St Mary's

Today Talk from Samuel

11th May 2025

“May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you O Lord my refuge and my redeemer amen.”

One morning, a man calls his friend on the phone and said, "Please come to house and
help me with a killer jigsaw puzzle, because I can't figure out how to start it, and I know you are very good at it, so please come and help me out with this." So, the friend came over his friend’s place and asked him, "What is it a puzzle of?", the friend replied, "From the picture on the box, it's a tiger."

Man shows him to where he has the puzzle spread all over the table. The friend studied the pieces for a while, and then he studied the box. He then turns to his friend and said, "Firstly, I am sorry but no matter what I do, I am not going to be able to show you how to assemble these to look like the picture of that tiger." The friend gets a dejected look on his face. "Second, I'd advise you to relax, have a brew, and put all these Frosted Flakes back in the box."

Today is the third Sunday of Easter, meaning just a few weeks ago we celebrated a great Christian holiday. Easter, as we all know, is celebrated in memory or joy of the day when Jesus conquered death, the grave, sin, and rose from the dead, giving us all a new and living hope. According to Catherine Okoronkwo, who is a vicar of All Saints and St Barnabas churches in Swindon, and is the Bishop of Bristol’s Adviser on Racial Justice, wrote in The Canterbury Preacher’s Companion 2025 that,

“The resurrection of Jesus compels us to reflect on who Jesus is and what he means to us.”

And from today’s Gospel reading, we could easily say that Jesus is the shepherd of our lives, but not just ‘a shepherd’ but ‘a good Shepherd’. Today’s Gospel reading we just heard was taken from the Gospel according to John, which was written down by AD 80 and 95, although some scholars argue that the book can dated as early as 50s but no later than 70, with the purpose that is mentioned within the Gospel 20:31 that,

“But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

And if we look at the context of the reading we just heard, we could come to know that from the start of this chapter, Jesus is claiming himself the shepherd of the sheep, and if we go through the Bible from cover to cover, the most prominent, famous, and strong image of God we got is the image of a shepherd, where either in the Old or New Testament, God either in the form of invisible God, or in the humanly body, is resonating himself with a shepherd.

But the thing to remember is that no shepherd can be called a shepherd without his sheep, and that is why Jesus also mentioned his sheep here in this passage. And his sheep are us, you and I, and all those who believe in his deity, all those who believe in his death on the cross, his suffering, his resurrection from the dead. All those who are waiting for His second coming. All those who call themselves Christians, no matter where they are in the world, in what society they live in, no matter what color, race, or country they belong to, all those people are Jesus' sheep.

Being a sheep of God, being part of Jesus' flock, is a great joy, and a place of great honor and respect for us, but at the same time it is also a matter of great responsibility, because we just heard Jesus say that his sheep hear his voice.

That is, whatever I tell them to do, they do. That is, if I tell them to love their neighbour as themselves, they do it. If I tell them, "Do not think evil of anyone," my sheep obey me. If I tell them, "Do not harbour hatred for anyone," they obey me. That is, they are subject to me in every way, and all these sheep have given their lives to me, and they are living their lives according to my discernment and according to my will. While I was doing my morning devotion from one of my mobile applications, I read it there that,

“Discerning God’s will means learning to hear his voice and follow him. A good way to do this is to notice how God is working in your life. “

Which means that, if we could see spiritual growth in us, for example growth in faith, it is a very pleasing sign that we are listening to his voice, and at the same time he is calling us to grow more in our daily and spiritual life. but, on the other hand, if something in life is taking us away from God, we need to listen to him and we need to let that thing go.

So, let us reflect on our lives, and see where God is working, and where we need to listen more of him. Let us ponder on our personal, church, family, and social life and see how good we are sheep. Let us think of the times when we ignore his voice, and do what we wanted to do, and let us think of the times when we refuse to follow him and go on our own path.

Today Jesus is reminding us that He is the Shepherd we are to follow. Jesus is the Shepherd who can lead us in the right way in our lives. We just need to listen to his voice in every aspect of our lives, and we need to follow him, because he is the only way to eternal life.

May God bless you all.

Amen