Saturday, 6 June 2020

A new calendar?

Many of you will have heard of the Gregorian calendar, which most of the western world now follows, and the Julian calendar, which used to be the calendar in Britain until 1752.  What is less well known is that there is a calendar called the Jonasannah calndar.  this is what we have been following for the last few weeks.  The main difference is that according to the Jonasannah calendarm Pentecost and Trinity Sunday are celebrated a week earlier than the Gregorian calendar.  We are now back to the Gregorian calendar, with apologies for any confusion.
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The People of God. Week beginning June 7th.

The People of God
Song:
Shine Jesus Shine.

Reading:
Exodus 19: 1-11

Song:
Ye servants of God

Readings:
John 15: 1-8

Acts 2: 37 – 47

Song:
Ye servants of God

Reading:
1 Peter 2: 1-11

The People of God
What does it mean to be “The People of God”.?
In the Old Testament, the Israelites are referred to as “the people of God” in Judges 20:2 and 2 Samuel 14:13. The equivalent phrases “the people of the Lord,” and “the peoploe of the Lord your God” are also sued. In these texts, God is represented as speaking of the Children of Israle as “my people”. The people of God was a term first used in Exodus 6:7. In this covenant between man and God, God promised deliverance and the people owed obedience.
In the New Testament, the expression “people of God” is found in Hebrews 4:9 and 11:25,and the expression “his people”, that is God’s people, appears in Revelation 21:3. 2 Cornthians 6:16 mentions the same promises to the New Testament believer, “I will walk with them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” which as parallel to Exodus 6.

“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.  I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.”

The people, wandering through the wilderness with Moses, would have been familiar with the idea of obedience. They were following; each other, the column of fire and cloud, and God. They had the rules of the Mosaic law, hundreds of them. They believed that following these laws was pleasing to God, and in following, served him.

Jesus taught that following the law was difficult if not impossible. Peter tells us what is necessary to become people of God; what torid ourselves of, and what to crave.

Luke tells us what the early church did in their community. It was visible, they were looking after each other, Caring for each other. Sharing with each other. In John’s gospel (13: 34,35), we are told that loving one another will make us visible to others, that they may know that we are Jesus’ disciples.

The list in Acts is neither prescriptive, nor proscriptive. What is necessary to show love is what we must do. The deeds listed were what was necessary then, we must look at what is necessary now. Currently we are in difficult circumstances. This is the sort of time when we need to be looking for ways to show love to one another.

There is a story of when God was looking for a people to call his own, and he went to various groups and asked them what they would do for him if he became their God. One by one, they promised to produce; great works of art; profound systems of philosophy; great armies and caravans of trade. Eventually, he arrived a bunch of nomads called the Hebrews. They replied, almost apologetically, that they could offer none of these things, but that they could promise to tell the stories of his deede to their children, and they to their children and so on. And God said “It’s a deal!”

Telling is an essential part of being part of the people of God.

Is everything mentioned so far the outsiders’ experience of the church? Are we obvious by our love for one another? Do weshow to the world that we have “...rid (y)ourselves of all malice and deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”? Many outsiders would say that they have seen the opposite. There are those who are seen as Christians but who are malicious, deceitful, envious, slanderous and hypocritical.

In the “Simpsons”, there was a character called Maud. She was the wife of Ned Flanders. In one episode, she had disappeared, but turned up having been away at bible college. She had been on a course “To help be become more judgmental”.

Is this how the world sees us? Of course, we all say “Who? Me?”

In the T.V. series “Hallelujah!” where Thora Hird played the part of a Salvations Army officer, someone said that they would not come to church because “It was full of hypocrites”. The response was, “Oh that’s all right, it’s not full! There’s room for plenty more!”

Where does it say in the bible that to be one of the people of God we have to be miserable? Yey some churches seem to delight in being miserable. Many years ago I preached at a joint service with two congregations. When I used a humourous illustration to make a point, I could tell the members of the two congregations apart by who laughed and who did not. Some Christians seem to be even more miserable when they suspect that someone else is having fun!

