Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A

All who believed were together and had all things in common;  they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need.  
~Acts 2:44
 
My cup overflows.
~Psalm 23:5
 
Many, maybe most of us shape our lives around what we know, what we understand. We are accustomed to having a pretty good sense of reality—even if it is only our reality and not all reality. We sort inputs and collect facts and form something of a coherent sense of the world.
 
What to do with Jesus’ John?
 
“Very truly,” he begins his remarks in John 10. That’s code for “Pay attention, this is important.” And then he speaks in a dizzying and confusing set of images that seem to obscure more than they make clear. Thieves climb into the sheepfold, the shepherd by the gate, thanks to the gatekeeper. Jesus the good shepherd…and the gate, apparently. Figures of speech, John tells us…that the disciples did not understand.
 
No surprise there.
 
Trying to decipher this too completely may be a fool’s errand. “If you understand, it is not God,” Augustine wrote. And we understand…kind of. God is bigger than we are. And yet, we know the gist, don’t we. When we are among this flock, cups overflow, bread and goods and plenty are shared. Gates, fences, thieves, metaphors. The gospel today affirms the psalmist’s sense that with this Eastering God we have a Good Shepherd who provides what we need.
 
Enter into worship.
Readings: Acts 2:42-47 † Psalm 23:1-6 † 1 Peter 2:19-25 † John 10:1-10
 
About the Art: Koenig, Peter. I am the Gate, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58540 [retrieved April 13, 2026]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.

---

If you can't join us, you can still watch the service in real-time. Join us in person or watch it here live Sunday morning, 10:00am. You can view it upon completion by clicking on the video graphic to the left.

​We continue to keep our financial commitments to our mission partners and staff. If you are not yet able to join us, thank you for remembering to send in your financial pledges and offerings or donating here in support of our ministry.