First Reading: Acts 2:42-47
42{The believers} devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Psalm 23
1The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. 2He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. 3He revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for his name’s sake. 4Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; you have anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over. 6Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Second Reading: 1 Peter 2:19-25
19For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 21For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 24He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Gospel: John 10:1-10
1{Jesus said to the Jews,} “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. 2But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Life Abundant
At a college faculty meeting, a professor of archeology brought a lamp that had recently been unearthed in the Middle East. It was reported to contain a genie, who, when the lamp was rubbed, would appear and grant one wish. A professor of philosophy was particularly intrigued. He grabbed the lamp and rubbed it vigorously. Suddenly a genie appeared and made him an offer. He could choose one of three rewards: wealth, wisdom, or beauty. Without hesitating, the philosophy professor selected wisdom. “Done!” said the genie and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. All the other faculty members turned toward the professor, who sat surrounded by a halo of light. Finally, one of his colleagues whispered, “Say something. What wise insight do you now have?” The professor, much wiser now, sighs and says, “I should have taken the money.”
Our gospel lesson for today contain one of the best-known sayings of Jesus. And while it is well known, sadly it’s often abused and misunderstood. This quotation is the second half of John 10:10 and is best known in its King James translation. Jesus says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly.” This is a favorite verse of many modern Christians, particularly the prosperity crowd, since they choose to read it as an endorsement for an extravagant lifestyle. They equate abundant life to living in the lap of luxury. But that’s sad and narrow minded. Certainly, God wants what’s best for us. God desires for us to be content and have what we need. But God’s wisdom is beyond ours, and He knows that life is more than things.
Now to be fair, we all like the finer things of life. But we must accept the fact that this verse from John’s gospel refers to more than rampant materialism. In our consumer culture we’re encouraged to confuse the “abundant life” that Jesus taught about, with what is often referred to in our culture as, the “good life.” The good life for the world consists of things; the accumulation of toys. Someone once saw an epitaph on a tomb that read, “She died of things.” The next tomb was inscribed, “He died providing things for her.”
Our credo is, “Shop till you drop!” Americans, on the average, spend six hours shopping each week and 40 minutes playing with their children. As one commentator has put it, “We have defined ourselves by what we have and what we use, not by who we are and the kind of people we might become.” Former comedian and social commentator George Carlin indicts us like this: “That’s all your house is–a place to keep your stuff.”
“If you didn’t have so much stuff, you wouldn’t need a house. You could just walk around all the time. A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it, and when you leave your house, you’ve got to lock it up. You wouldn’t want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. That’s what your house is–a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff. Sometimes you’ve got to move–got to get a bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff anymore.” This isn’t a uniquely American quality, of course.
I read about a busload of Russian shoppers heading for Poland who refused to interrupt their trip when one of them died of a heart attack. Instead of turning back to bury the corpse, they left it on the back seat of the bus and continued into Poland. They returned home only after several days of bargain hunting. We must never confuse the good life with the abundant life that Jesus promised. Again, there’s nothing wrong with having stuff, so long as it doesn’t replace God in our lives. However, stuff will never satisfy our deepest needs. Only the abundant life Jesus talks about can do that. Our lessons for the day tell us how to have abundant life.
If I were to ask you to fill in the blank, how would you finish the following sentence: Life is__________. Forrest Gump filled in the blank by saying: “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” F. Scott Peck began his best-selling book The Road Less Traveled by writing, “Life is difficult.” Once, I went to a time share sales meetings and the salesman in one last final effort to get me to sign the dotted line said, “Life is not a dress rehearsal, you only get to live it once.” Others have described our existence by filling in the blank with, a rat race, a bowl of cherries, amino acids, a series of choices, a paycheck, the weekend, a party. Why is it that we always want to reduce life to a lowest common denominator?
Growing up in the 60s and 70s, I was bombarded with meaning of life questions by a philosophical sub-culture. This sub-culture was filled with hippies, and they seemed to enjoy pondering things like free-verse poetry, being held down by “the man”, and deeply philosophical questions. I remember my older brother, who liked to run in these crowds, would sit with his friends and ponder several deeply philosophical questions. The three questions I can vividly remember, (outside of the notion that with enough monkeys, enough typewriters, and enough time, all the great works of literature could be rewritten,) was, what is reality, and how do we perceive it? What is the purpose or meaning of life? And what is truth, and how can we get to it? Phil and his friends would sit for hours debating these questions. Funny thing is, I don’t believe I ever learned a single thing from all those discussions. Generally, I would get bored and go find something else to do.
For many, life is nothing more than the time spent between birth and death. The drudgery of existence, the boring monotony of the routine, the hope of having enough until the end. Have these people bought the lie of the “good life?” The reality is, there are many avenues we can travel that lead not to life, but to destruction. Despite what culture would have us believe, one doesn’t find life in pleasure. I’ve heard people say that if they could simply take a cruise, or retire in luxury, or have their fantasies fulfilled, then they would be living. Many people have done these things, yet they still remain empty.
King Solomon wisely said, “No matter how much we see, we are never satisfied; no matter how much we hear, we are never content” (Ecclesiastes 1:8). Try as they may in the pursuit of pleasure, eventually the law of diminishing returns takes hold. It takes a bigger thrill, or a bigger event to bring another high. But it never lasts. One doesn’t find life in performance. Eventually workaholics learn that the satisfaction of one job completed is short lived. A Wimbledon tennis champion thought all his life that winning this major tournament would result in life as he had never known it. He said following his championship, “The thrill of victory lasts about fifteen minutes.” A myth has circulated for years that says success produces life. Again, Solomon reminds us, “Man is always working, never satisfied” (Ecclesiastes 4:8).
