April 17, 2005 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Acts 2:14,36-41 + 1 Peter 2:20-25 + John 10:1-10
On Monday I will begin my thirty-eighth year sharing in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. It is a thought that brings more memories than you can imagine; but I am not much for looking back except to study where I’ve been in case I might be going around in circles. I prefer to look ahead, and these are good days for doing that. Only three of those years have passed here in the community of Saint Mark, but when there are only memories left and nothing ahead, I suspect that these years will be among the best, because in the big picture, things only seem to be getting better and because you have been so kind, so positively responsive, supportive, and encouraging. You have prayed me through serious illness, and been more patient with my recovery than me. You have challenged me to hold more firmly to the Word of God, and to celebrate that Word made flesh in the Liturgy, and you have given me reason every day to get up rejoicing. As I give thanks to God this weekend for the voice I heard calling me here, I also give thanks to you. The church always chooses this Sunday as the Day of Prayer for Vocations. I am always at a loss when it comes to finding the words and the way to speak about Vocation, especially a vocation to priesthood. I think it is because it is so profoundly personal, spiritual, and unique. No one ever really gave me a great talk or perfect argument for being a priest. A sister simply said one day: “You ought to be a priest.” and along the way, a friend once said when I was thinking of changing the direction of my life: “You have to be a priest – you already are one to me.” So, I have never been able to give some convincing insight about this way of life that lately is often so ridiculed and suspect. It just seems best for me to live it out openly, joyfully, sincerely, and personally in the hope that others might see what I perceived in the priests of my past; that it is possible to do this and be this and find yourself again and again standing close to God. That happens, my friends, when I am close to you. So, if God wishes it so, I give you another year of my life freely, gratefully, and joyfully. Thank you for the past 37, and especially I thank those of you who have known me for many of those years. As God said in Genesis, “It is Good.”
I am going to be very brief this morning with one simple insight into this Gospel because I want you to give some time and attention to someone coming after Communion. With an image so powerful, sentimental, and well known, this Gospel is loaded with issues to tease out and ponder. It gets even more profound when it is anticipated as we have with the Twenty-third Psalm. Yet, think of this…………
John is writing his Gospel to a community that is filled with dissenting voices. He describes them as thieves and robbers. They are likely inauthentic leaders, whose voices and directions do not lead to salvation.
This Gospel speaks just as clearly to us as to those second and third generation followers of Christ. There are too many voices. There are too many ways to go in this life; too many gates, too many paths, too many glittering, promising options that lead us no where but deeper into loneliness, emptiness, and need.
One voice, one way, one shepherd leads, protects, supplies our need. It is nothing we can buy or earn. When you start to listen to that voice and silence all the other voices, you begin to ask what God is saying and what God’s wants from you. Young people begin to view their future in terms of what God asks them to do with their gifts and offers with the opportunities that unfold before them. They are no longer interested in how much money they make, what car they can drive, or where they live. They are simply interested in and concerned about how to make a difference in this life and lead others to the gate of this Gospel figure. Those of us who are further along in life have the same concern and focus, but our resources are real, not yet to come; and so we ask, wonder, and pray about what to do best with what we already have, how to use our very real opportunities, time, talent, and money to open the gate of this Gospel wider for ourselves and others.
For all of us, only deliberate, daily attentiveness to the authentic voice of God will keep us clear about which voice is God’s and what will lead us by the Spirit to holiness and everlasting life.