4[th] Sunday after Easter 2011:  Hollowell  Matins and Guilsborough Evensong
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"God, take my lips and speak through them. Take our minds and think through them. Take our hearts and set them on fire.
Our experience in Pukhet with the French ladies singing " All we like sheep have gone astray"......
You hear the word of the Lord in the strangest of places. 
The image of the Messiah as a shepherd and mankind as the sheep whom he guards and leads is one that is ,of course,  widespread in The Bible and in biblical art throughout the centuries.    
 Our lesson today from the first Letter of Peter ends with that analogy  " For ye were as sheep going astray,  but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls".   And in our reading from St. John,  Jesus describes himself as the shepherd.  
And those French ladies were of course singing Handel's version of the text from Isaiah:  " All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned  -  every one- to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." 
In a pastoral society such as had existed for hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus and still exists today in the Middle East,  the sheep analogy would have been easily understandable to all. 
Shepherd had to ensure that his sheep kept moving to new pastures.  Not much grass around.  Demanding occupation.  Not much time for rest or sleep;   and when he slept had to be on guard for predators and, if necessary with wolves around, lay down his life for the sheep. 
Today's  sheep don't need quite so much attention: tho' I guess those who did the lambing may not agree.   
But in our own daily lives the message of the scripture underlines  the need for leadership,  and  for all of us the need to keep moving to new pastures and face new challenges in our lives is there too.  
Here in the Uplands Parishes we look forward to that leadership    I sense people will respond.   For each of us  has the potential to respond to God's call.   And our leader,  once firmly established ,  can guide us on how  best, as individuals,  we can to do so.    
 Many of us have responsibilities as "shepherds" :  to our children and grandchildren, to vulnerable adults  and as Christian,  I would argue, to society at large.   Huge importance of setting the right example, guiding and caring.
Far too many people are "orphans",   isolated and often lonely outside the Christian family, with no moral compass.  The Job Centre, the Social Services, the Justice system  provides a sticking plaster ( albeit often an important one)  rather than  a moral compass  or inspiration.   
 God calls to us then, through the Christian faith'   and  through us He calls to others.   Pope  said this week that each of us is called to holiness through Christian Charity.  
Christian Aid Week starts today. 
70788 and a ten word prayer.  I see a church in Daventry has done so. Money where our mouths are. 
Things in the country  have improved over the years:   the shepherding work of charities.  Scouts or Salvation Army or Meals on Wheels etc.  But the need for spiritual leadership to guide people through problems in life is stronger than ever in our materialistic world. 
We need to spread the message that all of us need to spend more time with the Good Shepherd in prayer and reading our Bibles something that emerged from our Lent Bible study classes.  
The other thought coming out of the reading from Peter's letter is that Jesus suffered for us; no retaliation though innocent. " Who when he was reviled, reviled not again : when he suffered he threatened not."   
 Very hard not to seek retaliation.  Don't get mad get even is a mantra that one hears often in the USA.    However,   as Gandhi said ( was it ?)   " When it is an eye for an eye, the whole world goes blind" 
So there are three messages:   that we put our trust in the Good Shepherd and that he will show us how we too can be shepherds each in his or her own way for the benefit of others, and thirdly that we be  patient and forgiving in so far as possible. 
Putting our Trust in the Good Shepherd and His message is the  basis for our faith.
I'll finish with the 23[rd] Psalm  perhaps that ost famous of all the biblical shepherd references.    
"The Lord is my Shepherd" :   Likening God  or a ruler to the shepherd  was a common idea in a pastoral culture : but this psalm  is famous for its affecting simplicity.    
"The overall message is that God will lead us and there's no need to worry. He will provide for us even when we pass through the pains of death and will give us a good life.
KJV " Restoreth my soul".    "My life he brings back" In this version  Hebrew contains the idea of breathing life into the body. 
Then the poet moves from the sheep metaphor to speaking of himself in human terms  referring in the KJV to the paths of righteousness. 
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..............."
"Though I walk in the vale of death's shadow"
Then when he is in the valley of terror the psalmist speaks directly  to God :  I will fear no evil for thou art with me
And the poet brings back the shepherd image : "thy rod and staff art with me". 
Ends by listing the good things of life: the table laid out, the head well oiled and the wine cup overflowing.   The KJV ends by talking of dwelling for ever in the house of the Lord.
It's to do with the here and now. 
Alter  sees this as the psalmist's  hope for happy  fate for all his born days.  He prays for the  good fortune to abide in the Lord's sanctuary  - a place of security  and harmony with the divine,  all or perhaps most  of his days on earth.  

[ Read it] 
So play our shepherd's part through the Christian Aid envelope this week guiding our money to good causes; 
and read Psalm 23 every day  to remind ourselves of what we hope the shepherd can do for us
May we all dwell in the House of the Lord for many long days. . 
 
 




