Vicar Brett Wilson – Easter 4a – John 10:1-10 – 5/15/11 – CELC Lancaster
The other day I was at the grocery store, and needed butter, or margarine spread. I bought what was on sale, and didn't think too much of it. But at home as I spread my bagel, I realized the label said in large print – “best life” and in smaller print – buttery spread. I thought – what did I buy? What kind of name is “bestlife?” I did a little research. These “bestlife” products are a part a program headed by Bob Greene, Oprah's physical trainer. The buttery spread products are the only ones with the bestlife name. But there is a whole line of bestlife approved foods, which get the bestlife logo as a seal on the package. For a fee, you can get on the Best Life diet plan. Bob Greene has also written a book called “The Life You Want!” subtitle, “Get Motivated, Lose Weight, & Be Happy.”I looked this all up though, because I wanted to know what was actually IN this spread I bought, and stumbled upon something quite different. I may be buying a butter-flavored, vegetable oil based spread, but is that what they're selling? Or is Greene and really, the whole industry, trying to sell you your bestlife?
But I should mention, for sake of not infringing, that “bestlife” - it's one word – is actually trademarked! Your best life, it's trademarked!
This product reflects a trend that has captured marketing since the 1970s. That's when advertisements started to move from a simple description of the product, and its features, to describing a lifestyle. From coffee advertisements which simply show the product, to now, like the recent Folger's commercial with a father and daughter in the kitchen, the morning after her engagement. Only at the end does the screen show the coffee alone, just for a couple seconds, with the jingle we probably all know – the best part of wakin' up . . .
This is called emotional branding, and it is inescapable. The products take a backseat to the lifestyle being sold to us. While the buttery spread, coffee, or shoes, or music player may be perfectly useful, can it really create this best life?
How would we even know if we had the best life?
Well, best implies most – biggest, fastest, newest, strongest. And it always involves competition. Ads and the selling of lifestyle ask you – is your cup half full, or half empty? And the trick is, the ads are designed to make you feel like something's missing, like your cup is definitely half empty. You are missing this. You are not full without it. This will fill you up, give you life. But then, even if you think your cup is at least half full, and things are going ok, you glance over at your neighbor, and with the refrains of “new” and “best” everywhere, you think – man, their cup is fuller than mine! And like the Ben Folds song goes, “there's always someone cooler than you.”
And as if filling our cups to have the “best” life wasn't hard enough on its own, layoffs, broken relationships, and even the smallest setbacks seem to threaten to tip your cup clean over. Or at least spill some of the hard-earned life out of it.
Perhaps these are some of the thieves and bandits Jesus is talking about. Sneaking into the herd, selling us our “best life” as if they had it to offer.
Jesus says “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. . . I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Jesus came to promise you life, abundant life. Notice that Jesus doesn't promise the richest life, or the perfect life, or the best life. Jesus promises abundant life.
It could also be said as “exceeding” life, or life “beyond measure.” It's life not about measuring up to your neighbor, or being the best on some scale. Jesus offers you life beyond any measure. Life beyond any competition, beyond any comparison. Jesus, who says “I am the gate,” says a few chapters later, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
Jesus came that you have life, and have it abundantly. Abundant life is life overflowing.
The world says your cup is half empty, and that you are in a race to have it even a one percent fuller than your neighbor. Jesus says – forget percent – your cup runs over with abundant life. Jesus came and conquered death, so that we may have abundant life, overflowing with God's grace.
Christ came that all of the flock may have abundant life, an overflowing cup. When we consider this image of Christ as the shepherd, or the gate, it helps to remember that shepherds herded their sheep across open fields. The sheepfold or pen was an enclosure that the shepherd would bring his whole herd to at night or to keep them safe – not to sort or keep any bad sheep out. The shepherd calls all the sheep into the fold, to keep them safe, an overflowing invitation to all that would hear the familiar voice. Jesus as the shepherd and gate of the sheep isn't the border guard or the interrogating bouncer to the doors to heaven. Jesus is the guardian who walks beside the flock and like a mother swinging open the back door, calls each child in a long string of names – maryjohnsarahtomlarryYOU – dinnnnerrr! And like children, instinctually, we come running home, to dinner, to safety to abundant life with Jesus.
Ancient sheepfolds were often stone enclosures with no door at all – the gate was the shepherd himself, who would lay across the entrance. Jesus has this deep love for us, the shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, that we may have abundant, overflowing life.
On Thursday nights, another gate opens. At 5:15 each week, Christ Lutheran opens its doors. All are welcomed into safety, and abundance, offering a taste of the overflowing life God gives us. This is God's voice calling all in, calling us to serve, calling all to overflowing life. At the community meal it isn't about each person getting the most or the best, but offering each abundance, to share God's overflowing love. In Jesus our Lord, all competition is broken, in holy communion we see God's overflowing grace for us – each receives the same, but it is abundant life, abundant love. Whenever we open our doors and partner in Christ's name we share God's abundance – with the NA groups that meet here, with partnering with Kingdom Builders and ICAN.
I have heard your abundant life, Christ moving in you, in how you share your faith together. You are the gate too, welcoming others in to God's overflowing life for them. Jesus overflows life for you, and you witness to that when you give out of your abundance, in giving your resources, skills, time, or a listening ear.
The thing about the “best” is that it never stays the same, it is always out of reach, always says your cup is half empty. But Jesus laid down his life to call you to abundant life – a cup overflowing. It starts now, in trust with the one who is the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus giving you a cup now overflowing to life eternal for you.
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