John 10:22–30 – Dedication of the Inner Temple (Oneness with the Source/Father)

Today’s Gospel reading brings us into a moment of tension and revelation. Jesus is walking in the temple during the festival of Dedication (Hanukkah),when some Jewish religious leaders surround him and ask, “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

They want a clear, black-and-white answer. But Jesus, as he so often does in John’s Gospel, doesn’t give them what they expect. Instead, he points to something deeper, something that goes beyond words or titles. He says, “I have told you, and you do not believe... My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.”

In other words, those who are truly listening, those who are open-hearted and ‘attuned’, alert or aware, already know. They’ve seen it in his actions, they’ve felt it in his presence, they’ve recognized it in their hearts. It’s not about figuring it out in your head, it’s about hearing and responding from the heart.

And then Jesus says something truly profound: “I and the Father are one.” John 10 is not merely a debate about messiahship; it is a deeper unveiling of union, between Jesus and the Father, and ultimately, between the Divine and those who “hear his voice.”

And so this statement is not just a theological statement about who Jesus is. It comes as an invitation to see the deeper reality of all things. John’s Gospel is full of this kind of language from the very beginning, when we’re told that the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and that Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

John isn’t just telling us stories about Jesus. In the writing of his gospel, he’s trying to open our eyes to something bigger, that God is not far away, but right here, right now. That divine presence is woven into the fabric of life. Yes, Jesus shows us the face of God, “If you have seen me you have seen the Father” (14:9). but he also shows us the true face of humanity: “Don’t your own scriptures tell you ‘You are gods’” he says to them just a few verses later in vs 34. His unity with the Father is meant to draw us into that same unity – As Jesus says in John 14:20 “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

The mystics across many traditions, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, have spoken of this same deep truth: that underneath all our differences, there is a single divine reality, and we are all part of it. Some call it the perennial wisdom, the understanding that the heart of all spiritual paths leads to the same place: to love, to union, to the realization that we are never truly separate from God.

When Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice,” he’s not just talking about a chosen few. He’s speaking of anyone, who is willing to listen with the ears of the heart. And when he says, “No one will snatch them out of my hand,” it’s a promise of deep spiritual safety. That whatever storms we go through, whatever doubts we wrestle with, we are held. We belong. But we will not truly know these things until we listen deeply with the ears of the heart.

In verse 26 when he says to his questioners “you do not believe because you are not my sheep”. It is important to note that this is not exclusionary; rather it is descriptive of interior disposition. To “belong” is to be attuned, to be receptive to the voice of the Shepherd, which calls from beyond our egoic thinking into presence. At this point they are unable to respond to the One who is their true shepherd because they are not listening deeply enough with the ears of their hearts. They are still listening to and being defined by the voice of the ego in their heads. They do not yet know their Oneness with God. They have not yet been able to intuit this deeper truth.

The Feast of Dedication, or Hanukkah, is not an insignificant detail in the story. It commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem around 164 BCE after it was defiled by foreign rule during the time of the Maccabean Revolt. The temple, once desecrated, was purified and rededicated to the worship of the God of Israel. In our passage today, the listeners are being invited into the deeper meaning of Hannukkah, the cleansing of the heart and the rededication of the heart as the true inner Temple where the Divine dwells within each of us.

So perhaps the question for us today is not, “Do we understand it all?” or “Can we explain who Jesus is?” Maybe the better question is, ‘Are we listening deeply’? Are we attuned to that still, small voice, the voice of the Good Shepherd, that calls us beyond fear and division and into deeper trust?

At the end of our passage Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.” And in a very real way, so are we. And not just us but every human being even if this deeper truth has been obscured and hidden. We are not alone. We are part of something greater than ours small egoic selves tell us. We are held in love, grounded in being, and if we are listening deeply, guided by the voice of the Shepherd.

In verse 28 we read these words of reassurance: “No one will snatch them out of my hand...” Here we glimpse the security of our spiritual belonging. For those who have awakened to the Divine within and beyond, there is a deep knowing that cannot be undone by external circumstance. It is the deep realisation of the divinity within us that is never separate from its Source.

