#easter 4a

Safe From HarmEaster 4A  |  John 10:1-10 Christians love the image of Jesus as a shepherd. It fits perfectly in the pocket for us — it is all directive and protective, supportive and confident — so when we see it, we say yes, that’s what we want. A leader who can protect us from the wolves, who can tell us what to do, keep us from hurting ourselves, and we can be assured that they have…

For Sunday  Easter 4A Collect O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Reading John 10:1-10 Reflection Jesus sometimes has trouble with mixing metaphors. I was taught to avoid this…

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash The security that comes through adversityEaster 4A  |  John 10:1-10 Let’s state from the top that this seems like a weird gospel for Easter. We’re used to hearing about Jesus appearing to the disciples, shocking them. I mean, the resurrection is kind of a big deal.  This story is from John 10, which is the chapter before Jesus goes to Bethany to raise Lazarus…

Photo by Judith Prins on Unsplash As I have noted before, this week’s gospel has us go back in time. To the time before the Passion, Crucifixion, and Easter. To the time before they even make it to Jerusalem. And what we find is an odd moment of teaching. Jesus talks about the good shepherd and then also talks about himself as a gate. These metaphors are fairly straightforward and easy to…

The Lord is my Shepherd Eastman Johnson, 1863

Some thoughts on this week's bulletin art

This weekend we celebrated Good Shepherd Sunday.  Less of an organized feast and more a recognition of the power of one of Jesus' metaphors, we call it Good Shepherd Sunday because of the way the lectionary and our collect center around the image.  One of these readings is our psalm, Psalm 23, The Lord is my Shepherd. Eastman Johnson was an American painter of the 19th century who was known for his portraiture and paintings of normal "everyday" life.  Because his style is similar to the Dutch master (use of darkness, articulated brushstrokes), he's sometimes called "the American Rembrandt" and the appellation makes some sense as he studied Rembrandt and other Dutch masters in The Hague for many years. Johnson's painting, The Lord is my Shepherd, was done in 1863 and pictures a black man with a Bible open on his lap.  Students of American history will correctly notice that 1863 is the year of President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and Johnson's painting was indeed made after that historic call for the abolition of slavery.  So what's the message of the painting in its historical context and for us today? Scholars aren't sure whether the man pictured is, because of his race, supposed to be a slave or, because of his clothing, supposed to be a Union soldier.  Either really works and interpretations either correctly remember the place of the African American at that moment of history.  Because of Johnson's title, we know that the soldier is meditating on Psalm 23, perhaps in reflection of Lincoln's Proclamation.  The way forward for this man, whether slave or soldier, is perilous, something to which the psalm speaks: "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil."  Understandable celebration of freedom, must be tempered by the realization of danger on the horizon. Threats to body, mind and status are something we can all understand even if they aren't as acute, for most of us, as they were to this man.  However, we can all take comfort in the knowledge that God's rod and staff are with us.  Like a Good Shepherd, God walks with us, and even in the moments of death and destruction, comforts us with the hope of everlasting life given in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

You’ve probably heard the story before. It’s told several ways, but often goes something like this.

There was a man, living near the Mississippi River. He was a faithful man. He served on the church board and the evangelism team and was there every Sunday. One particular Sunday, the conversation at coffee hour was about the hurricane in the gulf, still a ways out, but many were making plans. His…

John 10:1-10, “I am the Gate”

[May 11, 2014] We come now, on this fourth Sunday of Easter, to Jesus’ parable of the Good Shepherd. Jesus places much emphasis on the gate of the sheep pen (or fold), saying twice that he is not only the shepherd but the gate of the sheep, and describes how he has come to remove those sheep who are his (who recognize his voice) from the confines of the sheep pen and lead them out into open…