Category: Year A

I Am the Gate (John 10:1-10)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them.I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (New International Version)

In an idyllic world, we would never have to contend with thieves and interlopers within the flock of God. But, as you well know, we live in a less than perfect world. The spiritual robber-baron is the one who poses as a religious figure, yet is really around to fleece the sheep.

Obviously, anyone who has to jump the fence, instead of entering through the gate, has something nefarious up their dastardly sleeve. In fact, these interlopers feel they have a right to get in, by any means, because of their inflated sense of self-importance.

Jesus, of course, is using metaphor and figure of speech to communicate something important: The thieves are robbing God’s honor for themselves and bringing harm to God’s people. By trying to take away the way, the truth, and the life, the religious leaders were spiritual burglars attempting to be both gate and gatekeeper.

In short, the religious leaders believed they were more important than Jesus; and they tried to keep Christ and the people from connecting with each other.

And that is the insidious form of all religious quackery – to keep people separated from what can help them the most so that the charlatan can soak up all the attention, authority, and accolades.

But a faithful and true shepherd enters through the gate with confidence and care. Such a person has no other agenda and no other concern than Jesus and what Christ has said, has done, and will do.

The pastoral ministers amongst us help lead the flock through the gate so that they might enjoy safety, security, and succulence. The shepherd calls people by name, and doesn’t generically yell at nameless folk, to bring them alongside the Good Shepherd.

Thus, we are to have a faithful concentration and commitment to Christ; a voice which is discernibly oriented toward pointing people’s attention to Christ; and a teaching and leadership which moves into the world in order to bring Christian speech and action that blesses the world.

One of the problems many persons experience is that they listen to strange voices, instead of the familiar voice of their trusted pastor and the voice of Scripture, reason, and history. They follow a pet preacher’s or person’s interpretation of everything without reservation, rather than seeking to hear the voice of God in everything which is said.

Big churches, large ministries, and eloquent people are not necessarily the vocal chords of God. We must be discerning and wise. Not everyone who says, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven. It’s only the person and the faith community which does the will of God that’s able to get in.

Wolves in sheep’s clothing exist. So, we must beware.

Idioms, figures of speech, and metaphors get lost on some folk. That’s what happened for Christ’s original hearers. A lot of head-scratching was happening because they couldn’t figure out what in the world Jesus was talking about. “They” are the people who interpret all of life through personal agendas and selfish means. Their self-absorption prevented them from seeing the person right in front of them, who he really was, and what he was actually saying to them.

I Am the Gate of the Sheepfold, by Kathrin Burleson

So, Jesus plainly told them that he himself is the gate of the sheep. “I am” the gate. Deliverance, reconciliation, freedom, and protection all come together in Christ to provide a good life, a life of abundance that is worth living. We have peace with God through the Lord Jesus.

In today’s Gospel lesson, we learn from Jesus the following:

  • The key to being a good shepherd is being faithful to Jesus Christ
  • The concerns of a good shepherd are to attract, bring in, protect, free, feed, and lead God’s people into a good life through Jesus Christ
  • The way for a good shepherd is to love the sheep, care for them, and be with them through thick and thin, as Christ does
  • The preoccupations of those who ignore entering through the gate, which is Jesus, are to gain for themselves what rightly belongs to God: glory, honor, praise, power, authority, accolades, and devotion.

Everything hinges on Jesus as the gate of life. In centering ourselves completely around Christ, and by giving up the false self of keeping up appearances to others, we find our true self, connected to God in which all our needs are fully met and satisfied.

Merciful Father, you gave your Son Jesus Christ to be the Good Shepherd. In his love for us, he laid down his life and rose again. Keep us always under his protection, and give us grace to follow in his steps, in the strength and enablement of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Care For the Flock (Ezekiel 34:1-16)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

The Lord God said:

Ezekiel, son of man, Israel’s leaders are like shepherds taking care of my sheep, the people of Israel. But I want you to condemn these leaders and tell them:

I, the Lord God, say you shepherds of Israel are doomed! You take care of yourselves while ignoring my sheep. You drink their milk and use their wool to make your clothes. Then you butcher the best ones for food. But you don’t take care of the flock! You have never protected the weak ones or healed the sick ones or bandaged those that get hurt. You let them wander off and never look for those that get lost. You are cruel and mean to my sheep. They strayed in every direction, and because there was no shepherd to watch them, they were attacked and eaten by wild animals. So my sheep were scattered across the earth. They roamed on hills and mountains, without anyone even bothering to look for them.

