Sermon April 17, 2005 in Silverdale

Easter 4 Silverdale Lutheran Church Amanda Olson April 17, 2005 John 10:1-10 Grace to you and peace from God and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Bienvenidos a la misa. Les traigo saludos de parte de sus hermanos y hermanas de la Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala. I bring greetings to you on behalf of your brothers and sisters in the Augustinian Lutheran Church of Guatemala. Greetings that are particularly apt today as we celebrate the community we have in Christ who has called us and gathered us into His fold, the body of Christ. My first two months in Guatemala I found myself taking pictures of door after door after door. I have been fascinated by the doors in Guatemala... For one thing you don`t have to pay someone for taking a picture of a door as you sometimes do if you want a picture of a person. But more to the point... they (the doors... and no I have not started talking to doors since I left SLC) speak volumnes about life in Guatemala.Many of the doors are metal and solid looking, painted some drab color... these doors are usually attached to homes or stores that appear to be abit better off. The doors that draw me are the wooden doors... most are brightly painted... red, light green, blue, yellow, pale blue... colors that usually constrast and distinguish the door from the wall on either side. Many are warn down... have chipped paint, don`t hang square on their hinges, have large gaps at their base or even plants growing in their lintels or in the stone wall next to them... invariably when the family is not home or the store is not open they have these huge padlocks on them. Since I went to Central America with… well really no Spanish... it was, and still is at times, frustrating that I was not able to converse properly with the people I meet. There were many barriers that I felt in Guatemala-- language wise but also experientially and culturally. It makes sense that I was drawn to the doors... because I wanted to be allowed in and to know these people who I was encountering. I disliked all the barriers that I constantly felt there. The one home I was invited into in Xela during language school... I hardly ever spoke in. I was allowed to be among them in their daily coming and going but as a receiver and as a paycheck for their family... they fed me at there table, gave me a bed… complete with fleas… to slept in at night, a place to bathe... and I had only my presence to offer. It felt as if for the first few months... I had to simply observe and learn through my senses rather than presuming I understand and speaking... I had to receive humbly and deal with limits that I had never had to experience to that level before.The doors of Guatemala have witnessed much... but the people inside have lived through much more. In my lifetime some of these doors (in other communities I have been in since my first two months even more so) have been visited by soldiers taking loved ones away in the night never to return... or brought news of death, coup, pain, hunger. The doors are worn but for the most part... still thresholds for much joy, much pain... much life. Into my experience with doors comes our gospel text for today… and Christ’s statement.. “I am the gate.” While many doors have felt like barriers… as in the communities within the church we are welcomed into their homes and into their lives. The homes in the country are much more humble than those in the city. Dirt floors, chickens, smoke, and fleas greet us as we enter into the homes. We are allowed in as fellow sisters and brothers in Christ… despite language, skin color, culture, country, economic barriers… Christ knows all these barriers and as the gate, breaches the walls, the separation and brings us together. It is the same here in Silverdale… there is much that could and does separate you from eachother, and even at times threatens to tear you apart… yet Christ calls out to each of you and hearing His voice you come… gathered together as this community in Christ. Connected one to another in prayer and in promise. Christ is the way, the truth, the life… he is the means to the Father. The way to God… and how God gets to us. By being our good shepherd. The sheep imagery is one of the first images of the church that most children are taught. Sheep are not the most intelligent of animals… they need the help of the shepherd (3 examples?)… we tend to drift as well… wonder off… are influnced by false voices, and others trying to make claims on our time, our bodies, our lives. There are other people and things calling to us… inticing us to cross their threshhold… to enter into their fold… their embrace. Others ready and willing to be our shepherds. We sin and fall short… like the sheep, we cannot raise on our own… But into all this comes Christ… among us, born of Mary… flesh and blood… the lamb (son of God) who would lay down his life for you. As far away as we were… and are again and again… Christ comes and speaks… calling you, his beloved into the fold, His fold. He wants you alone… not anything that you can do or give, just you whom he loves. He[i] gathers within the fold the wounded, the lonely the powerless, the frightened. He gathers those despised by humanity because they are poor, homeless, lost unlovely, different. He gathers… regardless of our worldly wealth or power Regardless of our wounds and fears Regardless of our differences He gathers Guatemalans, and Americans, and people throughout His world He gathers us in His promise. Where you are at home. He gathers you to himself and does not let go. His voice can… and does… reach into the darkest of darknesses… into the deepest valley… into the farthest reaches… He knows you… all your struggles, all your weaknesses and failings… and all your joys and success. He knows you and calls you by name (say some names)… leading you out of your valley of the shadow of death and into life, abundant life. So how is Christ your gate? We mentioned earlier that he breaks down the barriers to connect His own. His does this by being your good shepherd… who lays down his life for his sheep… and you are welcomed into the fold of His own by the gift of the Holy Spirit in your baptisms. You are wecolmed with promises that are yours and welcomed as children. You are protected from the thievery of of sin, death… that would steal your lives and hope and you are given life. The Word comes to you in all your locations no matter how far away, how hopeless. Christ is your foundation… God’s gift to you His beloved child… Christ is your gate but not in such a way that we enter and leave Christ behind. He is with you… surrounding you with his love, compassion and grace… and just as your baptism was one time yet daily… so to you enter into the fold of Christ yet each day reenter by the gate… a daily dying and raising to your sins and brokenness and a daily giving of new life. You don’t, after all, stay in that sheepfold, away from the world… in our comfortable Christian club. As our good shepherd, Christ leads us out of the sheepfold each new day into the world… into the pasture… into our jobs, our families, our daily routines… to give us life abundant out… out in the world among others… among our neighbors who are in need. Christ leads us out and gives his sheep… you… in service to his world. We follow our shepherd… for we trust and know Out into a world that has many doors to choose from… many doors that are tempting, the beg to be entered, and many that are opened to us so that we can serve one another by Christ. We know the voice of Christ and when He calls, we enter through him… our gate of hope, forgiveness, love and our gate of life. [i] Poem from preaching resource