SPEAKER_00: This past few days, we have been at our North Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
SPEAKER_00: That's our annual gathering.
SPEAKER_00: Um, we passed the budget for the conference and do all sorts of things like that.
SPEAKER_00: And we have a memorial service for pastors who have died over the last year, really meaningful moments together.
SPEAKER_00: It's a good time to see friends and people from past churches you've served or colleagues from across the whole conference.
SPEAKER_00: It's a really wonderful time.
SPEAKER_00: And yesterday we closed that time together with a service for the ordering of ministry, which includes a service of licensing, commissioning, and ordination.
SPEAKER_00: And the preacher for that service was Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church.
SPEAKER_00: You might know him better as the preacher who preached the royal wedding, right?
SPEAKER_00: And was became quite infamous for that moment because he's a very good preacher.
SPEAKER_00: And and my youngest daughter said to my wife, Well, that's a good sermon.
SPEAKER_00: And so I feel no pressure now.
SPEAKER_00: Um you'll notice she left and is not in here right now.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, because the reality is that I'm not gonna be able to keep up with probably one of the five best preachers of the last hundred years.
SPEAKER_00: So um, so anyway, we're gonna be talking in this I am series, continuing it today about I am the gate.
SPEAKER_00: We'll pick that up in John chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate, but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.
SPEAKER_00: The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice.
SPEAKER_00: He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
SPEAKER_00: When he has brought out all of his own, he goes ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
SPEAKER_00: They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
SPEAKER_00: So again Jesus said to them, Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them.
SPEAKER_00: I am the gate.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and will go out and find pasture.
SPEAKER_00: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
SPEAKER_00: I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, this is the word of God for us, the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, let the words of my mouth and the thoughts and meditations of all of our hearts be pleasing in your sight.
SPEAKER_00: For you, O Lord, are our rock and our redeemer.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I am the gate.
SPEAKER_00: I read on the worship planning spreadsheet that we keep.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, Pastor Laura gave me this one.
SPEAKER_00: The forgotten I am statement of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There are so many great ones, the bread of life, the resurrection, and the life.
SPEAKER_00: Even the good shepherd that we'll talk about next week, and here I am with the gate.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I lost the game of rock, paper, scissors with Pastor Laura while planning the series.
SPEAKER_00: You get the gate.
SPEAKER_00: I went to look in a book that Matt Rowell, a fellow United Methodist pastor, wrote about these I am statements.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked to you about how there's seven of these I am statements.
SPEAKER_00: Guess how many chapters his book was?
SPEAKER_00: Six, right?
SPEAKER_00: Guess which statement was not included?
SPEAKER_00: The gate.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's not that I hate gates.
SPEAKER_00: I know the importance of gates, even if the image seems very utilitarian.
SPEAKER_00: You see, gates became extremely important in our family's life about seven and a half years ago, because that's when Donut the Beagle came to be a part of our family.
SPEAKER_00: And as we finished signing the adoption papers for Donut on that day in January of 2019, they had told us about how great he is with children, which we love.
SPEAKER_00: We had a two-year-old at the time.
SPEAKER_00: We really needed him to be good with kids.
SPEAKER_00: We heard about how he never barks except for maybe at that chipmunk that tries to live under the basketball hoop in the backyard.
SPEAKER_00: And both of these things are true about Donut.
SPEAKER_00: But then before the ink had dried on our signatures, they casually said, well, and he likes to run.
SPEAKER_00: To which we casually laughed off with them.
SPEAKER_00: Oh ha ha ha ha.
SPEAKER_00: Don't all dogs like running?
SPEAKER_00: They said, don't, and we said, don't worry, we have a fence.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't see the nervous grin between the adoption agency volunteers.
SPEAKER_00: In Donuts' first couple of days, we witnessed him essentially jumping like an equestrian horse or a mountain goat easily over our four-foot chain link fence in the backyard.
SPEAKER_00: We realized quickly we could not just let the dog out like normal people do, because we had to be within a few feet of him.
SPEAKER_00: Because you see, when donut gets out, donut gets out.
SPEAKER_00: He follows his beagle nose, and he is very, very fast.
SPEAKER_00: Donut does not care if you are within five feet of him calling his name, even if you are calling it while holding a raw T-bone steak.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, our first solution to the problem was to get a new fence.
