April 13, 2008

Easter Cantata # 3
John 10, "I am the gate..."

KILL THE EASTER BUNNY, PLEASE

Lutheran campus pastor at Winona State, John Carrier, once wrote an anxious little article he titled Kill the Easter Bunny, Please. He talks about his alarm that students are coming to college not knowing where their faith is rooted or what it even is. One year, he said, a student was thrown into a major crisis of faith when she learned that Jesus of Nazareth was probably not born on exactly December 25th in the year Zero AD.

"That little bit of information led her to question everything she believed. What's wrong with that? Well, she comes to the game awfully late. She is 22 years old." [1] She ought to know better by now, in other words. Is her faith based in the details and logistics or built on a relationship? And I wonder, where was her church when she was growing up? Didn't they help her distinguish between cultural "religion" and Christian faith?

John Carrier goes on to say, it's not just cults or fundamentalists on campus who are waiting to pick off lost young sheep. He reminds us that some Christian groups who "just wanna praise Jesus" claim to be non-denominational but they're actually recruiting agencies for highly sectarian organizations. And of course there are aggressive atheists, these days, pro-global warming groups, pagans, a few Marxists still around, plus skeptical religious know-it-alls, all promoting their own brand of faith and making none-too-subtle judgments about the value of our Christian faith.

So, he says, "You gotta kill the Easter bunny. Please. Otherwise kids grow up bringing their mythology with them," he says, "and when they stop believing in some of those things, they start believing in almost anything."

That's a pretty common crossroads that most people of faith come to at some time. Almost all of us adults know what I'm talking about here. There are dangers in growing up, intellectual and spiritual risks "out there," and some unreliable direction signs.

I won't tell you that it's a simple matter to sift through the claims and counterclaims, or that only I am right and all the rest are wrong. You realize that this topic quickly gets us deeply into many layers, and on a day when we came to hear the music, we really don't want fifteen minutes of discourse!

So perhaps the music itself can be the entry, the "shepherd's gate." Jesus speaks of how both sheep and shepherd depend on ears and voice, and there's no doubt that for nearly all of us, music is one gateway into faith, opening in both ways - more deeply into faith, through music, more expressively OF our faith, by music. In the words, in melodies that sometimes become a permanent feature of our memories, in the play of rhythm and harmonics, rests and whole notes, solo and full chorus, major keys and minor chords... we hear the Shepherd's voice and we are drawn into safety. And drawn, too, out from that security into the paths, green pastures, even valleys and shadows, into relationships where he has planned for us to spend our days. If "The Lord is my Shepherd," he often calls us each by our own brand of music and leads us both in and out, and if we turn our ears to listen, I think we can hear the music of his voice.

.........

5:00 Many pastors and their spouses are "church junkies" on vacation, and visiting our niece Leah in Chicago, near the clinic where she worked was a church we thought we'd like to see inside. It's hard for Nancy and me to pass up a church that looks interesting. The front doors were locked, but around the side was another door with a little sign: "Ring the bell; someone will help you."

Well, I did... and no one did! We rang again, but no one came to let us in, so we moved on to another door. Locked; and we tried yet another door; no luck; and no luck again until finally we rounded a corner and were back to Side Door Number One... when we saw someone else walk up and ring the bell - and then we saw her do something else. She reached down, turned the knob, the door opened, and she walked in.

"I am the Gate (the Door)," said Jesus. It really makes little difference how you hear the Shepherd - whether it's by prose or poetry, classical or country, solo or ensemble. Any way it is, listen! Hear his invitation... or his forward-marching orders, challenge, comfort, or a combination of the two, a lullaby or a warning. Then put down your hand, turn the knob, and, quote, "Whoever enters by me will come and go and find pasture... and will have life, and will have it abundantly."

............

9:00 Several years ago a woman in Kansas City awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of "Help! Help! Help me!" She thought her husband was in distress and shook him hard to wake him up - but she saw quickly that he was calmly, and soundly, asleep. Then she thought it must have been a dream... until she heard the cries again.

She jumped out of bed and headed toward the voice, apparently in the living room, but she saw no one. "Where are you?" she called out. "I'm in the fireplace!" There, dangling in the flue, was a burglar stuck upside down.

Police and firefighters eventually set the would-be thief free, but only after ripping out the mantle and removing much of the brickwork. The best part of the story is what the woman did while waiting for help to arrive. She turned on all the living room lights and sat down to record the scene with her video camera. And who knows what the two of them discussed at 2 a.m. - maybe a stern reading of John Chapter 10. [2] "Anyone who does not enter by the gate but climbs in another way is a thief and a bandit..."

"I am the Gate for the sheep," said Jesus. He is the Door It really makes little difference how you hear the Shepherd - whether it's by prose or poetry, classical or country, solo or ensemble. Any way it is, listen! Hear his invitation... or his forward-marching orders... challenge, comfort, or a combination of the two... a lullaby or a warning. "I am the Gate," he said. "Whoever enters by me will be safe (and welcome)... and will have life, and have it abundantly."

.............

10:45 Thomas Edison got onto a train in Kansas City, headed east. He found his seat, settled in, and soon was lost in thought, deep in the drawings, measurements, and paperwork he'd brought with him. Not long after the train pulled out of the station the conductor came along to punch tickets. Edison fumbled through all his pockets, then his briefcase, then his overcoat C and came up empty. The conductor said he'd give him more time and come back in a moment.

But by the time he had worked his way to the end of that particular car, the conductor realized who this passenger was, so he went back and told Edison that he'd recognized him from pictures in the newspaper and he trusted him. "Professor," he said, "we're privileged to have you on board this train today. I know you bought a ticket. Just sit back and relax."

But Thomas Edison kept insisting that he had to find his ticket.

"Don't worry about it, Mr. Edison."

"But I have to find it C I simply must!"

"Why?"

"Because I've forgotten where I'm going."

"The sheep hear the shepherd's voice and they follow him because they know his voice..." It really makes little difference how you hear the Shepherd - whether it's by prose or poetry, classical or country, solo or ensemble. Any way it is, listen to him! Hear his invitation... or his forward-marching orders... challenge, comfort, or a combination of the two... a lullaby or a warning... or the announcement of your destination and the stops along the way. "I am the Gate and the Shepherd," he said. "Follow me... and you will have life, and will have it abundantly."

Nathan Castens
Chanhassen, Minnesota

[1] John V. Carrier in Emphasis, May/June 1998
[2] Peter Marty in "Living by the Word," Christian Century, April 17, 1996
[3] No info on source for this one; sounds apocryphal, doesn't it?