Giving Life Abundantly

As I am preparing to preach for the first time here in Bradenton this weekend, I wanted to share a sermon I preached earlier this year. This is a sermon I preached at my home congregation, St. Paul's Lutheran, in Brenham, Texas, on May 15th, 2011, the fourth Sunday of Easter. The Gospel text is John 10:1-10.

“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in 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.”

There’s an old bit of wisdom that claims; if you know where you have come from, there are no limitations to where you can go. This statement is all about identity, about knowing oneself.

I come from a line of farmers; German immigrants who took a great risk in crossing the Atlantic to find a new start in Texas. Since 1875 my family has been farming a piece of land just outside of Winedale. This farm literally gave me life. When I was a kid I helped to tend its gardens, I ate from its bounty. Now that I am in Chicago I keep a jar of its dirt on my desk as a reminder of who I am. As I continue to learn and grow in my faith, and in my formation as a future leader of the church, my identity as a son of farmers will not change. Knowing where I have come from, there is no limitation on where I can go.

We as a congregation come from a long line of Christians. Our roots are grounded in the confession of Jesus Christ as our lord and savior. Since 1895 we have worshipped in this community as Lutherans, our heritage stretching back to Martin Luther and the Augsburg Confession. This congregation gives people life. Through its ministry of Word and Sacrament, it has nurtured the faith lives of countless individuals and families. One only has to take a walk into the fellowship hall to see the rich history of St. Paul’s in the pictures of its confirmation classes. We know where we have come from as a congregation; there is no limit to where we go.

This morning as we continue to celebrate the mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are once again confronted with the question of, just who is this Jesus? We are now four Sunday’s into the season of Easter, a time of year when we celebrate and reflect upon who Jesus is as the central figure of our Christian identity.

Jesus stands amidst us today and clearly states who he is in John’s Gospel. “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep,” he says. He stands in front of a gathered crowd after a brief altercation with a group of Pharisees. Jesus has just given sight to a man born blind, an event that has caused quite a ruckus in the little town. The Pharisees have given the man and his family a rather hard time in their quest to discover just who Jesus is. Even in the face of a miracle and the clear witness and confession of the now open eyed believer, the Pharisees just don’t get it; just who is this Jesus?

“Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.” It is the clear express of Jesus’ self understanding that finds the ears of the gathered crowd and rings from our pulpit today. Jesus is no stranger to agricultural metaphors, nor is he afraid to draw parallels between himself and David, the shepherd boy turned king, who wrote the Psalm we read earlier. Jesus is clearly pointing to himself, refocusing the attention of the crowd, refocusing our attention today. “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved…”

This is one of his many “I am” statements in John’s Gospel; “I am the bread of life,” “I am the light of the world,” “I am the good shepherd,” and so on. It is in John’s Gospel that we get the clearest picture of Jesus’ self understanding. Amidst the many metaphors that Jesus uses to describe himself, bread, light, resurrection, truth, one clear theme emerges; Jesus gives life. He states this very clearly at the conclusion of our Gospel text today, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

But the Pharisees remain divided; they even try to stone Jesus a few verses later. They had forgotten where they had come from; they did not remember their history or their heritage. Their continual denial of who Jesus is will lead to conversations about arrest and conviction. Their voice will fan the flames of mob mentality, until the chant of “crucify him” will fill the streets of an early Friday morning. Their closed minded interpretation of scripture, an interpretation that had cast so many out of the community, would not allow them to see Jesus for who he truly was, the life giving messiah.

That’s what happens when we don’t remember where we have come from. When we get caught up in our own interpretations, we often get led astray and try to live by our own rules. We cast people out of our communities because they are different than us. We claim that we have the only angle on truth and close ourselves off to the rest of the world. We even try and use scripture to justify our attempts to rip the church apart. When we forget where we have come from, we slowly unravel until we have no future at all.

This is the disheartening cycle that has lead to denominations condemning each other, cutting themselves off from one another, until the heart of the Gospel is left trampled in the dust. This is the disheartening cycle that has lead to congregations into angry battles over whose right and who’s wrong, tearing themselves apart internally, leaving the Gospel message out of the conversation. It’s a power struggle dear people. When we get caught up in our own quest to have power and to be right, we forget about Jesus, the only reason we have life at all.

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus’ words ring out across our arguments and refocus our attention on where we have come from. These words of Jesus confront us in our struggle for power and remind us who is actually in control of the Kingdom of God, past, present, and future.

Our identity as baptized children of God is grounded in Jesus Christ. He is our source of life. When we gather at the font in our baptism, we are brought to new life and claimed as children of God. Our identity in this world is forever changed. The old bonds of sin and death are washed away, we are set free from all that would hold us back from following in the example of Jesus and giving life to the world. Our vocation as baptized children of God is to give life to others, not to take it away. We don’t get to make the rules dear people. If God wants to give life, life will be given regardless of whether we give our approval. Acceptance into God’s kingdom is not by a 2/3rds majority vote. The decision for our acceptance and salvation was made unilaterally two thousand years ago when Jesus walked out of the tomb on that first Easter morning. Our call is to live into that promise, and spread the good news to world.

“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” These words ring out across time and shatter the turmoil of our arguments today. Jesus is not telling us to pick and chose who gets to have life, Jesus is telling us that he is the one who gives life, and he gives life abundantly to all. When we live into this promise, we too become life givers in the world around us. Part of our identity as Christians is to surrender our pride, put down our idols of control and power, and be open to an encounter with the living Christ, who came that we may have life, and have it abundantly.

Friends in Christ, we are called to live into the promise of Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him may not parish, but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” That is the heart of the Gospel. It is time that we stand up and reclaim this as our identity as Christians, as members of St. Paul’s in Brenham Texas.

So stand up people of St. Paul's, stand up! Stand up and reclaim your identity as Christians who live out their lives in the heart of the Gospel. Stand up and reclaim your identity as a Lutheran congregation in this community that gives people life. Stand up and go out into this world - proclaiming with you very lives the call of Jesus Christ. Go out into this world and give life - and give it abundantly!