Banks used to have massive front doors. The
Binghamton First City Bank building is still in the middle of town with an imposing front entrance. The message that it gives is that you can safely bring your money here. We are on guard.
Banks in Jackson Heights today give a much different message. While the 99 cent stores carefully lower steel shutters each night, Green Point and Charter Banks are all glass. The message is that it is easy to come in here and do business. The other message that I pick up from a bank made of glass is – there is no money here.
One of the joys that I have is to pass on the street and see the front doors open of our church. Church buildings in New York have become oddball museums because we are the only groups of people who are rich enough to build in New York City and then keep it closed all week. The United Methodist motto is Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors and Community Church keeps the door open.
Every person in the world has some similar basic desires. We would like to find a way to live a happy life, We would like to be part of a group. And we hope for life to continue after this life. I think that people of every culture, of every area, of every lifestyle come together in these basic desires.
The scripture today describes Jesus as the door to the satisfaction of those desires. And John also speaks of the confusion caused by others who promise to be doors also. So if you are looking for more happiness, a group to travel in life with, and a certain hope of eternal life – you will hear some incredible thoughts from scripture this morning to guide and encourage. Let’s worship.
Christians are the people who think that of all possible ways to get to God, the best, surest, and only way is through Jesus. We do not follow a person who renounced wealth, but a person whose parents had none. Jesus is not a philosopher, but a leader who lived briefly and died violently. We are not drawn by teaching as much as resurrection from the dead. And for the happiness, community, and life forever that Jesus promises, he says humbly that he is not the destination, but the way.
I do not argue with other living faiths. Our complex world is already angry enough. In college, I read apologetics, which is the vigorous defense of the Christian faith. Some books are inspiring in their defense, such as attorney Frank Morrison’s ‘Who Moved the Stone?’ He started out to show that the gospel accounts were fabricated, and became convinced that they were true as he compared them. But very few people are convinced by apologetics arguments. What I say to people of another religion is that if they have not found the happiness they desired or the sure hope of eternal life, then I can only say that I have found those things through the work of Jesus.
And the approach of Jesus in this passage is invitational. He says to us, you already know the sound of my voice and that I will not lead you astray. This is the same God who says ‘He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul.’
Once in the sheepfold, the sheep still have to contend with various threats, including robbers and bandits. They crawl in to work mischief among the sheep, Almost half of this passage is a warning against their work.
Low level banditry is people who get into a church and are never happy. They have their own agenda. They are sure that the church leadership would never agree with them so they are careful to push their ideas to willing ears.
This is not serious banditry. They are more like the dinner guest that you are glad they came, but quietly try to count the spoons before they leave. Occasionally, low level banditry can split a church, but more often it just disturbs the rest of the sheep a little.
The more serious banditry is where real crooks manage to enter and mix Christian faith with something evil that they have on their mind. I would not address this so directly except that I realized that the warnings take up almost half of the entire passage. There are people who try to get close to you, promising to share your faith, and then they try to misdirect or steal. That is the clear word from the text.
One of the more interesting theories about different images lay in the tradition of the robber-marauder. In 165 B.C., Judas Maccabee led a successful revolt against the Syrians who occupied Palestine and violated the Temple in Jerusalem. The Maccabees used the tactics of the robber-marauder to strike against the Syrians and their sympathizers, like Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
After the revolt, the Maccabees proclaimed their family royalty and even claimed the power of the Temple priesthood. Both assertions had Messianic overtones. In time, the Maccabean kings proved to be as corrupt as the Syrians. Fighting within the royal family was one of the determining factors that led to the Roman conquest of Palestine in 65 B.C. and the rise of King Herod.
I am very concerned about the telecast next Sunday that includes the Southern Baptist Church and the Family Research Council. Through media, they have entered every home with their particular ideas about how Christians should live. As it happens, I do not agree with them.
I believe that was and peace are the biggest single issues that I see in scripture. I could not find it mentioned on the Family Research Council website. It is satanic influence that they sit with the same Bible that I do and yet find none of these verses. They want the 10 commandments displayed on government property. Ironically, that would include the rule, thou shall not murder.
They are calling the telecast to suggest the Democrats are not friendly to people of faith, according to their website. I suggest that it is they who have chopped such large sections of scripture from their understandings that they have become robbers who enter the sheepfold to do evil.
The New York Times today has an editorial on how people are using the cloak of Christian faith simply to steal. Tom DeLay raises money to save America from the war on Christianity, but both he and Ralph Reed, former leader of the Christian Coalition, have quietly gotten very connected to casino and gambling money. Friends, the United Methodist Church is death on gambling. We don’t do it, we preach against it, and I am amazed that people like James Dobson are not even willing to separate themselves from crooks who keep Christianity around as a cover.
Have I spoken clearly enough that there are bandits in the sheepfold? The problem is not only the disruption to the sheep. It is that when we do not focus on the real Bible and a true societal tragedy happens, Christians are not able to offer a word of hope. We do not know what jolts are coming to our world. Even the thin oil supply may have a crisis. When it happens, American Christians need to be united in what is the key message of the Christ? Is it peace through Christ, protection for the vulnerable? Grace for forgiveness? We have to know.
The wonderful promise of Christ overwhelms the danger to the sheep. While the thief comes only to kill and destroy, I come that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I love that last word. God does more than offer us a change, but the new life is offered in reckless quantity. We can have it abundantly.
If you are confused in life, come back to Jesus as the door. Ignore other solutions and other ideas. Through Christ, you can receive a chance for some happiness in this life, companions for the journey, and a certain hope of heaven. Abundantly.
