May 15, 2011
The Rev. John A. Baldwin
One of the distinguishing features of the Gospel of John is Jesus' description of himself in "I am" statements: "I am the Vine", "I am the way, the truth & the life", "I am Living Water", "I am the Good Shepherd", "I am the Bread of Life", and from this morning's Gospel, "I am the door of the sheep...if anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture."
Jesus liked to use sheep as illustrations in his stories and parables. He spoke about the importance of seeking out the lost lamb. As the disciples were setting out on a missionary journey, Jesus said to them, "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves." When challenged by the Pharisees about healing on the Sabbath, Jesus replied, "Suppose you had a sheep which fell in a ditch on the Sabbath; is there not one of you who would not catch hold of it and lift it out?"
Having spent nearly 5 months on 3 separate occasions in rural Dorset, England where sheep outnumber residents by a considerable number, I have seen a lot of sheep up close. There is hardly a more peaceable creature. Who has ever been hurt or threatened by a sheep? Yet I've also been told that sheep are not highly intelligent or discerning. If allowed to, they will wander aimlessly seeking pasture. That's why you will never find sheep in England without a fence to keep them in. They are also defenseless against predators. A wolf can find mighty easy pickings in a sheep pasture.
Using sheep as an image or metaphor for human beings is not particularly flattering, but it does point towards some characteristics of human nature that were evident to Jesus: our need for a shepherd to guide and protect us; our tendencies to wander aimlessly through life, without greater purpose at times than keeping our bellies full; and our vulnerabilities to getting lost or being devoured by wolves.
What strikes me about this image of Jesus as the door of the sheep is that it's a two-way door. The sheep have the freedom to go in and out.....to graze peacefully within the protecting walls of the sheepfold, or to stay without, but at the risk of vulnerability to thieves, robbers and strangers. We might well ask: If God entertained such an unflattering view of human nature, why would he allow us to go in and out of the sheepfold, instead of keeping that door firmly shut, and protecting us from ourselves? The answer, I believe, lies in the wonderful, yet terrible gift of freedom that God has given us.
A short film called The Parable was produced for the 1964 World's Fair. In it, a clown in whiteface becomes a Christ figure. He wanders through a circus grounds acting as a servant, carrying pails of water for an overworked elephant tender, taking the place of another in a dunking tank, and dusting the shoes of spectators in the bigtop. Later in the film he straps himself into a harness, taking the place of a "living puppet" in the top of the circus tent. He becomes an actor in a Punch and Judy type show, his arms and legs manipulated with strings by a master puppeteer down below.
In his servanthood, the clown not only stirs up gratitude from those whose roles he assumes, but also enmity in the hearts of those who resent his interference, the bosses and trainers. When the clown straps himself into the harness, they see it as an opportunity to attack him with baseballs, swords and canes. In effect, they crucify him. The master puppeteer, with a lifeless clown now in harness, conducts a macabre dance, moving his limbs in a mockery of life.
This image of the master puppeteer lies close to the heart of what many conceptualize when they think about God. Isn't this what is implicitly meant when people attribute close calls to God's will and plan? For example...the telephone rang as I was going out the door and as a result, I missed by a minute being involved in a fatal accident on I-64. God pulled the string. My friend, my parent, my neighbor has cancer, broke a leg, lost their job (fill in the blanks). It's all part of the plan of the master puppeteer, isn't it? Wars, floods, tornadoes and tsunamis? All part of God's plan. Don't you wonder why some unfortunate people become victims, and others are spared? If God is pulling all the strings, his ways are mysterious and impossible to fathom for sure, but everything happens for a reason, right?
The great theological problem if we ascribe to a view of God as a puppeteer, rescuing some and ignoring others, is that it poses a universe where there is no freedom to choose. We are not free to decide whether to go in or out of the door of the sheepfold. In fact, our decisions really don't matter at all. God will do what God wants to do. We really are like those living puppets, and the dead clown.....helpless participants in a macabre dance of life and death. This seems to me an image more appropriate to Hell rather than to the Kingdom of God.
Basic Christian theology asserts something quite different. God in the self-emptying act of Creation bestowed upon human beings the wonderful yet terrible gift of freedom. We are free to choose between responding to our own needs, wants and desires, or to minister to those of others; to be self-centered, or God-centered; to embrace abundant living, or to nurture those temptations that draw us away from the love of God. Precisely because God values his creation so much, he allows us the freedom to make choices that are foolish even as God fervently hopes we will choose what is loving and good.
In that freedom of choice there is room for error and accident. I can choose to buy a house on an earthquake fault line; to take into my body substances that are harmful to my health; to choose friends whose morals are questionable; to value the outward and material over the inward and spiritual. That's the terrible side of freedom, leading us perhaps to long for a God who pulls strings and saves us from ourselves.
The wonderful side of freedom, however, is that God desires a relationship with us which is truly respectful, allowing us the capability to blunder and then seek reconciliation; to grow in wisdom and strength; to become a new creation; to seek God so as to find Him.
This freedom to choose lies at the heart of our baptismal covenant. Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers? Will you persevere in resisting evil and whenever you sin, repent and return to the Lord? Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ? Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?
God forces no one to do any of this, but when we do embrace the baptismal covenant, the door to abundant living in this life and the next is open to all who choose to enter.
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