Now listen to what I, the living Lord God, am saying to you shepherds. My sheep have been attacked and eaten by wild animals because you refused to watch them. You never went looking for the lost ones, and you fed yourselves without feeding my sheep. So I, the Lord, will punish you! I will rescue my sheep from you and never let you be their shepherd again or butcher them for food. I, the Lord, have spoken.

The Lord God then said:

I will look for my sheep and take care of them myself, just as a shepherd looks for lost sheep. My sheep have been lost since that dark and miserable day when they were scattered throughout the nations. But I will rescue them and bring them back from the foreign nations where they now live. I will be their shepherd and will let them graze on Israel’s mountains and in the valleys and fertile fields. They will be safe as they feed on grassy meadows and green hills. I promise to take care of them and keep them safe, to look for those that are lost and bring back the ones that wander off, to bandage those that are hurt and protect the ones that are weak. I will also slaughter those that are fat and strong because I always do right. (Contemporary English Version)

We have a pastoral duty to care for one another. Individuals need not have the title of “Pastor” in order to function as pastoral people who seek the welfare of the flock. A part of our responsibility (and privilege) is to know the flock well enough in discerning when there are some lost ones out there. Whenever that happens, we care about them enough to go after them.

If we either ignore the flock, fail to care for it, or seek to fleece them for our own benefit, we will have to contend with a God who has no tolerance for unnecessarily putting the sheep at risk. And we are to be attentive to the ones who have strayed and are lost.

Caring about the lost, enough to go after them, has always been, unfortunately, a scandalous activity for Christians who do it. In the Gospels, the religious leaders had a big problem with how Jesus was spending his time (Luke 15:1-3). From their perspective, Christ was guilty by association. Many of the people Jesus pursued and hung-out with were unsavory characters; there was really no doubt about their bad character. 

But we must come back to why Christ made the decisions he did: Jesus did not come to earth to make already righteous people feel good about being around him; he came to rescue sinners and restore them to God. 

Jesus never wavered from this fundamental mission. With everything he said and did, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, communicated that lost people matter to God – and that practice eventually got him killed.

Early in my Christian life, I adopted a practice, on most Friday nights, of going to a certain bar known for its less than virtuous clientele. I typically ordered a bowl of chili gumbo, and simply sat and talked with fellow students. I learned a lot about people – their hopes, fears, and spiritual inclinations. 

I learned even more about God. I saw the terrible brokenness of many people’s hearts, and saw that the heart of God was pained in longing to restore such persons to a place of spiritual abundance, peace, and joy.

One Friday night, in the middle of winter, as I was walking back from the bar with a friend at about midnight, we encountered a guy so drunk that he could not walk straight. He wasn’t wearing any pants, nor did he have a coat. In below freezing temperatures, he was in only a shirt and underwear. 

All the people who passed by him laughed and kept walking. But we stopped. It took several minutes to get some semblance of a story out of him about what happened, where he came from, and where he lived. The poor guy couldn’t remember losing his pants, which had his wallet and keys. 

He lived far enough away that there was no way he would have ever made it home. It’s quite probable that without someone helping him he would have passed out somewhere and died. We got him home, found a way to get into his place, and tucked him in his bed.

The next day I went and checked on him. Even though he had a bad hangover, we still had a good conversation about what happened and why I helped him. We ended up meeting several times together and talked a great deal about God, guilt, grace, Jesus, and salvation. 

Meanwhile, however, not everyone was happy about my practice. Some of the people in my church were not pleased with me spending time in a bar with “sinners.” They told me things like, “Bad company corrupts good character” and “it doesn’t look good.” I merely matter-of-factly responded, “I like the way I’m reaching out to lost people better than the way you’re not.”

We are in danger of becoming encrusted with so much insulation from lost people, and their very real hurts, that we do not know God’s heart for them. 

Jesus, better than any of us could ever imagine, knows how awful and horrific sin really is. That’s because he suffered by taking on the shameful baggage of every person who ever lived. Since Jesus understands how awful guilt and shame is, it’s God who goes uncorked with joy and celebration when just one lost sheep is restored to the flock.

