WEBVTT 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:08.279 When we think of the teaching of Jesus, in some places it's more obvious in its meaning 00:00:08.279 --> 00:00:12.359 and just easier to understand than it is in others. 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:20.420 So for example, when he says something like, blessed are the peacemakers, or do to others 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:25.160 as you would have them do to you, we get that. 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:26.160 It makes sense. 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:34.359 Of course it might not be so easy to actually do, but it's certainly not difficult to understand. 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:41.200 But then there are other things that Jesus said that are a bit more puzzling. 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:45.320 And the one that we're thinking of today is an example of that. 00:00:45.320 --> 00:00:51.400 But Jesus said, I am the gate, or as some translations put it, I am the door. 00:00:51.400 --> 00:00:52.920 So what's that about? 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:56.320 Well it's not just any gate or door. 00:00:56.320 --> 00:00:59.120 Jesus is talking about sheep folds. 00:00:59.120 --> 00:01:06.120 He's using imagery that to his first listeners was part of everyday experience. 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:13.120 Not every first century Galilean was a shepherd, but flocks were often owned communally. 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:21.219 And of course, even if you weren't personally responsible for taking care of sheep, you couldn't 00:01:21.219 --> 00:01:27.439 not notice the presence of sheep and the way that they were taken care of when you lived 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:31.040 in a small rural village that was surrounded by fields. 00:01:31.040 --> 00:01:35.440 Now there are two types of sheep fold. 00:01:35.440 --> 00:01:42.640 First there was the larger kind, where village flocks were returned for shelter at night time. 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:46.440 These were protected by large gates or doors. 00:01:46.439 --> 00:01:51.840 And this is what Jesus is probably referring to in verse 3 of our reading when he says that 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:54.840 the watchman opens the gate. 00:01:54.840 --> 00:01:56.840 It's an image of security. 00:01:56.840 --> 00:02:02.840 Simply, Jesus is saying that he opens that up to us and for us. 00:02:02.840 --> 00:02:11.240 If we're looking for a place where we will be kept safe forever, well he's the one who takes us there. 00:02:11.240 --> 00:02:15.240 That's the message of cross and resurrection. 00:02:15.240 --> 00:02:22.439 However successful we might be in life, every one of us eventually hits the wall. 00:02:22.439 --> 00:02:24.039 We all die. 00:02:24.039 --> 00:02:32.439 The gospel tells us that the only way through that wall is for God to reach out to us from the other side. 00:02:32.439 --> 00:02:34.840 And that is what happens in Christ. 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:40.840 God comes to us in Jesus, lives a human life and then enters death itself. 00:02:40.840 --> 00:02:43.639 And in so doing, breaks its power. 00:02:43.639 --> 00:02:50.039 We all still die, but we can now face it as one approaches an open door. 00:02:50.039 --> 00:02:54.439 Held open by the risen Jesus himself. 00:02:54.439 --> 00:02:57.639 He knows our voice and we can know his. 00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:04.439 Now many people go through life terrified of death, perhaps denying it or avoiding talking about it, 00:03:04.439 --> 00:03:08.439 because they see it only as a hopeless end. 00:03:08.439 --> 00:03:12.439 But with Jesus you can see it as an endless hope. 00:03:12.439 --> 00:03:14.439 The door is open. 00:03:14.439 --> 00:03:17.639 When we can see death in this way, 00:03:17.639 --> 00:03:22.039 it means we can live our lives in a very different way. 00:03:22.039 --> 00:03:24.439 Rather than a journey to an end, 00:03:24.439 --> 00:03:30.039 it's a journey that always has the best still to come. 00:03:30.039 --> 00:03:38.439 That's why Paul talks of hope as the one of the three great theological virtues alongside love and faith. 00:03:38.439 --> 00:03:42.039 As one writer put it, 00:03:42.039 --> 00:03:44.439 these are like three sisters. 00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:47.639 Two of them are grown and the other is a small child. 00:03:47.639 --> 00:03:52.840 And they go forward together, hand in hand, with the child hope in the middle. 00:03:52.840 --> 00:03:58.439 Looking at them, it would seem that the bigger ones are pulling the child. 00:03:58.439 --> 00:04:00.840 But it is the other way around. 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:04.439 It is the little girl who is pulling the two bigger ones. 00:04:04.439 --> 00:04:08.840 It is hope that pulls faith and love. 00:04:08.840 --> 00:04:11.639 Without hope, everything would stop. 00:04:13.639 --> 00:04:18.439 So hope pulls us through our lives, always moving forward, 00:04:18.439 --> 00:04:25.240 because we see at the end of it an open door, held open by Jesus Christ, 00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:29.240 leading through to everlasting life. 00:04:29.240 --> 00:04:31.639 Now that in itself is quite a big deal. 00:04:31.639 --> 00:04:34.040 But Jesus doesn't leave it there. 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:36.840 In fact, he goes way, way further. 00:04:36.840 --> 00:04:38.840 He doesn't just say, 00:04:38.840 --> 00:04:43.240 I know you spend your whole life searching for security. 