July 8, 2026

Wednesday Word . . . Window Stories: North Nave – Front

The north wall of the nave (on the right as you enter the church) has three windows. The front window (closest to the lectern) bears an image of Jesus carrying a lamb with a ram on his right and a ewe on his left. He carries a staff or shepherd's crook in his left hand, and wears a red robe draped with a gold (?) mantle (again signifying his human/divine nature). In the margins of the window is a depiction of a lamb carrying a flag (a traditional rendering of Christ, the Lamb of God) and the IHC* Christogram. The window is titled, “Christ the Good Shepherd.”

The story of the Good Shepherd comes from John 10:11-18 (11-16 is often read at funerals), and is part of a longer section where Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees about who he is. It is in this passage where we hear that Jesus cares for all of God's people and that he is willing to die for their safety. It's also in this passage where we learn that Jesus is shepherd to sheep (people) not belonging to the flock of Israel – good news for us Gentiles!

This story and this window have deep meanings. The story of the good shepherd reaffirms who Jesus is and what he does throughout this particular gospel. It was John the Baptist who first identified Jesus as the Lamb of God. The image hearkens back to the Passover lamb that is sacrificed, tying Jesus to this sacrificial act of God's people. And Jesus' statement that he has “other sheep that do not belong to this fold” further strengthens John's comments that he has come to take away the sin of the world and Jesus' statement that God so loved the world that everyone who believes in him may not perish.

The image of Jesus carrying the lamb in the window reinforces the fact that Jesus cares for the most vulnerable among us. And the ram could be – could be – seen as the ram provided for Abraham to sacrifice instead of his son Isaac.

The story behind this window is that Jesus came to save the entire world from sin, that Jesus has other sheep we don't know about, and that Jesus was willing to die to protect and save us.

We all have faith stories to share. What's yours?

Blessings,

Todd+

* We've all seen the IHC and IHS symbols in churches but we may not know what they mean. IHS is the more common of the two, but they both reference Jesus Christ with no discernible difference. It comes from the first three letters of Jesus in Greek: iota (rendered as an I that morphed into the English J), eta (H in ancient Greek that has evolved into an “ee” sound), and sigma (originally rendered as the Latin S at the end of words, but can look like a C in the middle of words). So the JES in Jesus was rendered as IHS or IHC. Over time other meanings were (incorrectly) attributed to the letters, the most common one being the Latin Iesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus, Savior of Men).