The 4th Sunday of Eastertide | Sunday 30 April 2023

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Today is Sunday the 30th of April, beginning the fourth week of Easter.

Paul Zach sings, ‘The Lord is My Shepherd’.

The Lord is my shepherd

The Lord is my shepherd

I shall not want

He leads my soul by the still waters

In the green pastures I am restored

Though I may walk through the dark valley

Of the shadow of death

I will not fear for your rod and staff comfort me

Goodness and mercy they will follow me

All of the days all the days of my life

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord

Forever and ever

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of John. This is the beginning of Jesus’ exhortation to his disciples, in which he presents himself to them as the “Good Shepherd”. As you listen to it, see if you can grasp what this important idea might mean to us.

John 10:1-10

‘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.

“The sheep follow him because they know his voice”. In which ways do you know the voice of the Lord?

“I came that they might have life and have it abundantly”. Can you think of ways in which you’ve experienced this in your life? How has Jesus brought you abundant life?

Now listen as the passage is read to you once more. What is the one thing that you feel God might be saying to you here?

Finally, can you gather together all the things that have come to your mind and heart during this time, and turn them into a prayer to the Lord?

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.