April 13, 2008
Easter 4, John 10:1-10
I started this morning thinking about something that was for a long time a real problem, but is now fast becoming history. In fact, if I am ever going to use this as a sermon illustration, I’d better do it now because there may soon be, thanks to the do not call list, a generation that doesn’t know anything about tele marketers. I am just beginning, after six years on the do not call list to get my friendly phone answering voice back. For so many years I answered the phone with a voice that said “who the heck are you and what do you want.” It had gotten to where I was suspicious of most phone calls, especially those that came at dinner time. I came up with all kinds of defenses and snappy answers for people who asked questions I thought they had no right to ask. I became a tele marketer vigilante.
Too bad, because not all callers deserved that voice. Every once in a while, someone would ring my phone and call me back to sanity.
The voices that call me back--the ones that change my attitude when I hear them on the other end of the phone--are the voices of people I love and who love me.
You know the call, the voices. Maybe you are in a foul mood, or you are weighted down under a load of what you have to do and the phone rings. You answer in one voice...guarded...ready to deal with business, and then your voice gets a little louder and higher in pitch...”heyyyy”
The people whose calls bring us back to life are the one’s we have good history with. They are people whose voices, when we hear them, change the way we feel about our world, if only for a moment. They are people who have listened to us and whose stories we have heard. They are the ones we can be real with...ones with whom we don’t have to watch our language or be careful what we say. They have demonstrated over time that they value us at a deep level, they are people who have known us long enough to have had to sometimes “love us anyway.” There probably isn’t a day goes by that we wouldn’t welcome a call from someone like that.
We hear Jesus saying today that he would like to be such a voice, such a person in our lives. Or, maybe we hear the early church saying that Jesus was such a voice in their lives. It doesn’t matter which way you say it. There is a long running tested truth in the message that Jesus’ voice can be one that lights us up, calls us out, gives us confidence as we follow. The question is how does Jesus become that kind of voice for us? How does he get past the screens we put up to protect ourselves from unwanted calls?
For me there are many sides to the answer. First, Jesus has to do his part. He has to put in the time, do the listening, convince us that he can love and appreciate us without judging us.......he has to show us he can ”love us anyway.” But to be fair, that can only happen if we put in some time ourselves, talking about our lives, about what’s going on with us, what we are struggling with, what we want to see happen, what makes us laugh, what makes us mad.....all those kinds of things we have shared with the people whose calls light up our day.
And, if we want to spend that kind of time with Jesus, then we will probably have to look at the kind of screens and resistance he is going to have to get through. I don’t know about you, but I have a pretty good list of such defenses. I am cautious about my religion. I have lived long in an era when everyone seems to have access to your number and you never know who’s calling.
One of the things Jesus has to get past in me is his character having been stained by some of the people I’ve known who like to mention his name......often. I’ve known a lot of folks of whom I could say, “if they are what this Jesus business is all about, then I’m not interested.” It really isn’t fair, I shouldn’t blame Jesus for their attitudes, but I can tell you I have spent a lot of time in my life judging Jesus harshly because of the company he keeps......without remembering that the fact that he hangs out with such sorry people works in my favor. Jesus and I both have to get past that one.
And then there’s the all or nothing problem. How can I trust Jesus when I can’t believe all the things they tell me I’m supposed to believe about him? I mean a lot of people down through the years have said a lot of things about Jesus. The Church has developed complicated doctrines about who he was and how he fit in with God and the whole cosmic puzzle that we are a part of. One century seems to understand him one way and the next another. People fight wars over what to believe about Jesus. I hear people say, “how can I believe in Jesus when the church says this about him?” or “How can I believe in Jesus with all the bad things that have happened in the name of Christianity?” Sometimes we can’t let him into our lives because we think we have to swallow the whole history of Christianity in one gulp. A better way might be to keep Christianity and all its history in our peripheral vision. Keep it near, but let it blur a bit, focusing our attention instead on a simple shepherd who talked about walking and following and hearing his voice. Maybe start with Jesus and work our way into Christianity if that’s where he leads us.
And there’s the “why should I buy what you’re selling when there are a lot of other brands out there” defense. This one really does sound like a defensive position more than the others. You mention Jesus or Christianity and someone counters--counters??!-- very quickly, “well there are a lot of religions, and they all lead to God.” Well I don’t disagree with that much at all, but I want to ask the one who said it, “right, so which one are you working?” Would that same person say that because there are so many people in the world they have decided not to have any friends? I don’t think so. There are other good countries, and good foods, and good landscapes. We can learn much from our travels and from hearing about other cultures. Some people do transplant their lives, but most of us build lives and relationships with the people around us in the culture where were born. We do that not because ours is the only place to live, but because we have been brought up with its language and stories and we didn’t even notice the way that the language and story became ours. If you were brought up in a place where Jesus was the best known way into God, then Jesus has something to offer not because he is the only way, but because he is local, a part of the crowd you run in.
There is, of course, the big question. If I get friendly with Jesus, then what? What will I have to change? What will it cost me? Those are real questions. And the answers that come to us down through the ages from those who have walked and talked with Jesus over time are no great comfort. The story of Jesus is filled with the stories of his followers and what they have given because they were his followers. Some have given a great deal, some have given their lives. But even the big question about the cost of following Jesus doesn’t have to keep us from simply starting a conversation with him. The people who gave a great deal because of their relationship with Jesus did just that. They gave. Jesus didn’t take. They would probably tell you that they learned about giving from him and have given only what they wanted to. Maybe there is a voice in your life, one that not only brightens your day when you hear it, but also pulls at something deep inside. The voice of one for whom you know you would do anything. The one for whom you would not count cost.
The question about cost, of course is not where the relationship begins.
People ask me sometimes, and the best advice I can give about where to start, or pick up again with Jesus is to just start talking. You don’t have to believe everything your hear about Jesus, you don’t have to think he’s the only way, you don’t have to be ready to give away everything you own. Forget all that for now. Just start talking. In the car, on a walk, over time, as often as you remember. Write yourself a note. “Talk to jesus today.” Keep a journal....”we talked about this today.” I hear jesus saying that recognizing his voice is what matters, and learning to do that takes time. And its worth the time. It’s worth it for the times when we need to have our lives put back into perspective, times when we need to hear that voice....the one that reminds us of our true life. The voice that brings a smile or a laugh, that realigns our thinking in an instant. The voice we recognize to be that of a true friend. Amen JB