Sunday April 26th: Open for life; Close against death

“Jesus spoke to them again: In all truth I tell you, I am the gate of the sheepfold.”

John 10:1-10

Jesus identifies with the gate of the ancient sheepfold where sheep were corralled in a stone pen, covered with thorny branches to keep away thieves and wild animals.

The only way into the pen was a narrow opening through which sheep from various shepherds entered and left in single-file When the sheep settled for the night, the shepherd lay across the opening as gate. Any predator, animal, or human could only enter the sheepfold over the shepherd’s dead body.

The gate doesn’t get credit for the shelter like the pen does. It isn’t honored like the shepherd. It just has one job: open for life, close against death. The gate discerns, stands flexibly, takes the weight for something built to serve and protect without needing to be seen.

Help us, O God, to be gates, allowing life-giving passage and denying death-dealing access. And when our thoughts, words and actions deny others what is rightly theirs, or deal deathblows, convert our hearts, O God! Lord, teach us to embrace your way.