SPEAKER_00: Laura had assured me, getting a dog won't be expensive, honey.
SPEAKER_00: Especially if we rescue one.
SPEAKER_00: Famous last word.
SPEAKER_00: So we made sure that the six-foot wooden fence covered the entire perimeter of the backyard.
SPEAKER_00: Now Donut surely wouldn't get out.
SPEAKER_00: But the problem?
SPEAKER_00: If the gate was left open, even the smallest crack, Donut will always get out.
SPEAKER_00: And he has gotten even better through the years at exploring every hidden crevice of our neighborhood.
SPEAKER_00: He follows the creek that runs through the backyards.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the woods intimately that connect to the back of the apartment complex and the middle school and the office buildings on one adventure.
SPEAKER_00: Donut found himself in the parking lot of Capitol Towers, the senior living facility, where he was eventually welcomed in by a security guard and taken to stay at one of the senior residents' apartments.
SPEAKER_00: I had to go meet him there down on the second floor, and she was cooking him chicken.
SPEAKER_00: Donut has many stories.
SPEAKER_00: Our other solutions have included an air tag on Donut's collar, but it can't keep up with his speed.
SPEAKER_00: In the last year, we invested in a GPS tracker on his collar.
SPEAKER_00: This has helped us to find Donut better when he does escape, but the escapes keep getting more and more perilous.
SPEAKER_00: Every time Donut gets out, Laura or I, or both of us in different parts of the house simultaneously scream, Who left the gate open?
SPEAKER_00: And if we're not at our best that day, it probably includes some other words in between.
SPEAKER_00: But early on, it was inevitably a child or a neighbor kid who would not close the gate.
SPEAKER_00: But they've all gotten pretty good at shutting the gate over time because they know what happens.
SPEAKER_00: They've been on the donut search and rescue parties all through the bowels of the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_00: But the contractor who comes to fix the power pole, or the one who comes to spray for the mosquitoes, never closes the gate.
SPEAKER_00: And if we forget to check, or we didn't even know they had been there, their donut bolts again.
SPEAKER_00: The gate you see protects donut from predators.
SPEAKER_00: I guess predators like coyotes, but I'm thinking more of the predators of Six Forks Road, like Toyotas and 18 Wheelers.
SPEAKER_00: Who left the gate open?
SPEAKER_00: We are sheep.
SPEAKER_00: That is a key to understanding the 10th chapter of John.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what I want us to focus on today.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep need two things.
SPEAKER_00: The first of all is this sheep need protection from predators.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep need protection from predators.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the gate, lets us in to the sheep pen.
SPEAKER_00: This might seem simple, but sheep can't open the gate on their own.
SPEAKER_00: And sheep need protection from all of the predators, especially at night.
SPEAKER_00: Look at that first part of verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: I am the gate.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever enters by me will be saved, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: That word by can also be translated through.
SPEAKER_00: The sheep enter the pen through Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There is a deep connection in this passage between Jesus the gate and Jesus the good shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of goes back and forth between those images.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes they get fused together and for good reason.
SPEAKER_00: But there is evidence to suggest that oftentimes a shepherd would literally lie down across the entrance to the sheep pen.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Like this.
SPEAKER_00: They would lie down.
SPEAKER_00: They would block the predators from coming in and the sheep from going out of the pen.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know I was going to do that this morning until I saw the perfect size of the opening.
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd laying down his life for the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: Literally.
SPEAKER_00: The shepherd acting himself as the gate.
SPEAKER_00: No sheep could get out while he laid there, and no predators could get in.
SPEAKER_00: The image of God's people of sheep, of course, is prevalent throughout Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: I think about Isaiah 53, where it says, All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way.
SPEAKER_00: When we are in the sheep pen, we cannot get lost.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot turn away or astray.
SPEAKER_00: We need the safety and warmth of the home.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus the Gate offers that to us.
SPEAKER_00: Sheep need protection from predators.
SPEAKER_00: They also need the provision of pastures.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to all those peas.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I'm a Baptist preacher this morning.
SPEAKER_00: They need provision of pastures.
SPEAKER_00: What do sheep do?
SPEAKER_00: They eat grass.
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty much it, right?
