SHEEP'S GATE

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."

So – good morning fellow sheep! Besides being Mother’s Day – and I hope you all have a good one! – I’ve heard that in some places this Sunday is called ‘Good Shepherd Sunday.’ I don’t know about you, but being likened to a sheep is something I’d rather not think too deeply about. Sheep are usually represented as, shall we say, not the brightest members of God’s animal kingdom. They’re followers. We humans tend to take pride in our ability to think, to reason. On a good day, we take responsibility for our own lives and actions. Yet, if this is Good Shepherd Sunday, somewhere in that picture we must be the sheep. 

Gospel writer John loves metaphoric images. He calls Jesus the ‘bread of life,’ the ‘true vine,’ the ‘light of the world,’ the ‘shepherd,’ the ‘gate,’ the ‘way,’ the ‘truth,’ the ‘life,’ and more. Just to make it more confusing, other writers in the New Testament have their own metaphors for him. Especially thought-provoking is that in Revelation he’s called the ‘lamb.’  

Sheep were important in New Testament Palestine, and so it’s not surprising that it is assumed that such terms as ‘shepherd,’ ‘gate,’ and ‘lamb’ would be meaningful. However little we, today, may know of how sheep become nourishment and clothing for us, we probably have the feeling that to call Jesus a 'shepherd,’ a ‘gate,’ and a ‘lamb’ are somehow drawing on different images. We’re told that Jesus is the shepherd, which is the one who watches over and cares for the animal, and the gate through which not only this animal proceeds in or out of shelter but also is what the shepherd goes through. 

And -- Jesus is also called a lamb, which is another word for sheep. These are confusing, and, not just different but rather conflicting images. And, because the love of God in Christ for all of us is so complex in its constancy, I think the love of mothers that we remember today will be able to help us with these images.

The metaphorical image of Jesus as shepherd is used in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.

Shepherds – let’s also think mothers – in the time our scriptures were written were very important, and had a really hard life. Just imagine, living out there with those sheep day in, day out, facing all the hardships of a hostile landscape. They were just as vulnerable as the sheep they were responsible for – heat in the daytime, cold at night, to human and animal predators all the time. They slept out there with the sheep, never leaving them, sometimes not sleeping in order to protect them. They used a rod to guide the sheep (not to beat it, by the way!), placing that rod at the side of the sheep’s head to help it go in the right direction. It’s also true that shepherds were seen as poor prospects as husbands and fathers, because they had to leave their families alone and unprotected at night as well. Doesn’t the love of a mother change the husband/wife relationship a bit – even while making it so much richer?

These are such rich and meaningful images – protecting, guiding, ever-vigilant. Knowing every hardship the sheep face because that shepherd was right out there living it with them. He knows what it’s like to be among the most vulnerable. He knows what it’s like to be out in the cold. He takes care of his flock – ‘the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.’   

But the other image in today’s passage, that of the ‘gate,’ is a bit more problematic. We’re told that ‘the one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.’ Then, later, we’re told that Jesus says ‘I am the gate.’ Well, now, is Jesus the gate or is he the one who enters by that gate? In other words, and obviously, our scriptures were never meant to be read literally. They describe great truths that are unknowable, and do it in rich, complex metaphorical imagery.

When we read without putting the words of scripture in context, and instead read literally, we may see Jesus the ‘gate’ as a mechanism of exclusion – one can only come into God’s kingdom through the gate of Jesus. If we take all the images, though, we see that they point to parts of a whole. 

These are metaphorical images that were meant to describe; Jesus is ‘like’ a shepherd, and also ‘like’ a gate, and also ‘like’ a lamb. These terms don’t define and limit Jesus; rather they suggest different characteristics. They’re attempts to describe the unknowable. And, they are attempts to describe unimaginable love. 

During WW II, there was a famous American pilot named Captain Eddie Rickenbacker. He once flew a special mission to the Pacific Islands. The plane crashed, and he and his crew were lost at sea for 21 days.

Here’s what he wrote about that experience:

‘In the beginning many of the men were atheists or agnostics, but at the end of the terrible ordeal each, in his own way, discovered God. Each man found God in the vast, empty loneliness of the ocean. Each man found salvation and strength in prayer, and a community of feeling developed which created a liveliness of human fellowship and worship, and a sense of gentle peace.’ 

I don’t know about you, but my heart is strangely warmed when I hear that ‘each man, in his own way, discovered God’ on his own terms. If that is the way it happened for those brave souls 60 years ago, it surely continues to happen that way today. We Christians find our way to God through the gateway of Jesus the Christ, and I am a Christian through and through. But, God is unknowable, and we see and understand only partly. There’s a story about a Hindu professor in a Christian seminary preaching on that ‘one way’ passage – you know, I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me.’ He said, ‘this verse is absolutely true – Jesus is the only way.’ But he went on to say: ‘And that way – of dying to an old way of being and being born into a new way of being – is known to all the religions of the world.’

The way of Jesus is not a set of beliefs, or doctrine, it’s a way of life. And, this way of life assumes that Christ – God – is with us, supporting us, guiding us, feeding us, and protecting us, always, and in unknowable ways. Jesus crossed every boundary, every border there was when he was alive, of tribe, of prejudice, of gender and religion – and his way of life is about us being transformed as we transcend the boundaries of even the religious system that was created to honor him. Like the love of a mother – it knows no boundaries.

When he's the gate, there's no need for us to try to do that job for him, and our anxieties about whether the "wrong" sort of people are getting in are replaced with freedom to love whomever we find ourselves with in the flock. Jesus is our Lord and shepherd, and so we need fear no evil; surely, as we follow him, goodness and mercy will follow us.

Of course we know God in and through Jesus. As Christians, Christ is our doorway into God – our point of entry into God’s realm. He is our shepherd – and, so much more; much too large to be contained in one metaphorical image, and too expansive to be contained in one gender.

Let’s look again at those sheep. They do follow, but we’re told today that they only follow their shepherd.

They recognize their shepherd. A baby knows his or her mother, with a bond that is unique. As I look around at us humans, who follow so many false gods, I wonder if being compared to a sheep isn’t really a goal to aspire to. We are sheep of our shepherd, Christ. That bond is unique – perhaps its characteristics are truly most closely learned by us from our mothers.

Jesus the shepherd showed us how God chose to love us freely. And, this love created us, seeks us out every moment of our lives, and also brings us together in community and sends us out into the world.

It’s like a mother’s love, and exactly what we need. A love that is complex and mature, that we grow into.

Love given freely, and returned freely by us. Today, we thank our mothers for creative and freely given love – love that is life’s greatest joy and can also be life’s greatest pain.

A great gift from God. Thank you moms. Thank you Jesus.

Amen.