·        7 Harriet Starr Cannon, Religious, 1896

·        8 Dame Julian of Norwich, c. 1417 was an English anchoress and an important Christian mystic and theologian

·        9 Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop of Constantinople, 389  also known as Gregory the Theologian or Gregory Nazianzen, was a 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople, and theologian. He is widely considered the most accomplished rhetorical stylist of the patristic age.^[3] As a classically trained orator and philosopher he infused Hellenism into the early church, establishing the paradigm of Byzantine theologians and church officials

·        10 Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, Prophetic Witness, 1760

·        13 Frances Perkins, Public Servant and Prophetic Witness, 1965

23 Dominus regit me

1 The Lord is my shepherd; *

I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures *

and leads me beside still waters.

3 He revives my soul *

and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.

4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I shall fear no evil; *

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

5 You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; *

you have anointed my head with oil,

and my cup is running over.

6 Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, *

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

27 Dominus illuminatio

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation;

whom then shall I fear? *

the Lord is the strength of my life;

of whom then shall I be afraid?

2 When evildoers came upon me to eat up my flesh, *

it was they, my foes and my adversaries, who

stumbled and fell.

3 Though an army should encamp against me, *

yet my heart shall not be afraid;

4 And though war should rise up against me, *

yet will I put my trust in him.

5 One thing have I asked of the Lord;

one thing I seek; *

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life;

6 To behold the fair beauty of the Lord *

and to seek him in his temple.

7 For in the day of trouble he shall keep me safe in his shelter; *

he shall hide me in the secrecy of his dwelling

and set me high upon a rock.

8 Even now he lifts up my head *

above my enemies round about me.

9 Therefore I will offer in his dwelling an oblation

with sounds of great gladness; *

I will sing and make music to the Lord.

10 Hearken to my voice, O Lord, when I call; *

have mercy on me and answer me.

11 You speak in my heart and say, "Seek my face." *

Your face, Lord, will I seek.

12 Hide not your face from me, *

nor turn away your servant in displeasure.

13 You have been my helper;

cast me not away; *

do not forsake me, O God of my salvation.

14 Though my father and my mother forsake me, *

the Lord will sustain me.

15 Show me your way, O Lord; *

lead me on a level path, because of my enemies.

16 Deliver me not into the hand of my adversaries, *

for false witnesses have risen up against me,

and also those who speak malice.

17 What if I had not believed

that I should see the goodness of the Lord *

in the land of the living!

18 O tarry and await the Lord's pleasure;

be strong, and he shall comfort your heart; *

wait patiently for the Lord.

1 Peter 2:19-25

¹⁹For it is to your credit if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. ²⁰If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, where is the credit in that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. ²¹For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.
²² ‘He committed no sin,
   and no deceit was found in his mouth.’
²³When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. ²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross,^* so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds^* you have been healed. ²⁵For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