The early Christian community is often described as “glad”. We need to remember this.

The people of God. Sharing, caring, telling the stories, spending time in each others’ company (when we can!) enjoying.

Song:
The People of God

I tried to find this song on the internet, but there seems to be some copyright issue around the music. Please read it as a prayer or meditation .

'Moses I know you're the man,' the Lord said.
'You're going to work out My plan,' the Lord said.
'Lead all the Israelites out of slavery.
And all shall make them a wandering race
called the people of God.'

So ev'ry day we're on our way,
for we're travelling, wandering race
called the people of God.

'Don't get too set in your ways,' the Lord said.
'Each step is only a phase,' the Lord said.
'I'll go before you and I shall be a sign
to guide My travelling, wandering race.
You're the people of God.'

'No matter what you may do,' the Lord said,
'I shall be faithful and true,' the Lord said.
'My love will strengthen you as you go along,
for you're My travelling, wandering race.
You're the people of God.'

'Look at the birds in the air,' the Lord said.
'They fly unhampered by care,' the Lord said.
'You will move easier if you're travelling light,
for you're a wandering vagabond race.
You're the people of God.'

'Foxes have places to go,' the Lord said.
'But I've no home here below,' the Lord said.
'So if you want to be with Me all your days,
keep up the moving and travelling on.
You're the people of God.'
Estelle White (1925- )
taken from sacredhearthull.uk

Prayer:
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: hear our prayer which we offer for all members of your holy Church; that each in their vocation and minstry may serve you in holinessand truth, to the glory of your name; throught our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.


I like to think that Fanny Crosby would approve of this treatment of one of her hymns.

Song:
Praise him, Praise him,
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Saturday, 30 May 2020

Week beginning 31st May 2020

Song:
All creatures of our God and King

Reading:
Isaiah 6: verses 1-8

Song:
Holy Holy Holy

Reading:
Ephesians 1: verses 3-14

Songs:
Trinity song

3 in and 1 in 3

Trinity Sunday.
Talking to David recently, he recalled a boy at school who had come from Winnipeg in Canada. He described the climate there in these terms, “It is a place where you eat you milk in winter, and drink your butter in summer!” Most of us would not associate milk as being something that you eat, nor butter as something that you drink. We have little difficulty however, of understanding the meaning that this is somewhere that is very cold in winter, and very hot in summer. Those of you old enough to remember very cold winters, and having milk delivered to your doorsteps early in the morning, may remember taking the milk in with the foil tops pushed up by the frozen cream on top of the milk.

Different though the solid “eating” milk is from what we would normally expect, it is nonetheless milk. It is chemically, and nutritionally the same. The same can be said of the “drinking” butter, it is still butter.

Many of you will be familiar with the shorthand used by chemists to describe compounds. Even though you may not know the intricacies of the system, I’m sure that most people would recognise this formula, and could name the compound if asked:
H2O
I’m sure that the majority of you would have responded “Water”. How many of you said “steam”? Or “Ice”?

Three very different substances. Each with very different properties and uses. One can be used as a building material in certain climates. We are all familiar with igloos, perhaps as a child you even attempted to build one. You may even have been lucky enough to stay in the ice hotel in Sweden.
Picture taken from Wikipedia
In its liquid form; water is essential for life; can be used for transport; and is responsible for shaping much of our landscape.
Picture taken from Wikipedia
As a gas, steam is a great source of power, and is the driving force behind our weather systems.
Picture taken from mirror.co.uk

Under normal circumstances, we are used only to encountering one of these things at once, but at certain, very special conditions of temoperature and pressure, all three can exist in equilibrium, this is known as the “triple point”. (for those who are interested, this occurs at a temperature of 0.0075 °C and a partial vapour pressure of 6.11657 mbar)

In the small town where I was brought up, my father was well known, he was a schoolteacher, town councillor, and active in one of the local churches. This meant that to many people I was known as “Albert Youdan’s lad.” Perhaps some of you had a similar experience. Later, when I started work as a schoolteacher in a different town, I became known as “Mr. Youdan, the chemistry teacher.” More recently still, many of the people near to where we live know me as “Jamie and Nathan’s dad.”

