I Am the Gate Sunday?

4 Easter a         May 11, 2014

Acts 6:1-9, 7:2a 51-60   Ps. 23 

1 Peter 2:19-25    John 10:1-10               

 Lectionary Link

  If I were to give you a choice of metaphors for this day, which would you choose?  I am the Good Shepherd?  Or I am the Good Sheepfold Gate?

  Obviously in our aesthetic sensibilities for pastoral metaphors, Good Shepherd does sound a bit more pleasing than Good Sheepfold Gate.  I don’t think that I’ve ever heard this Sunday referred to as Good Sheepfold Gate Sunday, but as most of you know, with me, there is always a first time.  I designate this as “I am the Good Sheep Gate Sunday” with justification from the Gospel lesson for Cycle A of the lectionary.  The lesson from John’s Gospel centers upon the metaphor of gatekeeper and Jesus as being the “Gate.”

  One can note that being the gatekeeper and being the gate are but further elaborations of what it meant to be a shepherd.  The Good Shepherd Sunday metaphors highlight three states of the human condition, the state of vulnerability characterized by the metaphor of the sheep, the use of power for exploiting the vulnerable as signified by the false shepherds and the use of leadership and power for the care of the vulnerable as represented in the metaphor of the Good Shepherd.

  Since the Gospel reading for today highlights the gatekeeper and the self-designating phrase of Jesus, “I am the Gate,” I want for us to explore the metaphors of gatekeeper and gate as aspects of the role of the shepherd.  The phrase, “I am the Gate” has some literal significance for the role of the ancient shepherd.  The sheepfolds were corrals for sheep and goats constructed out of wood sticks or stones.  These sheepfolds had an open door or gate area for the entrance and exit of the sheep.  The shepherd often functioned as the “literal” gate of the sheepfold as the shepherd would sit and sleep in the door opening.  So the Shepherd as the gate of the sheepfold would keep the sheep from leaving the sheepfold, but the shepherd was strategically placed to lay his life down for the sheep in preventing wild animals from entering the sheepfold to attack the sheep.

  In the metaphors of gatekeeper and shepherd as the gate, one can find manifold meanings which provide us insights into the role of good leadership.

  Good leaders are good gatekeeper and good gates.  The gate or door is an architectural feature which fills the place of the threshold in how we articulate architecture space.  I understand the sheepfold to be the safe and comfortable space for the protection and the nurture of the vulnerable in our care.  The sheepfold is a paradigm or a constellation of ideas and teachings and knowledge which we give to people for them to abide in for their own safety and well-being.  Certainly on this day, Mother’s Day, we recognize that mother is one of the most important gatekeepers in the lives of her children.

  The gatekeeper or the person as an actual gate means that leadership has the responsibility to keep people safe within a knowledge environment.  As we know in life, access to knowledge and life experience has to be regulated.  Regulation of life experience and knowledge has to be parsed appropriate to the life stages of the people who need to be nurtured in knowledge and life experience.  An important role of leadership is the regulation of knowledge and the exposure of people to life experience at the appropriate times.

  All knowledge and life experience cannot be openly accessible to all people all of the time.  A mother or father does not want one’s preschooler to be exposed to the knowledge of a sixth grader, though in a family, such regulation is a challenge to achieve.

  Sheep owners often had sheepfold close to home but they also had sheepfolds that were built in the mountains and valleys of seasonal grazing places.  When the shepherd was leading the sheep to seasonal grazing places, they would inhabit these sheepfolds away from home.

  The shepherd or gatekeeper is a person who leads others to new experiences.  A shepherd or leader is one who provide adventures in learning and creative advance for students or those on the progressive path of leaning in life.

  Jesus as the Good Shepherd was the master teacher for his disciple students.  He provided them progressive learning experiences to lead them from native naivete and ignorance into new experience of knowledge and wisdom.  The Gospels are presented to us as manuals using the disciples as those who are on the path of progressive learning with Jesus as their wisdom teacher.

  The disciples are shown to be those who are led away from their comfortable and familiar interpretations of faith and life into new adventures in understanding how God was working in the world and in their lives. Jesus as a crucified and risen messiah was the ultimate wisdom which these disciples were being led to learn about.

  Today, in our lives we need to be sheep-like disciples and students willing to follow teachers who will give us the appropriate exposure to new knowledge, new understanding and new wisdom so that we can progressively transform our lives in wisdom which helps us in our art of living.  At the same time we also need to be gatekeepers and doorways for the people who have been given to us to regulate in the knowledge of life.  It takes great wisdom to be a gatekeeper because not everyone is ready for all presentations of world experience and knowledge at one time.  We need to be those who discern the condition of the people in our care and area of influence but we also need to be informed in our own experience to have full menu of teaching events to offer to those for whom we care.

  On this Good Shepherd and Gatekeeper Sunday, we need to be committed to learn as much as we can for ourselves, but not just for ourselves, but for those for whom God wants us to be gatekeepers and spiritual directors.

  Each of us today need to recommit ourselves to find and follow good gatekeepers who can bring us to the next phase of learning in our lives.  At the same time, each of us need to be gatekeepers who are able to share through our teaching and life example the wisdom and care for those who need to be protected and comforted by us.

  Today, we give thanks for our mothers who have been gatekeepers in our lives.  We give thanks for Jesus the Good Shepherd, who has been in the threshold between places of safety and comfort and the adventure of new learning for the continual transformation of our lives.

  Let us today continue in the role of following our gatekeepers to new knowledge, even as we take up gatekeeping for those who need us to have a role of regulation for knowledge, safety,comfort and further adventuresome learning.

  Jesus is the Good Shepherd.  Jesus is the Gate.  Jesus is the gatekeeper.  We can embrace all of these roles even as we always remain the learning sheep of our Good Shepherd Jesus.  Amen.