Brief synopsis of the readings: Our first reading from Acts begins with Peter and the other eleven addressing a crowd. Those gathered were told that they must repent and be baptized and 3000 did. In John’s Gospel Jesus spoke about the life of shepherds. Sheep thieves don’t go through the gate but find another way. The gatekeeper only allows the shepherd in and the sheep recognize his voice. The sheep will follow the voice they recognize and will run away from a strange voice. His followers, however, didn’t understand what he was saying and Jesus tried again. He told them that he is the sheep gate and anyone who enters through him will be safe. “A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

The first time I went to Las Vegas I sat down at a blackjack table and started on an incredible hot streak. After 15 minutes I was up $50.00 and did some quick calculations in my head. If I won $50.00 every 15 minutes that would translate to $200.00 per hour and at the end of an 8 hour day I would be $1600.00 ahead. Now obviously my streak didn’t keep going and in fairness when I walked away an hour later I was ahead. It only lasted a moment but I did enjoy feeling like someone who could go to work every day and come home with $1600.00 (or, if you’re keeping score, an annual salary of nearly a half million).

Our first reading takes place right after Pentecost. When we think of Pentecost we normally think about receiving the Holy Spirit and how much we were told it was supposed to mean when we were confirmed as teenagers. For those of us who had to be interviewed before we were confirmed it meant trying to memorize a reasonable answer to the question of what Pentecost meant.

So what did Peter and the other 11 think? It’s hard to say but I have to think it was a heady experience. After gaining the ability to speak and understand different languages Peter told the crowd they must repent and be baptized. By the end of the day they added 3000 followers. Using my blackjack logic, and given the world population at that time was estimated to be 300 million it would take about 27 years for them to convert the entire planet. Of course it wasn’t that easy but 2000 years later about 2 billion people identify as Christians and so you have to give props to the Twelve.

So how did they (and do we) do it? Frankly it’s almost never been by speaking to and converting groups of 3000. It’s been smaller groups whose hearts burned when they heard the true voice. And while talking about sheep, shepherds, sheepfolds and gatekeepers don’t translate to most of us, they did make sense to the listeners of that day. But what I find interesting is that Jesus normally speaks of himself as the shepherd, even the “Good Shepherd.” Here he is the gatekeeper. What does this mean?

Well I did a little digging (ie, Google) and I learned that within the sheepfold (the protected area that keeps the sheep from predators) there may be several small herds each with a shepherd. The role of the gatekeeper is to ensure that nothing sneaks in that isn’t supposed to be there and he is the gate because he sleeps across the entrance.

When we think of gatekeepers today we often think about people who keep out other people. Think about the person outside a trendy nightclub with a clipboard. I’m certain there are some people who relish the power but I can’t imagine anything more miserable. His job isn’t to protect the nightclub’s safety so much as their exclusivity; they spend the evening listening to desperate and lame reasons why those excluded should be included. We also call him the bouncer because he’s supposed to “bounce out” the undesirables.

And if we think of gatekeepers with modern sensibilities we miss the point. Once inside the sheepfold the gatekeeper was not about keeping out other sheep. Jesus is not God’s bouncer. On the contrary, his job was to keep out threats to life and safety. So if Jesus is the gatekeeper what is he telling us about him?

As Christians we keep landing on this point but when Jesus came back from the dead it wasn’t an individual resurrection. It was for us all. And gatekeeping was about ensuring that all who seek safety have a safe place in the sheepfold. In our first reading Peter and his followers didn’t look into the crowd and decide who should be admitted and who shouldn’t. They threw the gates open for anyone who wished to come in. All they asked is that those gathered want to enter the sheepfold.

I say this because we sometimes think ourselves the gatekeepers as if it was our job to decide who gets in and who is excluded. When I was a youth minister I heard my pastor tell a group of teenagers that if they came to youth group only because they had a crush on someone that wasn’t a good enough reason. After he left I was able to do damage control and hopefully we didn’t lose anyone but teenage crushes were often our best growth plan.

Our faith has never been about exclusion or purity. It’s never been about people who look alike, speak alike or think alike. When we live our best discipleship we don’t stay comfortable. Look it’s not easy these days and we are called to embrace words like interracial, homosexual, and nonbinary. We know next to nothing about the 3000 who were welcomed in that day long ago and far away and maybe that’s the point.

If Jesus truly is the gatekeeper that means we don’t have to be. And if you play blackjack, always split aces.