Grace lies at the center of God’s heart – a scandalous grace that defies all earthly sense. God’s deepest desire, greatest yearning, and most passionate dream is that lost people return home. (Luke 15:11-32) 

In light of the reality that God’s heart burns for lost people, we as churches, faith communities, Christian ministries, and believers everywhere really need to: 

  • Put away all petty concerns and realize there are lost people, far from the flock, at risk and dying apart from God
  • Put all worries about the future in biblical perspective – because there are people with no hope and no God all around us
  • Put aside all pre-occupations with optics and marketing, numbers and money; and instead have a holy obsession with people knowing Jesus Christ, and him crucified, risen, and coming again 

We are to make it our aim in this life to pray for, long for, look for, run after, and pursue lost people and restore them to life.

For what does it profit a person to gain the world but lose their life because they was too pre-occupied with everything but caring for the flock? And what does it profit a church to have buildings, budgets, and butts in the pew, but never see a lost soul come to Jesus?

Submission Is an Attitude (1 Peter 2:13-17)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

For the sake of the Lord submit yourselves to every human authority: to the Emperor, who is the supreme authority, and to the governors, who have been appointed by him to punish the evildoers and to praise those who do good. For God wants you to silence the ignorant talk of foolish people by the good things you do. Live as free people; do not, however, use your freedom to cover up any evil, but live as God’s slaves. Respect everyone, love other believers, honor God, and respect the Emperor. (Good News Translation)

Submission is a word a lot of people would like to do without. And that’s understandable. We’ve all likely had the experience of being under the authority of someone who either didn’t know what they were doing, or who gaslighted us, took advantage of us, and maybe was even downright mean and nasty toward us. What’s more, it’s hard to obey someone or some institution who we aren’t quite sure has our best interests at mind.

And then there’s an association with the word “submission” as being forced to do something you don’t want to do. That sort of understanding of submission is actually slavery and oppression, not submission.

Simply put, to submit is the informed and willing choice to place oneself under the authority of another. If it isn’t a willing and informed choice, then it’s either manipulation or coercion by another.

The Apostle Peter was referring to submitting to human authority by a volitional choice of our will. And what he was encouraging believers to do was no small thing.

The Roman Empire was an ancient behemoth. At the time of Peter’s writing, the Romans were firmly in charge of Palestine – Gentile rule in a Jewish land – and they did not take kindly to any ideas of rebellion. The Jews wanted their own autonomy and rule. To be subject to the Romans was, for many, humiliating and unacceptable.

So, why in the world should anyone willingly choose to submit to an empire that doesn’t align with their values, aspirations, and goals in life?

Peter made it clear why: Submission helps clear away the obstacles to freedom (both personal and corporate) and doesn’t give the persons in authority a reason to speak or act foolishly.

It’s hard to submit; it’s not an easy thing to do. Yet, if we will continually connect submission with why we are doing it, this helps us persevere, especially under leadership which is less than stellar.

The real issue is how we deal with unwanted circumstances in our lives. Although we didn’t ask for many of the unfortunate situations in life, our response to them is critical, and makes all the difference.

“Evil is changed into good when it is received in patience through the love of God; while good is changed into evil when we become attached to it through the love of self. True good lies only in detachment, and abandonment to God. You are now in the trial; put yourself confidently and without reserve into his hand.”

François Fénelon, Let Go: To Get Peace and Real Joy

Admittedly, it is maddening when an injustice is done to us, or we observe someone else experiencing something they don’t deserve. Unjust actions and words perpetrated against us are out of our control. What is, however, within our control is our response. We can choose how to react in each and every situation we face.

“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.”

Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

We, indeed, have a range of responses we may choose from: We can react in passive-aggressive anger, become sullen and morose, stuff all our emotions down and ignore them, lash out and verbally attack; or we can choose to accept the situation for what it is (and not what we want it to be) and submit ourselves to God.

All of you must put on the apron of humility, to serve one another; for the scripture says, “God resists the proud, but shows favor to the humble.” Humble yourselves, then, under God’s mighty hand, so that he will lift you up in his own good time. 7 Leave all your worries with him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:5-7, GNT)

Submission to God often comes in the form of submitting to the human authorities in our lives – even when those persons and institutions over us are imperfect. Systemic evil isn’t changed by our response of perpetrating even more evil back upon them. Rather, unjust structures are transformed through godly persons choosing to work within the system to do good, not harm, and to love, not hate.

