It is all very well Jesus telling us (as he does in John 14:1-10) not to be troubled or afraid but our lives are full of doubt and uncertainty and we all struggle knowing which way to go.  So we can sympathise with Philip who longs for certainty, for something concrete, when he begs Jesus to just “show us the father”. 

Jesus is exasperated: “have I been with you all this time and still you do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the father.”  Do you still not get it?  No! we don’t.  We look for something outside of ourselves when all the time God is revealing Godself within us and within each other.

God, faith, the meaning of life, all of this can only be found by living it.  Jesus goes on: “if you do not believe [because of me] then believe me because of the works themselves”.  Are our actions and choices, our communities and relationships, bearing fruit? Where can we see human flourishing? What is leading to justice, peace, healing and love? For wherever we see these things there we will find God.

Jesus asks us not to seek certainty but instead to trust, to trust that God chose us and through us will do “greater works than these”.  When our hearts our troubled and our way is not clear, let us look to whatever is true, honourable, just and pure … and the God of peace will be with us.   

It’s Good Shepherd Sunday: this year’s gospel, John 10:1-10, focuses, not just on the sheep and the shepherds but on the sheep fold and, in particular, the gate to the fold.   We are used to hearing the sheep and shepherd stories: we understand that God promises to care for us as a shepherd cares for her flock and that we are also called to be shepherds of God’s people, caring for others. When Jesus calls himself the sheep gate, though, things get trickier. Gates open both ways: they open and close, they allow for the sheep to go in and go out.  The church has often been a closed a gate, keeping out those who might harm the sheep, keeping the sheep safe.  But the gate in this morning’s reading seems to be open continually, allowing the sheep in and out.  Although we are called to be both sheep and shepherds, I’m not sure that we are called to be the gate; this is God’s job, not ours.  God is the one who gets to decide who comes in, not us, as the reading from Acts 2:42-47, reminds us: “everyday the Lord added to their number”.  Our job is to embrace all whom God sends whomever they may be.