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| 'cool shepherd' |
And here we are, after a blogging absence due to wrestling with Mr Knox and some particularly stubborn sinners from the 16th c [who are still refusing to give in, but they will, oh yes indeed...c.5-6 weeks]. I have started probation at 'seaside parish' and have been settling in over the last couple of weeks - loving the time so far. Tomorrow is the first sermon and I feel very, very rusty!
Following last week's story of calling disciples on the beach, I'll take up the thread by thinking about the characteristics of the One who calls, using Ps 23 and John 10: 22-30.
During the week, I had the most excellent fortune of hearing Rob Bell, who was speaking in the 'burgh. I pinched 3 words from him to frame the sermon - for, with, ahead.... Blessings on that man - great speaker.
Here's my small attempt to preach on what is a ridiculously familiar passage...
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Last week, we heard a story
about fish
and of fishermen;
about a barbie on the beach,
about a call to follow
Jesus.
This week, in our readings,
we’ve heard about sheep
and of shepherds
and of the qualities and
characteristics of the one who calls us to follow.
In the gospel passage we
heard earlier,
Jesus identifies himself as
a shepherd:
he knows his sheep,
they listen to his voice.
In the psalm,
we heard about what the
shepherd does:
how he looks after his
sheep. ...
Now, having grown up in a
coastal fishing town,
I confess that I speak fish,
better than I do sheep...
and, having spent the last
20 or so years living mostly in towns and cities
my opportunities to learn to
speak ‘sheep’ have been pretty limited...
Just by way of taking a wee
straw poll here:
apart from those occasional
drives in the country
or even going on holidays in
the countryside,
and apart from those moments
when you’ve found yourself watching wee lambs sproinging all over the place
– ‘sproinging’ ...being the
technical term J –
A show of hands, if you’re
willing:
how many of you have spent
most of your life in a more urban, town environment?
Those who grew up in a
farming community will ‘get’ the descriptions just that bit more than those of
us who are basically townies at heart –
Sure, we see the metaphor,
our imaginations fill in the
sense of the thing
and we get a glimpse of
where it’s going,
but because we’re not
grounded in the reality of a farming context we might have a tendency to be a
little pink and fluffy in our thoughts...
or maybe that’s just me!
But I do know that sometimes
it’s easy to feel a little disconnected to what both the psalmist and Jesus are
talking about when it comes to sheep and shepherds.
Which got me to thinking
about how the psalm might be written if you didn’t happen to come from a
farming community?
How might it be written if
you spent all your life in the frozen wastes of the Arctic Circle, for instance?
Or if you lived on a remote
island in the South Pacific?
And then I had another
thought:
what if you’re from a place
and culture where there are actually *no* such things as sheep and lambs and
shepherds –
if you were translating the
bible into a language where the words ‘sheep’, ‘lamb’ and ‘shepherd’ didn’t
actually exist?
And here’s another question [so many questions, so little time!]:
if we were to re-write the
psalm in our own context - at seaside parish - how might we do it?
Those of you who like a
challenge might like to give this a go during the week - and if you do let me
know how you get on!
But, back on track:
what would be the essential
thoughts
and ideas you’d be trying to
get across regardless of whether the description concerns shepherds, butchers,
bakers or even candlestick makers ...?
Three thoughts – using three
words:
With...
For...
Ahead...
First word: with –
The Lord is with us:
We know this from the story
of Christmas:
God all-powerful, made God
all-vulnerable –
Dependent upon the
hospitality of the human heart to take him in....
The one who spoke the
universe into being
The one who breathed us into
being
The one beyond all time and
space...
Becoming human
Becoming
One
With
Us.
Understanding first hand
what it is to be human
What it is
To be us...
In cell, and skin and bone;
In all it’s crazy, messy,
funny, sad, mundane, and sometimes scary glory.
God in Jesus,
Jesus as human;
Shepherd, teacher, friend.
With us.
In another psalm, psalm 139,
the psalmist states:
‘You are
all around me on every side...’
And asks:
‘Where could I go to escape from you?
‘Where could I go to escape from you?
Where
could I get away from your presence?