These three groups of people are extremely unlikely to meet one another; if they did, they could easily think that “Albert Youdan’s lad.”, “Mr. Youdan, the chemistry teacher.”, and “Jamie and Nathan’s dad.” were three different people, they certainly would have different recollections of these people, and their character traits.

And yet, these three disparate individuals are all the same human. In the same way as the solid milk and the liquid milk; the same way as the solid and liquid butter; the same way as the ice, water, and steam, they are made of the same stuff.

There is a story from India about blind men encountering an elephant:
A group of blind men heard that a strange animal, called an elephant, had been brought to the town, but none of them were aware of its shape and form. Out of curiosity, they said: "We must inspect and know it by touch, of which we are capable". So, they sought it out, and when they found it they groped about it. The first person, whose hand landed on the trunk, said, "This being is like a thick snake". For another one whose hand reached its ear, it seemed like a kind of fan. As for another person, whose hand was upon its leg, said, the elephant is a pillar like a tree-trunk. The blind man who placed his hand upon its side said the elephant, "is a wall". Another who felt its tail, described it as a rope. The last felt its tusk, stating the elephant is that which is hard, smooth and like a spear.
You may know a poem about this story.

The men had all encountered the elephant. Undoubtedly, what they touched was an elephant, the DNA of it would have revealed that they all touched the same elephant. And yet, they all obtained a different impression of what they encountered.

Just as the different forms of milk, butter, and water; and the people known by the different people who met me; the different parts of the elephant are all “of one substance”, the phrase we use about the three persons of the Trinity.

Our reading this morning give us accounts of people who met God. They mer different persons of God, and had different understandings of who they had met, but all three are separate persons, of one substance.

Song:
Holy Holy Holy Holy

Prayer:
Your presence, O God makes heaven and all heaven’s glory is yours:
your joy, your honour, your blessedness, create, and are, heaven.
Before the glory of your presence kneel the celestial hosts, and the choirs of the whole creation dry “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.”
That presence you freely and wonderfully give us;
first through him in whose glorious likeness we see, O Father, yours, your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ:
then by your Spirit poured forth without measure upon the children of your love, resting and dwelling in them with all his gifts.
Father, who ever loves and will not leave us, number us among your children who rest in your presence now, and reflect its light.
Praise the Lord, O my soul: O Lord my God, you are exceedingly glorious;
“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.” Amen.
Taken from “My God, My Glory”
published by SPCK 1967
Modernised and slightly adapted.

Song:
Father we adore you

Blessing:
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Saturday, 23 May 2020

Christian Aid Week

10th to 16th May was Christian aid Week.  Obviously,there are no envelopes through your doors this year.  If you are able to make a donation,please do so, on line or by post.
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Week beginning 24th May 2020

During this Pentecost service, you may wish to share in Holy communion at your own home. If you wish to do so, you will require a piece of bread or biscuit and a small cup of juice, milk or water.
You may like to use a torch, not turned on, or a candle that is safe to light later. Set these things out on a table near you

While listening to the first song, read Genesis 1: 1 – 2
Spirit of the living God

Genesis chapter 1: 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

PRAYERS

God our father grant us the help of your Holy Spirit in our prayers for the salvation of all people. We pray for all who are in sorrow, need, and sickness; for those who are feeling very lonely and isolated at this time.
We pray for those living in fear and suffering cruelty, that they may feel your presence and know you are close; give them strength, turn their despair into hope..

We pray for all those in the care sector, the NHS and emergency services, for voluntary workers. We pray for ministers and the chaplains, be with for all our front line services. Lord God be with all who have been afected by Covid.

Lord God we Pray for our World, the goverments and leaders, that they may work together for the good of all seeking justice and peace.

