Love is the Gate: Psalm 23 re-imagined. 4/26/26

Did you know that a section of the 10th chapter of the Gospel of John is read every year on the 4th Sunday of Easter? In the tenth chapter of John, Jesus talks about himself as the good shepherd, hence we have “Good Shepherd Sunday,” every 4th Sunday of the Easter season. The Shepherd is a common metaphor that the Hebrew people know well. The prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah all talk about the divine shepherd versus the worthless shepherds. The worthless shepherds neglect the sheep, exploit the sheep and scatter the flock. While the divine, or the “good” shepherds care for and meet the needs of the sheep; they act in ways that will cause the sheep to flourish; they bring the flock together. 

What captured my attention in today’s section of this Good Shepherd narrative was Jesus’s proclamation that he is the “gate.” An interesting metaphor. First of all, Beloved let us remember a truth about literary devices—at some point they can no longer hold together, if you try to follow every thread to make it all work, it’s going to dissemble in front of you. Literary devices are filters to help you recognize truths; they are not the truth itself. But let’s go ahead and do a little unpacking with this metaphor: Jesus as the gate. 

For sheep, the gate is the morning entrance to the fields and pastures where they get their nourishment. The gate allows them the freedom to find what they need for food and water, but also what is required for exercise and wideness to their life. But, also, the gate in the evening opens to bring them back together, inside the fences, so they can be better protected from predators, so that they can unite in community and safety in order to sleep restfully and securely. This reminds me of the rod and staff we hear about in the Psalm because a shepherd’s rod protects the sheep from predators and the staff, with its crook at the end, is used to rescue sheep from crevasses or streams or thickets. The gate isn’t about confinement; it provides for coming in and going out,  sending and receiving, seeking individual space and unity, food, security, protection. Hmmm… and if Jesus is the gate, and Jesus is God, and God is Love, then Love is the gate…….

And there’s also this bit in today’s Easter 4 reading from the tenth chapter of John when Jesus talks about the sheep knowing his voice. Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury suggests “that faith is not about having perfect certainty, but about learning, slowly and patiently, to recognize the voice of Christ among many competing voices. It is less like solving a puzzle and more like developing an ear – an attentiveness shaped over time.”  I have often described this life of faith as developing antennae that are tuned to love’s frequency.

Faithfulness is all about knowing the cadence and register of this trusted voice, the cadence and register of love; this voice that illustrates care, concern, and desiring another’s wellness. Knowing this voice isn’t about controlling, just like the gate is not about confinement. This is not a voice that seeks to generate fear or despair, division or reduction. But Love’s voice both calls us back to the flock, and also sends us out for nourishment. And, Beloved, this voice calls us home when we are lost, refusing to ignore our absence, but also allowing for our return to be our decision, our choice, our movement.

The “good” shepherd not only wants abundant life for the sheep, but the good shepherd works and acts so that the sheep might have that abundant life. Even at the shepherd’s own cost. Sam Wells, the vicar of St. Martin’s in London talks about abundant life as “the difference between living for something and living with. Abundance is found not in accumulation, but in shared life.”

To know this voice requires stillness. Silence. Contemplation. Contemplative prayer is not about perfecting a feeling or achieving emptiness. It is practicing. Intentionally taking time to practice listening. To practice sitting in stillness. Even when the world is so very loud and busy around us. ESPECIALLY when the world is so very loud and busy around us. Recognizing that this   stillness/silence/listening/contemplation is our nourishment as well, a stream of refreshing water to quench our thirst. And with that in mind, let us turn our attention to the Psalm, this treasured 23rd Psalm.

Beloved, remember this: Love is a noun and a verb, a subject and an object. Love is something to be, something to give, something to receive, something to do. As you listen, remember all these facets of love and that love is God and God is love and Jesus the Christ is God and Love and Love is the gate. Psalm 23 re-imagined feel free to follow along in your bulletins as I read it.

Love is my navigation system and provides a life that meets what is needed.

Love creates shelter, refuge, the silence for deep listening and the space for restoration.

Love  rescues my spirit from life’s devastations and pilots me toward wholeness.

Love tells me to stop and rest. Quiets my heart and mind. All for the sake of more love.

Even though life requires death and the end of all things, love shows me that there is more, there is enough, I need not become self-centered, grasping and hoarding, out of fear.

Love remains with me in shadow times and sunlight, protecting me when doubt, anxiousness, greed and ego attack, reassuring me that I am more than that. Life is more than that.

Love means that all is shared so everyone has enough, even those who seem opposed to Love’s ways, because Love is bigger and stronger than evil.

Love remains, waiting, whispering, patiently waiting, to be let in and then,

Love heals, all woundedness, once Love is granted access. No matter how long I have resisted. No matter what I have done or have not done.

Love remains. Always. Forever. With an open door, inviting and welcoming all to dwell here. 

To dwell in love and with love and for love, all the days of our life.