The signs closest to the center of John’s story, continue to expand the water and light themes - reflecting a Christ sourcing every level of creation and concerned about the most basic elements of our lives; food, shelter, community. On the Water Wing, Jesus feeds, and walks on water. On the fire wing, he lets a man see light and describes himself as the Good Shepherd. To make bread, you need heat; and both grain and pasture grass only grow at all where water and light are abundant. While all the signs John writes about explore Christ’s authority over nature, the teachings after this inner set explore our ability to “see” Christ as the source and provision of all we need. Today’s reflections focus on the teaching which follows the signs on each wing, rather than the signs themselves.
Bread of Life
John 6 | Water Wing 10
Feed me, Lord.
You know what I need.
All I give up to you
is less than I receive.
Heat for the baking,
time for the breaking,
the breath that I breathe.
Pasture
John 9-10 | Fire Wing 10
Following wolves and trusting thieves
Leaves us scattered, fragmented, alone.
We feed on dust and thistle.
Lost among this dark, blind stampede,
We run hard to nowhere
trapped in greed.
But above this clamor
I hear the clean ring
of my name on my shepherd’s voice.
He has laid himself in the gap.
He has risen up with rod and staff.
Let us flock to him!
Out through this prison gate!
He has opened wide a pasture green.