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 ‘I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly’ (John 10:10)

John 10:1-10 (Year A: Fourth Sunday of Easter 7^th May 2017)

This week’s blog is going to avoid cuddly lambs and soft-focus pictures of Northern European looking shepherds gently holding passive looking sheep. Not that the image of sheep and shepherds do not hold powerful relevance and meaning even today in our very post-modern, individualistic, urban and non-pastoral settings.  The image of a kind shepherd going after and bringing home the weak, the sick and the lost is a powerful one. The image of sheep listening to the voice of their shepherd has resonance. A careful reading of this story reflects the detail of a very Middle-Eastern situation where the shepherd waits for the very last sheep and then goes ahead (and not behind) the sheep.  Such is the trust and the mutual knowledge between sheep and shepherd.

This blog focusses, rather, on the ‘so what’ statement that follows the story about sheep, shepherd and sheepfold. It is the statement that Jesus came that we might have ‘life’ and have it ‘abundantly’. But what does this ‘life’ mean?  Surely, everyone who is alive is alive. Does ‘life’ mean something different or additional in this context?  Clearly, it does.   We may be alive but not alive. We may breathe and move but yet not be fully alive. We might have all our faculties and be world-class sports players and, yet, be dead or only half-alive in another sense.

So what is it – this precious and mysterious thing that Jesus calls ‘life’?

Being alive in Christ – which is what this story is about – is more than behaving in some predetermined ‘religious’ way – saying prayers, going to Church, hanging out with similar minded persons, avoiding the seven deadly sins and being a good son, daughter, brother, sister, mother, father, spouse, partner, friend, colleague, citizen, etc. Being alive in Christ means entering a new relationship with someone who goes before us (like that nice cuddly European-looking shepherd). It means finding new life and a different life within us in a new relationship. Now, this is not the same thing as rolling up in a bubble of sanctimonious self-satisfaction. It means having our hearts broken open to others in whom Christ is really present and alive and moving. Perhaps one of the biggest tragedies of life – pardon the pun – is that some of us have never really ‘lived’. We may not have ‘lived’ ‘abundantly’.  The psalmist asks:

"Who is the one who will have life, and desires to see good days?” (Psalm 33:13)

The ancient Rule of St Benedict which has profoundly shaped monastic, religious and lay spirituality in Western Europe and beyond opens up with a concise and bold challenge:

Listen carefully, my child, to your master's precepts…

Ausculta fili – Give ear O Son (Proverbs 31.2) – the very opening words of the Rule (or the familiar phrase ‘Éist a Mhic’ in Irish) makes the point that we need to listen to the Voice of the One who can give life and give it to the full.

Too often we settle for less than the full life that is on offer because we don’t take time and space to listen  - really listen to ourselves, to others and ultimately to that continuing voice of Love which whispers to us every day in events, persons, emotions, thoughts, failures, joys and sorrows.

As one writer put it: ‘All that is asked of me is rapt attention, here, now, to others. And I’ll find the good life.’

But How do we know that Voice? How? It has three marks: Gentleness, Kindness, Inviting (more than compelling).

We have a sure foundation in Jesus who cares for each of us deeply and continuously as a mother does for a new-born baby and as a dying person does for those whom we have loved.  But, if we recognise the light and the life of God in the gentle, kind and inviting voice and face of Jesus who is the Face of God (another take on ‘Son of God’) then we, too, can be a gentle, kind and inviting voice and face for others who seek life and light.  We can choose to radiate kindness if we want and if we are serious about doing so. This is the life that God, in Jesus, has promised us and is available here and now.

The Christian singer Beckah Shae puts it so well in the song Life (lyrics here and music here):

More, more, more, more, moreThere's got to be so much more to this life….I'm gonna live the rich lifeThe full and blessed life..Exceeding and abundantlyMore than we could even ask or think,