One doesn’t find life in possessions. “Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless.” (Ecclesiastes 5:10). Have you ever asked yourself, “Why is it that I have more money than I’ve ever had before and yet have less contentment?” Another lie of the devil is that life comes from a better position. Too often people think that if they receive a certain promotion, or reach a certain status, or live in a certain area, then they would be happy. Interestingly, those people who have reached that position still haven’t found the secret of a fulfilling life. One doesn’t find life in pursuits. Most likely what you’ll find is stress, ulcers, and heart attacks. Life isn’t found in pleasure, performance, possessions, position, or pursuits; it can only be found in Jesus.
Jesus tells us time and time again that He is the giver of life, the author of life. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). And later in John’s gospel He states, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). But the most powerful statement He made regarding life was: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). The “I” is emphatic, meaning that life is found in no other than Him. Life is entered by no other way than Jesus Himself. And for us to understand how this life is entered we must understand that a special relationship exists between a shepherd and his sheep.
For example, Jesus said, “I am the gate for the sheep” (John 10:7). It stretches the imagination to think of a person acting as a gate, or a door. But that’s just what a shepherd does, he stands in the breach between life and death. One day George Adam Smith, an Englishman who traveled extensively in the Middle East, came across a sheepfold and asked the shepherd, “That is where they go at night?” “Yes,” said the shepherd, “and when they are in there, they are perfectly safe.” “But there is no door,” said the Englishman. “I am the door,” replied the shepherd. Sir George looked at him and asked, “What do you mean by the door?”
The shepherd answered, “When the light has gone out, and all the sheep are inside, I lie in that open space, and no sheep ever goes out but across my body, and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body; I am the door.” When Jesus said He is the door of the sheepfold, He’s saying the same thing: the fold, His body, the church, has only one entrance, Him; life has one source; spiritual nourishment is obtained one way; heaven can be entered through only one entrance. And the single means of access to all which is life is Jesus.
Now, some people may say,” Wait a minute, I already have life. Aren’t I breathing? Isn’t my heart pumping blood? Sure, simple physiological life is being experienced, but this isn’t the life Jesus is referring to. The life that Jesus gives is infinitely and eternally different than the life one possesses now. Maybe a quick lesson in Greek vocabulary would be helpful in discerning the significance of the life that Jesus offers. The Greek language employed several different words to communicate concepts and thoughts that are only available in one word in English. Such is true with this concept of life. In the Greek, there are six different words for life and two of these words will help us bring clarity.
The first word is bios, in which the English word biology is derived. It refers to the duration of life — one’s life span, the time between one’s birth date and one’s death date; or it refers to the necessities of life — one’s food, shelter, and clothing. The second word is zoe, in which the English words zoo and zoology are derived. It refers to life as God has it. Zoe is the life that belongs to God that becomes ours when we cross the doorway that is Jesus and enter into a relationship with God. It’s not about duration, because zoe life isn’t limited by time, nor hindered by death. It’s not a possession, but rather an infilling — God once again breathing His life into us.
When we were born, we were given bios life, when we were baptized, we are given zoe life. In baptism, we were named and claimed, we crossed the doorway of life in Christ and enter into a relationship with God through His Holy Spirit and become spiritually alive. Jesus goes on to quantify this life, “and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Other translations use the word “abundantly,” or “fullness,” or “overflowing.” But what is meant by this word? “Have [life] to the full” means to have a superabundance of a thing. To be a disciple of Jesus, to know who He is and what He means, is to have a superabundance of life.
To be a disciple is to have a new identity, a new meaning, a new energy, a new purpose, a new significance, a new outlook, a new hope, a new joy, a new life. In other words, we’re now able to start answering those questions asked by the hippies, “what is reality and how do we perceive it? What is the purpose or meaning of life? And what is truth and how can we get to it? The answer comes from Jesus Himself, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me. Reality is, life in Jesus, the meaning of life is a life lived for God, and the Truth came to us as a babe in a manger.
It’s not complicated. It doesn’t take an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite amount of typewriters, over an infinite amount of time to explain. Life, true life, abundant life, is found only in God. But we need to take this one step further. God also calls us to service in His name. So in His service, how do we share this new abundant life we have so that others can also have life abundantly?
Starting with Mother’s Day we will be talking about the various ways that we can support organizations within our community that help to improve the lives of others. Through the work of organizations like the Crisis Pregnancy Center of Gaston County, we can help them to provide education, testing, (both pregnancy and ultrasound), a supportive environment, help in managing family relationships during pregnancy, information about pregnancy, adoption, abortion, fetal development and parenting, information and support for men, maternity and baby clothes (newborn to 12 months), networking and referral with other agencies and post abortion counseling and education.
Another agency that helps us in our mission to provide life abundant, is Holy Angels. Holy Angels provides medical care, housing, education, support, and even employment opportunities, for those suffering from intellectual and developmental disabilities and delicate medical conditions. All of this is accomplished through the creation, development, support and funding for a variety of specialized programs and services for infants to older adults including: residential living, day services, vocational opportunities, medical services, physical therapy, special education and habilitation services, creative arts, speech therapy, recreation, spiritual opportunities, and family support services. Holy Angels is an amazing organization. It’s by us supporting agencies like Holy Angels and Crisis Pregnancy Centers that those with little hope, little life, can live abundant life. And you’ll hear more about the great work that CPC of Gaston County and Holy Angels are doing when Desiree Miller and Anne Boger visit us toward the end of May.
God’s desire is for us to have abundant life in Him. In God we can have what the world cannot give, the true joy and peace that only God can provide. But this abundant life that Jesus promises isn’t just for you and me, we have been called to share that abundant life with others. From conception to last breath, all life is precious not only to us, but to God. And you and I can be, and are, the instruments in God’s kingdom for sharing so that the abundant life Jesus promises can be realized by others.
Amen