John 10.1-10 “I am the door…” etc.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In today’s reading from the Gospel of St. John, the Lord says something that might be difficult for modern ears to hear. He says “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…” And later on in the reading he says “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.”
Obviously we are the sheep – those living in the world, who wander around without guidance, confused, and vulnerable, susceptible to the powers of predation at work in the world. Life in the world brings with it the danger of falling prey to the powers, visible and invisible, arrayed against us. And the triumph of the world’s powers, apart from Christ, is manifest in the universal dominion of death – the end of sin’s corrosive influence.
This may sound equivocal, so let me explain what I mean. Our teaching is that physical death is an aberration, an evil introduced into the world by sin – the primal event and action wherein mankind turned away from God – freely and definitely chose not to obey the explicit commandment of God, which God gave for mankind’s own good – so that we might have life and freedom and fulfillment. Our teaching is that mankind was made by God to dwell with him, and by dwelling with him, to have life and fulfillment. And this dwelling-with-God is what mankind rejected, and continually rejects – and the rejection of togetherness-with-God is precisely what sin is. And sin has left us weak, confused, and prone to death, like sheep without a shepherd, wandering around and subject to predation – to thieves, who have come to kill and destroy.
The sheepfold is this togetherness-with-God, the household of God, and Jesus is himself the doorway to the sheepfold, the way by which we may attain togetherness-with-God, because Jesus is the only and eternal Son of God. In the first chapter of St. John’s gospel we read: “No one has ever seen God; the only son, WHO IS IN THE BOSOM OF THE FATHER, HE HAS MADE HIM KNOWN.” Our problem is separation from God – Jesus Christ is the solution because he has a unique, indissoluble, essential, personal, and eternal union with God. As in Ephesians St. Paul writes: “through Jesus Christ we… have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are… MEMBERS OF THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
Christ opens for us the possibility of a mutual and personal indwelling with God, because Christ is in the Father, and the Father is in him. Therefore by being in him, WE find ourselves in the Father, and the Father in us. So in today’s Gospel reading Jesus declares: “I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved…” Because THROUGH him, we find the sheepfold – togetherness-with-God, the house of the Father.
And this gives content to any number of the Lord’s sayings:
"Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, `Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?”
And:
"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”
Because Jesus is the only and eternal Son of the Father, and because he gives his life for and to us, if we will only have it. So he is TRULY the WAY to the LIFE, which is togetherness-with-God.
A word must be said at this point about people of other faiths. Modern ears hear the Lord saying things like “No one comes to the Father, but by me” – and perhaps we find our generosity a little bit offended. Here is the thing: No one comes to the Father, except by way of the Son – because the Father is not even the Father apart from the Son. His very fatherhood obtains in relation to the Son. But that doesn’t mean, for example, that all Hindus are going to hell. It means that WHOEVER attains togetherness-with-God will find it by way of the door of the sheep, the one who is the way, the truth, and the life – whether they realize it or not. All of us have imperfect conceptions of God. And if our togetherness with God depended on the perfection of our conceptions, we’d all be in serious trouble. Whoever comes to the presence of God does so by way of the only and eternal Son, the Word of God, Jesus Christ. But we should remember that he made the heavens and the earth, and is perfectly capable of working invisibly within the heart of ANY person whatsoever – a Sikh, a Muslim, a Jew, a Hindu, even an Episcopalian. But Christ’s ability to lead non-Christians to God does not diminish his status as the one and only door of the sheep.
Now, this leaves the question of HOW. How does one enter the sheepfold? Where does one find the door? One finds the door where the door has promised to be. You find him with in the one, holy, catholic and APOSTOLIC Church, the community of faith and practice founded and governed and taught by Jesus Christ himself, through the Apostles, because Jesus said to the Apostles: “I am with YOU always, even to the close of the age” (Matt. 28.16).
For individuals, this means above all that we must seek Jesus with an open and solicitous heart, purged from ideological self-seeking, and willing to leave everything to follow Christ. It means we must seek him in prayer, every day, and that we must seek to conform our believing, and our LIVING, to the apostolic teaching – which means the Scripture. And it means we must order our lives around the wellsprings of divine power given by Jesus himself to effect our union with him: the sacraments of the Church.
The Lord has promised that such a life of humble seeking will be rewarded by joyful finding, in the realization that the Lord came that we may have life, and have it abundantly.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment