Just Use The Gate

by Rev. Dr. Michael Stotts

Acts 2:42-47
Jn. 10:1-10

He was a man of faith. You'd think he could easily get into heaven. Indeed, this particular man died and found himself at the pearly gates. However, as he approached the gates from a distance . . they swung closed with a clang! There was no one around, but he knew St. Peter welcomed people into heaven, so this man stood patiently at the side of the gate and waited to be admitted. And waited, and waited. . Hours turned to days, and days into years, but no one came to unlock and open the gate for him. Finally in desperation, fearing he'd be locked out for eternity, the man pounded on the gate. At that, the gate opened, and there stood St. Peter."What took you so long?" said Peter.
" Well when I arrived," he said,"the gates were closed, so I couldn't enter." "Oh the gate is never locked," said Peter. "All you had to do was open it and come in. Those who arrive here are always welcome, but they have to want to enter. If only you'd tried sooner, you'd never have had to wait so long. [Revised from Reuben Job, Manual for Minister's and Other Servants].

When you and I, as faithful Christians, hear a story like, that we say--how foolish. We want to yell at the guy in the story and say, "Just use the gate!" Just try the latch on the gate. At least try to go in. Yet, as much as you and I think we'd act far more quickly with that opportunity to get into heaven, Jesus own parable reminds us that indeed, far too many of us fail, over and over again in our lives, to just use the gate.
In his parable of the sheepfold, the sheep know the voice of the good shepherd and follow him in and out, through the gate of the sheepfold, to safety. But anyone who tries to climb in by another way . . . is a thief.

Both of these parables, then, suggest to us as Christians, that there is a gate, there is a way by which we can and should very easily follow Christ and so come into the eternal presence of God. Jesus, in fact says, he is the way--He is the gate. If only we would enter by him--follow his ways, we'd know the joy-- the fulfillment, the safety, or salvation as we sometimes put it, of our loving God. We would know it eternally. But first we have to enter by him--his gate, his way.

But what does that mean--to use the gate--which is Christ? Well, first of all, as Jesus showed us with his life, death and resurrection, the first step to entering into God's eternal presence--the first step of feeling saved--is above all to have faith in God. The man at the gate of heaven, didn't have enough faith that if he entered, God would be there to welcome him. He was so wrapped up in himself, wanting for himself a personal welcome, he didn't trust enough in God, to go through Gate--to seek God's presence.

Oh how important faith is for you and me as Christians! Not just as a way to the afterlife, but also simply to know the safety and fulfillment of "God-with-us, "Emmanuel,” in our everyday lives. But to know Christ-- God's presence with us--we first need. . . faith.
In what ways do you have the faith to look for God, and discern God's voice in the midst of all the other sights and sounds in our world. We need to have faith, and if we will, the salvation we seek, and need--will be ours.

Speaking of times when you and I need faith, do you remember the day you first got your driver's license. Were you nervous? You needed faith then, right? I sure remember that occasion in my own case. I suppose you could say I had a special reason to be nervous. Because you see, that day it was snowing, of all things! Imagine having to take your driving test for your license, in the snow. But in spite of my nervousness, I can see, looking back now, that God was very much with me that day, and fortunately my father was with me, too.

In fact, isn't that one of the many ways God is there for us: through God's gift of loved ones. In this case, my father was allowed to come along for the ride in the back seat, while the officer who was giving me the test sat in the front. Well I did alright on several parts of the test. Including, believe it or not, managing to get going again in the snow, when lo and behold, at the top of what seemed an impossibly steep hill there was a stop sign--in that weather! I did get going again. I survived that. And I survived the Y-turn test. And the parallel parking test. But then, I almost blew it when I came then, to the 4-way stop. Oh I was very legal, there, I'm sure. When we, and another car, coming down the hill to our left, came to that intersection at roughly the same time, I got there first, and I was entering the intersection on the right (so I knew I had the right of way!) So after stopping I went ahead, but then glancing back to my left I saw, there in the snow, that other car, now sliding down the hill, trying to stop but failing, heading right at us as we went through the intersection. Well my first instinct, one born of fear was to slow down--to freeze-- almost stop, but then I heard an amazingly calm voice, from the back seat, saying keep going, Mike, keep going, you'll make it--so I did, in spite of my fear, and amazingly got through the intersection just in time--while the sliding car missed us . . . .only by inches. So it was only thanks to that calm loving voice form the back seat, that got us through, and indeed (thanks to the registry policeman taking pity on me I think), I passed the test, and was granted my driver's license.

Yes, and so it is for all of us, as people of faith. If only we will have faith in the one who is always there with us in our back seat, if you will, urging us on, then we will find our way to safety, to salvation, over and over again in our lives. But if instead, we stop in fear, relying just on ourselves, then who knows what will come down the hill to hit us. And of course that one in our back seat who I mean here is our loving God--for God is always with us. If only we will keep our faith in tough situations like that and look or listen for the way God is urging us on-- we'll find our way through the gate to new life. God may be doing that for us in many ways. Christ's gate opens for us through the voices of loved ones; through situations that seem suddenly to present the gate to hope we were looking for; through struggles that teach us new life in the world God made; through the healing care of doctors nurses; or the care and helping hand of a loved one. If only we'll have faith, you see, and look for the way in which Christ is providing a gate for us, and move through it with hope, we will be saved.

Then that gate to hope which is Christ, can be found not only through faith, but also clearly through love, as Jesus told us over and over again. Indeed, I've long been convinced that it is precisely when we open ourselves in love to others, that we also, in the process, open ourselves to the hope-giving presence of God. So clearly the "gate" to being safe, to salvation, to a fulfilling life, is found by seeking more and more to be open to one another in love.

How do we do that? Well isn't it true: to be loving, one has to have as much awareness and concern for the world of the other person, the one you seek to love, as we do for our own world and its worries and struggles? Yes, an openness to the world of others. When we are. we are saved --in a number of ways.

I spoke a moment ago, about a near miss --that traffic accident that almost happened when I was taking my driver's test? Well several months ago, I had another incident where I wasn't able to avoid an accident. I ran into--scraped along the side of-- another car, doing a bit of expensive damage to the left front of our own car in the process. The accident occurred on Route 10 near the McDonald's and CVS in Easthampton. I was headed toward the center of Easthampton when, the woman driving the car in front of me slowed to a complete stop, even though the cars ahead of her weren't stopping. She also had pulled over to the left. But she didn't signal, one way or the other, so since she'd pulled to the left it appeared she was going to turn into McDonald's on the left. Instead, however, just as I assumed that, and so started to go around her to the right, she instead turned right--in front of me, headed into CVS. Hence, the nice scrape along her car door, and the banged up left front of our car. Now, naturally I was frustrated and angry. Oh, of course, we were very polite, exchanged, information and all, and she admitted not having signalled. But I was naturally upset. For some time of course, I mentally blamed her for every-thing. But later on, I got to thinking. Though yes, technically it was her fault for not signalling, my problem was, I was only driving along looking at other drivers with my own perspective (the McDonald's oriented perspective--who says I'm not guided by my stomach?) I wasn't thinking about the possibilities the person ahead of me might be thinking about. In other words, in that location, I personally would have much more often turned into McDonald's, rather than CVS, but this woman, it turned out, was sick and so was headed into CVS for medication. Now of course when your driving, it's impossible to know the thoughts of every other driver, however what we can do, and I know I should do this more often, is what most of us were taught we should do, back when we learned to drive? Remember the lesson? "Drive defensively!" we were taught--which really means look out for the other guy--where they might be going, instead of plunging ahead because of where you want to go.

Yes, thinking of the other as much as we do ourselves, being loving, then, as Jesus, our gate, taught us to do, is indeed far safer and more fulfilling, for in the process we avoid, bumping into others, butting heads with others, or finding gates closed in our faces.
Jesus is the gate, and calls us to have faith and love. When we do, we enter into his safety, and a much happier and more fulfilling life. In the end, you see, following Christ's ways, opens the gates to our loving God, as opposed to what we too often do, and that is following the ways dictated by false gods, the idols our world would have us pursue--which rather than leading to safety, fulfillment, salvation, or the joy of God's presence, only lead to frustration and the feeling of never quite having enough.

Author James A Harnish, in his book Finding God in Strange Places recently passed along a story from the pastor of the well-known Willow Creek Church in Chicago, the Rev. John Ortberg. Ortberg said. "he and his wife have three small children, and as you might guess, when they go out to eat, [like many American families] there is only one place his kids ever want to go, and it is, [in his words} ' the shrine of the golden arches'. [Hmm... there seems to be a McDonald's them e developing here!] Ortberg said his children seem to be convinced that they have a 'McDonald's shaped vacuum' in their souls. [and they] always want the same thing. What his children always want, in order to fill that McDonald's shaped vacuum is 'a combination of food--about which they really don't care much--and a little prize-- really, just some cheap little plastic thing, but in a moment of marketing genius, the folks at McDonald's gave it a particular name. They called it the Happy Meal. It is,' says Ortberg, 'the "meal of great joy." You aren't just buying chicken McNuggets and a tiny plastic Hercules ring. No . . . you're buying happiness.'

He then goes on to say every now and then he tries to talk his children out of it, to order something else, whatever they want, and he'll give them a quarter and they can buy their own trinket and everyone will come out ahead. But the kids will have none of that. Instead, the chant goes up, "We want a Happy Meal!" So he gives in, rather than be seen by others in the restaurant as a skinflint father. He buys the Happy Meal. And it makes them happy . . . for about a minute and a half. The problem is that the happy wears off. The contentment doesn't last. He says "you never hear of a young adult coming back to his parents and saying 'Gee, Dad, remember that Happy Meal you gave me? That's where I found lasting contentment and lifelong joy. . . Thank you!'

"That doesn't happen," he says. "In fact, the only one that Happy Meals bring real happiness to is . . McDonald's. . . . twenty billion Happy Meals later.

And you would think," he says," kids being fairly bright these days, that sooner or later they'd catch on to this deal and say, 'you know, I keep getting these Happy Meals and they don't give me lasting happiness, so I'm not going to be a sucker any more. I'm not going to set myself up for frustration and disappointment any more. But it never happens. They keep buying Happy Meals and the Happy meals keep not working."

Finally, Ortberg says, "Of course only a child would be so foolish. Only a kid would be so naive as to think that contentment could be acquired through some kind of external [purchase]. Only someone very young would have a high enough stupid quotient to believe lasting happiness could come by a change in [their] external [material] circumstances. Right?

"Wrong," says the pastor. "The truth about human beings is that as we grow up, we don't get any smarter; our Happy Meals just keep getting more expensive. But the world around us tells us that happiness is always just one Happy Meal away."   [John Ortberg, Dangers, Toils and Snares: Resisting the Hidden Temptations of Ministry (Multnomah, 1994), pp. 99-100.]

So what is your latest Happy Meal. What false god, what idol did you acquire recently to try to fill your emptiness. How have you worshipped the god of more. Did it really give you lasting happiness--life-long fulfillment--or just make you want more? You see, the false God of more is one that brings many to their knees in a fruitless worship that is by nature never satisfied.

So in what ways are you trying to climb over the wall into the sheepfold, instead of entering through the gate, the Christ personified gate--the way of faith, and love-- instead of going the selfish way of the false Gods we too often think will bring us happiness? We'd be so much more fulfilled, and safe, if only we'd listen to what he told us: "just go through the gate!" His gate of faith and love. Amen.