Abundant Living

 Sermon preached at Church of the Redeemer, Addison, NY, on the 4th Sunday of Easter, April 26, 2026:  Acts 2:42-47, Psalm 23, 1 Peter 2:19-25, John 10:1-10

Today I am 65 years old.  It is serendipity that this birthday falls not only on a Sunday, but on Good Shepherd Sunday, because this imagery has been a great gift to me over the years.  It has also sometimes been a challenge.

 Jesus says, at the end of the gospel reading, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  I have wrestled all my life with the question of just what is to have abundant life?

 Perhaps the most important lesson I have learned is that abundant life is not something you have, it is a way you live.  I should say that I am still learning what this means.

 Abundant living.

 Abundant living is living with Jesus as the gatekeeper: Jesus as the source of my safety, and the source of myself.  That is what it means that Jesus knows the name of his sheep. He calls them each by name and they know his voice and trust his voice.  In the culture in which Jesus lived, your name described your essence, who you were.  Think of your name as a verb.  What has it meant for 65 years to Michael?  When Jesus says he knows your name, it means he knows who you are in the fullness of your being.

 Going backwards through the readings this morning we can learn much more.  In the reading from First Peter, Peter speaks to people undergoing many trials and suffering.  He’s telling them to hang on, because they have a “shepherd and guardian of their souls.”  We should read the word “souls” used here as an equivalence to John’s use of names.  We have a shepherd and guardian of our essence, of who we are and who we are at least trying to be.

 I have lived through many struggles, trials.  I know that doesn’t make me special. It simply makes me human.  One of the most important things we must do as we continue to age is to learn that trials, struggles, times of suffering, are a part of life, and that trying to live without them is futile.  The only way to deal with our trials is to live through them. But we do not live through them alone.  We have a guardian, a shepherd, a companion who has gone through his own suffering to know more fully our own.

 Which leads us to the psalm, the beloved twenty-third.  So rich a text.  Here is a description of how Jesus is that guardian and shepherd, how we experience him as guardian and shepherd.  And, again, to follow the shepherd is to follow through life’s trials.  There’s lots of good news in this psalm:  a table spread, a cup running over, a house in which to dwell forever.  But there is also the reality of life:  “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.”  I do not walk alone.  The shepherd leads, the good shepherd, the shepherd who revives, who comforts, and who leads in a path governed by his own goodness and mercy.  The psalmist says this means, “I shall not fear.”  It’s a brave thing to say, but overall, I think the psalm is telling us that fear is not something we can do without, but it is something we can live through.  That has been a life lesson I have learned over and over again.

 And we end in this remarkable passage from the Acts of the Apostles. It is a description of what it was like to live in the earliest Christian community.  It is a powerful reminder that life is not something we can do alone—and certainly faith is not something we can do alone.  As Bishop Kara likes to say, “You can’t be a Christian by yourself. Community is required.”  And over the years, through trials personal and spiritual, it is community that has saved me over and over again.  Why do you think I kiss the Altar when I arrive at it and before I leave it?  It is because that Altar and the people I gather with around it has saved my life time and time again.

 So, to live life abundantly means …

 To know Jesus and, perhaps most importantly, to let him know me to the very core of who I am;

 To face times of trial and suffering not alone, but with the shepherd and guardian of our souls;

 To trust Jesus to lead me through the valley of the shadow of death, always with God’s goodness and mercy which helps me overcome my fears; and

 To live not only for myself, but for and with others, in a community that seeks to act toward one another as they know Jesus acts, as Jesus taught us,

 Love one another as I have loved you. By this everyone will know you follow me, if they see your love for one another.