h/t Montreal Anglican

It seems that the first readers were seen as inferior socially by their pagan neighbours. The author has exhorted them to “conduct yourselves honourably” (v. 12), even when maligned (as they are), for God wills that they live blameless, ethical lives – thus inviting their neighbours to examine the Christian way. Being “servants of God” (v. 16), they are “free” from the burden of sin; they should use this freedom for good. The Greek word translated as “servants” also means slaves, so what the author says now applies equally to Christian slaves and other Christians. (The early church saw no inherent evil in slavery. All Christians were free spiritually and members of “the family of believers”, v. 17.)
“Slaves” (v. 18) are to obey their masters, whether they are considerate or “harsh”. Being beaten for wrong-doing is to be expected, but God notices when slaves endure wrongfully inflicted “pain” (v. 19). Of this, Christ is the great “example” (v. 21): accept it as he did, as predicted in Isaiah. Christians see the Servant Songs of Isaiah as predicting the events of Jesus’ life. Isaiah 53:5-9, part of the fourth Servant Song (quoted in part in vv. 22-25), foretells his suffering and death: when “abused” (v. 23) he entrusted himself to God’s care, “the one who judges justly”. Jesus carried our sins on the cross, thereby enabling us to live “free from sins” (v. 24) and to attain union with God (“righteousness”). Through Jesus’ suffering they have access to eternal life.
The addressees have turned their lives around by accepting Christ (v. 25a). The “shepherd”-flock image of God and his people is found in today’s psalm and elsewhere in the Old Testament; in the gospels, Jesus is the shepherd. In this book, the image is applied to Christian leaders and those in their care. Later the Greek word episkopos (“guardian”) came to mean bishop.
2:11-12: How Christians are seen outside the Church. See also 3:16; Titus 2:7-8; 3:1-2. [ CAB] Stoic wisdom of the time exalted persons who were not driven by passions, but here such conduct is to the glory of God. [ IntPet]
2:11: “aliens and exiles”: One scholar offers visiting strangers and resident aliens. By becoming Christians, they were demoted to a lower social class: see Hebrews 10:32-34. In 1 Peter, the true home of the Christian is not so much the world to come (as in Hebrews) as the Christian community: see, for example, v. 17: “Love the family of believers”. [ NJBC]
2:11: “wage war”: In Romans 7:23, Paul says of himself: “I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members”. [ NOAB]
2:12: “Conduct”: A favourite word in 1 Peter: see also 1:15, 17; 2:12; 3:1, 2:16. [ NJBC]
2:12: “they malign you”: Christians were accused of immoralities during their secret meetings. [ NOAB]
2:12: “when he comes to judge”: When God makes the innocence of the suffering faithful known. [NOAB]
2:13-17: Respect for civil authority. See also Romans 13:1-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-3; Titus 3:1-8. All civil institutions, whether good or bad, are ordained by God. [ CAB] [ NOAB]
2:14: “governors”: i.e. of Roman provinces. [ NOAB]
2:15: In 3:15-16, the author writes: “Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence”. [ NJBC]
2:16: NOAB suggests that the following insertions are helpful to understanding: “[Live] as servants of God, [so you can] live as free people ...” Christians should even honour those who malign them.
2:16: “live as free people”: In John 8:32, Jesus says: “the truth will make you free”. See also Matthew17:26; Luke 4:18-31; Romans 8:2; 1 Corinthians 7:22; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1. [ NJBC]
2:17: “Fear God. ...”: An adaptation of Proverbs 24:21. In Matthew 22:21, Jesus tells some Pharisees: “‘Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s’”. In Romans 13:6-7, Paul writes: “For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, busy with this very thing. Pay to all what is due them – taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due”. [ NOAB] [ NJBC]
2:18-3:7: A section on the obligations of Christians. Guidelines are given for the behaviour of three groups: slaves ( 2:18-25), wives ( 3:1-6) and husbands ( 3:7). For other similar household codes, see Ephesians 5:22-6:9; Colossians 3:18-4:1; 1 Timothy 6:1-2; Titus 2:9-10. While the passages in Ephesians and Colossians contain instructions to both the inferior and superior members of the household, here masters are not addressed at all and husbands are addressed with the short form typical of household codes (in 3:7). [ NOAB] [ NJBC] [ CAB] IntPet notes that only those who are dependent on superiors (slaves and women) are addressed; he suggests that the masters and husbands here were pagans.
2:18: “accept the authority ... with all deference”: IntPet suggests that in all fear is a better translation, that this describes the slaves’ individual relationships to God rather than to their masters.
2:19: “a credit”: The Greek word, charis, elsewhere in 1 Peter means “grace” (in 1:2) and “salvation” (in 1:10, 13). Charis is connected with God’s gift of salvation. [ IntPet]
2:19: “aware of”: i.e. conscious of. [ NJBC]
2:20: “approval”: Again the Greek word is charis. [ IntPet]
2:21-25: This seems to be part of an early Christian hymn. [ NJBC]
2:21: The quotation is from the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 53:9b. “Sin” has been substituted for lawlessness, thus tying this quotation with the allusion to Isaiah 53:4, 12b in v. 24, “he ... bore our sins”. [IntPet]
2:23: See Mark 15:29-32 (Jesus on the Cross); 14:65; Luke 23:11, 36-37; John 19:1-5. [ CAB] This verse reformulates Isaiah 53:9 so that the example can be applied directly to the experiences of persecuted Christians. [ IntPet]
2:24: “bore our sins”: In Isaiah 53:4, a verse in the fourth Servant Song, we read “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted”. See also Hebrews 9:28. [ CAB] [ NJBC]
2:24: “cross”: Literally tree. Tree or wood is a very early Christian term for the cross: see Acts 5:30 (“Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree”); 10:39; 13:29; Galatians 3:13. [ NJBC]
2:24: “free from sins ...”: The REB offers “we might cease to live for sin and begin to live for righteousness”
2:25: The suffering servant, vindicated by God in the Resurrection, becomes the Good Shepherd. Ezekiel 34:5-16, a passage that promises that God will shepherd the neglected sheep underlies the transition from straying sheep to the injunction to return to the shepherd. [ IntPet]
2:25: “guardian”: The Greek word, episkopos, also occurs in 5:2-4 and Acts 20:28, where it is translated as “oversight” and “overseers” respectively. [ NJBC]
The division between Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 is unfortunate. (Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, who died in 1208, is credited with dividing the Bible into chapters.)
This chapter is difficult to understand partly because Jesus switches metaphor several times, a practice which was common in his time and for centuries after, but which is frowned on (to say the least!) today.
Verses 1-10: There is a selection of shepherds (leaders) here and also one of sheep (followers).
Verse 1: “climbs in”: No metaphor is perfect!
Verse 2: “shepherd”: Jesus may mean either the leader of the community or himself. If the latter, he shifts metaphor between v. 2 and v. 3. Both the shepherd and the gatekeeper/gate protect. The metaphor definitely shifts in v. 11ff to Jesus as the shepherd.
Verse 6: “figure of speech”: The Greek word is paroimia , meaning metaphor, parable, proverb, or enigmatic or fictitious illustration. The REB translates the word as parable. In spite of Jesus’ explanation (vv. 7-8), it is hard to understand, and has been interpreted in various ways.
Verses 7-10: A quotation from BlkJn (adapted to the NRSV translation) is an attempt to help in understanding this passage:

