3rd May

Welcome here. This Sunday we are looking part of John’s Gospel where Jesus uses a Shepherd metaphor to explain both his leadership style and more importantly his deep motivation – love, inclusion for all and the resultant gift of Abundant Life. Jesus uses the word “save” and the people around him are very interested in the idea of “sin” and punishment and exclusion from God’s care and from the community. Tragically, Christians have sometimes used this reading to adopt positions exactly contrary to Jesus and constructed new ideas about sin and salvation which bring the easy and deeply damaging attraction of harsh self righteousness & of ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups with respect to God’s love. This is not abundant life. Abundant life is safe even in danger without anxiety even when hungry it can hear the voice, it is present to God’s love, it has no argument with God and it is characterised by the gentle unassuming trust of well loved sheep.