Stephen King described his novel The Stand: The Complete Uncut Edition as “this long tale of dark Christianity.” It’s an apt description. The novel is packed with themes any Bible reader would recognize.
One in particular stands out for me: King’s characters have strange dreams.
Each dreams of a person and a place. All the dreamers are called to come. Each commences a journey to follow the voice in the dream. In time, the dreamers form into groups, moving with single-mindedness across the country toward a destination. Like the sheep in this week’s Gospel of John passage, each knows the sound of their shepherd’s voice—and they come when they are called.
The hitch? They aren’t all hearing from the same “shepherd.” And journey’s end is decidedly different for each group.
It’s highly unlikely we will have experiences like Stephen King’s “sheep.” There are similarities, though. We, too, will travel a spiritual journey, be called to follow a shepherd, and get to choose our shepherd.
Are you among those who can say, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” like in this week’s Psalm 23? Or, like some of The Stand characters, does the call you hear belong to a shepherd who is not at all good?
God knows that we, like sheep, stray. And God welcomes us back if we choose to return. In fact, if we do return, the apostle Peter assures us in his first letter: The good shepherd will once again be “the Guardian of your souls.”
We are not sheep.
But we are like sheep. And just like the characters in King’s novel, where we take our stand matters. Choose your shepherd, today. Don’t risk not hearing the Good Shepherd when He calls.
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ARTWORK: Adobe Express filtered through Photoshop Express
More about bad shepherds:
https://onelostsheep.net/2018/07/21/good-shepherds-and-bad-john-foley-sj/
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Will you be at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast Friday morning? Join us at 8:00 on Zoom* or in person at Our Breakfast Place. We eat, pray, and read this week’s Bible passages. What follows is a wide-ranging discussion [COUGH free-for-all COUGH] and laughter.
Sheep welcome.
Blessings,
Steve
*Zoom link (Zoom allows you to mute the camera and the microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89947678414
SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK
Find them here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?y=17134&z=s&d=46
Print them here:
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_FourthSundayofEaster.pdf
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 23
1 Peter 2:19-25
John 10:1-10
Fourth Sunday of Easter (April 26, 2026)
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