SPEAKER_00: They are grazing animals who cannot just stay in the sheep pen.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because they already ate all that grass.
SPEAKER_00: There is not food for them in the pen.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus, the gate, has to let us out to live and to thrive.
SPEAKER_00: That's what is so fascinating about this image of the gate.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a one-way image.
SPEAKER_00: We're not just let into the sheep pen.
SPEAKER_00: No, we're also let out.
SPEAKER_00: The images of Psalm 23 come to mind when I think about sheep and shepherds.
SPEAKER_00: He makes me lie down in green pastures.
SPEAKER_00: He leads me beside still waters.
SPEAKER_00: He restores my soul.
SPEAKER_00: I think about that Psalm every single time I'm sitting by a slow-flowing river.
SPEAKER_00: These images are what we call pastoral.
SPEAKER_00: Pastoral refers to sheep and to shepherds.
SPEAKER_00: When we are in green pastures, and when we are beside still waters, our souls are restored.
SPEAKER_00: We are being provided for.
SPEAKER_00: This is the rhythm that the gate offers: protection from predators, provision of pastures.
SPEAKER_00: There is a breathing in and a being sent out in this rhythm.
SPEAKER_00: It's the rhythm of daily living.
SPEAKER_00: As a church staff, we have been using a resource since Laura and I began here, whenever we gather together as a staff.
SPEAKER_00: So each week, before we talk about the calendar and the events to plan, we begin together by praying using a book called Common Prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And while each day's liturgy in that book is different, the blessing at the end that we say together is always the same.
SPEAKER_00: It says these words may the peace of the Lord Christ go with you wherever he may send you.
SPEAKER_00: May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm.
SPEAKER_00: May he bring you home rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you.
SPEAKER_00: May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
SPEAKER_00: In this prayer, we pray that wherever Jesus sends us, that we will have his peace, that we will be guided, and that we will be protected, we are sent out, blown with the Holy Spirit of God, and then we are gathered back together.
SPEAKER_00: May He bring you home rejoicing like sheep into the sheep pen.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you, like the disciples when they were sent out by Jesus and returned amazed that they could do the same miracles and works of him, rejoicing once again into our doors like a college student coming home for summer break.
SPEAKER_00: You see, when we enter through Jesus the gate, we recognize that we are sent out with God's provision each and every day.
SPEAKER_00: And we are safely brought back home each night in the comfort and safety of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: This is the rhythm of life.
SPEAKER_00: It's also the rhythm of the church's worship.
SPEAKER_00: We are gathered together here each week in the sheep pen.
SPEAKER_00: Together by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We receive a word from God.
SPEAKER_00: We are given the chance to respond to God through prayer and be fed by sacrament.
SPEAKER_00: And then we are sent forth into the world wherever he may send you.
SPEAKER_00: And we will be gathered back again together in the sheep pen next week.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus the gate allows us back in safety here to recharge, to rest, to encourage one another.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus the gate sends us forth into the world, into the abundance of pastures.
SPEAKER_00: I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
SPEAKER_00: This verse in John 10:10 that closes this passage today is in many ways what Jesus says over and over again in John's Gospel.
SPEAKER_00: This verse lies literally at the center of this gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The gate is here to give life.
SPEAKER_00: John is saying in as many ways as possible throughout his book, Jesus gives life, life abundantly, life overflowing.
SPEAKER_00: In the first chapter of John's gospel, he says, What has come into being in Jesus was life, and that life was the light for all people.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, if you feel that the way of Jesus is oppressive and limiting, then you are following a thief and a bandit.
SPEAKER_00: Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_00: If you feel that the way of Jesus is oppressive and limiting, then you are following the way of a thief and a bandit.
SPEAKER_00: They are trying to steal and destroy.
SPEAKER_00: They are trying to keep you in a cycle of shame.
SPEAKER_00: They are trying to make you feel like you are never good enough.
SPEAKER_00: These thieves and bandits are predators, trying to snatch you out of the safety of the pen.
SPEAKER_00: They are trying to run you over like a Lexus SUV on Six Forks Road.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus the gate welcomes you in.
SPEAKER_00: He knows your name.
SPEAKER_00: He protects you.
SPEAKER_00: He provides for you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gives you abundant life.
SPEAKER_00: May He bring you home rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.