When you think the word ‘church’ what comes to mind? One of these? The church building? The bulletin with times of services and notices of activities, representing what the church does? A group of people?

I expected you would say the people – you know the ‘right’ answer by now!.

Next question: would people in the community around us have given the same answer? Or would they probably say the building or the services? They may not understand that the people are the Church.

This morning’s reading (John 10:1-10) gives us another image for the Church: sheep with their shepherd. Jesus was referring to a shepherd who looked after the sheep day and night, who would lead them from the front, not herding them from behind; who would call and his sheep would come to him. What are your experiences or observations of flocks/droves of sheep and sheep dog trials?

The Church belongs to the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-5)
Jesus described himself as the Good Shepherd and all those who belonged to him would know his name and would trust him. That’s one way to describe the Church – the people who belong to the Good Shepherd. That’s why the Church praises God together, to remind one another of who we are and to whom we belong.

The Church is kept safe by the Gate (John 10:7-9)
Jesus went on to describe himself as the gate of the sheepfold. This kept the sheep safe in the fold, safe from wandering away or being harmed. Jesus wants to keep the Church safe from roaming away from him and from one another and safe from those who would seek to harm
them or cause them to turn away from him those he called thieves and robbers, who climb over the fence – people who would try to draw us away from following Jesus and take us captive to their ideologies and philosophies.

This week I attended a Church Leaders’ Day at Laidlaw College. The theme was ‘Ministering in the midst of life’s crises.’ We were in the thick of discussing the hard things that people have to face when one of the presenters said, “Welcome to the real world.” This is the world in which we live and this is the world in which we follow Jesus (not a pretend world of our own wishfull thinking). Jesus knows this world and he knows the way through it. Others know the world to a degree but they don’t know the way through it and they don’t shepherd and care for people the way Jesus does. The real world is often tough, painful and seemingly meaningless – no wonder people try to escape from it. We don’t need to escape because Jesus is in the real world and he feeds his sheep with joy, healing and purpose. This is the kind of thing John meant when he wrote about overcoming the world.

That’s why it is always important to read the Bible when a local church meets together, to remind one another of what it is that we believe, the truth of God, and how he wants us to live. Let’s read a few verses from the Bible – like Psalm 23. True words of comfort and encouragement.

The Church is given life by the Life-giver (John 10:10)
Jesus wanted to give life, full life, abundant life to those who belonged to him. This was what the early Church experienced, as we read from Acts 2:42-47. We see there that
the early believers devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers. We read that they had all things – not some things, not a lot of things, but ALL things – in common. We read that all things would be redistributed to any as they had need. They spent much time together and in the Temple. And day by day, God added to their numbers.

Why did people flock to this early church community? Just look at them. They shared everything with one another, including the most valuable commodity of all: time. “They spent much time together.” Isn’t it amazing? We find it nearly impossible to find the time to spend an hour or two once a week with one another, whereas they spent “much time together.”

There are two things to consider in this. First, we tend to say to ourselves, “Things were much simpler back then.” I think not. While the Jews kept Saturday for worshipping God, the Greeks and the Romans ran their businesses like we do today: open all hours and all days. Just keeping life going takes a lot of time. Also, anyone who has lived with just five or ten people who hold all things in common can tell you that it is no simple matter to sort out people’s needs and share the goods and possessions accordingly.

The second thing we need to think about is the abundant life Jesus promised. We see here that the abundance promised consisted primarily of time shared with others, not an abundance of things. As Jesus asserts time and time again, spending all our time on the acquisition, accumulation, and consumption of things leaves precious little time for fellowship, relationships, and community. The world of acquisition, accumulation, and consumption is a lonely life, an isolated life, where one spends a lot of time building and filling barns, houses and self-storage sheds with more and more stuff. There is no time for fellowship, relationships, and community in such a scheme, let alone time to make room for the Lord to “add to our number” those who are being saved.

God sent Jesus to help us to understand all of this. God sent Jesus to call into community people who want to live this way. People who want to know God’s love and care for them.

We all want to be those people who “come in and go out.” We all want to experience that kind of freedom. We all want to experience the kind of care and protection described by Jesus and by Luke in the Book of Acts. Jesus is the one who promises this kind of protection to all who desire to be part of his flock.

It hinges on our stewardship of time, and especially our observance of Sabbath time. We are to become those people who “spend much time with one another in the Temple.” We are to become the kind of people who read the Bible, take communion, and pray together – not alone, not by ourselves, but in community, in fellowship, in relationship with God in Christ and in relationship to one another.

The good news, sisters and brothers, is that our God wants us to experience an abundance of all that really matters. Our God wants to take care of all of our needs. Our God has supplied us with a particular care for all of our needs by the giving and sharing of our gifts in community. When people see us living in this way, the Lord will indeed add to our number day by day.

This is a very different picture of the Church from a building or a series of services or activities. This is a group of people, full of life, being part of each other’s lives.

Question
Does this ring a bell for you? Is this the kind of community you would like to be part of? Do we fit the picture or do we need to change in some way? What would you like to see more of in the church community? What could be your part in helping that to develop? As you think about this I invite you to talk with God about it.

[With acknowledgements to Scripture Union and The Rev. Kirk Alan Kubicek who is rector of St. Peter’s Church in Ellicott City, MD, USA.]