We give you are thanks and praise that we can come together through the power of your Holy Spirit to celebrate the Churches birthday. Unite us all we say the Lord’s Prayer together

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Song:
Spirit divine attend our prayers

Reading:
Acts 2: 1 – 28. (Verses 25 – 28 are from psalm 16: 8 -11)

Song:
Spirit of God unseen as the wind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy8AZ46GKqc (Then let this run quietly through communion)

Light the torch or candle.

This morning we think of our friends of Mayfield and our friends joining us in this service.

Let us pray.
Thank You Father that You have promised to hear the prayers and petitions of Your servants and to nourish us with the body and blood of Your Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Help me to prepare my heart as I partake in this sacrament, which is the two beautiful symbols of Christ’s body – broken for me and His precious blood – shed for me.
I am not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Your table but I trust in your mercy and not in any goodness of my own. May the power of your spirit fill me with your love and peace as I remember now those in their own homes sharing this moment with me.

We take this food and we remember Jesus. As he gave it to his disciples heblessed it
and and then asked them to do this and to remember him. So we take this now and eat it remembering his precious love.

After the meal he picked up the cup and said to his friends that his blood was shed for the forgivesness of sins. “Drink from this all of you.”

So we drink. We give ourselves to you this day. We thank you for uniting us with Christ for giving us a forteaste of the heavenly the banquet prepared for all people. So give to God all thanks praise and glory. Amen

Blow out the candle / turn torch off

Song:
There’s a wind a blowin’

Reading:
Acts 2: 29 – 41
The Birth of the Church
Early Glastonbury Abbey

Modern Church

 Message

We all like birthdays, ok most of us. My last birthday I was 60, some of you came to my party tea at the chapel last June ( how time flies ). I had some wonderful birthdays in my childhood.
My second birthday was at my auntie Audrey’s. I thought it was in field, but was told it was her back garden, and the garage was turned into a cinema where my friends and I watched two Woody Woodpecker cartoons. We ate cakes made like little sailing boats with rice paper sails, and had candles to blow out.
In 1973 I was 14 and my birthday fell on a Sunday. I really did not want to spend the morning at Church, but I was pleased that I had, because the preacher that Sunday talked about a great preacher that had lived 270 years ago; that he had been chosen by God to go out and tell every one about how much Christ’s love is for all; how much his saving grace is for us all. This man was led by the power of the holy spirit and it would have been this man’s birthday. He was born on this day 17th June, a Sunday in 1703. His Name was John Wesley. The preacher asked if it was anyone’s birthday to day. I put my hand up. Every one sang happy birthday to me. He told me that I too had been chosen by God to go on a life adventure with him. Then he told us about Gulliver’s travels. Evidently on June 16th 1703 they were looking for water as there had been a great storm. On June 17th land was found, a land of giants well this story whet my appetite and then the preacher gave me a present, a large box. When I opened it, it seemed empty, but he got me to open it in front of every one, and explained that the holy spirit could not been seen. It was like this box, it looked empty you can’t see air he said. Then at the bottom, there was a balloon. He asked me to blow it up then he took it from me pushed something into the end and told me told me to let it go. It went mad, squealing and flying right round the church. He explained that is how the spirit moves spreading throughout the world warming people’s hearts. He then gave me another gift to open, this was a card. I read the verse
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you :
but when the leaves hang trembling,
the wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I ;
but when the leaves bow down their heads,
the wind is passing by.
by Christina Rossetti
He told me to look again in the envelope where there was another smaller one inside. I opened it and there was a WH Smith book token. Any other time, I would have given it to my Dad to swop for cash, but not this time I wanted a copy of the childens story book of Gulliver’s Travels. This book I found amazing
The harvest is ready go out and reap. I recalled Paul’s journeys and storms and how the Holy Spirit led him. So when you celebrate your birthday remember the best birthday of all, the Church’s 1,990th Birthday
I have been inspired by the verse in that card.
The wind is God’s breath filling the world anew, bringing hope joy peace,
His wind is passing through.

