesus is talking about himself as the door to the sheep fold. Jesus is saying that those who enter, enter through him. He is the gate, the door to the sheep fold. Others who enter any other way are thieves and robbers.
Then Jesus says that He will lead the sheep because he knows them by name. And because He knows them by name, the sheep will follow and they will come out and go in and will find pasture.
And then he says: I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. Jesus is saying that through Him we may have life and have it abundantly. A fulfilled life, a life not without sorrow or pain, but a life filled because we have Jesus as our guide.
Jesus will lead us, and we will follow because he calls us by name through our baptism. He leads, we follow.
A tourist in Jerusalem noticed something unusual about the sheep. Instead of being led by a man at the front of the group, they were being driven by a man behind. Her curiosity was aroused and the traveler said to the guide, "Look at that shepherd. He is not leading the sheep. He is driving them, and, poking them, and whipping them! I thought a shepherd was supposed to lead his sheep."
You’re right," answered the guide. "A shepherd does lead his sheep. But that man is not the shepherd. He is the butcher."
We can be driven by the "devil" to do all sorts of things we know we should not do, but Jesus leads us to a full life in Him. We go in and out of the sheep fold to find pasture, which I think means that Jesus leads us in life, and we return to the church, the sheep fold, to find comfort and rest.
But I think we need to be careful least we think that following Jesus will mean a life of roses. He will try to lead us through all sorts of terrians, and sometimes we might get hurt, sick, or go off on our own where we might get in trouble. Life will not always be easy.
But the thing we need to keep focused on is Jesus, leading us.
And when we focus on Jesus, though we walk through valleys, over mountains, through rough seas, with our focus remaining on Jesus, it does not seem so bad.
An example:
One of my all-time favorite movies is Mr. Holland’s Opus. It s the story of a musician who really just wants to be a composer.
Rather grudgingly, he takes a job teaching music at the local high school, supposing it will give him time to write music while providing an income for he and his wife.
One of his students is a very serious redheaded girl who plays the clarinet terribly, even though she practices constantly. As Mr. Holland works with her to try to help, he learns that she is the youngest in a family where everyone excels except her. Because she has tried so hard and failed, she considers herself a failure, too.
One day she comes into the music classroom and tells Mr. Holland that she’s going to give it up and if he knows anyone who wants her clarinet, he can give it to them.
As she walks away, Holland asks her, "Is it any fun?"
With a shrug, she answers," I wanted it to be. "
"You know what we’ve been doing wrong, Miss Lang? We’ve been playing the notes on the page. "
Confused, the girl asks, "Well what else is there is to play?"
"There’s a lot more to music than notes on a page. Playing music is supposed to be fun. It s about heart. It s about feelings and moving people and something beautiful and being alive and it s not about notes on a page. I could teach you notes on a page. I can t teach you that other stuff. "
He takes away her music and tells her to try it. She tries a time or two, each time coming to a point where her clarinet squawks and squeaks, and she starts to kick herself for her failure.
"What do you like best about yourself? he asks.
With a shy smile she says," My hair my dad says it reminds him of a sunset."
" Play the sunset."
And she closes her eyes, and she begins to play really play, not just the notes, but the music. She is so amazed when she does the hard part perfectly that her eyes pop open and she stops.
Mr. Holland shares her amazement and says, "Don’t stop! "1
And so, on she plays: eyes closed, head beginning to sway with the rhythm of it. And we know that this time, it’s fun.
Mr. Holland put her focus on something in her that was bigger than that, she was able to do more than that. She was able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than she could have asked or even imagined. She started playing music, not just notes on the page (although she was playing the same notes, it became something bigger, something grander.) 1
And I think that is what it means to be lead by Jesus. Life is grand, life takes on a whole different meaning and purpose. Sure, the rough parts will still be there, but some how through Christ, we will be helped over them.
"I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. "
We do have an abundant life through Christ if we will let Him lead us from the sheep fold to the pasture and then return again, to gain strength and comfort.
We can through Christ, have the courage of at Kate Shelly, or the courage of the red headed girl who played for the SunSet.
Have an abundant life through Jesus, and come here to the church each week to be renewed and lead out again and again and again.
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale
1Contributor: Mary Lewis
