Easter 4B (John 10:11-18; Psalm 23)
This is no voluntary association, no transactional contract. The sheep do not earn the shepherd or elect him.
This is no voluntary association, no transactional contract. The sheep do not earn the shepherd or elect him.
Every year we preachers eagerly look for help with the daunting challenge of preparing an Easter sermon. Never are we as acutely aware of our own limitations, intellectual and spiritual, as when we try to find words to express the reality that a dead man didn’t remain dead.
The first disciples experienced Jesus’ resurrection not as some single triumphant fait accompli, but by fits and starts.
In his collection of poems titled After the Lost War, Andrew Hudgins chronicles the life of a Confederate soldier during and just after the Civil War. In “What Light Destroys,” the soldier fondly recalls a camping trip he once took with his four sons. One particular night the boys caught fireflies, pinched them in half and smeared their fingernails with the glow of the bugs. His sons took great delight in running through the dark woods, waving their hands.
The disciples are afraid, so they lock their doors. I do the same.