This week’s Gospel reading is from John 10:1-10. As you read through it, consider how it illuminates your own life and experiences - then share your thoughts with us. We’d love to hear from you!
“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. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Excellent comments and thank you both for the insights.
It occurs to me, David, that having a home base and being invited out to graze and then nudged home to rest and regenerate ourselves also offers us the possibility to blur the "us/them", the "in/out" dichotomy at least a little if we keep to the core of the invitation to life offered here.
It also occurs to me that careful, heart-centred listening is the important aspect of hearing, beyond partisan preferences, and recognizing the life that Jesus opens to us.
It is interesting that the disciples, locked in the upper room, hear (and see) the resurrected Jesus who "breaks in" and speaks to them. They recognize the shepherd's voice, and go out into the world again.
And yes, there are teachers and professors that opened gates and invited me into new pastures and that is a grace for which I am very thankful.
I stumbled over this reading. It's like the metaphors shift, or the anticipated unravelling of the images shifts as we move from one paragraph to the next.
Two things stuck with me:
1) The calling of sheep by name, sheep knowing the voice of the Shepherd and following. I could not help but think of Jesus and Mary Magdalene at the tomb, where she suddenly knows Jesus when her name is spoken.
2) The sheep can go in and out, and we are to have abundant Life. Freedom and Abundance. I am not sure what that means, but it seems a long way off from the "gospel" of sin and weakness that I grew up with. Much more like good news.
Paul, when you observe that "the sheep can go in and out," something opens up for me, in connection with something that also came up in Thursday's sharing circle--this isn't a sheepfold that's meant to divide the world into "us" and "them," but to give us a home base. And for Jesus to call himself the gate, not the shepherd, invites us to recognize as shepherds in our lives all those who have both led us out to pasture and nudged us home. And to be such shepherds to others.
In my own life, I think of the teachers I had in elementary and secondary school who in some very real senses saved my life.
I'm so used to thinking of Jesus as the Good Shepherd that I'm thrown off balance when he calls himself, not the shepherd, but the gate.
Me too. I am with the "did not understand" group, and the explanation that followed wasn't much better.
Excellent comments and thank you both for the insights.
It occurs to me, David, that having a home base and being invited out to graze and then nudged home to rest and regenerate ourselves also offers us the possibility to blur the "us/them", the "in/out" dichotomy at least a little if we keep to the core of the invitation to life offered here.
It also occurs to me that careful, heart-centred listening is the important aspect of hearing, beyond partisan preferences, and recognizing the life that Jesus opens to us.
It is interesting that the disciples, locked in the upper room, hear (and see) the resurrected Jesus who "breaks in" and speaks to them. They recognize the shepherd's voice, and go out into the world again.
And yes, there are teachers and professors that opened gates and invited me into new pastures and that is a grace for which I am very thankful.
I stumbled over this reading. It's like the metaphors shift, or the anticipated unravelling of the images shifts as we move from one paragraph to the next.
Two things stuck with me:
1) The calling of sheep by name, sheep knowing the voice of the Shepherd and following. I could not help but think of Jesus and Mary Magdalene at the tomb, where she suddenly knows Jesus when her name is spoken.
2) The sheep can go in and out, and we are to have abundant Life. Freedom and Abundance. I am not sure what that means, but it seems a long way off from the "gospel" of sin and weakness that I grew up with. Much more like good news.
Paul, when you observe that "the sheep can go in and out," something opens up for me, in connection with something that also came up in Thursday's sharing circle--this isn't a sheepfold that's meant to divide the world into "us" and "them," but to give us a home base. And for Jesus to call himself the gate, not the shepherd, invites us to recognize as shepherds in our lives all those who have both led us out to pasture and nudged us home. And to be such shepherds to others.
In my own life, I think of the teachers I had in elementary and secondary school who in some very real senses saved my life.
That is beautiful...the openness of the gate and the movement caught my attention, but it wasn't where I stayed. Glad you did.