The Fruit of the Spirit Expands

PENTECOST: Acts 2: 1-21; 1 Corinthians 12: 3b -13

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and kindle in us the fire of your love.
                                                                                                    (Gospel Acclamation ELBW)

I am a reader and devour books quickly. During COVID-19, I decided to change my reading habits to include books I do not usually gravitate towards. This has meant an increase in various forms of non-fiction; the latest being Michelle Obama’s autobiographical book, “Becoming.”  Her telling of her story, and that of her family, has influenced my reading of the text for Pentecost Sunday.
As the sound of violent wind fills the air and tongues of fire come and rest on those gathered in the house where they were sitting, all of them began to speak in other languages. The Spirit presented a powerful show that day in Jerusalem, first with the experience just described, followed by open-air preaching – wherein the disciples were so empowered, lively, robust, shaken--- people concluded they were inebriated; drunk.

As weeks progress, Jerusalem bears witness to many acts of the Spirit – acts beyond robust proclamation of the good news. As the movement spreads, glimpses of the Spirit’s work are captured in texts like the letter to Corinth, where residents encounter gifts and fruit of the Spirit: gifts of healing, the working of miracles, speaking or interpreting tongues, wisdom, knowledge, and faith.
Applying the movement and works of the Spirit to today, what does the world encounter? The people standing in the marketplace or the large city parks?  Do they hear preaching or tongues, see healing, experience miracles, be given interpretation, acquire wisdom, knowledge, or faith?
I am going to say NO, but YES. The terminology we use, the spiritual virtues we practice, the gifts and fruit needed today are different; so the Spirit in her wisdom has moved with the winds of time and expresses herself in new forms.
Let us return to Michelle Obama’s book. Michelle separates the her life into three sections: becoming, becoming us, becoming more. Her sections remind me of our life with God and the way we understand participating with God through liturgy and ritual.

Becoming -
Becoming begins in the waters of baptism. Through water and the Word the Spirit whelms us with grace to flow through our life as we become. Promises are made of how we will participate in becoming: hearing the Word, receiving the Holy Supper, knowing the Lord’s prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments; taking care of God’s creation, and living with a disposition to strive for justice and peace.
Becoming, for Michelle, meant a lot of time rigourously working on her plan. From a young age doing her best at school, learning all she could, moving through to university to her corporate lawyer job. All one needs to do to become is to follow the plan, working hard and doing extra, each step of the way to become all you can be; so as not to be a disappointment, to rise above, to accept and receive every possibility in life. It takes determination and rigour.

Becoming Us -
The scripture from Corinthians says for by the Spirit we are all baptized into the one body (vs. 13).
Baptism -although a nice photo-op- is not about the baptized individual. The liturgy is literally the work of the people, a whole community of baptized who together as one body live Jesus into the world.
Becoming Us , becoming community, is not always easy.
In this section of the book Michelle speaks about growing in relationship with Barak. Barak, had a different set of gifts. He was high spirited, spontaneous, would step aside from the plan because a different path was interesting or worth pursuing. Michelle had to dabble in patience to learn to ‘become us.’
And from visits I have made with grandparents patience is a gift many struggle to employ.
For those of us who like a  ‘correct order’ -baptism, Sunday School, confirmation, getting envelopes, joining church council, bringing up own children in the church, dying as church member – there is a sadness or grief that comes with changing times. Across the church more baptisms are happening for teenagers, combined with Confirmation classes; mothers or fathers are being baptized as their new baby is baptized.  Becoming is being welcomed in – period.  Some like the ordered plan, others diverge up or down  interesting paths—the Spirit is manifest in different ways through different gifts.

Becoming More –
This is the section of the Michelle’s book that has me grapple with the coming of the Spirit and what that means for communities of faith. As a family, the Obamas, were happy and their jobs were contributing to better lives for the people in their community. This was not enough for Barak’s spirit...and although it would drastically change their life, and mean going outside of her regular comfort zone, there was no way that Michelle would hold Barak back from the expenditure of his gifts for the common good. This required the combination of spiritual virtues: rigour and patience.
The drive behind ‘becoming more’ was wound up in Barak’s gift of optimism --- which Barak had (has) a thousand-fold over. The optimism was captivating, dynamic, and contagious.

