The Gate of the Good Shepherd

 Scripture: Acts 2:42-47  • Psalm 23  • 1 Peter 2:19-25  • John 10:1-10

This is Good Shepherd Sunday in Lectionary Year A. This year we read the first part of the Good Shepherd story in John's gospel, verses 1-10. In Year B, we read verses 11-18. In this year's lesson, Jesus is telling his diverse audience about the shepherd who is the one who enters by the gate, who calls the sheep by name, whose sheep know him, and that he is the gate of the sheep. 

 At another point, Jesus says that he who enters by him (the Gate) will be saved. He leads the sheep in and out, and they will find pasture. Read this in conjunction with the 23rd Psalm. Jesus says that all who came before him were thieves and bandits, who came to destroy, but the sheep did not listen to them. In contrast, Jesus said he came that they might have life, and life abundantly.

Does this mean, as we hear so many Christians say, that Jesus only offers salvation and life to a select few? What does Jesus mean when he says he is the Gate? Read The Rev. Whitney Rice's "The Gate," and Debie Thomas' "I am the Gate."

Commenting on the passage from Acts, Dan Clendenin writes about finding the sacred in every day living in "Miracles and the Mundane."

The picture above is of the fence and Gate to Alex's garden. We worked together to clear, hoe, plant and sow the garden, and even to paint the fence and gate. Working in the garden helps me understand Jesus as the Gate, as well as the Garden of Gethsemane, the vine and the branches, the parable of the sower, and the 23rd Psalm.