And so to reflect on John 10:22–30, then, is to be invited into the heart of the Christian mystical tradition, which proclaims, that the goal of spiritual life is not belief with our heads alone, but rather a deeper union of the heart, a deeper inner knowing of the Divine from within that transforms how we see God, ourselves, and the world.

As we meditate on this Gospel passage, perhaps we can hear the voice of the Shepherd not as a voice from outside, but as the inner voice of love and truth, calling us beyond fear, beyond separation, and into the freedom and security of the One in whom we live and move and have our being. Amen.

Prayer: 

O Holy One, over all, in all and through all, Whom we have encountered in the face of Jesus, may we listen deeply to hear the voice of the Shepherd within, as the inner voice of love and truth, inviting us to rededicate our hearts as Temples of the Divine, calling us beyond fear, and beyond separation into a deeper knowledge of our own Oneness with you in whom we live and move and have our being and the deep inner knowing that nothing can ever snatch us away from Your hands. Amen.

"What is a Non-Subscribing Presbyterian approach to Communion?"

Friends, today as we gather around the communion table, I would like to explore a Non-Subscribing Presbyterian approach to Holy Communion, in light of our Ethos and Constitution.

Now it’s important to say from the outset that it is not easy to give a single definitive view on communion from a Non-Subscribing Presbyterian perspective. That’s not due to uncertainty or a lack of reverence, but because one of the core convictions of our church is this: the right of private judgement and individual conscience in matters of faith.

Within the Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland, there is room for different understandings, personal interpretations, and diverse experiences of this sacred meal. There is no single dogmatic statement that defines how each one of us must understand or approach communion. 

To help us each discern for ourselves our own understandings of communion it is perhaps helpful to briefly consider how other Christian traditions view communion.

In Roman Catholicism, for instance, communion—or the Holy Mass—is seen as a literal transformation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ (called transubstantiation). The sacrifice of christ 2000 years ago is said to be made present in the here and now under the guise of bread and wine.   Outwardly the elements may look like Bread and Wine but in truth they are now the body and blood of Christ. They would say that when Jesus instituted communion at the last supper he didn’t say: “this is a symbol of my body… this is a symbol of my blood”, but rather “this is my body” “this is my blood”. Some High Anglicans hold the same view. 

But for Lutherans and some other Anglicans, there is slightly different understanding - a belief in a real spiritual presence of Christ in the elements of Bread and Wine.  However, the bread remains bread and the wine remains wine but they have now been infused or energised with the Real Presence of Christ.

But still other Anglicans would hold the view of the Reformer John Calvin who believed that Christ is truly present in Communion but not connected specifically to the Bread and the Wine. 

Other Reformed traditions emphasize communion simply as a memorial; a remembering—a powerful reminder of Christ's death and resurrection, a symbol of grace rather than a mystical event, an act of sacred remembering. 

This would also be the view of most Unitarians. A sacred remembering. But while most traditions would emphasize the atoning death of Christ, a sacrifice for sin, Unitarians would emphasize communion as a remembering of Christ’s shared love around a table and the supreme example of his life of sacrificial love. 

And then the question arises: Who can receive communion? 

In the Roman Catholic Church, only those who are baptised members of the Roman Catholic Church in good standing are permitted to receive Communion – only those who have been taught to recognise that the Bread and Wine are no longer just bread and wine, but are now the actual Body and Blood of Christ under the outward form of Bread and Wine. This is in part to ensure that due reverence is paid. That is why preparing for first communion is so important in the Roman Catholic Church – to ensure that children show due reverence and have a correct understanding that the bread is no longer bread and the wine is no longer wine but rather, the actual body and blood of Christ.  

Up until the ecumenical movement of the 1960’s most denominations would have had some kind of exclusionary approach to communion. Only baptised members in good standing in the denomination could receive communion.  So for example only baptised Anglicans in good standing could receive communion in an Anglican Church. Only baptised Lutherans in good standing could receive in a Lutheran church. Etc...  But in more recent decades that has loosened up – now many mainline Protestant churches would say you can receive communion as a visitor if you are a baptised member in good standing in your own denomination. 