Gifts and fruit of the Spirit, spiritual virtues – whatever term you want to use-
the letter to the Corinthians suggests that the manifestation of the Spirit is for the common good. Verse 7 says: To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Prompting me to consider what the manifestation of the Spirit is today? What spiritual gifts or fruit would be for the common good?  What is the common good in need of?

In recent months, ---becoming, becoming us, becoming more--- in the life of the church is changing. How we come to belong, how we ‘become us’ when not in the same room, how we ‘become more’ as we consider opening physical spaces and shaping a world amidst, beyond, COVID. The Spirit shakes us this morning, not through the sound of a rushing wind and tongues of fire, but through remaining pandemic – become, become us, become more.

Michelle wrote: “Becoming takes equal parts patience and rigour. .. Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there’s more growing to be done. ... Optimism is a form of faith, an antidote for fear.” Perhaps these are the 21st century gifts and fruit of the Spirit. Patience, rigour, optimism. These are the virtues, practices, components of faith, for ideal faithful living in the midst and beyond pandemic. If there was ever a time, the time is now, for the Spirit to shake us into new ways of becoming.  As we are shaken, look up, put your hands up to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. On this Pentecost, a birthing of church becoming more, fall on us breathe of God, fill us patience, rigour, optimism, for the common good.


Holy Wisdom, Holy Word,
Through the waters of baptism we are embraced and belong.
Through worship, hearing the Word, and proclaiming the good news, we become us – a community of God’s faithful people.
Through your being a Spirit, of - wisdom and understanding, council and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and the joy in your presence - you shake us to be more.
For the healing of the world, may we become more!
Amen.

Resurrection - Shaken Not Stirred

A person of Christian persuasion walks into a bar, to find God as the bartender. After perusing the martini menu, the person asks God what God recommends.  God replies: a Resurrection – shaken not stirred.

This is the 7th week of Easter, an Easter where we have walked with the disciples in their grief, and lived through a season of grief ourselves. If you were to describe this season – would you say we have been stirred or shaken?

The disciples were certainly shaken, first by Jesus’ death, followed by a strange 40 days:
After being laid in the tomb the women come to anoint the body and it is gone, the tomb is found empty; we hear that Jesus walks with followers along the road to Emmaus (unrecognized), then recognized in the breaking of bread, at which point Jesus vanishes; only to appear behind closed doors and just as quickly disappear.  There is breakfast on the beach with Jesus. And finally Jesus is with them on the Mount of Olives, and then poof, gone into the heavens.
All of this shakes their understanding of death and life and spirit and life-after; of belief, of what is possible. They are shaken with questions never before contemplated and implications of resurrection to faith and life and next steps.

Beyond resurrection Jesus has turned everything upside down:
Their idea of kingdom – shaken
Their hopes and dreams of living as an unoccupied people – shaken
Their idea of power - shaken
Their understanding of God’s relationship with the world – shaken
Their meaning and purpose of life – shaken

Until recently the Canadian church -and the wider community- had settled into a life of being comfortably stirred - with just enough action, social change, and loving our neighbour to feel that we had furthered the kingdom in some way. We were resurrection followers in as much as we retold resurrection stories and talked of Jesus as our friend.
Resurrection for us was a pale representation of experiences and stories passed down through the generations from the Apostles. Power, glory, healing, passion, community living/commonwealth all shadows of the resurrection in the hands of the Apostles.
But now, we have been shaken – everything has been upended. We have been forced to celebrate Easter – experience resurrection- in a season of grief.

Lutheran pastor and author Walter Wangerin wrote a book called, “Mourning into Dancing.” In it he uses story to walk with people through grief. Along the journey he declares that one of the stages of grief is resurrection. The assertion is that resurrection is part of grief – grows in grief. Resurrection is not a leaving behind of what was, where everything is recreated new and shiny, and all is good and normal and happy.
Resurrection is a lingering residue of memories, sorrow, endings, suffering, pain. Resurrection is not a rebound from ashes, mires, laments, tears, and losses, rather; robust resurrection embodies the laments and tears and losses, that produce the change that has been effected in our lives because of grief.
Embodying grief is embracing being shaken not stirred; a resurrection with relevance.

American theologian, William Willimon, in commentary on Acts wrote: “Luke’s ‘history’ is the story of that new reality which has turned the world upside down, relativized all existing relationships, and enabled believers to live as people ‘between the times’ --- between the end of an old age held by the powers of death and evil and a new age where the future is still to be fully realized, still open-ended to the movements of the Spirit.” 

