Jesus is the gate to true life.

The question keeps coming, when are we going to get back to normal, or at least some form of it? Even asking that question raises other questions.

We might have to wear masks for a while.  We might have to spread out a bit for a while. We might have communion with just the bread for a while. We might not have social hour for a while.

As we think about what we’ve had to modify, what we’ve had to set aside and what we might have to wait to resume, we ought to take stock in what is truly important. Our readings remind us in a big way.

Today’s passage from Acts follows explosive growth in the church. They went from 120 as noted in chapter 1 of Acts to adding 3,000 all at once, as we heard about last week.  That was a pretty big jump in church attendance! What did they do?

First, Luke – the same writer of the Gospel who wrote Acts - tells us they devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching. That means they stuck to what the Apostles had heard Jesus teach and what they had seen Jesus do throughout the years they were with him. They shared their astounding witness of his Resurrection and what Jesus had taught the Apostles about understanding the whole of scripture and indeed the whole of life in light of his life, death and Resurrection.

Second, they devoted themselves to the Apostles’ fellowship, gathering in community.

Third, they devoted themselves to the breaking of bread. In the earliest days of the church the breaking of the bread was often associated with the feeding of the 5,000 as well as the Last Supper, each of them symbols of Christ’s sharing of everything including himself.

They devoted themselves to the prayers. Is this starting to sound familiar?

They continued to perform wonders and signs. They worshipped in the temple.  Nowhere in any of the Gospels do we hear of Jesus owning anything except the clothes on his back and the sandals on his feet.

And yet he brought healing to the suffering, abundance to the hungry, hope to the hopeless.

Luke is showing how in its earliest days the Church embodied the life of Jesus. The Church, the Body of Christ, has always remembered that in its earliest days it was just like him. It got off track with conflict and was infected with false teachers early on, as Luke and Paul will attest, but it has always remembered that ideal, the ideal of being the Body of Christ, and is always working to get back to reflecting Jesus in our world the very best we can.

In other words, they devoted themselves to the very same things that we and other Christian churches of every type and style do to this very day. Soon these elements would develop into the earliest liturgies of the Church and they are the structure of the liturgy we are using even today, right now.

We’re doing the best we can right now and I’m extremely thankful for these electronic means to be as together as we can be, but we long for the in-person worship, the in-person fellowship, the in-person prayers together and in-person ministry here at the Church of the Good Shepherd. We should take heart in the ways we continue to live this very ancient manner of life, and today’s Gospel points to why.

As we look at today’s Gospel, especially here, we recognize that this is the first half of the “Good Shepherd” passage, which it is, and we are all about the Good Shepherd, but we really aren’t quite to the Good Shepherd part yet. Today, we need to take a moment and consider Jesus as the gate.

There are 7 passages in John’s Gospel where Jesus says, “I am”:

1.     I am the bread of life (ch. 6)

2.     I am the light of the world (ch. 8)

3.     I am the gate (ch. 10)

4.     I am the good shepherd (ch. 10)

5.     I am the resurrection and the life (ch. 11)

6.     I am the way, the truth and the life (ch. 14), and

7.     I am the vine (ch. 15)

I’ve come across many churches of the Good Shepherd, Bread of Life, The Way, Resurrection, and there’s a whole denomination called the Vineyard. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Church of the Gate, Gate Church. And yet, that is who we are called to be and what we are meant to do.

Gordon Lathrop, a Lutheran theologian, wrote a book called Holy Things. In it, he traces how four essential elements of our faith get represented in our church architecture. The pulpit, where we share the Apostles’ teaching; the altar and cross where we break the bread, and the baptismal font where we share in Christ’s death and Resurrection. The fourth element is the door, which is another word for gate. The doors are the means by which we come into the sheepfold and go out. To the pasture.

The front door here at the church is our main gate and we take it very seriously. We’ve got a picture of the gate keeper right over it. This room is our sheepfold where you come in, get charged up, and then you go out into the pasture – your family, work, school, recreations – to your life and to have it abundantly as living witnesses to Jesus.

Jesus said he is the gate. He is the means by which people are learning about the Kingdom of God, the means by which their sins are forgiven, the means by which they are able to see God’s love in action.

Our job as his body is to represent him the very best we can, to continue the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of the bread and the prayers, to bear witness to healing and changed lives, to have glad and generous hearts. And, having the goodwill of the people to add to the number of people being saved.

You want to get back to normal? Everyone keeps talking about a “new normal.” I think we need to stick as faithfully as we can to the norm of the Body of Christ in our being and in our service to this community.

AMEN