If you were to ask a Christian, any Christian, ‘Do you love Jesus?’, the answer would almost certainly be, ‘Yes’. In fact, it would be a surprise if the answer was anything other than yes. But if you were to ask, ‘Do you keep his commandments?’, and they were to answer honestly, I think the answer, at best, would be, ’I do my best’. We know that’s the honest answer because we all know that sometimes we do keep Jesus’ commandments and sometimes we don’t; and we know we don’t. And yet, in this morning’s Gospel, Jesus says that the one who loves him will keep his commandments. So how can we say we love Jesus when we know that we don’t do what he says those who love him will do?

In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus links love of him with reception of the Holy Spirit, and that’s understandable. Jesus says that those who love him will keep his commandments and, if we read on a little further in St John’s Gospel, Jesus goes on to say,

“… the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

So the Holy Spirit reminds us of what we need to do to love Jesus. And, as Christians, we believe that we have received the Holy Spirit, so we can’t plead ignorance about this. We know what Jesus said, we know what we need to do to love him, so why do we so often fail to do what Jesus told us we need to do?

In this morning’s reading from the First Letter of St Peter, the Apostle urges us to live ‘a good life in Christ’ so that anyone who slanders us may ‘be proved wrong’. But we know that  the vast majority of criticism levelled at Christians is for their hypocrisy, for not practicing what they preach. Christians are criticised for speaking about what the good life in Christ is, but not living that life themselves. They’re criticised for proclaiming Christ’s commandments but not keeping those commandments. We might not like being accused of hypocrisy, but we can’t deny that we do sometimes fail, if not often fail, to keep Jesus’ commandments. And if we do deny that, or are ever tempted to deny it, we can soon put ourselves straight by recalling those words from the First Letter of St John;

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Jesus’ word is in us because we have received the Holy Spirit, and to sin is to fail to keep Jesus’ commandments which the Spirit reminds us of; and yet we are all sinners. So what do we mean when we say we love Jesus?

I’m sure most, if not all of us, will know the saying, ‘You always hurt the one you love’. That is often true in life generally, and it’s just as true in our Christian lives too. In his Letter to the Ephesians, St Paul tells us something of what living the good life in Christ entails and among the things he says, he gives a warning not to ‘grieve the Holy Spirit of God.’ The word we translate as ‘grieve’ can also mean to cause pain, distress or sorrow. So we could translate this as do not hurt the Holy Spirit of God. And what does grieve, or hurt, the Holy Spirit is sin. What hurts the Holy Spirit is not living the good life in Christ; the Holy Spirit is hurt when we don’t keep Jesus’ commandments. And if we hurt the Holy Spirit then we must surely also hurt the Father who sent the Spirit to us, and the Son whose words the Spirit was sent to remind us of. And so, in grieving the Spirit through not keeping the commandments, we hurt the one we love, Jesus, who gave us the commandments.

If we think about why and how we hurt Jesus, it’s not too hard to see we do that in the same way and for the same reasons that we hurt the ones we love in general. We hurt the ones we love because we don’t listen to them. We don’t do what they want us to do because we want to do what we want to do. Sometimes, of course, what they want us to do isn’t the right thing to do, and then we’re right not to do that. But how often do we do our own thing for purely selfish reasons? How often do we hurt the ones we love by not listening to them and not doing what they want us to do simply because we want to do what we want to do, regardless of whether we’re right or not? And how often do we hurt Jesus because we don’t listen to either him or the Spirit for the same reason, simply because we want to do what we want to do rather than do what the Spirit is calling us to do and what Jesus’ commandments tell us we should do?

Life, as we all know, can be hard and stressful at times. Life can make us irritable, impatient and angry and because of that, life can lead us to acting in ways that hurt the ones we love.

How often, for example, have we had a bad day, perhaps at work, and we’ve come home and been irritable and impatient with our family or friends? How aften have we taken out our anger on our family and friends by being angry with them, and for no fault of theirs?

We do these things to our loved ones, and hurt them, very often simply because they are the ones we love, and because they are, they’re the ones who are there when we’re being irritable and impatient and angry. But when we do these things to others, we do them to Jesus too.

