Sermon for Good Shepherd Sunday, May 7, 2017 – “The Living Gate”

Fourth Sunday of Easter
Good Shepherd Sunday
May 7, 2017
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus the Good Shepherd.

This spring, Good Shepherd Sunday School kids learned about our Psalm for today, Psalm 23, and about how God is our Shepherd. Then for a field trip, many of the kids, teachers, parents, a grandma and I went to visit local shepherd Barb Krause and her sheep at Canoe Creek farm.

During our visit, we got to help lead the sheep from the barn into a sheep pen. The sheep didn’t really listen to us and it was a little bit crazy for a while. The sheep did listen to the voice of their shepherd, Barb, and eventually the sheep and the kids got safely into the sheep pen.

Well, all but one of the sheep got safely into the pen. There was one little guy who went the other direction out of the barn. Eventually he made it to one of the fences on a side of the pen, but he wasn’t at the part with the gate so he couldn’t get in. To get to the gate he would have to go down the hill, around the barn, and back up the hill. He couldn’t see the way in and Barb was busy helping the kids and other sheep, so he was stuck outside the pen for a while.

There were no visible wolves or thieves or bandits, but that little sheep looked so vulnerable outside of the protection of the sheep pen. And, he clearly wanted to be inside. He kept making this very loud crying sound over and over and over again. He kept running along that part of the fence trying to get in. The other sheep would come over to him and you could tell they wanted him inside with them. The kids and all of us wanted him in, too, but he wasn’t at the gate and we couldn’t get him there.

We see that little sheep everywhere in our world today – in people desperate to get into places of rest, safety and community. He is the Syrian seeking refuge, the unaccompanied minor fleeing violence in Guatemala, the unemployed worker searching for dignity, the mother who can’t get access to health care.

We want those sheep to have a resting place where they can go in and out and find safe pasture; yet there are so many barriers. How can we help these sheep get to a gate? How can we help that gate to open to them?

Sometimes each of us are that little sheep. Sometimes we feel cut off from others and from God, at the mercy of thieves that kill and steal and destroy the abundant life God longs for us to have – thieves like cancer, anxiety, grief, heartbreak. We run ourselves ragged trying to find a way into nourishment, to peace, to community.

We wonder if there is some gate, some path, some answer that we’re missing – something we just haven’t found that could help us and the world we love. Of course, we know there’s always something but it can feel like a long way around, a winding path to get there. And, we’re not always sure if we have enough energy or commitment.

Jesus says he has come so that all may have abundant life: that all may have peace and wellbeing and enough.

Yet, how do we access that and make it available to others? How do we get to the gate ourselves and help others find it?

In our Gospel reading today Jesus says, “I am the gate.” That means that the gate is not a spot we have to find. The gate isn’t a thing that sits waiting for us to take the right path, overcome the obstacles and get to the correct spot in the fence. The gate is the Good Shepherd who is always searching for all of us, always working to draw us all into God’s abundance.

The gate is not a fixed, rigid place but a living shepherd who is alive and on the move – always opening space for us all to experience the life God wants us all to have. The gate is Jesus’ own body which is broken open for us all.

Jesus offers his very body as space for reconciliation with God and one another, as space for us to enter into abundant life.

Jesus also draws us into his body so that we, too, become an access point for others – so that we can make God’s abundance available to others.

We don’t have to feel powerless as we see all the sheep seeking refuge and peace. Yes, there are so many barriers; but we are now part of the broken and risen body of Christ, the body that has overcome even death itself, the body that cannot be stopped from working reconciliation and new life for all of creation.

Christ’s body is alive and at work in the world and we are now part of that. We now share the work of making abundant life, wellbeing, refuge, safety and rest available to all people.

This metaphor of Jesus as the gate is not a well-loved metaphor; it’s much less popular than the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. We never celebrate Gate Sunday or sing hymns like The Lord’s My Gate. The image of Jesus as a gate can feel narrow and exclusive – as if Christianity is some kind of gated community.

Yet the gate, the access point, is not a fixed spot but a living body. The gate is a broken yet risen body, a body that cannot be contained, a body that is always breaking open for all to know God’s abundance.

