Dad, who died late 2020, continued his education at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and became a well-known bass-baritone soloist, conductor, and voice teacher.  My Mom was a homemaker and then went back to school to become a 4^th grade teacher, which she absolutely loved.

We lived in an area where racial integration was both a high value and a point of contention – including in our Presbyterian Church, a couple blocks from our house.  This is the house where we grew up – where my Mom and stepdad still live today.

This is a recent picture of my home church, where I still attend with my parents whenever I go to Cincinnati. Growing up in this neighborhood and church where people of different races chose to live together, share faith together, and work for equity in opportunity and leadership, helped shape me and my faith.

As I approached adulthood, our family went through divorce and re-marriage and grew to include wonderful stepparents, and over the years, for me – sisters-in-law and beautiful nephews and nieces.

In college, I studied political science and chose Russian for my foreign language requirement.  That led to a 3-month exchange with Cincinnati’s sister-city in the Soviet Union – Kharkov in what was then the Republic of Ukraine.  My host family in Kharkov became a second family to me and I made friends who are still part of my life today. So far, all have been surviving the war and I am praying for their safety and for peace every day. I returned to Kharkov, or Kharkiv, in the now independent country of Ukraine to live and work as an English teacher for a year in the early 1990’s.  During this time, I experienced what I consider to be a crisis of faith that led to a deep renewal of faith and my calling to ministry.

That calling led me to McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and ordained ministry since 2002, serving in churches in all kinds of transition in Ohio, Indiana, and now, Illinois – first in Wilmette and now in Arlington Heights. There is, of course, a lot more to the story of my long and winding journey of faith and I will share more in future sermons and am always happy to have conversation about any of it.

Sermon: I AM the Front Door

Thank you for listening to all of that.  Thinking about my whole life story, actually helped me with the sermon today and story from childhood. Today is the 4^th Sunday of Easter, which is also known as Shepherd Sunday, and include scriptures that depict God and Jesus as our Faithful Shepherd.  The first scripture was the well-loved Twenty Third Psalm. The second is from the the 10^th chapter of the gospel of John.  Let us continue listening for God’s voice speaking to us in scripture.

Scripture John 10:1-10

“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. ²The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” ⁶Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. ⁷So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

In these days and weeks of the Easter season, the gospel readings fall into two basic categories: 1) an eyewitness account of the risen Jesus or 2) what would now be considered a “flashback” to one of Jesus’ teachings about the meaning and purpose of his life, death, and resurrection.

Today’s account is the latter type.  In fact, the larger passage of John 10:1-18 is the final part of Jesus’ last public discourse, or teaching, in the gospel of John, nicknamed the Good Shepherd Discourse.  After that, the gospel goes on to recount the much longer Farewell Discourse when Jesus talks to his disciples at the Last Supper.

To have part of the Good Shepherd Discourse in the Easter season causes us to see it in a different light.  When Jesus first spoke these words, he was trying to prepare the disciples for his death by explaining his relationship with God, which was directly connected to His relationship with them. A relationship that would be made ultimately complete in his death and resurrection when, as the scripture indicates, Jesus would fulfill God’s commandment of self-less love for the world.

These were future events at the time and could not be fully grasped in that moment.  Now that Jesus’ death has occurred and the disciples and others were having face-to-face encounters, even conversations, with the risen Jesus, these words have taken on deeper significance.

In today’s verses, Jesus compares himself to a door, or a gate – specifically one that was the entryway into a sheepfold or pen – meaning the enclosed space for the sheep next to the shepherd’s home.  This was the sheep’s home-base so-to-speak – the most protected place for them compared to the days and nights they would often be out grazing in faraway pastures.

In the very next verse after today’s selection, Jesus goes on to compare himself to a Shepherd and actually says the phrase, “I Am the Good Shepherd.” And it is this line that is most remembered in this John passage and a comparison that has endured.  In fact, one of the most common images of Jesus from his day to ours is as a shepherd tending a flock of sheep. This picture is actually a refrigerator magnet that I’ve had for years. Furthermore, this passage is how Pastors got their name.  To Pastor comes from the word pasture and connotes caring for animals, like sheep, at pasture.

Jesus comparing himself to a good shepherd and in today’s passage to a sheep gate and are part of the “I Am” sayings in John that occur over 11 chapters.