In speaking of the good life in Christ, in his Letter to the Ephesians, St Paul says,

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

But we can be selfish, we can be irritable and impatient and angry with others and so, when we are these things and do these things, we don’t show humility, gentleness and patience. We don’t bear with one another in love, and we the lose the bond of peace. And we don’t only lose the bond of peace  between us, our neighbours, and our loved ones, we lose that bond between ourselves and the Spirit, ourselves and Jesus, and between ourselves and God. We lose that because we stop living the good life in Christ by failing to keep his commandments, the words of the Father than he was sent to speak to us and which the Father sent the Holy Spirit to remind us of. We grieve the Holy Spirit of God and we hurt Jesus, the one we claim to love above all others. 

Perhaps, to some extent at least, we can’t help having these feelings and emotions because they are part and parcel of being human. Indeed, we actually see these things in Jesus himself. We see them in his arguments with the Pharisees, and other religious leaders of the day. We see them in his exasperation at people’s hardness of heart, slowness of understanding and lack of faith. We see them in his cleansing of the temple. But in Jesus, these feelings and emotions were very targeted, they were aimed at the people who were hard of heart and slow of understanding and lacking in faith. They were aimed at those who were at least resisting, if not actually obstructing or rejecting the Gospel and the kingdom of God.

And in Jesus these feelings and emotions had a purpose, they were meant to admonish, certainly, but also to teach and to draw people to faith. With us, on the other hand, these feelings and emotions, whilst they may be caused by the same hardness of heart and slowness of understanding and lack of faith that gave rise to them in Jesus, whilst they may be caused by the evil and un-Godliness of the world, when we give vent to them, we tend to just blow our top at whoever happens to be around us at the time. We often take a scattergun approach, there’s no focus or point to our explosion of irritability, impatience and anger, we’re simply letting off steam, having a rant and rave about whatever we’re unhappy about at the time and if our loved ones happen to be the ones around at the time and we hurt them by what we do and say, that’s just too bad. We might not mean to do that, but they know what we’re like; they’ll get over it.

We might not be able to help ourselves at times because we are only human after all, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about hurting those we love, or anybody else if it comes to that. If we blow our top about something and somebody gets hurt in the process, we can always say, ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me.’ can’t we? But how often are we willing to do that? How often are we willing to accept our faults and failings, to own up to them and to the consequences of our words and actions and ask for forgiveness from those we’ve hurt by them? That’s what we should do, as Christians, and not only with our neighbours and our loved ones, but with God too.

When we hurt others, we grieve the Spirit, we hurt Jesus and damage our relationship with God too. We do these things and fail to show our love of God and Jesus, but they always love us so we can always restore our relationship with them simply by being honest about our sins, the times when we don’t keep Jesus’ commandments, confessing them, and asking for God’s forgiveness. If we’re willing and able to do that then, as those words of St John remind us, we will be forgiven and restored to righteousness, to a right relationship with God.

It would be nice to be able to say that we love Jesus and show it by always keeping his commandments, but it’s more truthful to say that we try to love Jesus to the best of our ability by trying to keep his commandments to the same extent. But let’s make sure that we do try to do these things to the best of our ability and to be honest, and humble enough to confess our failures and ask for forgiveness when our best isn’t quite good enough.

Amen.  

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Propers for the 6th Sunday of Easter, 14th May 2023

Entrance Antiphon
Speak out with a voice of joy;
let it be heard to the ends of the earth:
the Lord has set his people free, alleluia!

