News: Reflections

Luke 24.30   When he was at the table with them he took bread and broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him.

 The first Holy Communion perhaps?

Bread Song

It’s not in the bread

but in the breaking

that the mystery of God’s story is told.

It’s not in the seed

but in the dying

not in the treasure

but in the digging for it.

It’s not it’s mountain

but in the moving.

It’s not in the wine

but in pouring out

that a new world is purchased

for weary.

It’s not in the cross

but in the crucified,

not in the nails

but in the nailing.

It’s not in the grave

but in the rising from it.

It’s in the giving

that the gift becomes life;

it’s in the living

that the word

becomes flesh.

It’s in this taking

this receiving,

this sharing of supper

this pointing to a future

that is promised

paid for

and pressed into our hands;

it’s in this everyday mealtime miracle

that the universe is born to new life.

John 10.7   I tell you the truth I am the gate for the sheep 

Jesus is alluding to the round stone sheepfolds in the high pastures, built with an open gap so the sheep could pass through in safety and the shepherd himself would then lie down across the gap becoming himself the door that kept them safe.

I am the Door for the Sheep

Not one that’s gently hinged or deftly hung,

Not like the ones you planed at Joseph’s place,

Not like the well-oiled openings that swung

So easily for Pilate’s practiced pace,

Not like the ones that closed in Mary’s face

From house to house in brimming Bethlehem,

Not like the one that no man may assail,

The dreadful curtain, the forbidding veil

That waits your breaking in Jerusalem.

Not one you made but one you have become:

Load-bearing, balancing, a weighted beam

To bridge the gap, to bring us within reach

Of your high pasture.   Calling us by name,

You lay your body down across the breach,

Yourself the door that opens into home.

Malcolm Guite