Sermon for Vespers on Monday October 3, 2022 - The Narrow Gate

 2022-10-3 Vespers 

Deuteronomy 4:1-20 Matthew 7:13-29

In the name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. 

As I am interested in farming and ranching, I notice fencing and gates. I don’t think that my property or garden will get much bigger than it is, and I won’t have much more than chickens.  But, I do like to look around and think about possibilities. When one has animals, barriers of some kind or another become very important. And if you have a barrier, such as a fence or a low wall, you want to be able to get in and out with ease.  So, a gate is important too.  Gates come in all manner of shapes and sizes. The size that is chosen depends on the purpose of the opening. Will small sheds, tractors, front end loaders, or pick up trucks and trailers, need to come through? There are sizes for that?  If it is a corral or a chute, there are other sizes.  If it is just for one animal or person at a time, there are those sizes too.  The purpose of the opening is what dictates the size of the gate you will use.  

As far as God’s Word is concerned, there are only two sizes of a gate. The New Testament reading took us into the last words of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus presents us with two choices.  There is a narrow gate, then there is a wide gate.  There are no other choices. It is one or the other.  

Jesus is saying what he, the Father, and the Holy Spirit, have been saying since the Garden of Eden.  It’s never 3 or 5 choices.  It’s never, door 1, 2, or 3. Or gate 1, 2, or 3. It is either this or all of that. 

In the Garden of Eden, you may eat of all of the fruit trees in the garden, except for this one here.  This is forbidden. There are really only two choices.  The OT reading from Deuteronomy focuses on the ideal choice of living with the instructions that God gave to Moses and that Moses then gave to the people. But, if we go to Deuteronomy 30, then the two choices before the people are laid out plainly, juxtaposed. 

15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” (Deuteronomy 30:15-20) 

Life, abundant, joyful, purposeful life lays with the Lord. In faith, follow the instructions the Lord has given his people, and all will be well. But, if you turn away from the Lord and keep going, then you shall perish. Your misery will begin in this life and continue into the next. 

Another place where the contrast is made explicit is Psalm 1. 

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

Do we want to be blessed? Do we want to have a life that is fruitful and rich and multi-textured? It begins with faith in the God who has brought you out of bondage.  It continues by meditating on God’s Word and by worship. 

Do you want to do your own thing? Be your person? Make your own path and choose your gods? Well, you may think you are forging your own path, but it’s actually quite well worn, and it does not lead to where you think it will. 

It does not matter what the gods are. It does not matter if the god is your own image or an ideal or a philosophy or way of life or wealth or a god with a Canaanite, Babylonian, Roman, Greek, or North American name.  Following that god will only lead to wickedness and death. 

Jesus now articulates the same choice that has always been there using the image of the gate.  The narrow gate is the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The narrow gate is stated in the Bible, in the liturgy of the church, in the words of the Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. We are called to the narrow gate by the Holy Spirit who teaches us to hear the voice of our Good Shepherd Jesus Christ.  Jesus tells us in John 10, “2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” 

Just in case someone has tried to convince you that there are many paths to heaven, Jesus says unequivocally in John 14,  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus and his cross, is the way through the one gate, the narrow gate. If there is any way except for Jesus who is God Incarnate, born of the virgin Mary, then that is through the much wider gate where the crowd is going through.  

We have been called to follow Jesus and to follow him through the narrow gate.  The narrow gate is not always easy, but it is better.  At the narrow gate, we bask in the love of our heavenly Father, who on account of the cross of the Son has declared us righteous.  Wrapped in the righteousness of Christ, we go forward with love for all of our neighbors.  Our faith is active in love. 

In the name of the Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.