If the “gate of the sheep” here represents accurately what Jesus said, then ... [vv. 7-10] are in an almost intolerable state of confusion. But if the suggestion is adopted that in an Aramaic original the accidental repetition of one letter (a tau) has caused the shepherd to be read as “the gate”, then verses 7 and 8 give an interpretation consistent with the original parable, and the allegory does not begin until verse 9.

This suggestion does depend on a lot of conjecture. It assumes first that there was an Aramaic original, second that it got corrupted, third that it was translated into Greek from one who was working from text and not oral tradition, fourth that the translator did not pick up on the error and fifth that there is still an allegory about an entrance further down. Note that, as we have the text, “I am the gate” occurs twice: in v. 7 and v. 9. We have no fragments of the gospels in Aramaic other than translations from the Greek.
Verse 7: “I am the gate”: i.e. I determine who is admitted to the community.
Verse 8: “All who came before me”: Some scholars understand this to mean messianic pretenders; however, for this to be the case, Chapter 10 would need to be a separate unit from Chapter 9.
BlkJn sees the “thieves and bandits” as pseudo-Messiahs. He says “this is indicated by the absolute use of came, i.e. claiming to be the coming one”. Grouping thieves and bandits with pseudo-Messiahs fits with the first-century Jewish historian Josephus’ view that there are four philosophies of which this group, which includes revolutionaries, is the fourth. (The other three are the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Essenes.) Recall that Jesus was crucified with thieves and bandits.
But I think that this does not take the context into account. How can we account both for the previous discussion with the Pharisees, and their subsequent reaction? They are not thieves and bandits, nor are they false Messiahs. Rather they are good, upstanding, moral, respectable religious leaders. Why would they be so upset at Jesus for this Good Shepherd metaphor/allegory? Or are the Pharisees the hired handsof v. 12?
Verse 9: “will be saved”: i.e. will escape from the perils of having gone against God’s ways.
Jesus fulfils Old Testament promises that God will himself come to shepherd his people: see Isaiah 40:11 (“He will feed his flock like a shepherd”); Jeremiah 23:1-6; Ezekiel 34 (especially v. 11: “thus says the Lord God : I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out”).

10‘Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. ²The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. ³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. ⁵They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.’ ⁶Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

7 So again Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them.⁹I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

In Chapter 9, Jesus has raised the ire of some religious leaders by giving sight to a blind man on the Sabbath. Some of them have heard Jesus say “‘I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind’” ( 9:39). Some have asked him, “‘Surely we are not blind, are we?’” ( 9:40), to which he has replied. “‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.’” ( 9:41) Thinking themselves worthy makes them unworthy in God’s eyes.
Now Jesus uses a metaphor to expand on his point (but no metaphor works perfectly). In Palestine, sheep belonging to villagers roamed freely during the day but were confined to a common enclosure at night, to protect them from predators. Each morning, each shepherd called his sheep who followed him to pasture.
While “this figure of speech” (v. 6) is hard for us to understand in detail (as it was for those who heard Jesus), we can get the drift. So irate does the metaphor make the leaders that they try to stone him (in v. 31) and, in v. 40, Jesus flees across the Jordan. As he explains (v. 7), he is the “gate” of v. 2, so presumably the thieves and bandits are the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus, both the “gatekeeper” (v. 3) and the “shepherd” (v. 2) is the true leader. He calls the faithful to follow him (v. 4); they don’t follow a “stranger” (v. 5). The people listen to him and not to the “Pharisees” ( 9:40), “all who came before me” (v. 8). He is the only “gate” (v. 9) to eternal “life” (v. 10), to freedom (“come in and go out”, v. 9, a Jewish idiom), and to nourishment beyond measure (“find pasture ... abundantly”).