Fields United Methodist Church

Thoughts Along the Way

Pastor Tom Joyce

August 24, 2021

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy, I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”  John 10:10

As I wrestle with the words of Jesus as he affirms that he offers “life, and have it abundantly,” my feet are in 2 realms, our temporal human life, and life eternal. Our human thoughts look at abundance as stuff or the tools necessary to gain stuff in this life. So what is the abundant life Jesus is offering as “the gate?” (John 10:7) What does “the gate” lead to? For millennia, people have been trying to figure out what abundant life looks like in this life and in the life to come. As St. Paul so clearly describes this dilemma, “for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face.” (I Corinthians 13:12) There is a point that our eternal abundance, that begins when we profess Jesus as Lord and Savior can be best understood in this life, but can only be imagined as a mystery and a miracle in life to come. All we know is that it is good! Anselm, in the 11^th century, pondered the very presence of God and how we know truly that God exists as “a being than which none greater can be thought.” (Anselm of Canterbury) Maybe abundance can be thought of in a similar way; God’s abundance is so great that we cannot even fathom the richness and the joy or think of anything better.  I think God does want us to enjoy our lives on earth with all its “human abundance.” But at the same time, God through Jesus the Christ, invites us to enter “the gate” of the abundance of God’s love offered not only in this life but in the life to come. Maybe celebrating true abundance is to follow the voice of Jesus, to accept the grace, the hope, the peace, and the joy of the Lord no matter if we are materially poor or wealthy. To hear the voice of God, we just need to stop talking so we can absorb the depth of Jesus’ love for us; to live in peace not out of a sense of duty but out of the same love that has been shared with us. Consider your life, and then consider the abundant life offered to you, today. Eternal life is not far off in the future but is lived in this life and is to be celebrated and shared; it is now, it is real, and it is Christ.