Open the Gate for Someone to Come Home - Fourth Sunday of Easter
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
April 26, 2026
One of the regular joys here at Grace when our
preschoolers are around is watching learn to care for each other as a group. It
seems to be a particular joy for them when they get to be the person who holds
the door open for the group to pass through. Getting to be the “door holder” is
a sought after thing. Recently as I was watching this unfold I began to wonder
at what point in our lives do a lot of us stop being eager to be door-holders.
Maybe you’ve had the experience somewhere like heading into the Sheetz and
someone could’ve held the door open, but instead they let it close even though
they saw you. And it can seem like a small thing, but on a bad day, or when your
hands are full, even those small things can color how we see each other and how
we feel.
When Michael and I were hiking St Cuthbert’s Way in the
UK a couple years ago, big parts of the path traverse agricultural land, quite
literally the spaces for sheep. One of the functional equivalents of holding
doors is holding open one of the many gates you must unlatch and re-latch as
you travel. The terrain was not as smooth as it seemed from a distance, there
were piles to dodge and at one point we stood in a field looking at three gates
and not one of them looked like the one. They went three different ways. Only
one was going to take us home for the night. Someone came along and guided us,
and they even opened the gate.
A while ago I was visiting the Hartzlers and their lambs
and goats and one of the greatest kind things was that someone knows the gate
can be tricky and said, “Let me help with that.” These experiences have re-framed
my understanding of the idea of a gatekeeper.
In our modern world, we often hear the word “gatekeeper”
and assume it’s a way of describing who we keep out, what we try to prevent or
to deny. It has become often a very defensive word and a negative one.
We’ve heard the gospel so many times- Jesus is the good
shepherd. The sheep know the sound of his voice. He leads and cares for them. In
lamb season, you can hear the chaos of voices, but lambs and their Moms really
do recognize each other. I was holding a lamb for snuggles and the Mom kept
calling and pacing because there I was with her baby on the other side of the
gate. Her lamb kept calling back. Mom just would not rest until her lamb was
back with her inside the pen because with a stranger, the lamb might not get to
eat, or be comforted or sheltered.
The gate was the key to reuniting them. The way that
happened was that one of us had to open the gate.
That little realization has really sat with me this year.
Yes, Jesus is the good shepherd and the gate who will bring out his sheep and
who comes that the sheep may have life and have it abundantly. Yes, all of us
are sheep, but we are also the gate-keepers in the best way. The gatekeeper
opens the gate for the shepherd, so the sheep hear his voice and are led into
life.
As I look around the world, on any given day any of us
can be too self-focused to open doors or gates for someone else. I’m not saying
that we never see others, but we all know that distraction and anxiety can keep
us from opening actual gates and doors, and similarly the gate or the door of
our hearts so others can encounter Jesus and know abundant life.
It’s why our reading from Acts is so astounding- people
have been the same for a very long time. We hear about people so devoted to God
and each other that awe came upon everyone. There were signs and there were
wonders being done through them because they embodied opening the gate. Praying
together opens the gate to relationships with God and others. Studying together
opens the gate to learning and curiosity and discovery. Gathering together
opens the gate to compassion, solidarity, sharing and joy. Breaking the bread,
which is a way of describing communion, opens the gate to grace and forgiveness,
peace and unity. All these help us remember what God has said about our world
and ourselves, and they lead us into perceiving our belovedness, our belonging
and our future.
The gate leads us to experience the wideness of mercy and
abundance and not the smallness of fear and exclusion. The gate leads us to
moments of glad and generous hearts and the goodwill of all the people, Luke
writes. Jesus is the gate into the same
kinds of things we hear about in Psalm 23- not being in want, receiving rest,
being restored. Being guided. Being accompanied through dark times, loss
and fear. Knowing comfort. Being fed and being sustained when we feel
surrounded by adversaries. Experiencing healing and goodness and mercy and
having a place to dwell. Our gate into these experiences is Jesus, our good
shepherd. All of these experiences allow us to find our way home to God because
the shepherd leads us there.
And the gatekeeper opens the gate. Jesus is not the
gatekeeper- we are.
Each and every time we gather as this part of the flock,
we are I believe in essence training to be the ones who take turns opening the
gate for Jesus to care for all of us sheep, just like the kiddos take turns
holding open the door they will all go through at the preschool.
As much as I love to sing “I just wanna be a sheep” and
think about Jesus’ care for ME like I do with the preschoolers, I think that so
much of Jesus’ teaching does two things that take us deeper. Jesus calms us and
cares for us so we can believe in God’s care AND he shows us a participatory
partnership with him for the sake of the world. It’s a partnership that means
we can all experience abundance and life.
It sounds so simple when it is just a door to a
classroom, or giving a lamb back to a Mom on a farm after cute snuggles. It is
so much more to contemplate embodying Psalm 23 or Acts as real life. You know,
in the Hebrew Scripture, Leviticus tells us of the law of Jubilee where every
seven years all debts were canceled, all lands taken were restored and all
harvests were shared. Scholars will tell you there is no hard and fast evidence
the law of Jubilee was ever actually observed.
Scholars will also tell you there is no proof that the
early Christians ever acted like Acts said they did either. Are they myths?
Well, it surely would make the idea that “we do as Scripture says” easier to
dismiss then in such instances wouldn’t it?
What if instead, in addition to celebrating that Jesus is
our Good Shepherd, we hear Jesus call to us with loving persistence and follow HIS
voice? That voice tells us that in our trusting the power of the Holy Spirit,
God can and will do signs and wonders through us when we follow our shepherd. What
if we take in the beauty of knowing that because we take turns opening the gate,
all God’s creatures don’t have to run in fear, but can instead be led home.? This
week, whenever the world has you distressed, stop and ask Jesus to shepherd you
home. But then, ask the Spirit to lead you to where you can be the gate for
someone else to come home. Listen, our shepherd is calling.
Amen.
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2026 All rights reserved. May
not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
Sermon Texts:
Acts 2:42-47
42 [The baptized] devoted
themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the
breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 Awe came upon everyone because many
wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in
common; 45 they would sell their possessions and
goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple,
they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And
day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not be in want.
2 The Lord makes me lie down in green pastures
and leads me beside still waters.
3 You restore my soul,
O Lord,
and guide me along right pathways for
your name’s sake.
4 Though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil;
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they | comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the
presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil, and my cup is running over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
John 10:1-10
[Jesus said:] 1 “Very truly, I tell you,
anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another
way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the
sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear
his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them,
and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him
because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with
them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you,
I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the
sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will
come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill
and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
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