Christian freedom is never a matter of simply doing whatever the heck you want to do, regardless of how it impacts anyone else. Our freedom is in the ability to make choices about what sort of attitude we are going to have in all the circumstances of life we encounter.

Don’t do anything from selfish ambition or from a cheap desire to boast, but be humble toward one another, always considering others better than yourselves. And look out for one another’s interests, not just for your own. The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had:

He always had the nature of God,
    but he did not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God.
Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had,
    and took the nature of a servant.
He became like a human being
    and appeared in human likeness.
He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death—
    his death on the cross. (Philippians 2:3-8, GNT)

Therefore, what we’re left with is the willing choice to alter our own life, instead of continually trying to make everyone else change. It comes down to showing respect for all humanity, honoring God with our attitudes, and loving our sisters and brothers in the faith who face the same sorts of challenges we do.

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

Viktor Frankl

Be safe. Be strong. Be spiritual. We are all in this life together.

Trust In God’s Timing (Exodus 2:15-25)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.

When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, “Why have you returned so early today?”

They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”

“And where is he?” Reuel asked his daughters. “Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat.”

Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”

During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. (New International Version)

Faith is active, not static; it’s a dynamic experience of growth, not a possession that sits on your desk to admire. The experience of faith is much like a muscle that needs exercise and growth in order to be strengthened. 

Moses needed to learn and grow in faith, just as much or more than the rest of us. He didn’t always get it right. Wanting to show solidarity with his own people, and to help them by doing what he could, Moses killed an Egyptian overseer who was abusing a Hebrew slave.

Even though Moses tried to hide what he did, the word got out. And having grown up in the royal court of Pharaoh, he knew it was only a matter of time before he was found out. So, he left, at forty years old, knowing nobody outside of Egypt that he might connect with.

For the next forty years, Moses was in Midian, having received the hospitality he needed to survive. He married, settled down, and lived a very different life than the one he once had in Egypt. I doubt he forgot about his people in slavery. But I am pretty sure Moses doubted himself and saw no connection between himself and being able to do anything about his people’s awful situation.

Little did he know what was coming in his future.

“God is too good to be unkind. Too wise to be mistaken; and when you cannot trace his hand you can trust his heart.”

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The fact that Moses was eighty years old before he became the human agent of God’s deliverance, after a forty year stint in the backside of the desert as a shepherd, tells us that it took him awhile to mature. Even though Moses may have had a sense that the Israelites needed freedom from slavery, and acted on that sense by killing a ruthless Egyptian, his sense of timing was not good.

There is a time for everything, said the writer of Ecclesiastes. Wisdom, the ability to apply faith in concrete situations, is often in the timing of things. To know when to speak and when to listen, when to act and when to wait, is an important facet of faith. 

The ancient Israelites were slaves in Egypt for centuries. Moses knew they were suffering, and he acted impetuously. But it was not yet time. The groans of the people, however, did not go unnoticed. Eventually, the Jewish cry came up to God, and God heard them. The Lord remembered his covenant with them. 

But why did God not act sooner, or use Moses earlier? Why did the Hebrew people have to suffer for so long? That, my friend, is information that is only privy within the mind of God. The Lord has the big picture of what is happening in the universe; and I don’t.

The perspective of time surely looks much different when you can stand above it and see the past, present, and future all in one look.

For us, if we are to develop in faith and gain a wise sense of timing, we will need to rely on God. Trusting in ourselves, our own efforts, and our own perceived timing of how things ought to proceed will usually not end well. 

We may, much like Moses, find ourselves taking a “time out” from God in obscurity, until we learn to wait on the Lord’s deliverance.

Moving into the New Testament, in the fullness of time, Paul said to the Galatians, Jesus came, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under the law. (Galatians 4:4-5)

Faith is trusting in what God is doing, even though it might seem like the Lord is painfully slow in acting when circumstances are difficult. Yet, God sees; and God delivers. 

The Lord accomplishes deliverance according to divine timing – not ours. So, don’t be impetuous and cockeye about what needs to be accomplished, and when it needs to be done. Instead, do your best to keep up your spiritual growth, develop a good sense of timing, and rely upon the wisdom gained while you’re living in the backside of the desert.

Redeeming God, you control all things, including the clock. Give me wisdom so that my sense of timing might reflect your will and your way. Help me to persevere through suffering, and to trust in your goodness and grace, through Jesus Christ my Lord, in the strength of the Holy Spirit. Amen.