Beyond the Patio

 What is God Like
John 10:11-18

One of the most pressing questions that people ask in this life is “Does God exist? And in the next breath they ask “What is God like?” The Christian answer to that is “Look at Jesus!” What God is Jesus is. God is met in Jesus. When you see Jesus you see God. God is so powerfully revealed in Jesus that we call him the son of God, and even the “only Son of God” That is how important Jesus is.

The writer of John’s Gospel, writing about Jesus, near the end of the first Century is not only telling the story of Jesus and relating to us some of the words of Jesus, but is saying to all those who will hear what the experience of Jesus has meant to him and to the early Christian community to which he belonged. He is saying, “throughout these past fifty or sixty years this is what Jesus has meant to us” This is how we know what God is really like”

In a book entitled, Out Of The Salt Shaker and Into The World, there is a moving story of a young man named Bill. He was brilliant and looked like he was always pondering the esoteric. His hair was always mussy, and it rarely wore a pair of shoes. Rain, sleet or snow, Bill was always barefoot.

While he was attending college, he had become a Christian. One day, Bill decided to worship at a well dressed middle classed church across the street from campus. He walked into this church, wearing his blue jeans, tee shirt and, of course, no shoes. People looked a bit uncomfortable, but no one said anything.

The church was crowded that Sunday and realized there were no seats, so he went to the front and just squatted down on the carpet which was a bit unnerving for this church congregation. The tension in the air became so thick one could slice it. Suddenly, an elderly man began walking down the aisle toward the boy. People asked themselves “Was he going to scold Bill?” They reasoned they couldn’t blame him. He probably thought that he had to keep order in the church. He was only going to do what they would do. He had to do what he had to do.

As the man kept walking slowly down the aisle, the church became utterly silent, all eyes were focused on him, you could not hear anyone breathe. When the man reached Bill, with some difficulty he lowered himself and sat down next to him on the carpet. He and Bill worshiped together on the floor that Sunday. And there wasn’t a dry eye in the place.

This is what happened in Christ. Jesus came among us and sat down with us and lived his life with us, suffered all the things that human beings suffer, share with us all the limitations of human life. He did not leave us. In this way we found out what God was really like.

The Gospel writers had to write about it to share their experience.

*

We have those words of Jesus “I am the Good Shepherd” in today’s Gospel reading. It truly says something about who Jesus is and it certainly gives us a picture of what God is like. It is the image of a God who cares for us, knows us, loves us and will not leave us. Shepherd is a metaphor drawing on the ancient resources of the Hebrew tradition; so in encountering these words in the Gospel we are connected with all those people who have experienced God as shepherd over centuries.

It is significant that Jesus uses the words, GOOD Shepherd. He is saying: I am not just any shepherd. I am the Good Shepherd.

The word Good in this passage, as William Temple points out in Reading in John’s Gospel, actually refers to attractiveness. Temple actually translates it “The Shepherd, the beautiful one”, meaning that he is the kind of shepherd that attracts people to him, or draws people to him, that does not scare them away.

I did not come to Jesus because of fear. I did not come to accept Jesus into my life because I was dangled over the fires of hell. I didn’t come because I would go to hell if I didn’t believe in him. No! I came to Jesus because the love of God that I found in Jesus attracted me. I came to him because I heard him say to me, “Alex , I know you. No matter what you think of yourself, you are beautiful in my sight. You don’t have to prove anything to me. You don’t have to be anything that you are not. I love you and I will walk with you and be with you forever. I would even give my life for you. I give my life to you.

*

We see in Christ the Love of God that knows no limit even to the death on the cross. It is the love that Paul talks about in one of my favorite passages, the 13^th Chapter of Corinthians:

This love…is slow to lose patience – it looks for a way of being constructive. It is not possessive: it is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of it’s own importance. Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. It is not touchy. It does not keep an account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of others. On the contrary, it is glad with all good people when truth prevails. Love knows no limit to it’s endurance, no end to it’s trust, no fading of it’s hope; it can outlast anything. It is , in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen…It this life we have three great lasting qualities – faith, hope and love, But the greatest of them is love. ( I Corinthians 13:7- 8 based on J.B.Philip’s translation)

Try reading this passage substituting the word JESUS in the place of LOVE

And because we see in Jesus what God is like, read it substituting GOD in the place of LOVE

Then if you dare, try to put MY LOVE in the place of the LOVE in this passage. Difficult ?? but it is this LOVE that we find in Jesus. It is God’s love. This is the love we are to grow into as followers of Christ.

*

Sometimes a parents love comes close to this kind of love. I cant help but relate a story that comes out of Chicken Soup for a Mother’s Soul t called THE TALE OF A SPORTS MOM:

It’s a chilly Saturday in May. I could be home sweeping cobwebs from the corners of the living room or curled up on the couch with a good mystery. Instead I’m sitting on a cold metal bench in the stands of a baseball park in Kirkland, Washington. An icy wind creeps through my heavy winter jacket. I blow on my hands, wishing I’d brought my woollen mittens.

“Mrs. Bodmer?” It’s the coach my son Matthew admires so much that he gave up soda pop to impress him with his fitness. “I’m starting your son today in right field. He’s worked hard this year and I think he deserves the opportunity.”

“Thanks,” I say, feeling proud of my son who has given this man and this team everything he has. I know how badly he wants this. I’m glad his hard work is being rewarded.

Suddenly I’m nervous for him as the team members, in their white pinstriped uniforms, trot onto the field. I search for my son’s number. It isn’t there. Instead, Eddie, the most inexperienced player on the team, takes right field. I look again, unbelieving. How can that be?

I want to run over and ask the coach what’s going on, but I know Matthew wouldn’t like that. I’ve learned the proper etiquette for moms; talking to the coach is not acceptable unless he initiates it.

My son, gripping the chain-link fence in front of the dugout, is yelling encouragement to his team-mates. I try to read his expression, but I know he, like most males, has learned to hide his feelings. My heart breaks because he has worked so hard and received so much disappointment. I don’t understand what drives boys to put themselves through this………….

….For eight years I’ve been sitting here. I’ve drunk gallons of terrible coffee, eaten tons of green hot dogs and salty popcorn. I’ve endured cold and heat, wind and rain.

Some people may wonder why a sane person would go through this. It’s not because I want to fulfill my dream of excelling at sports through my kids. I also don’t do this for the emotional highs. Of, yes, I’ve had some……. But mostly I’ve seen heartache.

I’ve waited with them for that phone call telling them they’d made the team. The call that never came. I’ve watched coaches yell at them. I’ve watched them sit on the bench game after game. I’ve sat in emergency rooms as broken bones were set and swollen ankles x-rayed. I’ve sat here year after year, observing it all and wondering why.

The game ends. I stretch my legs and try to stomp life back into my frozen feet. The coach meets with the team. They yell some rallying cry and then descend on their parents. I notice Eddie’s dad has big grin and is slapping his son on the back. Matthew wants to get a hamburger. While I wait for him, the coach approaches me. I can’t bring myself to look at him.

“Mrs. Bodmer, I want you to know that’s a fine young man you have there.”

I wait for him to explain why he broke my son’s heart. “When I told your son he could start, he thanked me and turned me down. He told me to let Eddie start, that it meant more to him.”

I turn to watch my son stuffing his burger into his mouth. I realize then why I sit in the stands. Where else can I watch my son grow into a man?”

(By Judy Bodmer from Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul Copyright 1997 Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Jennifer Read Hawthorne, and Ron Marci Shimoff)

The Good Shepherd and the caring, loving parent have a lot of things in common, and

It is what God is like.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________