I see the present church in a space, not so unlike that of the accounts of the early church.
A new reality has been thrust upon us – we have been shaken- and come to find out we have been
adaptable, agile, quickly responsive, creatively innovate, and open to new possibilities. As Willimon said we are ‘between times’... “the future is still to be fully realized, still open-ended to the movements of the Spirit.”

We have spent 7 weeks moving in new ways;  my favourite being a dancing offering plate and Tim’s dancing at the end of live-stream worship on Facebook.  Lots of people have sent notes hoping that the dancing continues when we start meeting face-to-face.
In Wangerin’s book that I mentioned earlier, he ends with a story of a woman named Gloria who tells him to end his book with dancing. Grief blossomed resurrection for her, when she remembered  that the one she mourned, danced; in dancing his face lit up, in dancing he laughed, in dancing he drew close to the people he loved and drew in those who were strangers. Dancing changed him from the inside out --- whether moving to laments, the blues, a sad-sad-song, or to jives, two-steps, and waltzes.  When she took to dancing her grief, she no longer felt alone, and her heart was lifted, and she felt joy.
Maybe we have fallen in love with Tim’s dancing because it is a visual expression of the joy we hope for, joy we feel in the moment, a way to feel the grief -- and turn our mourning into dancing. In other words, dancing has been an experience of resurrection --- a moment full of hope, promise, possibility, joy.

This past week I had a number of days where I went for multiple walks or runs. I was unsettled, antsy, bored-but-not-really, had lots of energy and was overtired at the same time. My body had finally embodied the cumulative grief of the past weeks. One friend on Facebook called this embodiment of grief the ‘Coronacoaster,’ the ups and downs, the tears, the smiles, the mix up of not knowing how one feels. The good news is that through the embodiment of grief, the rollercoaster slows down, resurrection blossoms.

You are all in the comfort of your own homes. I am going to ask you to try something. I would like you to stand and put your one arm around the imaginary waist of a dancing partner, and your other hand out to the side to hold your imaginary partner’s hand. You are in a waltzing position. There is music playing in your head and you are leading. Now imagine that your waltzing partner is grief. Now take a minute and go for a waltz around the room you are in.
.....
 Do you feel shaken? Shaken, where grief feels like resurrection is a possibility? Grief that is accompanied with a smile or a giggle or joy? Shaken where mourning has lifted, dissipated to make room for the movement of the Spirit?

Easter is seven weeks of hearing stories of resurrection – experiences that shook the core of the disciples’ beliefs, faith, lives, actions, understandings, purpose, ideals, values, and so on. Easter is being confronted with the unbelievable and the unproveable.  Easter is spending days praying together, grieving, and opening up to be ready for what embodying grief will resurrect.
With each step of each new day resurrection is shaking perceptions and turning mourning into dancing.  

We are a week from Pentecost -the coming of the Holy Spirit- who waltzes in on wind, and foxtrots through flames, and toe-taps a rapture of tongues. The Apostles’ feet will dance out of ‘between times’ and in the glory of resurrection that comes through profound grief – change the world.

This week put on your dancing shoes. Embody grief by dancing how you feel, and come ready next Sunday to have the Holy Spirit as your dancing partner. Be forewarned the bartender is serving only one kind of drink  ........  You will be shaken not stirred.

Mother Stone (Easter 5 and Mother's Day)

Acts 7: 55-60; Psalm 31: 1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2: 2-10

