The Fourth Sunday of Easter - Reflection by Canon Leslie

​Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed. Alleluia!
 
Today is the Fourth Sunday of Easter. The Sundays of Easter invite us to encounter and to engage with the risen Christ, and to open our eyes to who Jesus is. John’s Gospel offers a series of helpful clues in the ‘I am’ sayings of Jesus. Today’s Gospel reading opens with Jesus claiming, ‘I am the good shepherd’. The image of the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep to model the relationship between God and the people of God was already well established in the Old Testament as exampled by Psalm 23.  Throughout chapter 10 of his Gospel John develops this image to express who Jesus is.           
 
For those of you who wanted to do some thinking and preparation for today’s service during the preceding week, I invited you to reflect on the image of shepherd. In today’s picture, Teddy Horsley is enjoying a meeting with sheep on a bright Spring morning. The picture is taken from his book, The Sunny Morning, in which Teddy Horsley celebrates the new life of Easter.
 
Risen Lord,
you are the good shepherd
and we are your sheep.
Call your sheep from across the world,
that they may all be united in you,
as one flock with one shepherd;
for time and for eternity.
Amen.
 
Next Sunday, the Fifth Sunday of Easter, continues with the exploration of the ‘I am’ sayings of Jesus in John’s Gospel: ‘I am the true vine’. The image to help us prepare for next Sunday’s theme is the vine. You can find out more about that theme here https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. We would really appreciate you letting us know how you are using these materials. Please send us your ideas and photos of the things you may create; email them to Nelson.Pike@liverpoolcathedral.org.uk.
 
To learn more about Teddy Horsley and The Sunny Morning, follow this link to his page on the St. Mary’s Centre website: http://www.st-marys-centre.org.uk/resources/TeddyHorsley.html. You can also check out his own website here: https://teddyhorsley.org/.
 
You are warmly invited to join us in worship online. We are livestreaming our 10:30am service on both our Facebook and YouTube pages. To stream the service on Facebook, follow this link to our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LiverpoolCathedral. To stream the service on YouTube, follow this link to our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/user/LiverpoolCathedral/videos.
 
Teddy Horsley sends his Sunday greetings to all.
 
Canon Leslie