00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:44.439 So here it is. 00:04:44.439 --> 00:04:46.439 Here's the door to that place. 00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:50.040 No, he says, I am that door. 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:52.040 I am that gate. 00:04:52.040 --> 00:04:58.040 You see, New Testament scholars say that when Jesus says, I am the gate, 00:04:58.040 --> 00:05:04.439 the gate, he is talking about a smaller kind of sheepfold that was used when the flocks 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:08.840 were kept on the hillside at night during the warmer seasons. 00:05:08.840 --> 00:05:18.040 These enclosures were just walled areas with an opening through which the sheep came and went. 00:05:18.040 --> 00:05:20.439 There was no actual door. 00:05:20.439 --> 00:05:24.680 So at night time, the shepherd would lay across the opening. 00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:31.079 The shepherd quite literally was the gate. 00:05:31.079 --> 00:05:35.079 There was no access except through them. 00:05:35.079 --> 00:05:36.280 Now think about that. 00:05:36.280 --> 00:05:45.480 Jesus is saying that he not only gives us salvation and security, but that he is salvation and security. 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:53.879 This gate looks quite different to the sort of gate that Jesus is describing. 00:05:53.879 --> 00:05:55.879 But let's not worry about that. 00:05:55.879 --> 00:05:57.879 The point is, it's a gate. 00:05:57.879 --> 00:05:58.879 It's a thing. 00:05:58.879 --> 00:05:59.879 It's an object. 00:05:59.879 --> 00:06:01.879 It's inanimate. 00:06:01.879 --> 00:06:05.879 Now, it's a very nice gate, but it serves its function. 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:08.480 But at the end of the day, it's not a living thing. 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:12.879 There's nothing personal about this gate. 00:06:12.879 --> 00:06:16.879 Sadly, that's how a lot of people think about God. 00:06:16.879 --> 00:06:20.080 They believe God exists as some kind of reality. 00:06:20.080 --> 00:06:26.080 They talk to that God and possibly even try listening as well. 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:51.279 In fact, their belief can be a very strong one, such that it provides a pretty robust moral compass for them, which shapes their choices and navigates them through life in such a way that they would possibly even say that God is not only real, but can and should be trusted. 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:56.879 But for all that, it's still not quite what we see in Jesus. 00:06:56.879 --> 00:07:09.879 Because it's possible to believe all those things about God and yet still relate to God as an it, as a thing, as a higher power that is real, but distant and impersonal. 00:07:09.879 --> 00:07:17.179 Jesus doesn't just say, I am the opener of the gate, but I am the gate. 00:07:17.180 --> 00:07:18.180 He's personal. 00:07:18.180 --> 00:07:19.180 He's living. 00:07:19.180 --> 00:07:20.180 He's living. 00:07:20.180 --> 00:07:27.180 And that's how we are to relate to God as the one who not only saves us forever, but who loves us forever. 00:07:29.180 --> 00:07:30.180 And you know what? 00:07:30.180 --> 00:07:40.180 I think there's something in there which reminds us of something very important about what it means to be the church. 00:07:40.180 --> 00:07:55.180 You see, just as the gospel challenges the idea that God is an impersonal thing, so it also challenges the idea that the church should ever be some impersonal thing. 00:07:55.180 --> 00:08:08.180 The church needs that challenge because it has that terrible habit of degenerating into an institution or worse still, being seen as just a building. 00:08:08.180 --> 00:08:19.180 Jesus shows us that God is to be known and loved as a living, personal being, and he calls us to be the church as a living, personal family. 00:08:19.180 --> 00:08:20.180 Jesus shows us, and he calls us to be the church, and the people, and we're not to be the church that's called the church. 00:08:20.180 --> 00:08:25.180 Now, I know we like to say, well, of course, the church is the people and not the building. 00:08:25.180 --> 00:08:38.180 But the experience of building closure as part of the Covid lockdown exposes some really important things about our attitudes to church buildings. 00:08:38.179 --> 00:08:47.000 Jude Levermore, who is the head of mission for the UK Methodist Church, recently wrote this. 00:08:47.000 --> 00:09:00.379 As we begin to think about going back into our buildings, I'm hopeful that we will take time to consider what we have learned from being out of them. 00:09:00.379 --> 00:09:10.439 I'm hopeful that we will have solidified our understanding that church is not a building. 00:09:10.439 --> 00:09:16.559 We teach that to our children, but do we hold that in our hearts? 00:09:16.559 --> 00:09:26.860 I'm praying that as we share a roadmap for leaving lockdown, with all its needful risk assessments and procedures, 00:09:26.860 --> 00:09:42.860 we will guard against entering another lockdown, that of being so caught up in our buildings that we miss the opportunities to be church without them. 00:09:42.860 --> 00:09:49.419 Whatever the future looks like exactly over these coming weeks and months, 00:09:49.419 --> 00:09:57.919 whatever happens with COVID, with lockdown and with our church buildings, remember this. 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:04.860 Just as God would have us know that he is living, personal and calls us to enter through that gate, 00:10:04.860 --> 00:10:11.860 into an everlasting, ever closer and ever deepening relationship with him. 00:10:11.860 --> 00:10:16.860 As church, that's precisely what we're called to be about. 00:10:16.860 --> 00:10:25.860 To be a living, outward looking people who stop at nothing to help others find that gate.