In many evangelical traditions there are also further restrictions; communion in Evangelical traditions also often serve as a test of worthiness, with a strong exclusionary tone—those who are not "right with God" are encouraged not to partake until they have repented or conformed to particular beliefs.

Having considered briefly how other Christian traditions might understand communion, what might a Non-Subscribing Presbyterian approach to communion be that is grounded in our ethos as enshrined in our Constitution? 

Firstly, Non-Subscribers tend to focus on the teachings of Jesus over and above the teachings about Jesus. Whatever else Communion is about it should over and above everything else connect us with the teachings and the way of Jesus.  If there is a conflict or discrepancy for example between the teaching of Jesus and the teaching of St Paul, our obligation is to follow Jesus. 

Secondly Non-Subscribers focus on the inalienable right of private judgement—the right of each person to interpret Scripture and respond according to their own conscience.  There is room for differences of opinion in understanding exactly what is happening is communion… of how Christ is present – or even not present if that is what one believes.  Most non-subscribers have probably over the centuries understood Communion more along the lines of a simple memorial, but there is room in the NSPCI for those who might have a more mystical view of communion.  If in Ephesians, the writer speaks Christ’s presence now filling the whole universe there is room for those who might affirm and believe that Christ is truly present in the bread and the wine.  There is room for each of us to come to our own conclusions on these things.  At the very least it might be said that Christ is present where two or three gather in his name and break bread to remember him.  But some Unitarians who emphasize the humanity of Jesus over his divinity might question that interpretation… For unitarains it is the shared experience of love around the table that reminds us of the spirit in which Jesus lived and loved… and there is room for all of these perspectives in the NSPCI. 

Thirdly Non-Subscribers have tended to emphasize the supremacy of love—both as a key attribute of God and as the mark of true discipleship (John 13:35). In this regard Non-Subscribers have tended to emphasize the boundless grace of God, as shown in the parable of the Prodigal Son – where the wayward prodigal was welcomed in and included in the celebratory meal of his return home. The older brother however has excluded himself from the celebratory meal of his brothers return and in response  the Father leaves the celebratory meal to invite to urge and to encourage the older brother to join them. 

Fourthly Non-Subscribers have tended to emphasize the call to do the will of God, not merely to profess faith with our lips (Matthew 7:21)… ‘You will know they are Christians, not by what they profess to believe, not by how well they know their Bible’s or how many verses they have memorised. Rather, you will know them by their love. Jesus said, “By this shall all know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

And so these broad principles form a kind of spiritual compass for how we might approach communion—not with fear or obligation, but with love, reflection, and a deep reverence for the teachings of Christ.

We remember that Jesus welcomed all to his table: the faithful and the faltering, the confused and the confident. He broke bread with those who would soon deny him, betray him, and abandon him – Luke’s Gospel emphasizes that the hand of the betrayer was with Jesus at the table at the Last Supper. His invitation was an act of radical grace extended to all.

It is for this reason that Non-Subscribing Presbyterians as well as Methodists together with Unitarains are among the few traditions who practice what is called an Open Table. All are invited to partake without restriction whether baptised or un-baptised, whether worthy or unworthy – for both Communion is an expression of unearned grace, of God’s love freely extended to all without exceptions.

And so we believe that communion is not a reward for the righteous, but a reminder of grace for the seeking. It is not a test of doctrinal agreement, but a shared experience of Christ’s love, and a moment of spiritual nourishment. It is not a sacrament fenced off by dogma, but a shared meal open to all who seek to walk in the spirit and love of Jesus.

In the parable of the Prodigal Son, we see the heart of the God whom Jesus reveals: a God who runs to meet the lost, who rejoices over their return, who throws a feast not as a prize for perfection but as a celebration of reconciliation. The lost son has come home. 

At this table, no matter who we are or whatever our understanding, we too are invited to come home. To come home to love.  It is here, in bread and wine, that in remembering Jesus we enact a simple truth: we are loved, we are welcome, we belong. Amen.