Love one another

After a long Sunday school lesson about creation a teacher said, 'Johnny, can you tell me who made you?' After a little pause, Johnny replied, 'God made part of me.' After working so hard on her lesson the teacher was a little exasperated and asked him what he meant. He replied, 'well God made me really small, and I grew the rest myself.'

Little Johnny had missed the point of the lesson that it was God who creates us and God who continues to guide us through our lives. The bible uses lots of imagery of sheep and shepherds - perhaps the most famous of all being the opening words of psalm 23, 'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.'

We are reminded of God's presence as the great shepherd of his sheep - the one who oversees us, who guides us, who protects, who feeds us and nurtures us - the one who is willing to offer anything for even one of his sheep because he cares so much.

Each of our readings this morning have something to do with sheep and shepherds. First we have the reading from the 1st Book of Samuel (16:1-13) about the anointing of David. Samuel had been told by God to go and anoint the person that would replace Saul as king - he was directed to the home of Jesse where various sons were presented to him.

Only one son was not there - the youngest, David, was left outside tending the sheep. But Samuel calls him in and it is he who God calls Samuel to anoint. The youngest, the least likely, was the son who was chosen.

And in that action we are shown how God sometimes calls the unlikely people, how God sometimes calls the people others wouldn't expect. It was a shock then, but David would be used powerfully. He would make mistakes, some pretty bad ones, but he would become a great ruler. By recognising and confessing his mistakes and turning back to God, David would know the power of God's grace and forgiveness.

It is David who is quoted as being the writer of that psalm 23. It is a wonderful profession of trust - of trust in God who will never leave us in need; of God who refreshes our soul, who leads us on the right paths, of God who guides us and protects us even through the darkest valleys in our life.

David made mistakes, he did some terrible things, but he knew it, and he knew where to turn in order to try and make his life better - he knew God was the constant, he knew God was the power available in his life.

And so we've thought of God calling people - calling anyone, even the unlikely ones. And we've thought of how God can direct and guide us in our lives - of how he will journey with us wherever we go.

There's a story about a man who was driving down the street worried because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up towards heaven he prayed in desperation: 'Lord, take pity in me. If you find me a parking place I will go to church every Sunday and I will even give up whiskey.'

Miraculously a moment later a place appeared. The man looked up and said, 'Never mind, I've already found one !'

When God calls us to something it's easy to dismiss it but God's call never disappears... Each of us is valued by Him, each of us precious to Him…

And in the gospel reading (Matthew 18:12-14) we witnessed that aspect of God as Jesus told the story of the lost sheep. The shepherd had 100 sheep and one went astray. To most shepherds it would be a blow - shepherds had huge responsibility, but to the shepherd portrayed in this story it was far more than a blow - in fact this shepherd wouldn't rest until that single sheep was restored.

We know that shepherd as God, and we see in that story that God doesn't just call the unlikely, he doesn't just guide, protect and strengthen the undeserving, but he reaches out to anyone on the margins. Every single person is not just known to God, but absolutely precious to him... Every single one of us... Whoever we are, whatever we've done or are doing, God loves us with a love that is strong enough to endure even the cross...

I think each of those three readings have things to say about us, and about how we behave towards others as well.

For ourselves we are reminded that God calls us all to be something. It may be at the front in church, it may be in business or sport or entertainment, it may be as a loving and loved family member or friend, it may be in praying for others, in being an encourager, a behind the scenes worker - when God calls us to do something he anoints us with his blessing to do that work, however small it may seem.

And so we can be confident in what we do, and we should be confident - we can journey in the faith displayed in psalm 23. When we trust our lives to God he will guide us, lead us, protect us and bless us abundantly.

Too often I think we can be too shy as Christians. We can be afraid to talk of the power of God, of the life changing, life enhancing love he offers to us all and calls us to share. Surely the account of David and his words in psalms like psalm 23 must encourage us and inspire us to seek to experience more of God in our lives.

By trusting more and more in God in our daily living we are calling out to God to show us more of his power in our lives. As God has done in the life of David, as God has done in the life of millions, he will deliver on his promises of offering fullness of life for all.

And the story of the lost sheep also speaks to us. There are times when most of us have probably felt unimportant, when most of us have just felt that we're not valued as we should be, or perhaps not as useful as we think we should be... To God every one of us is incredibly important - every one of us is treasured by the king of kings...

And those things will have an effect on our relationships with others if we take them seriously. We will see in others people created in the image of God, people called by God for something, people with potential however they may look at this moment....

And we will see how God wants to guide all people on the right path in life - of how he is concerned for those who are taking the wrong direction in life, or for those who seem helpless - to those people God extends his hands of love, and he does it partly through us...

God calls us to be his hands and feet, his eyes, his ears - God calls us to reach out to those who don't know him, and to those in all kinds of distress... Every one is as precious as that missing sheep...

As we reflect on these words from the bible, may we seek to be transformed daily in our own lives - to know and experience God's love and blessing, to be confident in sharing a message that is good news for all people- a message of hope, a message of peace and love and joy, a message of compassion for all....

And may we remember in all that we do and say, we are called to be part of a huge family - a family not just of Christians through the world, but a family of humanity - a family where every person is created in the image of God - the God who calls us to love him, and to love one another,  wherever we may be - in sight or out of sight, living nearby or living far away, people of different colours and ages and backgrounds...

I was reminded yesterday of a song called Vagabonds. In the song Stuart Townend sings of God inviting all kinds of people to his incredible banquet – people who feel they don’t belong, winners and losers, questioners, people who are fallen, or who are broken, the helpless, the hopeless, the young and the old, people like you and me – all are invited to feast with God, transformed by the knowledge of his love for them… for us.

Trust God, depend on him for everything because he will never abandon you... and Love one another... There's no better advice... AMEN