Now there was a certain man, Lazarus from Bethany – the village of Mary and Martha  his sisters, who was ill. (It was Mary who anointed the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair; Lazarus, her brother, was ill.)

So the sisters sent to him saying ‘Lord, look –  the one you love is sick.’

But when Jesus heard this he said ‘This sickness will not lead  to death, but is to reveal the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.’

Although Jesus really loved Martha, her sister and Lazarus, having heard that he was sick, he stayed in the place where he was for two days.

O Love, O God who created me, in your love recreate me.
O Love, who redeemed me,
fill up in me whatever part of your love
has fallen into neglect within me.
O Love, O God, who first loved me,
grant that with my whole heart,
and with my whole soul,
and with my whole strength,
I may love you.

Gertrude the Great

Once more, the Jewish leaders picked up rocks to stone him.

Jesus answered them ‘I have shown you many ‘noble’ works from my Father. For which of these works are you trying to stone me?’

The Jews replied ‘We are not stoning you for a noble work, but for blasphemy. For you, a man, are making yourself God.’

Jesus answered them: ‘Isn’t it written in your Law ‘I have spoken, “You are gods” ‘? 
If those, to whom the word of God came, the Law called ‘gods’
– and the Scripture cannot be broken –
then what about the one
whom the Father set apart and sent into the world –
do you say to him “You are blaspheming,”
because I said I am the Son of God?’

If I am not doing  the works of my Father,
do not believe me (when I say I am God’s Son).
But if I am
And if you do not believe me
Believe the works
So that you will start to know
and you will continue to know that 
the Father is in me
I  am in the Father.

So they sought to arrest him again, and he escaped from their hands. 

And once more he went to the other side of the Jordan into the place where John had first baptised and he stayed there.  And many people came to him and they said  ‘John did not work any signs, and yet everything John said about this man is true.’ And many believed in him there. 

Lord God,,
you feed us with the living bread from heaven;
you renew our faith,
increase our hope,
and strengthen our love.

Teach us to hunger
for Christ who is the true and living bread,
and to live by every word
that comes from your mouth,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

The Festival of (Re)dedication (Hanukkah) took place in Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was walking in the Temple precinct, under Solomon’s colonnade. And the Jewish leaders circled round him and said to him ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ – speak to us plainly.’

Jesus answered them: ‘I told you,  but you do not believe.

The works which I do in the name of my Father bear witness about me. 

But you do not believe, because you are not my sheep.  My sheep, they hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. 

And I give them resurrection life and they will never ever be lost, and no-one will snatch them from my hand. 

What my Father has given me are of greater value than anything else, and no one can take them from my father’s hand. I and the father are one in purpose.’

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

But I have sheep that are not from this sheep-fold, 

I must bring them also.
And they will hear my voice, 

and there will be one flock, one shepherd.

For this reason my Father loves me
– that I lay down my life
in order to take it up again.

Nobody takes it from me,
but I lay it down by my own choice. 

I have authority to lay it down
and authority to take it up again. 

This command I have received from my Father.

There was a division again within the Jewish crowd because of these words. And many said ‘He has a demon and is insane. Why do you listen to him? Others said ‘These words are not demonic. A demon cannot open the eyes of the blind, can it?’

Thank you, dear Jesus,
for all you have given me,
for all you have taken away from me,
for all you have left me.

Thomas More (c.1478-1535)

I am the noble shepherd.

The noble shepherd lays down his life for the sake of the sheep. 

The hired man (not being the shepherd and the sheep not belonging to him)
sees the wolf coming,
and deserts the sheep
and flees
and the wolf attacks them and scatters them.
He flees because he is a hired man and does not care about the sheep. 

I am the noble shepherd, 

and I know mine, and mine know me.
Just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. 

And I lay my life down for the sheep.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is discord, union;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy,
For your mercy and for your truth’s sake. Amen

So Jesus spoke again : ‘Truly, truly I tell you that I am the gate for the sheep. 

All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. 

I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved; they will come in and  go out freely and will find pasture. 

The thief only comes to steal and slaughter and destroy. 

I have come so that they might have life, and life to the full. 

O Lord Jesus Christ,
stay beside me to defend me,
within me to guide me,
before me to lead me,
and above me to bless me,
that with you and in you,
I may live, and move and have my being,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

(unknown)

Truly, truly I say to you, the one who does not enter the sheepfold  through the gate but climbs in by another way – that one is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate to him, and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 

When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them., and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run away from him because they do not know strangers’ voices. 

Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand the meaning of what he was saying to them.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

Jesus heard that he had been thrown out. When he found him he said to him: ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ 

He replied: ‘And who is he, sir? Tell me so that I might believe in him.’

Jesus said to him ‘Now you have seen him, and in fact he is the one speaking with you.’

He said ‘I believe, Lord.’ And he fell to his feet and worshipped him.

And Jesus said to him: ‘I have come into the world for judgment in order that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.’

Some of the Pharisees, who were there with him, heard these things and said ‘We are not blind too, are we?’

Jesus said to them ‘ If you were blind you would not have sin. But now that you say “we see”, your sin remains.’

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art –
Thou my best thought, by day or by night;
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

So a second time, they called the man who was blind and said to him: ‘Give glory to God. We know that this fellow is a sinner.’

He replied: ‘I do not know if he is a sinner. One thing I know: I was blind, until I could see. 

So they said to him ‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’

He answered: ‘I have spoken to you already and you have not heard. Why do you want to hear again? You do not want to become his disciples as well, do you?’ 

They insulted him and said: ‘You are that fellow’s disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke to Moses but we do not know where this fellow is from. ‘

The man answered them: ‘This is an amazing thing – that you do not know where he is from, yet he opened my eyes.

We know that God does not hear sinners, 

but he hears whoever is God-fearing and does his will.

From time immemorial it has never been heard that anyone has opened the eyes of someone born blind.

Unless this man is from God, he could have done nothing. ‘

They replied: ‘You were born completely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?’

And they threw him out. 

Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.

George Herbert

But the Jewish leaders did not believe the story about him, that he had been blind and had gained his sight,  until they had called the parents of the man who had gained his sight. They asked them: ‘Is this man your son, the one you say was born blind? So how does he see now?’ 

His parents answered: ‘We know that this man is our son and that he was born blind. How it is that he sees now, we do not know, or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him, he is of age, he will speak for himself.’

His parents said these things because they feared the Jewish leaders. For already the Jewish leaders had decided among themselves that anyone who confessed him as Messiah would be excluded from the synagogue.  For this reason his parents said ‘He is of age; ask him. ‘

Lord, you have given me so much,
I ask for one more thing –
a grateful heart.
George Herbert