If I went
up to heaven, you would be there;
If I flew
away beyond the east or lived in the farthest place in the west,
you would
be there to lead me,
you would
be there to help me.
When my
bones were being formed,
when I
was growing there in secret,
you knew
that I was there -
you saw
me before I was born.’
The Lord is with us:
With us in the places of
refreshing
With us in the dark reaches
of the night.
But always,
Always,
With us:
Awesome thought.
Second word: for.
The Lord is for us:
On our side
Protecting
Guarding
Guiding
For us in our times of need:
We shall not want.
For us:
Rather than watching us beg
for a place at the table,
we’re invited in as honoured
guests at the banquet
For us – and blessing us
For us – and setting us free:
free to live life authentically,
to the full...
full to overflowing.
For us in both the good and
the bad
The joy and the pain:
For us when we feel hemmed
in on all sides
When we feel there is no-one
who hears us
or is on our side.
The Lord is for us with a
staff, a shield,
With a hand that pulls us
through the valley of shadows.
And, as Jesus states not
once, but twice in our gospel text:
For us so much that he will
not let us be snatched away.
Third word: ahead.
The Lord is ahead of us:
the one who knows us
and who calls us by name
walks ahead of us.
If you happened to be
wandering around the countryside in the Holy Land
And, if you happened upon
sheep and a shepherd,
chances are that the
shepherd would be up ahead of the sheep,
not urging them on from the
back
but leading from the front.
The Lord is ahead of us:
where it’s better to see the
dangers and meet them head on;
to see the obstacles in the
way
and make a clear path.
Ahead of us leading us on
the right path
Keeping us on track
Making a way forward rather
than leaving us to wander in ever-increasing, ever-dizzying spirals:
Beckoning us to move with
him,
moving us from destructive
patterns and ways of being,
coaxing us to leave behind
those stale and brackish
soul-sapping routines and
ways of thinking...
urging us instead, to pools
of fresh, life-giving water...
Ahead of us:
bidding us to be open to the
unexpected,
the unimagined,
firing our hearts and souls
to say ‘yes’ to God
and ‘yes’ to others;
doing this by widening the perimeters
of our thinking.
Ahead of us
Moving us beyond ‘it can’t
be done’
into an exploration of
limitless possibilities as we follow in
faith.
Ahead of us
teaching us what it is to be
people of vision.
And so we follow:
The one who is
With us
For us
Ahead of us...
As we follow
So we do also...
What does our calling look like?
As God is with us
So we are with God...
And with friends
And family
And the friendless and forgotten.
With those who can’t quite remember their name
But whose names and stories are nevertheless remembered by God, and
by us.
With those who are lonely, or alone
And who yearn for a cup of tea and a good blether,
With those who only hear harsh words and long for
kind ones.
With those who are afraid, who are ill, who despair.
With those who weep and with those who rejoice.
As God is for us
So we are for others:
For those who have no-one on their side.
For those forgotten by the system
For those living in fear –
Of failure
Of not quite measuring up
Of hunger, poverty, or harm.
For those who would never dream that they, too, might
have an honoured place at the table...
we are for them, passing them plates and filling their cups as welcome
friends...
no longer 'them' and 'us' but brothers and sisters together.
As God is ahead of us
So we go ahead
Clearing the road of obstacles
for those behind us...
we go ahead and show the way to places of rest from the
mad busyness of life –
creating space to be, away from the exhausting pressure
to do, to achieve, and just be a cog in a machine.
We go ahead,
Instead of going around and around in circles of
ever-spiralling arguments –
In which a brick is thrown and a brick thrown back...
And a tank is sent in
And a missile answers...
We go ahead by stepping out of the circle
And picking up a cross
Picking out a path through the junk
The mess and the carnage...
Like the one we follow
Who is both shepherd
And lamb of God.
We go ahead:
widening the path so that goodness and mercy will not
just bless us but others...
Knowing that as we do
we need not fear
we shall not want
there is more than enough:
overflowing cups of goodness and mercy
all the days of our lives.
And knowing
That the one who calls us
Guards us and guides us
Leads us and loves us
And never, ever lets us go.
Amen.