The Collect
God our redeemer,
you have delivered us from the power of darkness,
and brought us into the kingdom of your Son:
grant, that as by his death he has recalled us to life,
so by his continual presence in us he may raise us to eternal joy;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)       
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Psalm 66:1-7, 16, 20
1 Peter 3:15-18
John 14:15-21

RCL (St Gabriel’s)         
Acts 17:22-31
Psalm 66:7-18
1 Peter 3:13-22
John 14:15-21

Christians are often called an ‘Easter People,’ or a ‘Resurrection  People’ and I don’t think it’s too hard to understand why that should be. Easter, and the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ that we celebrate at Easter are the very foundation of our faith. If there was no Resurrection, why would we have any faith in Jesus? If there was no Resurrection, why should we believe in anything he said or did? In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus says,

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

But, if there was no Resurrection, why should we believe that his way is better than another way, that there is any more truth in his words than in any other words, or that the way of life he advocated is better than any other way of life? If there was no Resurrection, who and what was Jesus other than a good man who had the guts to call out those in power for their hypocrisy, and was done away with by those people to shut him up, a good man who called for change and was done away with by those with a vested interest in things staying as they were? In fact, if there was no Resurrection, apart from a few people who study first Century Jewish history, it’s doubtful if anyone would have even heard of Jesus, let alone acclaimed him as their Lord and Saviour.

So we are an Easter People, a Resurrection People, a people who believe that through the death and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the greatest dread of human beings, the knowledge of their own mortality and the fear of death, has been put to flight because, through his death and Resurrection, Jesus has conquered death. Our faith in Jesus assures us that, even though we will all die, that is not the end of life for us but rather the beginning of a new and eternal life with Jesus in God’s heavenly home. So, as well as making us an Easter People, our faith should make us the most joyful of all people. And on the whole, perhaps it does. But I think our faith also gives us a bit of a problem. The problem is, how do we deal with death when we’re faced with it? As Christians, should we think of death as ‘nothing at all’ as a very well-known, though often mis-quoted and mis-understood poem tells us we should, or should we grieve in the same way perhaps as those who have no faith might? If we don’t grieve, are we being callous or, if we do grieve, are we showing a lack of faith? And I have met Christians who have thought in these ways and really struggled with trying to understand how they should feel and act when they’ve been faced with death.

Obviously, as a priest I’m called upon to conduct funerals and to meet and speak to bereaved people on a fairly regular basis. In fact, in the past week, I’ve conducted three funerals and also spoken to two other bereaved families about the funerals of one of their departed loved ones. And so I know that this morning’s Gospel, or at least the first half of it, is a reading that’s very often used at funerals. So what can this morning’s Gospel tell us about how we should deal with death?

This morning’s Gospel is the start of what we call the ‘Farewell Discourse’ in St John’s Gospel. The Farewell Discourse is the last teaching and instruction Jesus gave to his disciples before his death and, in part, they’re words of comfort and reassurance for the disciples that Jesus spoke because he knew that what they’d soon have to go through would be a very difficult and traumatic time for them. So let’s look at this from the disciples point of view.

Jesus’ disciples had been with him, almost every day it seems, for three years. They’d built their whole world on and around Jesus and his teaching. They thought he was the Messiah, as the disciples said on the road to Emmaus shortly after Jesus’ Resurrection, that he was,

“… a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, … we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.”

But Jesus was very shortly going to go to his death, he would be leaving them and this time, they wouldn’t be able to follow him. The disciples’ were going to be devastated, heartbroken. I’ve spoken before about the ancient understanding of the heart, that it was the very core of a human being so, it was in their hearts that the disciples would have built this world based on and around Jesus and his teaching. So, when Jesus died, they would have, quite literally, been heartbroken because their world view would have been smashed to pieces.

Even though we don’t think of the heart in the same way that the disciples would have done, we do know what it means to be heartbroken don’t we? When someone we know and love dies, our world changes, it can’t help but change because someone who’s been part of our lives, and often a very big and important part of our lives, isn’t there anymore and we have to get used to life without them. So, to some extent at least, we can understand what the disciples were going to be faced with and what they were going to have to go through, and why Jesus wanted to comfort and reassure them.

But what are we to make of what Jesus’ words when he began to speak?

“Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”

Does that mean we shouldn’t be troubled by death? Does it mean that because of our faith and our hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, we shouldn’t grieve or be upset when someone we know and love dies? No, that’s not what Jesus means here at all, and if he did then we could, quite honestly, accuse Jesus of being a hypocrite because didn’t he weep at the grave when his friend, Lazarus, died?

