Fourth Sunday of Easter – The Voice and the Gate
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| Beauty in our Hills |
Really!? It’s almost impossible for us to see ourselves as sheep, too simply simplistic for us sophisticates.
Perhaps the coronavirus pandemic might open us, even if a wee bit, to our vulnerabilities, to all that we cannot see in a world which blinds us with so many perspectives. Jesus, at times we are enchanted with him as the Shepherd, our Shepherd, your Shepherd – when we get in touch with the longing, the lostness, and the Love.
The Voice, the calling, the Leadership of the Shepherd sometimes overshadows today’s reading (John 10:1-10). The Voice directs our attention to the Gate – the emphasis of these verses. I muse over the benign translation, vs 3 “He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.” The word is “drives” – compels. Like what Jesus did in the temple with the money changers!
The Gate: It was after the sheep were driven out that they would heed the voice of their shepherd. When everything is all good and cozy, the shepherd could sing or yodel and the sheep would stand there, looking, chewing their cud or lie there ruminating. But once driven out, then that Voice mattered.
The Gate makes the difference, the difference between comfort and chaos, and whether or not the voice is the Voice! You don’t need a voice or even want one if you’re safe. But when you’re out there among the predators, looking for green pastures, calm pure water, ‘wondering where the lions are’ (in the presence of enemies) – then the Shepherd is your bond.
So, we are familiar with the two sides: inside and outside. What’s the connection? The Conduit? The Gate, the passage way, the via, the “through which” – the dynamic portal – from and from the easy, lazy, safety, to and from the difficult, anxious, challenges and mysteries, and back.
We would die in the comfort of the fold, and we would die in the wilds of the wilderness were it not for the shepherd. It’s going there, getting there, and coming back – the moving through, the through whom: into the world, into the fold. It’s how we move, change, transform from one arena to the other. That Gate, there is where we want a someone to Be, the I am – water that slakes thirst; food that sates hunger; life that lives; a shepherd that Shepherds.
~Prepared by Tim, Core Community, Qu’Appelle House of Prayer~
We are grateful for this response to Tim's reflection today, from one of our very appreciated Blog followers. We encourage and welcome others to also leave a comment.
ReplyDelete• Adapted From- The Song of the Bird by Anthony de Mello
A sheep found a hole in the fence
and crept through it.
She wandered far
and lost her way back.
Then she realized that she was
being followed by a wolf. She ran
and ran, but the wolf kept chasing
her, until the shepherd came
and rescued her and carried her
lovingly back to the fold.
In spite of everyone’s urging
to the contrary, the shepherd refused
to nail up the hole in
the fence.
From Joyce Rupp in Fragments of Your Ancient Name
ReplyDeleteSHEPHERD
I have been in that deep valley
When the last bit of joyfulness
Was sucked out of my spirit
By the ripping winds of desolation.
In those times of extended anguish
The memory of green pastures
With you shepherding my way
Brought me strength to go on.
Shepherd, now, others in need
As they stumble on their dark road.
Today: I unite my heart with those in gloomy valleys.
Jesus threw the gates (some say more appropriately translated as "door") wide open. Wide, wide open. Just like his heart. Welcoming anyone and everyone who would take the leap to step inside - or out.
ReplyDelete