Read the Lectionary Texts

 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I first heard Robert Frost’s “The Road Less Traveled” when I was in high school, and it has stuck with me ever since. It is a poem that accurately describes life as a series of choices about which path to take as we make our way through the forest. And often the choice is between a road MOST taken by MOST people, and a road LESS traveled by FEWER people.

And the poem ends with the poet’s choice that day: “I took the one less traveled by…

 …and that has made all the difference.”

Jesus once said something similar.

The image he used was not two roads, but a gate – a gate through which sheep had to pass to get into the sheep pen for protection at night, and through which the sheep had to pass to go out to pasture and graze during the day. And just as Robert Frost wrote that choosing the road less traveled has made all the difference in his life, Jesus says that passing through this gate makes a difference, too.

The gate, Jesus says, is the way to the good life!

There is a church up in Maryland that bases it’s mission statement on the words of Jesus here in John 10:10 – “I have come that you might have life, and have it to the full!” Rather than clutter their mission statement with complicated theological declarations about the triune God, the inerrant scriptures, or the eschatological scheme of the end times, this church simply says: The purpose of our church is to help you live life to the fullest!

I think most of us would love to be part of a church like that!

Well, that’s what the Christian church is intended to be! The Church’s job is to help people find happiness, and meaning, and purpose – to find life and to live it to the fullest! But in order to do that and be a church like that, we have to put up a gate.

I remember the first time I visited a couple who lived in a certain gated community. I drove up to the guard shack and the fellow poked his head out.

Laughingly, I said, “So I take it you’re here to keep the riff-raff out!”

He didn’t even crack a smile. He just said, “Who are you here to see?”

I said, “Dick W.”

He said, “Well, in that case, I’m here to keep the riff-raff IN!”

And then he smiled!

Well, some gates are made to keep things out, and some gates are made to keep things in. But THIS gate that Jesus is talking about is made to be passed through – as if passing through the gate gives us something we need to have to find life and live it to the full.

Do you know what this gate is?

It is Jesus himself.

Jesus says, “I AM the gate.”

When my childhood faith finally grew up and I, as an adult, began to question my religion, it was a very disconcerting time. When I was a child, I was very happy that Noah and his family survived the Flood on the Ark. But as an adult, I wondered why all the other families had to drown in the rising floodwaters. Maybe the grown-ups were sinners and deserved to die. But what about the children?

When Joshua and the Israelites captured some Palestinian towns, the Bible says God told them to kill all the men – and all the women – and all the children – and all the animals right down to their pet dogs and cats. As a child, I was glad Joshua and the Israelites won the battle, but as an adult, I was troubled by the genocide of humans and beasts.

Have you ever been troubled by these things?

What about the biblical injunction to turn over your stubborn children to be stoned to death by the elders of the city? I must admit, that was sometimes an attractive proposition to me when my children were growing up, but on second thought, it seemed rather wrong! Those who have given up on the Bible often cite the fact that the God of the Bible seems to enjoy killing people left and right. God is almost like a narcissistic despot who needs to be loved…“or else I’ll kill ya!”

What bothers you about the Bible?

What bothers you about the Christian Church?

I am acquainted with some of the young men who were sexually abused by a religious leader in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. I know that when his sin was found out, he was simply moved on to another parish where more young people were abused. I can well understand why those young people today are lost to the Church, and some to God.

The Church has so often protected its own, and condemned others. The late Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas was known for showing up at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, and shouting slogans that our young men were dying because it was God’s judgment against America because of the acceptance of homosexuality in our society.

Eric Rudolph, in the name of God, set off a bomb at an abortion clinic killing a nurse and a policeman.

At the feet of the Church can be laid the sin of the Crusades, slavery, of causing divisions between people, of heaping judgment on people and denying mercy to those most in need.

No wonder so many people today are giving up on the Church!

And well they should.

Jesus, in our reading from John 10 says that there ARE those who enter the sheep pen not by the gate, but by climbing over the fence. And Jesus says they bring destruction.

Why?

Because they do not enter by the gate.

And the gate is none other than Jesus himself!

Today, when I read the Bible, I try to read it through the filter (the gate) of Jesus. Does this sound like something Jesus would say? Does this look like something Jesus would do? If not, I take it as a story in which God is probably trying to show us how NOT to live.

And when we think about the Church, we need to let Jesus be the gateway through which our entire ministry passes.

I wish that had been true at the church I served when I was in seminary. Some of us worked very hard to reach out to the troubled kids of our community. You could usually find them at night on the town common, buying and selling drugs, and sometimes selling themselves. One particular girl named Barbara was especially lost but inwardly wanting to be found. One Sunday, she drifted into our church service. She was seeking God. She was not exactly dressed for church.  So a few of the elders, wanting to protect the church, told her she was not welcome and chased her away.

Can you imagine Jesus doing such a thing?

“I am the gate,” Jesus said.

And today, I hope you will make Jesus the gateway of your life, and that we will make Jesus the gateway of our church. Because when we place Jesus and his teachings at the center of our faith, we help people find life!

A few years ago in a certain city, an Associate pastor at a downtown church came up with the idea of taking her guitar out to the street and playing for the homeless people who always seemed to be around. She played, and sang, and they gathered around, and some started singing too. For some weeks, this ministry continued. Then Ash Wednesday arrived.

The Associate Pastor told the homeless people that they had a special service on Ash Wednesday for people who needed God’s love. She invited them in, and many came. At the same time, it was a tradition that many members of the City Council go to the Ash Wednesday service at the big downtown church. They were in the midst of a legislative session where the issue of homelessness was being addressed, but even so, many of them went to the service. What happened next, observers say, was simply amazing.

When the ashes were distributed, the bowl was passed from one to the other, and each of the participants received the ashes from the one next to them. Then they imposed the ashes on the forehead of the next one. And so on.

So there they were – scruffy homeless people placing ashes on the heads of well-heeled City Council members, and well-heeled City Council members placing ashes on scruffy homeless people.

And that experience changed the tone of the whole discussion about homelessness in that city.

That sounds like something Jesus would do!

What do you think Jesus is calling US to do and be in this place and time?

“I am the gate for the sheep,” Jesus said. “I have come that you might have life and have it abundantly.”

And as Robert Frost wrote:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Which road will YOU take?