MOTHER STONE

Not to throw stones but we have had four weeks of Luke via Acts,
Four weeks of words attributed to Peter, weeks of John;
Mother Wisdom being lost as the men record their version of resurrection... and today,
I’m left stone-cold as we get pelted with stones. Please give me a
Rosetta stone to translate Peter, Luke, and John.
Mother Mary was at the tomb,  a gravel pile of women- denoted as composite stone – Marys,
they; sifted stone just capturing names of Magdalene, Salome, Joanna;
Mother Marys’ resurrection stories rolled behind a stone.
The stone rolled away today to be thrown Stephen’s way.
Chosen, he was charged with the equitable care of the widows, serving tables, feeding the poor; offering stone soup—the social services of the day;
 providing for all in need; those disenfranchised forgotten because you can not get blood from a stone--- Stephen kept his nose to the grindstone
Full of grace, -persuasive passion, he did signs and wonders among the people,
Splitting stones; speaking in ways detractors could not dispute.
Trying, they cast stones, bringing false witnesses, false accusations
But the very stones could talk and false was false; truth would rock the lot.
The Standing Stone was Stephen’s why;
he preached longer than any Jesus’ sermon presented by Luke,
longer than any speech by Paul; and he mined, digging into repeated infidelity,
a cyclical pattern of abuse: by leaders, Temple officials, priests, people who thought they were something; those stone deaf and hard hearted----
 Stephen shook their stone foundations with truth – like those before him -- Abraham,
Joseph, Moses, prophets, Jesus; he called people back to the Cornerstone;
Thunk! relationship with God, Thunk! with community, Thunk! with creation.
Pointing fingers, instigating reform, it was just a stone’s throw to his predicament;
Yes, stoning.  Stoned as a living stone.
Mother Mary, just like she was at the cross, was standing on, Mother Wisdom recoiling – watching;
Once again truth -Resurrection- neutralized! Pulverized!
Pulverized stone -heated, pressed, squeezed- in time, becomes new rock; Mother Stone.
Mother Stone is the voice of the Mothers Mary – a composite of alloys, creatures, minerals,
precious metals; stones of beauty, worth, and strength.
Foundation.  Mother Earth with lava and bedrock and stones, created ... cradles life.
A stone foundation of Mother Wisdom – Truth, embraced by Stephen- the resurrection
Truth mined, smelted, formed into Mother’s Day.
The voice of Mother Marys -resurrection as told by the ‘they’
was a story of reconciliation and peace...and it was about women throwing stones – stones that were to:  THUNK! shatter poverty, THUNK! advocate through reconciliation,
THUNK! break oppression.
Before the Civil War, Mother’s Day Work Club- the resurrection story of Ann Reeves Jarvis, taught women how to properly care for children; living stones.
After the Civil War, Mother’s Friendship Day – the resurrection story by mothers; as a unifying force to mold, heal, reconcile Union and Confederate Soldiers; living stones.
1870, Mother’s Day Proclamation – the resurrection story of Julia Ward Howe, abolitionist and suffragette – mothers unite for world peace – mothers against war;
Yes living stones.
And a little later – the resurrection story as lived by Juliet Calhoun Blakely of the Temperance movement; throwing stones,
 to make family relationships right, wholesome, and good.
In 1900, amidst a chauvinistic calendar of male achievements – the resurrection story as told by Anna Jarvis walking in mother’s footsteps, petitioning for a Mother’s day
to honour the sacrifice mothers make for children.
My how stones rained down!
– and paving stones of what could be; resurrection and new beginnings
 –  activism, because of its pumice stone affect – was crushed;
 Mother’s Day crushed! to become a day of flowers, candy, and cards;
commercialized so the raging of women,
their angst, would be cast into a controllable softer stone;
 a sandstone that continually softens by erosion, not a sharp edge to be found.
Misinterpreted and exploited the purpose of the day -mother’s day- was quieted, hushed;
Killed - two birds with one stone: focus on sentiment. make a profit.
As in a farmer’s field after frost – stone picking in the spring-
Political and feminist causes not wanting sentiment to be what was carved in stone,
cast -not the first- but cast the first stone back at glasses houses where people should know better than to cast stones, in the first place -
Tried again; heated lava erupting;
 – the resurrection story-
Told in ’69  when Coretta Scott King used Mother’s Day to march to support underprivileged woman and children;
-the resurrection story-
 Told in 1970 where women’s groups used Mother’s Day to fight for equal rights and access to childcare.
The resurrection story once again out of the tomb in the voices of the Mother Marys;
and just as quickly pushed back in and another stone rolled across the door.
Enough already! Blasted stones--- I want out of the stone age!
Generation after generation repeat the crushing pattern
People are cemented into the tyranny of regime
Ignoring the voice of Mother Stone – Mother Earth, Mother Wisdom - the philosopher’s stone that turns base metal to gold; turns death to life.
It is time -past time-
To get this moss off the rock; to rather be like a rolling stone.
To stand with Stephen and split rocks, to be pumice stone; to be Mother Stone and say no more!
This time of fake stone – engineered stone- is over, for it is not stone at all.
This message is a get stoned and wake up from the haze different moment.
The Ultimate message in the stoning of Stephen -in the resurrection story told by women through the centuries- is a message of new beginnings!
The Gospel changes everything – once one has tasted that the Lord is good;
once one has received mercy- one balances on solid stone, the Chief Cornerstone ---
this is the why; the source of passion;
the immovable truth that allows one to be stoned and not become stone-hearted;
pelted by stones – and yet Forgive
pelted by stones – and able to  Love recklessly.
Like rolling stones gaining momentum we are a landslide movement against infidelity and violence;
 easy actions - Infidelity and violence; the human way to reject the Cornerstone because the new way -community way- is kidney stone painful.
Birthing change is painful!
The Gospel changes everything – what appears innate; stones
Those silenced, the Mother Marys, the ‘theys,’ the disenfranchised again and again repeat -birth- their resurrection stories, throwing them as stones of action;
Mother Stones --- resurrection, transformation, the possibility of what can be....what must be--- living stones; and for generations yet to come are prepared to be.... yes prepared to be... worn down, eroded, exploded ... to die.
So that the world see the Cornerstone, balance there, and change everything.
Written on stone tablets, the Ultimate message- leave no stone unturned-
Strong, determined, mercy focused-
Serve, forgive, love recklessly ... birth the resurrection story.


Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me.  You are indeed my rock and my fortress; for your names sake lead me and guide me. ... into your hand I commit my spirit... you have redeemed me faithful God. Amen.

Shepherd All --- Easter 4: Good Shepherd Sunday

Easter 4A-2020  ----  Acts 2: 42-47; John 10: 1-10

On Tuesday I was excited. I prepared the Two-bit and Itty-bitty Bible Studies for email and FB. I choose this morning’s reading from Acts 2 as the text. I was preparing to talk about life in coming days, to speak of  hopes and dreams about what could be when we start to leave our homes. I was thinking about what we have learned from slowing down and if there is a will to apply some of our learnings.
Contributions to the Bible Study discussion included mention of a community of farmers who each purchased a piece of farm equipment and then rotated usage, a neighbourhood who shared a lawn mower, mention of cooperative insurance, institution of a living wage, and reflections about sharing all in common, including living in monastic community.  Could we live and be a community as the church was in the early days of the movement? On Tuesday I was excited to explore all this.

On Wednesday I was not so excited. In fact I was not excited about anything. At one point I realized I was simply staring out the window into the backyard; I have no idea for how long.  That day I didn’t have lunch, too much effort to think about what to eat, and too indifferent to get up and put something together. There wasn’t even any reading done--- which is extremely unusual as I can get lost in a book in no time. I shuffled around the house, kept sticking my head out the door, and wandered aimlessly not thinking or doing anything.
I noticed that the same was true for many of my friends and colleagues.  It was as if a big cloud descended on us all at the same time. We made it through Holy Week and Easter, offering various forms of worship and community.  We made it through an additional 2 post-Easter weeks and Sundays. For the most part remaining calm, deepening discipleship, being relational as best we can, and staying positive, hope-filled.
And then Wednesday happened and it was like our brains were shuffled and muffled.  Lots of comments in social media messages stated that we feel like we have nothing more to say; or at least on Wednesday we were muffled enough that our thoughts and hopes were all cloudy.

On Wednesday -as I crawled into bed- out of the cloud and muffle in my head, snippets of text and image appeared that came from the Gospel of John; and from the Good Shepherd craft shared earlier in the day.
The craft instructions had people make the form of a sheep and then cut out round circles to become patches of wool.  On each circle crafters were invited to write the names of the people they care about, people who are in their thoughts, who rest in their hearts, people who have asked for their prayers, and so on.  The names were glued on the sheep form – and will be offered later during our offering time.
In all of my years, I have never put human beings in the roll of the shepherd in the story. The making of the sheep, had me reflect that following the Good Shepherd has a component of being a shepherd oneself.  We do care and love people around us.  At times we do offer correction, protection, and set boundaries; just as shepherds do for their flocks.  We pray for people especially when other action is impossible. We bring those in our care to green pastures – feeding them with physical food, life-giving conversation,  hope-filled encouragement, and to waters of forgiveness and unconditional love.