Song
I hear the sound of rustling

May the power of the Holy Spirit bring you peace
May the Grace of Christ fill you with hope
and may the love of God be with you this day and always Amen


God Bless Susannah.
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Saturday, 16 May 2020

Week beginning 17th May 2020

Ascension
Song:
Hail the day that sees him rise
Reading:
Daniel 7: 9-14

Song:
Look ye saints the sight is glorious

Reading:
Ephesians 1: 15-23

I was looking for this hymn and found this version. It is lovely to see people’s faith and ingenuity overcoming adversity at times like this,

Song:
Our eyes have seen the glory

Reading:
Luke 24: 44-53

Song:
Beauty for brokenness

About 50 years ago, I was a pupil in secondary school. In our maths club, our teacher put us in touch with the very latest in technology. He had access to a computer. Computers were the stuff of science fiction at the time, and we knew that they were the future. Everything in the future would be done by computer.
First we had to learn the language, if I remember correctly it was one called Algol. Then we had to decide the problem we wanted solving. After this, we had to write the way to solve the problem in the chosen language. After this, one of us had to learn the code to enter the programme letter by letter onto punched cards. These punched cards were then posted to Leeds to be scanned through the reader, which would then pass the information to the computer. The answer was duly printed on a sheet of paper and posted back to us. It had taken about two weeks to obtain the answer to a problem which most of us could have solved in a few minutes!
When I was at university a few years later, the department computer occupied a moderate sized room, which was kept at a constant temperature and humidity. We still had to speak the language, but now we could simply type the instructions into a teleprinter which produced a length of punched paper tape, which a scanner could read, and the computer gave its answer in another piece of punched paper which our teleprinter could read and type the solution.
In the early 1980s, the government decided that every school should have a computer. For the school where I was working at the time, this meant a Sinclair ZX81! It came complete with a whole 1k of RAM, there was an option of an additional 16k which had to be bought separately.
Over the next 10 years, computers progressed quickly until they became what we now would recognise as a desktop PC. Since about 1990, the machines have become physically smaller, the memories bigger and the processors faster. This means that the operators can make more and bigger mistakes in the same time.
Oneof the science fiction stories which I read in the 1970s told the story of a student on the way to college. At the station, his phone rang, and he had a conversation with his father. One of his friends asked if it was his family talking. When he said it was, the friend responded saying that he had fooled his parents by packing his phone in his trunk. “How ridiculous” I remember thinking. “Imagine the idea of a mobile phone which is so common place that all the students would have one.” How wrong I was. Now many people have more than one, and most of them are also portable computers, can access the internet, and are cameras as well.
Over this time, the telephone has progressed from a fixed instrument, which only a relatively small number of people had, to a much smaller device, which can be carried about by the vast majority. It can take and send pictures anywhere in the world and can effectively replace the need for a library, not to mention a cinema.
In fact, if you have even the most basic mobile phone in your pocket, you are carrying about a more powerful computer than the one which was in the lunar landing module of the Apollo missions.
It would be fair to say that both the computer and the phone have been changed out of all recognition in my lifetime.
My mother was a skilled office worker. She was a comptometer operator, many of you will remember these machines, a mechanical device which could add, subtract and, in the right hands, mutiply and divide. She worked for Sheffield City Council, and later for Johnson and Johnson. When, in the mid 1970s she applied for a passport, the staff obviously did not what this machine was, so she was listed as a computer operator! This was a source of some amusement to her, and the rest of the family.
However, the comptometer bore about as much resemblance to a computer as the ZX81 bears to the modern day computers. Our modern machines are on a different level to thoseof the previous generation. It is fair to say that they have been raised up.
The writer of our reading from Daniel was clearly confronted with a vision that he could not fully understand, but he knew that there was something special here. He was aware that one who looked like a “son of man”, a human, was being given power and authority. He was being raised up to a higher level.
Similarly, Paul, writing to the Ephesians, sees Jesus as having been “Raised up” when he was given this power and dominion.
Traditionally, many have seen the story of the ascension is a physical sense. There are stories and artworks which show Jesus as being physically raised up in altitude. This, of course, is entirely in line with the understanding of the cosmos in the first century. Heaven (The heavens) was physically above the earth. Our modern understanding of the universe does not really fit with this view, but it is still valid to talk of Jesus being raised, of him ascending. He has gone on to a higher level, above (or beyond if you prefer,) the limitations of the earthly life. In the same way as the modern phone has ascended beyond the limitations of the early telephones, or the modern computer has risen above its early predecessors.
At the present time, many of us are not seeing the people we would normally see; we are not going to the places we would normally visit; we cannot do the things we would normally do. Modern technology can make this deprivation seem less,but it cannot remove it completely. Spare a thought for those who do not have access to the technology. We live with the hope that at some point, once it has been decided that it is safe, we will once again be free to resume normal activities, perhaps not all at once, but bit by bit. Once this has achieved, perhaps we will appreciate those things that we have taken for granted in the past. Perhaps it will improve our relationships with people. Perhaps it will take these relationships to a different level. Let us hope so.
In knowing God better, through the understanding provided by Jesus, we too can rise to a higher level, that we may receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in order to know him better. That the eyes of our hearts may be opened so that we may know the hope to which we are called. That we may know the riches of his glorious inheritance, and the great power which is there for those who believe. This power is God;’s power, the same power which resurrected Jesus from the dead, and ascended him into the heavenly realms.
Truly, “now on a higher plane (we) dwell.”