Today as we celebrate Solveig’s baptism and new member Sunday; we give thanks that together we are part of Christ’s body opened for the sake of the world. As we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday and all the wonderful hymns about our shepherd, we remember that the shepherd is also the gate for us and all people.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.

Sermon for Sunday, April 30, 2017 – “Beyond Words”

Third Sunday of Easter
Confirmation Sunday
April 30, 2017
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus. Amen.

There are times when words don’t work – when they just don’t help us to make sense of things.

Words don’t always work for you students even when you have great teachers, even when you’re trying hard to understand, even in confirmation class here (maybe especially in confirmation class here!).

Words fail us when a baby is born, love unfolds or healing happens; and the experience is just beyond description.

Words fail when there’s a difficult medical diagnosis, or that terrible phone call comes, or the fog of depression descends.

And sometimes there are just too many words – tweets and texts and emails and posts and breaking news updates. We get an information overload and can’t keep up with all the words that come at us all the time.

Words don’t work for the disciples on the road to Emmaus. They’ve had a very long weekend and they’re in the middle of a very long day – the day of Jesus’ resurrection. Nothing is making sense.

The day began with the women of their group running from the tomb claiming they’d seen angels who said Jesus was alive.

But, as we learn earlier in Luke, the disciples think the women’s report is an idle tale – empty words. Others go to the tomb and find it empty but don’t see Jesus or angels, so there are conflicting reports; the disciples don’t know what to believe. As two of the disciples walk along the road to Emmaus they talk about all the things that have happened and try to make sense of it all.

As they’re talking and discussing, Jesus himself comes near and goes with them; but their eyes are kept from recognizing him. He asks them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?”

The question stops them in their tracks. They can’t believe someone hasn’t heard about all the things that have consumed their life and become their world, the things about Jesus that had once given them reason to hope, and now cause to despair. They tell the stranger everything about Jesus: his teaching, his death, the women’s strange claims of resurrection. The stranger then starts interpreting the scripture to them, going all the way back to Moses; but still they don’t understand, still they can’t recognize that it is Jesus.

It isn’t until they insist that this stranger stay with them as evening falls that things begin to change.

Nothing makes sense, but they know the importance of kindness and hospitality. Nothing makes sense, but they know this stranger needs a meal and lodging. So, they insist that he stay and he does.

After a long, confusing day full of lots of words …

            kindness is extended,
            a stranger is welcomed,
            a meal is shared.

These simple practices of hospitality and community provide an opening in all the confusion, a pause in the endless talking, that allows the disciples to become aware of a truth that is beyond words. Jesus is alive and is present with them.

As soon as they recognize him, Jesus vanishes. But these disciples have been given all that they need.

They realize that he was with them all along, that he has opened the scriptures to them and set their hearts on fire.

In that simple meal, the disciples experience the truth of Jesus found in all of scripture – the truth that God is at work even when everything look hopeless, that God brings life out of death, that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

So often we are like the disciples on the road to Emmaus. We fail to recognize that Jesus is now always present with us and always working new life for us. We get stuck in our heads, consumed by our confusion, so focused on words (says the preacher fully aware of the irony here).

We think we have to get our thinking straight, get everything all figured out, come to correct understandings; and then totally miss God’s presence with us everywhere. Like the disciples, we need practices that provide a pause in all the words, that get us out of our heads, and provide an opening for us to encounter Jesus.

We need Sabbath rest in which we can turn off the incessant noise and tune into people, nature, and the life-giving Word of God.

We need to practice hospitality in daily life and in service to others. As we do, we will encounter Christ in strangers and those the world considers to be last and least.

And we need to gather around the table each week where Christ breaks bread, blesses us and shows us that he is present and working life through simple, broken things.

These are the practices that we commit to as Christians when we affirm our faith as Ava and Keaton will do today. We commit:

to live among God’s faithful people,
to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper,
to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed,
to serve all people following the example of Jesus,
and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth.

Even when nothing makes sense, especially when nothing makes sense, we need these life-giving practices of faith.

These practices help us to recognize and encounter Jesus. They help us to taste and experience the truth of Jesus found in all of scripture – the truth that God is at work even when everything looks hopeless, that God brings life out of death, that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

As Keaton and Ava confirm their faith, let’s all recommit to these practices and then let’s come to the table to taste and see Jesus.

But first, let’s take a moment to pause in silent reflection.