 In the past few weeks caring, sharing, giving thanks have been watering green pastures of the environments in which we live and work. When I walk through the church’s neighbourhood there are all kinds of signs, and hearts; chalk drawings too– notes to the postie, thanks to essential workers, words of encouragement for the passersby. Facebook even made a new ‘caring’ emoji; a smiley face hugging a heart. Congregation members have sent me notes about practices of making phone calls and having tea by telephone; I’ve seen dinners by Zoom, evenings-in with friends on Skype. These actions are moments when human beings have taken the initiative – leadership- to build, to transform, to create a renewed community.  Could this form of shepherding lead us to live together, holding all things in common, selling our possessions, and distributing resources to those in any need? 
By holding people in our hearts, by caring and sharing, by shepherding the people in our lives ---is that the way to a society full of human beings with Glad and generous hearts; having good will of all people?

What I realized in the making of sheep and in conversation with colleagues is that shepherding is a shared task. Some of the people I wrote on my sheep, my mom wrote on hers, perhaps you have some that I wrote too. The good news of this –if I have a shuffled and muffled day, someone else continues to hold the people I regularly shepherd. And imagine all the good will, gladness, and generosity fostered by the extravagant and abundant care given to any one individual by many who hold them in their hearts and prayers.
Perhaps these past 7 weeks, being gated into smaller sheep pens, has been a time to recognize and grow our capacity to shepherd. We are not to spend so much time thinking we are sheep and incapable of making significant contributions to new possibilities of the communal society when this is all over. In shepherding we follow the Good Shepherd considering and working on our relationships. Perhaps this is what Jesus means when saying, that they may have life abundantly.

If one reads the Good Shepherd narrative closely, one will notice that Jesus is the Good Shepherd AND the gate to the sheepfold AND in the gospel of John the Lamb of God. In this great mixed up story where Jesus plays all the parts, where we depending on our perspective can fill any or all of the roles, there is truth. I read this week, in a book written by Madeleine L’Engle, the writer of “A Wrinkle In Time,” that truth is not a fact. She speaks of story and narrative as a search for truth. She writes that for truth, we can read Jesus. Truth is frightening and demanding. “If we accept that Jesus is truth, we accept an enormous demand: Jesus is wholly God, and Jesus is wholly human. Dare we believe that? If we believe in Jesus, we must.  And immediately that takes truth out of the limited realm of literalism.”
Jesus can be, must be, is --- shepherd, gate, and Lamb ... and so then Jesus’ followers can be, must be, wrapped in all three to seek Truth, to live into Truth and experience life abundant – as a whole, together; sheep come in flocks.

On this fourth Sunday of Easter the text opens to us a broader truth -an expanded version and vision- of resurrection.
Madeleine L’Engle was asked after a reading, “Do you believe in the literal fact of the Resurrection? [She] replied, ‘I stand with Paul: No Resurrection, no Christianity. But you can’t cram the glory of Resurrection into a fact. It’s true! It’s what we live by!”  And she later writes, “my faith is not seriously threatened because it is not literal but remains open to question and revelation. It is not always a comfortable faith; it prods and pushes me. ... Let us trust truth, that truth that was incarnate for us in Jesus.”

You can’t cram the glory of resurrection into a fact --- resurrection was incarnate truth lived out and resurrected in the lives and stories of the faithful who followed as sheep, and who shepherded, and who acted as gatekeepers from one generation to the next.
We have had seven weeks where human beings have witnessed the story of truth- resurrection lived out in caring, sharing, and gratitude. An ancient parable of a Good Shepherd is lived in resurrection truth – an incarnational love one for another, that in our old world was lost and hidden in tombs of busyness, consumption, preoccupation, and production.

I guess I have worked my way back to the resurrection as expressed in the lives and stories of the community described in Acts. I am excited and have hopes and dreams that busyness, consumption, preoccupation, and production will no longer entomb us.
The truth of the story of the Good Shepherd is that the story contains part of the glory of resurrection.
There is an invitation to become part of the story to act as shepherd, sheep, and gatekeeps by living and acting from the truth at the heart of the Good Shepherd, which is incarnational love one for another. And yes, we can shepherd the world to live this way.
Hone your shepherd skills, shepherd those around you. Care, share, and be grateful. May resurrection glory abundantly spring forth in this lambing season.