Today has traditionally been known as Good Shepherd Sunday after the gospel reading we have just heard and the psalm set for today.
A good shepherd seeks to keep his flock together and bring his sheep along with him. Now if God is the shepherd that makes us the sheep, and I suspect that we can be a very troublesome flock. To use a biblical phrase we all like sheep have gone astray, each to our own way.
We all have our own views, our own way we prefer things to be done, and of course, it’s obvious, to us, that our preferred way is clearly the best and right way and everyone else should just do as we want.
The culture we live in these days can seem to reinforce that view. We are inundated by articles, inspirational quotes etc telling us to find our true self, that the most important thing is me and what makes me happy and the implication is not to worry how that might make others feel. We are told to speak our truth and if we speak the loudest our truth will be the truth.
However, if we are all shouting, then we can fail to listen. Jesus says his sheep know him because we hear his voice. If we are to hear the voice of the shepherd than that means we have to stop shouting about my truth, or my rights, or why everyone should do things my way. We need to shut up and listen for the voice of the shepherd. We can do this through spending time quietly in prayer and contemplation of scripture.
There is another danger in listening to our own voice, it might not be telling the truth. I was on a training course one day this week. I was learning about a form of cognitive behavioural therapy. One point raised is how we as humans developed language as a way to communicate. Language, whilst extremely useful, can have a dark side. When we tell ourselves we are useless, no one can love us we are that bad, not even God and we can come to believe it. Our own inner voice can start to drown out the gentle voice of the good shepherd calling us and telling us that he loves us.
The gospel tells us that the sheep will recognise the voice of the Good Shepherd. We need to atune our ears and make sure we are listening to the shepherd.
If each sheep follows it’s own way then the flock scatters. A scattered flock then becomes easy pickings for the wolves and other predators. If we all seek our own way, divisions grow, relationships break down. We stop being a caring Christian community and can instead end up hurting others, making them feel excluded and cast out. Meanwhile we end up as a club for those that think like we do. This can be clearly seen in the history of the church, and in our own church of England now. The new Archbishop of Canterbury, whoever they may turn out to be, will have a hard job to shepherd his or her flock. This is why our shepherd calls us to a different way.
In our reading from Acts this morning, we heard about a lady called Tabitha. Tabitha is a faithful disciple of the church. She is also clearly a person who has good relationships with others. She cares for the widows and helps them. The other members of the community clearly care about her. When she becomes ill and dies, they don’t just accept her death and move on, they know that Peter has recently performed a healing miracle, and is nearby so they send for him.
Peter travels from Lydda to Joppa a journey of around eight miles. When Peter comes, he tells them to clear the room, prays, then speaks to Tabitha and bids her rise. It is not Peter’s prayer that triggers Tabitha’s return to life, rather it is when Peter speaks to her, that she responds.
We all respond when we hear things, especially our name. How often have you being having one conversation and you hear your name mentioned by someone in another conversation and instantly switch your attention.
Our names are important. When we meet someone new, we tell them our name and they tell us their name, this is the first step of building relationships. Relationships will only grow if we are prepared to listen and to hear what the other has to say. By listening to each other, we can learn from each other about what we each feel is important and why. When we do that we can start to compromise, to find a path that the flock can all follow, hopefully without any sheep going astray.
God is the good shepherd who calls each of his sheep, you and me, individually by name into relationship with him. A relationship that can be life changing. However he is also calling us into relationship with each other. Relationships, where whilst we might not always agree with each other we can build trust, build a community or a flock, that has God’s love and care at the heart of it. A community that can show the world another way of being, a way where it’s about us, not me, where thorough compromise and understanding of each other, we can achieve more, become more of our best selves than we can if we just focus on me.
I pray that this week we can all find time, to pause and listen for the voice of the Good shepherd that loves us and calls us by name.