The word in this morning’s Gospel that we translate as ‘troubled’ is the same word used to describe Jesus’ own feeling when Lazarus died and also when he was betrayed by Judas. We translate it here as ‘troubled,’ but it really means to be stirred up or agitated. Later in the Farewell Discourse Jesus tells the disciples that their hearts will be full of sorrow, but it’s for their own good that he’s leaving them because if he doesn’t, he can’t send the ‘Helper’ the Holy Spirit to them. And he tells them that, while they will be sorrowful, they will see him again and know a heartfelt joy that will never be taken away from them. Given the ancient understanding of the heart, what Jesus seems to be saying to his disciples then, isn’t that they won’t or shouldn’t grieve when he dies, but that his death shouldn’t trouble, stir up, agitate or destroy their deeper, heartfelt understanding of things. He will die and they will be hurt and upset, they will be full of sorrow and grieve, but that shouldn’t trouble or break their faith. What Jesus is saying is that, whilst in an emotional sense they can be, and will be heartbroken, in that deeper sense of feeling and knowing in their hearts, don’t be. His death can and will upset them on one level but at a deeper level, don’t let that shake or break your faith in what you believe to be the way the truth and life because his death doesn’t change that and, in fact, his Resurrection will confirm their faith in those things and in him.

And we can apply these words to ourselves when we have to face up to and deal with death. One of the things I always say during a funeral sermon is that faith isn’t an anaesthetic to the pain of loss and bereavement. Faith doesn’t take that pain away. So we can be upset when someone we know and love dies. We can grieve their, and our, loss, regardless of our faith. And if anyone still isn’t convinced about that, think of it in this way.

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus wept at Lazarus’ grave, so why should we think that our faith means that we can’t or shouldn’t be upset and grieve when someone we know and love dies; do we think that we have more or greater faith than Jesus?

I have met many good and faithful Christians who don’t deal with death very well. I have met some who’ve actually said, death means nothing at all. I’ve met some who have been heartbroken by death and questioned their faith, either because of the death itself or because it has upset them so much it’s caused them to question the depth or even reality of their own faith; as death has troubled them so much, they’ve questioned whether they really do believe in the resurrection to eternal life. But Jesus’ words in the Farewell Discourse, and his own example, tell us that we can be upset and grieve when a loved one dies, regardless of our faith or the depth of our faith. But what Jesus’ words and example also tell us is that death shouldn’t trouble us at heart in that deeper understanding of the heart that ancient people had. Death shouldn’t cause us to doubt or to lose faith because Jesus’ Resurrection, which is the foundation of our faith, is also the confirmation and vindication of our faith.

Jesus said,

“Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.”

Death does trouble us, though. But Jesus doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t trouble us in an emotional sense. He doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be upset and sad when someone we know and love dies. He doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t grieve. He doesn’t mean that death shouldn’t break our hearts in that sense. What he does mean is that we shouldn’t let death break our faith. We are an Easter People, a Resurrection People, a people who’ve been given a cause for joy that can never be taken away and we shouldn’t let anything take it away from us. Not even death.

Amen.

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Propers for the 5th Sunday of Easter, 7th May 2023

Entrance Antiphon
Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous deeds;
he has revealed to the nations his saving power, alleluia!

The Collect
Almighty God,
who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ,
have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:
grant that, as by your grace going before us,
you put into our minds good desires,
so by your continual help we may bring them to good effect;
through Jesus Christ our risen Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)        
Acts 6:1-7
Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
1 Peter 2:4-9
John 14:1-12

RCL (St Gabriel’s)          
Acts 7:55-60
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
1 Peter 2:2-10
John 14:1-14

One of the best known, and probably most well-loved images of Jesus is that of the Good Shepherd. It’s a lovely pastoral image of Jesus, usually carrying a lamb in his arms and being followed by a flock of sheep. It’s an image that shows Jesus as someone who looks after and cares for his own, even to the cost of laying down his life for them.

