Yesterday we looked at the first part of John 10 and the strange predicated saying, "I am the gate for the sheep"

I paired it with the wide and narrow gates saying from Matthew, and used an idea I'd picked up from PAYG a few weeks back, added some others from years ago and hopefully ended up with something that made some sort of sense!

The picture above shows a narrow gate set in a dry stone wall.  The path is also narrow and leads uphill (but is hardly steep, rugged or hard!).  But the context is important - the gate is a transit point from one field to another; one broad, green place to another equally broad, equally green.  The significance is the size of the gate is not what lies beyond it, but that on order to get through it, a person need to set down any large, bulky items.

Someone once said, the will of God is like a broad meadow, with space to play and explore, rest and take picnics, along the route marked by the path.

PAYG suggested that in order to pass through the narrow gate that leads to life, we must first lay down the burdens that deny life... bitterness, regret, grudges, anger, pride... and maybe also success, wealth, possessions... only by travelling light, or at least lightly, are we able to find life.

And Jesus as gate?  Gate here is a threshhold, a place that is crossed and re-crossed in and out of the sheepfold which is, by definition, a place of temporary shelter.

So maybe Jesus is the door/gate/threshold of our own inner and outer worlds as we come in to rest and reflect and go out to live life fully?

Maybe Jesus is the threshold between the church and the everyday, where, with others, we draw aside in a simmilar way, not to hide from reality but to be refreshed to be part of it.

And perhaps the church as the 'body of Christ' is the gate for others, enabling the same sort of shelter, rest and refreshment to be experienced.

Maybe prayer is bringing ourselves and our world to the threshold place that is Jesus Christ, in whose name we offer our petitions...

Not the easiest I AM saying to reflect on, but worth while... and blow me down if the evening service didn't pick up a similar theme "open door" completely independently and based on different readings!  "Cue spooky music"

q``