I couldn’t think of being on a higher level without thinking of the chorus of this next song. Although usually a harvest song, I thought that it nicely fits this theme. Look at the video carefully, you may recognise some of the singers.

Song:
Ho reapers in the whitened harvest

I also found this version of the reading:

But they that wait upon the Lord

Prayer:
Almighty God, as we believe your only-begotten son, our Lord Jesus Christ, has ascended into the heavens; so may we also in heart and mind ascend there with him, and continually dwell with him. We thank you that when Jesus returned to glory, he did not leave us comfortless, but sent the Holy Spirit to remain with us forever. Grant that the Spirit may bring us at last to that heavenly home where Christ has gone before to prepare us a place, that we may move to that higher plane, where He, the Holy Spirit and You are worshipped and glorified, now and for ever.
Amen.

Song:
In loving kindness Jesus came


Some of you may lnow a Wesley hymn “Clap your hands you people all”
This is a modern arrangement, inspired by the hymn.

Clap your hands you people all
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Saturday, 9 May 2020

The Good Shepherd.

The Good Shepherd

Reading: Psalm 111

Song: Lead us heavenly father lead us

Reading: Ezekiel 34: 7-15

Song: There were ninety and nine that safely lay

Reading: 1 Peter 5: 1-11

Song: May the mind of Christ my saviour

Reading: John 10: 7-18

Song: The Lord’s my shepherd

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Now,after Good Friday and Easter, we know the truth of the remark about dying for the sheep. We also know the truth of verse 17 “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again.” The cross and the resurrection are firmly established in our consciousness at this time of year. And if they are not, they ought to be!
I’d like to start with some questions:
What of shepherds?
What does the image of the shepherd have to say to us?
What does the image of the shepherd have to say to the rest of the world?
How do we communicate this to the rest of the world?
The image of the shepherd was not a new one. It is used in a number of places in theold testament, today’s reading being one of them. When Jesus was speaking, the previous chapter tells us that there were some Pharisees in his audience. They were educated men who would have known the references to shepherds. In our reading from Ezekiel, God says that he is the shepherd of the flock, Israel. Jesus, in claiming to be the shepherd, is claiming to be God, he is also directly comparing himself to the Pharisees. The religious leaders are referred to as shepherds of the people in several places. Jesus says that these leaders have been negligent in their pastoral duties, and that he is a better shepherd than they. It is not surprising that Jesus upset the Pharisees. They would not have liked his claim to be God, nor would they have liked him claiming to be better than they were at the duties. The Pharisees were very proud of the way they performed their duties.
Jesus tells us that there were two sorts of shepherd. There was the shepherd who cared about the sheep because he or his family owned them, and there was the hired hand who simply did the job for money. It is said that the hired hand would place his own life and safety before that of the sheep, whereas the good shepherd would, if necessary, die for his charges.
David, who was to kill Goliath, recounts that when he was looking after his father’s sheep, he would, on occasion, have to defend them against a lion or a bear. He might then have to defend himself against the predator. This takes courage. It means putting his own safety second. However, mere courage is not enough. It is necessary to have the right equipment. He must be armed. He must also be concerned enough about the sheep to know that one is missing, or vulnerable. At night, the sheep were collected into a secure area, and the shepherd had to lie down in the gateway to keep any attacker out.
So we know that Jesus was saying that he had the necessary courage and equipment to do what was right. That he has the strength to seek the lost in order to return them to the fold of believers, that he will protect his people from evil.