In this morning’s Gospel we hear Jesus telling us something of what the Good Shepherd does, and what it means to be that Good Shepherd. Jesus’ words here are the nearest thing there is to a parable in St John’s Gospel, and they do correspond very closely to the reality of shepherding in his time. Overnight, sheep of  a number of different flocks would have been kept in a sheepfold, usually a walled enclosure with an entrance or gate. There would have been a gatekeeper, and they were there to make sure the sheep were kept safe in the sheepfold overnight. They would only have allowed the shepherds to enter the sheepfold, either to bring their sheep in at night or to lead them out to pasture during the day, and the sheep of each flock would have only followed their own shepherd because they’d have recognised his voice. There was of course, always the possibility that someone might try to steal some sheep but, because of the presence of a gatekeeper, those who wanted to do that, would have had to break into the sheepfold by means other than the gate.

In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t actually refer to himself as the Good Shepherd, if we read on from the end of this morning’s Gospel, that comes in the very next verse. Instead Jesus says that he’s the gate of the sheepfold, so what does he mean by that? We’ll quite simply it means that it’s only through Jesus that the sheep are kept safe and only through him that they’ll be led to pasture, to the sustenance they need to live. It’s only through Jesus that the sheep will have a full and abundant life. And Jesus contrasts that image of himself as the gate of the sheepfold with one of those whom he calls thieves and brigands or bandits, those who don’t enter by the gate and who only come to steal and kill and destroy. But who are these people?

Just before this, in the Gospel, we read the story of Jesus healing the man born blind. In that story, the Pharisees claim that Jesus can’t be from God because he healed on the Sabbath and therefore, was a sinner. But the man whom Jesus had healed argued with them. He said that if Jesus weren’t from God he wouldn’t be able  to perform such miracles. And because of his faith in Jesus, the Pharisees put the man out of the synagogue. So, in the Gospel, this story about the sheepfold is set in the context of an argument about faith in Jesus and about who is the true shepherd of God’s flock.

Through Jesus, the man born blind has entered life, he’s been led to a better life on earth and, through faith in Jesus, to eternal life. He’s become a member of Jesus’ own flock and he now listens to Jesus’ voice.

But the Pharisees look to steal him away from the flock, they urge him to listen to their voice. So, in the context of the Gospel, they, the Pharisees, are the thieves and brigands who are trying to break in to steal and kill and destroy. But we can also read Jesus’ words in a wider context too.

We know that there had been many people whom we might call false Messiahs,  people who’d claimed that they were the one who would lead God’s people to freedom, but who, in reality, led the people into armed conflict and death. Perhaps Barabbas was one such person. We’re not told that he claimed to be the Messiah, but we are told that he was in prison for insurrection, for a violent uprising against the authorities. And Jesus warned us that such people would arise in the future too because when he was asked by his disciples about the signs that would herald his return, he said,

“See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ’, and they will lead many astray.” 

But we can also read Jesus’ warning as one, not just about false Messiahs, or about those who lead people astray by claiming to speak and act in his name, but about anyone who leads people astray by making false claims, those who say things that lead people away from God and away from his commandments, because he went on to say,

“And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”

And this is perhaps the warning that’s most relevant to us because isn’t this just what we see around us so often in the world today?

If we think about the history of the past hundred years or so, haven’t we seen an increase in ideologies and doctrines that lead people away from God and towards atheism, away from love of neighbour and towards egotism? And haven’t these ideologies and doctrines promised a better life to their adherents but, in fact, caused death and destruction and misery for millions?

Think about Marxism, an inherently atheistic ideology that promised utopia for the working classes. But in reality, how many millions have suffered and died when this ideology has been put into practice? How many suffered and died in Communist revolutions? How many have suffered and died in purges perpetrated by Communist regimes on their own people? How many have suffered and died in what have amounted to proxy wars between the Capitalist West and the Communist East? What is going on in Ukraine at the moment?

Think too about Fascism, another inherently atheistic ideology that, quite literally, promised the world to it’s adherents. How many millions suffered and died on battlefields, in concentration camps, as slave labourers, in towns and cities destroyed in air raids, and on the seas? How many were murdered in cold blood simply because they didn’t agree with the false prophets of this ideology, in the world war that its adherents quite deliberately caused?

