The Fort

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Readings:
Acts 2:42-47
1 Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10

“Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand …”

The analogies of The Teacher do often confound, at least in the near term. But as one wise teacher confronting his own mortality once said, “It is really important to master ‘the head fake’ … that move that teaches people things they don’t realize they’re learning until well into the process.

"Head-fake learning’ is absolutely vital.”

So if the disciples were struggling with this analogy, let’s grab another. Einstein claimed ALL learning was by analogy. Another great teacher postulated that the brain was wired to hang analogies on analogies, and, they were wired in triplets. So if one failed, but you had managed to ‘hook or anchor an understanding on another’, you could connect them ‘upstairs’ and continue the climb to enlightenment.

So Pastor Johnson today provided one such hook: the sheepfold as safe haven, a fort against adversity.

A sheepfold is constructed by the shepherd out of flat stone (and lots of it!). The shepherd builds walls to shoulder height. It’s a one-man job. Atop the walls, a shepherd places thorned bushes and shards of cut glass to disway predators. The sheepfold is a SAFE place. There is traditionally one, single opening, one-way-in, by the gate. The gate is as wide as a single sheep. It is where the shepherd sleeps astride the gate. The warning is voiced: all who would harm these sheep must first pass The Shepherd. The shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep. The sheep know the sounds and rhythm of the shepherd’s voice.

Sheep, in general, are nearly blind. They will not wander from the sun into the shadows, but if the shepherd’s voice calls from the shadow, they will come, knowing they have “no evil to fear”. When we are baptized, we are called into the sheepfold, within the walls of that safe haven.

Pastor Johnson painted a picture of the four walls that separate the sheep from the world of predators without. The first wall is the wall of teaching: the sermon and teaching of The Word. Within this one encounters the wall of fellowship where ALL are welcome and the message is one of inclusiveness. We pass the peace and acknowledge that entry is not about income, race, party, status, cars or bank accounts. We shed the world’s labels. Further within is the wall of the breaking of the bread wherein we admit we come to this place WITH NOTHING. Having shed our labels and our possessions, we are, here within, ALL EQUAL. Herein, we experience Christ’s call to a joint priesthood. Our strength comes from our brokenness. A Catholic priest who was a mentor to one of my most favorite priests in our parish growing up once told him “If I were to make you a priest, I would break your heart.” Finally, the fourth wall is the wall of prayer, the wall you ‘take with you’ when you exit the gate.

Within these walls, you can be mad, sad, honest, tell secrets and they will stay in these four walls. In these walls, we are healed, we are forgiven. Jesus, Himself, promises us that He has prepared a reserved place in there for each of us. Jesus says, “I, myself, will turn down your sheets.” That voice of the shepherd within the walls says “We have it all”. This is counter to the voices in the outside world that say “We want it all.”

Pastor Johnson recalled a band of friends he had as a kid: Ricky, Michael, Christine and himself. They had a ritual after school had let out. They would build a frt, a paradise in a field. A fort .. within which they were invincible! They made it out of tree branches, cardboard, plywood, complete with secret door. Inside – they were safe. “No one could see us, reach us, hurt us, “ he said. In this fort, we were ALL THE SAME. It was the great equalizer. We shared all the food … Ricky brought the PBJ’s, Gary the candy bars …Christine was welcome even with her contribution of warm Kool-Aid with no sugar. What they did not share was that they were, much like a congregation or a sheepfold, all there for different reasons (at home). Here, no one could touch us, not even our homes.

Pastor Johnson has called us, called our Church, to be that fort, that sheepfold … where ti matters that you’re here and it doesn’t feel the same when you’re not. Where you don’t only come in to hide and escape and get away, but you come to be fortified against whatever the outer world is hurling at you. Where you are called to be strengthened and strengthen your neighbor to allow you to take the fort with you into that world outside.

Pastor Johnson’s voice became calm and soft as he opened the gate with words spoken in a fortifying and resolute voice:

“Whatever the world throws at you, I won’t say it won’t hurt you, but it won’t ‘get you’ … because you belong to the Good Shepherd.”