Many people would know at least the opening of the 23rd psalm, but how many know what it is about?
The trouble is that many people have a rather rustic view of what a shepherd is. A somewhat slow living, rather quaint person doing a job which really has not caught up with the 21st century. This is not really the image of the dynamic leader that people would want to follow! A further problem is that if the Lord is the shepherd, then we are the sheep, and sheep are not animals that bear flattering comparison. Sheep are not generally thought of as intelligent, or individual thinking animals.
For many people, the image of a shepherd is not especially helpful. Perhaps we can look at the language, after all, modern translations of the bible have been aids to understanding in some cases. Would a new title help?
When I was at college in the 1970 the use of new descriptions was at its height. You know the sort of thing, a person was no longer a dustbinman, now he was a cleansing operative. This is not new, when my mother was a school a girl in her told people her father was a municipal engineer. It turned out that he was a tram cleaner!
At the time, a group of us were rather disenchanted with this jargon, and a new version of the 23rd psalm was produced. It started, “The Lord is my chief pastoral supervisory operative, I am in a low priority need category.” The title “Chief pastoral supervisory operative” does have a certain ring to it. It also contains something of how we think of our relationship with the Lord, but it is clumsy, and I suspect unappealing to many.
Perhaps then it is not the language, but the image which needs updating. A latter day parable which will mean more to the listener, one where the listener will more readily identify with the characters.
Frederick Forsyth wrote a story called “The Shepherd” which tells the story of an RAF Vampire pilot, lost and low on fuel, being led, or shepherded, back to a base by a Mosquito aircraft. The mystery of the story being that the Mosquito was no longer an operational aircraft at the time, and it appeared that his guide (or shepherd) was a pilot who had been lost on operations a long time previously.
Perhaps our latter day listeners would rather identify with a lost and frightened pilot, than with an apparently unintelligent animal.
It is always worth thinking about what images our language conjures up when we speak to people. As with many images in Jesus’ parables, our parents and grandparents would have no trouble with the idea, but society has moved a long way very quickly. My grandmother saw the first motor car, and the first powered flight, and also lived to see men land on the moon. Although it never happened (as far as we know) It would have been possible for Orville Wright to meet Neil Armstrong. Times have changed, and our images of God must keep up with the times. If our children and other listeners are to understand and identify with what is being said when we tell the stories.
Peter says that we have to become shepherds of the earthly flock. We have to have the same qualities that Jesus said were necessary. We are told to be alert, to be firm in faith to resist evil. To work for a desire to serve.
We need courage to do what is right, we need to the right equipment to do the job, we need the care and concern for others to know what job is necessary and where and when it is needed.
We must be firm in our faith, sure in our ways, we must show an example that people want to follow. We need to know what we are doing, and where we are going, as well as why!

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Alert, selfless, courageous, equipped, concerned, and bang up to date.

Song: This little light of mine

Prayer:
God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep., by the blood of the eternal covenant: make us perfect in every good work to do your will, and work in us that which is well-pleasing in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Song: Guide me o thou great Jehovah






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