But think too about our own inherently self-centred society and ways. Isn’t our own society and our way of life based on the belief that the most important thing in life is our own selves. That what we want is the most important thing in life and that we should be allowed to have what we want regardless of what that means for anybody else. I have the right to do what I want to do, and you have no right to tell me I can’t. I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do, and you have no right to make me. We call it individual rights. But the only way we can exercise individual rights to that extent is by trampling on the individual rights of others. How, for example, can an individual exercise their right to play music at full volume at 3 o’clock in the morning without denying their neighbour’s individual right to a peaceful night’s sleep?

Perhaps one of the most pernicious ways we see this happening is on social media which is full of people giving advice on how to enjoy a better life. But, if you look at what many of these people are actually saying, they’re telling people to use psychology to make other people do what they want them to do, to use psychological tricks to get what they want from other people. The wishes of the other person or the harm what they suggest doing might do to them doesn’t seem to enter the equation. And almost always, at the end of these things there’s an enjoiner to ‘follow me’ if you like what you’re reading.

We’re surrounded by false Messiahs and false prophets in the world today. We’re surrounded by what, in this morning’s Gospel, Jesus calls thieves and brigands, those who would break in to steal and kill and destroy. In other words, we’re surrounded by people who would lead us astray by leading us away from Christ, away from God’s commandments and away from that love of neighbour that we’re called to have and to show. It can be very tempting to listen to these people because they do promise us good things and a good life. But if we are God’s people, members of Jesus’ own flock, we shouldn’t listen to them. So how do we make sure that we hear the voice of Jesus above the voices of these false Messiahs and false prophets and thieves and brigands?

Well we can do that quite simply by thinking about what the consequences of our actions might be for other people. Before we do something that affects another person, we should ask ourselves whether we would like it if someone else did this to us. And if the answer is no, then we shouldn’t do it to anyone else. I’m sure none of us would willingly harm another human being but, do the views we hold cause harm to other people either by what we say or through the things and people our views and ideas lead us to support? If they do, then perhaps we need to re-think our views.

I hope none of us would stoop so low as to play tricks on people to get what we want from them, but if we are ever tempted to do that, we should first think about how we’d feel if someone did the same thing to us and then perhaps reconsider the course of action we’re planning to take.

People who urge us to be self-centred and to lie and trick and cheat to get what we want can be very persuasive and the rewards they promise for listening to their voices can be very tempting. But Jesus said his flock will hear only his voice and will not listen to other voices. So let’s be sheep of his flock. Other voices may promise us a lot, but Jesus promises us life which is full and abundant. And we don’t have to wait for heaven for that full and abundant life, it can be ours now. It can be ours now because listening to Jesus’ voice changes  what we think makes for a full and abundant life. It changes our idea of a full and abundant life from one that’s centred on ourselves and how much we can have for ourselves and to ourselves, to one in which fullness and abundance comes from the quality of our relationships with each other and with God. And if you don’t think that’s possible, just think about the time you’ve spent with people you love, with family and friends. At those times has it mattered one iota what you were doing or how much money you were spending or even where you were? Wasn’t the fullness and abundance of those times found simply in the company of the people you were with and the time you were sharing with them? And this is what Jesus means when he says,

“Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, and in the age to come eternal life.” 

The voices of the false Messiahs and false prophets of the world, the thieves and brigands who would lead us astray and steal us away from Jesus can be very tempting and very persuasive, but whatever they promise they can’t offer us eternal life and so, in the end, they will kill and destroy us. So let’s not listen to them, but to the voice of Jesus and let’s be and remain sheep of his flock so that we can enjoy life in all its fulness and abundance both now and for all eternity.

Amen.

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Propers for the 4th Sunday of Easter, 30th April 2023

Entrance Antiphon
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord;
by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, alleluia.

The Collect
Risen Christ,
faithful shepherd of your Father’s sheep:
teach us to hear your voice,
and to follow your command,
that all your people may be gathered into one flock,
to the glory of God the Father.
Amen.

The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)      
Acts 2:14, 36-41
Psalm 23
1 Peter 2:20-25
John 10:1-10

RCL (St Gabriel’s)         
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
1 Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10