Not Meant to be Put Off

Easter 4A; Acts 2:42-47; John 10:1-10 St. Paul’s, Smithfield, 5/7/2017

Jim Melnyk: “Not Meant to be Put Off”

Many of you have heard me tell tales on myself as an undergraduate student at the University of South Carolina, and a card-carrying member of Campus Crusade for Christ.  That’s where we learned to ask unsuspecting classmates, “What’s your name?  What’s your major?  What’s your sign? // Are you saved?”  It was almost like a checklist we were expected to follow unwaveringly.  Seriously, though, we did spend a good deal of time studying the Scriptures, praying, and sharing our faith in Jesus.  One thing we tried to do a lot of was memorizing Scripture verses.  And one of the very first verses I memorized was the second half of John 10:10: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

“I came that they (that’s us – that’s you and me) may have life (that is, eternal life – here and now), and have it abundantly (fully, completely – to overflowing).  Abundant life.  It’s meant to be a powerful image.  The late Edwin Dahlberg, an American Baptist Leader, once preached, “Jesus wanted us to have an abundant life in the here and now.  The question which should occupy us most is not where we will be spending eternity, but where are we spending [eternity, now].”  He went on to say that “many people go through seventy or eighty years of life on earth without [ever] having lived at all.  They act as if God did not exist.  They never commit themselves to any great cause.  They never take a stand on any moral issue.  They never come face to face with the cross of Jesus Christ, nor plunge into any heroic effort for the kingdom of God.  They are merely existing – dead while they yet live.” 

I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.  William Connor Magee, the Archbishop of York during the late nineteenth century put it this way, “Christianity is a present, is an existing life, or it is nothing.”  Eternal life – the abundant life referred to by Jesus – is not something meant to be put off until the next life, or until the next year, or even until tomorrow.  It’s meant to be realized and lived today – as soon as we go out the doors of this worship space – whether we go to coffee hour or a restaurant for lunch, or on to work, or just home.  The time to embrace abundant life in Christ is now – this is our high calling as Jesus Followers.

One way we can do that – that is, one way we live life abundantly – is to do the “God-work” of bringing abundant life to others as well – especially to those for whom any form of abundance is only a distant hope, only a dream, or even just a fantasy.  As Jesus taught his follower, “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me” (Matthew 25:36-37).  It’s one of the core teachings of the Gospel – the more we are willing to give of ourselves in the name of Christ, the more we experience Christ in our own lives.

This morning’s gospel lesson drives that point home.  It seems to be a continuation of a story we encountered during Lent – a continuation of the discussion between Jesus and some religious leaders following the healing of the man who was born blind.  Do you recall how the particular Pharisees challenging Jesus at that moment had asked, “You’re not saying we’re blind, are you?” and Jesus had replied, “If you were blind you would have no sin; but now that you say, ‘We see’; your sin remains.”  We talked back then about our knack as human beings to have selective vision – the ability or the desire to not see the truth before us if it challenges our personal world views – in other words, a struggle to live faithfully in the here and now. 

Those particular Pharisees, if you recall, could not – or would not – see the hand of God reaching into their lives in the person of Jesus.  They refused to acknowledge what their eyes told them as they looked upon the actual results of the healing power of God in Christ.  They could not – or would not – see that the kingdom of heaven was breaking into their lives in that very moment – they could not sense its potential for abundance. 

For them – as often for many of us – the kingdom of heaven was something far off in the future, and the revelation of God was something that had taken place many generations ago in the distant past – in the lives of Moses and the prophets.  And so Jesus says to them – and to all who will listen – I came that you – that everyone – might have life – and have it abundantly!  God – present and active in the world around us – God, present and active in each of us – calls us to live as a part of the kingdom, and to live it today – proclaiming and living the Good News of God in Christ.

Jesus goes on to make another point with his antagonists.  “Where is the love and the care we are all called by our God to share?  You are their shepherds – they hear your voices and they follow – but where are you leading them?  What are you willing to give of yourselves to make their lives whole?”

Jesus calls us to the God-work of abundant life.  We enter into that work and into that life when we choose to follow the shepherd of our souls, Jesus.  And that can be a challenge.  It doesn’t take much to realize we live in a world beset by those whom Jesus would call false shepherds – “false religious leaders, greedy economists, phony politicians…” (Walter Brueggemann, Sojourners Online, Preaching the Word, 5/7/2017).

Perhaps an even bigger challenge for modern day Americans is the allure of a life with no shepherd – being the masters of our own domains – no one telling us what to do or when to do it – the great American myth of rugged – or even not so rugged – individualism. 

Me against the world.  But such a life with no shepherd can leave us stumbling and struggling to make sense of the world” (ibid). 

Theologian Walter Brueggemann writes, “Into this false shepherd/no shepherd world comes the gospel alternative.… Those who [hear the Good News proclaimed are] drawn into [a place of] awe…” (Brueggemann).  Indeed, we might say that those who hear the Good News long for a transformed world in their lifetimes, changing the very rhythm of their daily lives.  Indeed, the author of Acts tells us that the communities of early Jesus Followers were “filled with praise, [had enough] food for the day, and [was comprised of] lively brothers and sisters who [shared their lives] with anyone and everyone.  [For I was hungry…I was thirsty…I was a stranger…I was sick…and you cared]….  Our mandate is to move into a place of awe… that counters all of our false shepherds and our failed attempts at no shepherd” (ibid) and allows us to “live, and move, and have our being” in Christ. 

When we accept the idea that God desires for us to live out of our abundance rather than a fear of scarcity, or a need to be in control of everything that goes on around us, we can find ourselves open to the awe and wonder of a God who is the God of resurrection life; free to love not only ourselves, but those around us – our neighbors – those who in so many ways are just like us, even when we cannot seem to see the similarities.

“‘Join me in the Resurrection,’ Jesus calls out to us today. ‘Even now, even today—don’t wait ‘til you’re dead.’ Come out of the small, dark, confining places of life into the broad and bright places, stand up, rise up to your full height” (Br. Mark Brown, SSJE).  Eternal life – the abundant life referred to by Jesus – is not something meant to be put off until the next life, or until the next year, or even until tomorrow.  The abundant life proclaimed by Jesus is meant to be realized and lived today – whenever we go out the doors of this place – whether it’s to coffee hour, or a restaurant for lunch, on to work, or simply home. The God-work of abundant life begins now.