Roadmap to Success
John 10:1-10
What do you use to measure whether your life is successful? Job title, how much money you make, how much notoriety you produce in the tabloids? As the tax deadline looms this next week, would you consider your life to be an “abundant” life – or does Uncle Sam and Aunt Minnesota take all of your abundance?
Most of us spend most of our time working a job. Patrick Lencioni, in his book, “The Three Signs of a Miserable Job” notes the things we usually think of as making a job successful can also be the things that make our jobs and lives miserable. In fact, a Gallop poll noted that 77% of Americans hated their jobs. It is not a healthy place to stay for long. Lencioni says the three things that make people most unhappy in their work is anonymity (not being appreciated and recognized for good work), irrelevance (not feeling that what you do matters to anyone else) and lack of goals (not having a way to measure whether something has been successfully completed).
Our text is from the chapter in John’s gospel where Jesus calls himself the “good shepherd” which would have been such a hilarious term to the original hearers of this story. We have idealized shepherds as noble members of society when the reality is they were usually poor, brutalized by weather and threatened by predators after their flocks, plus the townspeople considered them to be thieves and lowlifes – and they often were. For Jesus to put “good” and “shepherd” together was as oxymoronic as “deafening silence” “neutral bias” or “incorrect facts”
Jesus shows us three guideposts we can use to mark our journey to be successful people.
Being known
Right before our reading for today is the story of the blind man who is healed. The man in this story is never named. The religious leaders argue over whether rules were broken in the healing. In response to this begins Jesus’ description of the good shepherd – a shepherd who calls the sheep by name. This shepherd knows the sheep well and they respond to the shepherd’s voice because they trust the shepherd.
In the GLBTQ community, often one of the biggest breakthroughs we make as individuals is when we are willing to be known – when we celebrate our love, our families, our lives, our community. Being known means that you no longer allow fear to be the determining factor in the choices you make with your life.
In the recovery community, when you introduce yourself at your first meeting and add “I’m an alcoholic or I’m addicted to meth or sex or gambling” speaking those words drives away the power of the fear that is often the fuel of addiction.
Our church building stands at this busy intersection day in and day out witnessing to the fact that a radically inclusive faith community is present within. We are here for the entire world to see, because being invisible is deadly. Being known helps us develop integrity, courage and a sense of being part of the larger whole.
Being relevant
Slowly our world seems to be waking up to the ways religion, and Christianity in particular, has been hijacked by ideologues who are fighting over questions that nobody cares about and not contemplating solutions to the world’s problems. Do we really care how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Is it important that everyone be baptized the exact same way? How can we have a discussion of traditional family values that don’t include poverty, discrimination, sexism and economics? Do we really need a set of religious rules that divides the world up into black and white, good and evil, in and out?
Or are the questions people really care about things like:
How do make sense of human cruelty?
How does your faith help you make the world a better place?
How do you keep going after the death of a loved one, after a pink slip, or after betrayal?
People today are stuffing themselves with spiritual junk food while what our world really wants to know is that God’s presence can make a difference. Healing from past trauma is possible. Forgiveness can set you free from a bitter cycle of hate and retribution.
The experiences we have had as spiritually-aware people who have been transformed by God’s presence around us is as relevant to our world as this morning’s headlines.
Find a ministry
Those of you that have gone through membership class here at All God’s Children remember that we emphasize the fact that every one of us is a gifted and blessed child of God and that we must find ways to use our gifts to bless our world. Those gifts can be used through one of the church’s many ministry teams or it can be something you do through your own unique situation.
1. Over 80 people made it possible to call Rev. Provis.
2. Almost 200 people participate in a ministry team through our church
3. More than 200 gather in recovery groups each week in our building, helping each other heal.
The point is that to be successful and effective as Christians we must use our gifts to create a better world.
Memorial service for Curtis Hulitt, family and friends shared stories of his life. I wish I had known him.
Don’t wait until you’re gone to realize you have an abundant life. You are known by God, who has gifted you with the relevant skills and insights to create a better world. Use your life as a ministry and share the abundance of who you are. The powerful may even snicker, but God calls it success.
Sources:
www.homileticsonline.com Three Signs of an Abundant Life, April 2008.
http://www.topskills.com/oxymorons.htm#Definite
http://www.tablegroup.com/images/speaking/cover_miserable.jpg