Hi everyone,

Some of you may know this about me, but I am a horrible cook. Don’t get me wrong, I can muddle my way through a recipe if it is clear enough, but my basic knowledge of ingredients, flavours, and how they work together or not is apparently not even enough to be even called “basic”. I get lost in the kitchen, overwhelmed even, and it’s like my brain breaks down and I am absolutely useless.

I can pour a mean bowl of cereal though.

So I actually have a great deal of respect for those who can cook. I admire those who know their stuff well enough to whip something great out of practically nothing. I look up to people who have the ability, the temperament, and the patience to bring a wide range of components together and create a meal that is not only nourishing and filling, but delicious as well.

But I know it’s a lot of work. I get that it can be stressful when the sound of rumbly tummies are getting closer. I can see how having to cook can be not at all considered “fun”.

Much love and respect to all of you who cook for yourselves and/or your families. You are doing God’s work.

Here are the readings for next week:
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
1 Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10
And a video of them being read:

At first, I was thinking about talking about cooking because the first reading describes how all the disciples ate together like every day. I couldn’t stop thinking about how much of a task that would be, to feed all those mouths. I wondered what creative team was put together to figure out all those meals. I got caught up trying to calculate how much the grocery bill would be to just make sure there was enough on everyone’s plate.

But as I thought of the day, Good Shepherd Sunday (as it always is on the 4th Sunday of Easter), I thought about the role of the shepherd, and how while the sheep are sheep, they all have their personalities and wants and curiosities and flavours of being. And its the shepherd’s job to bring all of that wideness and diversity together and make it work. You know, sort of like how a cook would.

Learning about each ingredient, understanding how they work, and with skill and expertise put them together to make it all work.

And I see Jesus, the Good Shepherd, in all of that. Bringing us together, giving us work to do with each other, and welcoming us all into the same community, the same family, the same body of Christ into which we are all called.

That’s amazing, isn’t it? Because while it could very well seem that it won’t work because of different personalities and opinions and piety, it somehow does. By some divine miracle, it does. By the grace of God and God alone, it does.

And I don’t think I’d have it any other way.

Thanks be to God! Have a great week, everyone!