These are sayings where Jesus is trying to drive home to his disciples, to all who would hear him, who he was.  The original audience would have heard the simple phrase, “I Am” and instantly related it to the story of Moses’ encounter with God in the Burning Bush – a foundational story of their faith for generations.  When Moses asks God what name to give to the people to prove he was, indeed, speaking with the One True God, God’s voice says, tell them “I Am” sent you.

Of the 4 gospels, it is only John’s in which Jesus refers to himself with a variety of “I Am” statements to make the clear connection with that established identification of God. Throughout John’s gospel, the heart of his message about Jesus is centered around the relationship of Jesus and God – their unity from before the beginning of time until beyond the end of it.

Comprehending the intimate relationship of Jesus and God will lead the believer to see that God created us to be in that same kind of intimate, all-loving and eternal relationship with God.

Jesus uses the “I Am” comparison statements to help his followers begin to grasp the meaning of his identity.  In chapter 6, Jesus says “I am the bread of life” and “I am the bread which came down from heaven.”  In chapters 8 and 12, Jesus says “I am the light of the world,” in truth and the life.”  In chapter 15, Jesus says, “I am the vine” and in today’s passage, “I am the door of the sheep.” He uses every day, meaningful symbols to help make it clear who Jesus is and who we are in relationship to God through Him.

Focusing on today’s passage – most people at the time would have had a practical understanding of what it took to care for sheep and what the sheepfold was next to the shepherd’s home. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus shows us a God who loves and cares for us in all circumstances – a God who will even put His life on the line to save ours.  This is a God who knows us each by name and whom we can trust to lead us in the right path.  So, what does it mean when Jesus says, “I am the door of the sheep.”   A door is, after all, an inanimate object – a door cannot take care of you or lead you.

In this comparison, Jesus is making a significant claim about his relationship with God. God as a Good shepherd was a common image in the Old Testament – the only holy scripture at the time of Jesus.

Jesus as the “door or gate of the sheep” is the entry point that leads to the God who knows us like the Good Shepherd knows his sheep.  A good shepherd always has the best interest of the sheep at heart – no matter what dangers it might mean for himself.

When Jesus said “I am the door of the sheep” it meant for those same listeners that Jesus was intimately connected to the God they knew as the good shepherd and that to come to Jesus was to come to God.

As I was thinking about this imagery of the door of the sheep and how much personal meaning that must have held for the people who heard this story when it was first being told, I struggled with my own connection to the image of the sheep gate. I wondered if there were any equivalent symbols that would have just as much meaning for us today and for me personally.  As I mentioned, putting together my personal introduction for today helped me remember an incident from childhood that I had not thought of in a very long time.

When I was in second grade, or there about, there was a kid who lived a couple streets over from me.  He would hang out with me and the other kids on my street.  When we were all in a group, he was fine, but when others weren’t looking, he would be really mean to me.

He would whisper terrible things in my ear, even physical threats.  He was a bully, and I began to truly fear him.  I hated seeing him come around the corner to join in whatever game we were playing.  Sometimes he even grabbed my arm too tight and made it bruise.  I like to think that if this had gone on much longer, I would have tried to stop it by telling my parents or standing up to him.  Fortunately, he and his family moved away by the end of that summer and that particular childhood turmoil ended on its own.

But before he moved away, I was out one day alone on my bike, and he must have spotted me from a distance. He had another friend or two with him and they started to yell threats at me then jumped on their bikes and started speeding in my direction.  I rode my bike like I had never ridden before – pedaling with all my might down my street and to my house.

I never looked back but could feel them right behind me.  When I got to the edge of my yard, I jumped off my bike and ran like crazy up the hill and a flight of steps to my front porch, with them gaining on me.  I just made it to my front door and inside before they could get me.  The whole time I was riding and then running I kept thinking, if I can just get to my front door, I’ll be ok, I’ll be safe – and, indeed, I was.

If the earthly Jesus had been around then and wanted to help me understand who he was in relationship to God and who I was in relationship to God through him, he might have said to me – “I AM the front door.” I AM the way home, I AM where you enter into the place where you are loved, where who you are is safe, where your needs are known and met, where you can truly find rest for your soul.

The good news of Easter is that when we turn to Jesus, we have found our way through the front door, the way home given to us forever and always through the life, death and resurrection of God’s son, our Lord.

May all of us live out of the selfless love and grace that we have found on the other side of that door in such a way that our lives will help others find the door for themselves.

In the name of I AM, Amen.