I AM who I am.

Sunday 3^rd May – Easter 4

Acts 2: 42-47. An idealised picture of the life of the early church which sits at odds with the “warts and all” depiction revealed by St. Paul in his letters, shouldn’t blind us to the fact that Acts is supposed to be encouraging and offers a vision of how things could be. It describes a community under Apostolic leadership who broke bread often and joyfully. And there is no way we can attest to the “common ownership” of things, which if it did happen had dissolved by Paul’s time, but generosity to the poor and needy must have been a tremendous draw (and remained so) and boost to the growth of the church

1 Peter 2: 19-25. A very difficult passage for modern Christians. It addresses in verse 18, slaves being obedient to masters (verse 18 is removed by the lectionary compilers). Without going in to the ubiquity of slavery in the Roman world and differences between first century slavery and modern forms, we can discern a deeper message contained within these household rules. In God’s household we are all slaves of God and the slaves can all expect to suffer unjustly. The household of God is where we find security and sustenance. It is not the language we would use nowadays but Paul himself says that we are either slaves to sin or slaves of God. Our example is of course Jesus who bore his suffering without lashing out. Suffering should never be sought, and if it is anything to do with us we should live in peace, but if our faith or way of life attracts opposition we should accept it willingly as a consequence of that faith.

John 10: 1-10. Most people find the “good shepherd” analogy a comforting picture of Jesus but that comes in verse 11 after today’s offering. Less well appreciated is Jesus the “door” or “gate” presented here today. But if you imagine that door open, and yourself as a captive, and that door reveals salvation, the image is immediately more appealing. We may also find that in these days of lockdown, the image of Jesus as an open door leading to freedom might speak more powerfully that it has ever done before.

When faced with such well loved and romantic images as Jesus being the “Good shepherd” or “the light of the world” or the “bread of life” Jesus as the gate or door of the sheepfold fares rather badly.

But I think at a time of lockdown it may strike people as being a more attractive image if you imagine yourself as a captive of circumstances, expectations, or more prosaically in your house and picture Jesus as an open door to salvation or freedom, whose authority ( his voice) you recognise.

In all of the “I am” sayings of course, John is deliberately demonstrating that Jesus’ words are God’s words because I AM is the name of God disclosed to Moses in Exodus 3:14.

“Tell them I AM has sent you”.

So I am the gate for the sheep is like saying “God in Christ is the gate for the sheep”

It is in and through Jesus, the creator of the universe, reveals his will, purposes, and character.

Jesus is the open door through whom all things will pass.

By revealing himself as “I AM” the divine reveals himself as not just another being, except bigger and better, but the source and ground of all life.

I am equals pure being itself so ultimately all life is an emanation of God. Non-dual Hinduism says the same thing, that all difference is an illusion that there is only one reality and that is Brahma.

Where I think (as far as I think I understand all this) we differ from Hindus is that in the afterlife, beyond all reincarnation, is that all difference dissolves into the one great soul, whereas from the example of Jesus, we believe that difference, the essential differentiation of personality survives and is therefore honoured. After all we do believe in “bodily” resurrection

For Christians, individuals matter and our difference is honoured, both in this life and in the afterlife (which are all of a piece).

We are also however communitarian. We are individuals bound together as one people under God. We have chosen this path of faith in Jesus as the unique revelation of God. In the Biblical language they used in the earliest centuries after Jesus, we have freely chosen to be “slaves” of God, which means accepting Jesus as our Lord, our exemplar, our King.

In the Acts reading we have an idealized picture of the early church pooling all their resources and re-distributing to the really needy, which as an economic model didn’t survive very long even if it ever did.

The Eucharistic community broke bread together under Apostolic leadership and were generous with their time talents and money. Jesus is seen as the host of these communities obviously, and as faithful slaves of God sought to emulate how God was revealed in Christ, which meant loving God and loving their neighbours as themselves.

In the end, in the Christian way, everything comes down to Love.