 St Alban’s Episcopal Church Bolivar, Missouri Friday, May 6, 2022The Shepherd – 4 Easter Psalm 23 – Rev. 7:9-17- John 10:22-30   Psalm 23 (As I write this, my 86 yr old friend and teacher is dying in a hospice unit in Kansas City. He has been faithful to the work God has given him to do for more than 60 years.He is in my mind and heart and prayer right now. Even death does not separate us from the love of God. Jews knew that, long before Jesus came.) The Lord is my shepherd;I shall not be in want.He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. He revives my souland guides me along right pathways for His Name’s sake. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,I shall fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; you have anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over. Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.  John 10:22-30 It was the festival of the Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep her my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give then eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand, The Father and I are one.”  Revelation 7:9-17 I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces, before the throne and worshiped God, singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.” Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these robed in white, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have cone out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, not any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”   |
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