Good Shepherd - Christian Aid Week
A famous actor was once the guest of honour at a social gathering where he received many requests to recite favourite excerpts from different books. An old preacher who happened to be there asked the actor to recite the twenty-third Psalm. The actor agreed on the condition that the preacher would also recite it. The actor's recitation was beautifully intoned with great dramatic emphasis for which he received lengthy applause. The preacher's voice was rough and broken from many years of preaching, and his diction was anything but polished. But when he finished there was not a dry eye in the room. When someone asked the actor what made the difference, he replied, "I know the psalm, but he knows the Shepherd."
Today we are at the start of Christian Aid Week – it’s a week where we are called to especially consider the work of Christian Aid, but also to think about the people who are on the receiving end of their work, and perhaps even some of the reasons for the work.
Within the Church calendar this day falls on what is known as Good Shepherd Sunday – as we think of Jesus being the great Shepherd of the sheep – his people. Since we moved here we’ve seen a lot more sheep than we used to in Bridgend, but we weren’t badly off for them there. Many people in Wales as we know earn their living from sheep farming and the sheep are incredibly important. In Biblical times where Jesus was speaking this was at least equally true.
The sheep were incredibly important and the shepherd held an incredibly important job taking care of them. So far it’s quite easy to think of the picture of Jesus taking care of us as the shepherd cares for the sheep. But we also have to take into account that when Jesus spoke of a shepherd he was speaking of someone who had an incredibly lowly place in the community.
Their job may have been important but their value was seen as very little by many people. They were merely servants employed to do a job – servants who could be treated badly and replaced whenever necessary. At the time of Jesus nobody would have equated the idea of the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, being likened to a shepherd…
But Jesus of course didn’t live and work to the standards of the world – he lived to the standard that said that every person was incredibly important – he lived to the standard that allowed him to seemingly lower himself to mix with the outcasts of society – he lived to the standard that said the poor and the disadvantaged and the young and old and every single person was equally loved…
Today as we enter Christian Aid week this is the challenge set before us as individuals and as a Church – to put ourselves in a position where we are willing to look out for and help those in need, and to do it, not because we should, not because people are pushing us into it, not because someone else is doing it, but because we know and want to do it as the right thing – as part of our commitment to care for one another.
In our reading from the Acts of the Apostles (2:42-47) we have the incredible picture of the early Church – we’re told the people devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to breaking of bread and prayer – they worked together, they lived together, they prayed together, they ate together – but they didn’t restrict themselves to looking after each other – we’re told that people saw what they were doing and they were moved by it – and we’re told that day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
That is the most incredible part of this reading – it wasn’t the work of the early Church, but their willingness to be used by God that made things happen. It was their ability to follow the good Shepherd that brought about a transformed community that grew and grew and that today worldwide, continues to grow…
This picture of growth may not be one that we easily relate to in the Church in Wales – for too long we have seen numbers decline, and for too long we have listened to the prophets of doom, often even within the Church, telling us we need to manage decline…
But a Church managing decline is not a Church I want to be part of, and I suspect most people would agree – I want to be part of a Church like that early Church – a Church that was involved in transforming communities.
In Christian Aid Week we are obviously called to look at and help with work that is often going on many miles away – it is desperately needed work touching people’s lives every day. In many ways the work represents overall a drop in the ocean considering what is needed, but for thousands, even millions of people, that work is completely life changing.
We can play a part in that…
But our work in transforming communities is not limited to that – the transforming gospel is one that is relevant within our own communities as well. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be part of a Church that is seen by people from outside like those people in the early Church were seen – seen as awesome, attractive and something that others wanted to be part of…
I mentioned a moment ago about the declining Church and some of the features of a declining Church are a lack of vision to see clearly the opportunities around us, a lack of fellowship – people simply meeting together as part of the family of Christ, a lack of charitable giving – one of the first things to be cut when a Church struggles financially is outward giving – it shouldn’t be, because in that giving we are offering something of the love of Christ to people who desperately need that love…
Transforming communities begins like it did in the early Church – with a few people capturing a vision and others catching that vision. Today throughout the world Christian Aid is offering people a chance to capture a vision – to capture a vision to help some of the most needy people in the world, and we’re called to be a part of that vision…
But today and every day we face another challenge, or rather an opportunity – to capture a vision of the gospel which changes lives, beginning with ours and moving out into our communities…
To go back to that first illustration I used of the actor and preacher reading Psalm 23 - we may know the psalm well enough but are we truly following the Shepherd ?
If we are then we can be a people, a family, who are celebrating – a family who are devoted to doing those things which the early Church did, and to celebrate as we welcome in new people who have caught the vision – people who will continue to help transform us and people who will work with us in allowing God to add daily to the number of those being saved…
The gospel reading ends (John 10:10) with the words of Jesus – ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly’ – may we embrace and enjoy that abundant life and share it wherever we can. AMEN
Today we are at the start of Christian Aid Week – it’s a week where we are called to especially consider the work of Christian Aid, but also to think about the people who are on the receiving end of their work, and perhaps even some of the reasons for the work.
Within the Church calendar this day falls on what is known as Good Shepherd Sunday – as we think of Jesus being the great Shepherd of the sheep – his people. Since we moved here we’ve seen a lot more sheep than we used to in Bridgend, but we weren’t badly off for them there. Many people in Wales as we know earn their living from sheep farming and the sheep are incredibly important. In Biblical times where Jesus was speaking this was at least equally true.
The sheep were incredibly important and the shepherd held an incredibly important job taking care of them. So far it’s quite easy to think of the picture of Jesus taking care of us as the shepherd cares for the sheep. But we also have to take into account that when Jesus spoke of a shepherd he was speaking of someone who had an incredibly lowly place in the community.
Their job may have been important but their value was seen as very little by many people. They were merely servants employed to do a job – servants who could be treated badly and replaced whenever necessary. At the time of Jesus nobody would have equated the idea of the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, being likened to a shepherd…
But Jesus of course didn’t live and work to the standards of the world – he lived to the standard that said that every person was incredibly important – he lived to the standard that allowed him to seemingly lower himself to mix with the outcasts of society – he lived to the standard that said the poor and the disadvantaged and the young and old and every single person was equally loved…
Today as we enter Christian Aid week this is the challenge set before us as individuals and as a Church – to put ourselves in a position where we are willing to look out for and help those in need, and to do it, not because we should, not because people are pushing us into it, not because someone else is doing it, but because we know and want to do it as the right thing – as part of our commitment to care for one another.
In our reading from the Acts of the Apostles (2:42-47) we have the incredible picture of the early Church – we’re told the people devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to breaking of bread and prayer – they worked together, they lived together, they prayed together, they ate together – but they didn’t restrict themselves to looking after each other – we’re told that people saw what they were doing and they were moved by it – and we’re told that day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
That is the most incredible part of this reading – it wasn’t the work of the early Church, but their willingness to be used by God that made things happen. It was their ability to follow the good Shepherd that brought about a transformed community that grew and grew and that today worldwide, continues to grow…
This picture of growth may not be one that we easily relate to in the Church in Wales – for too long we have seen numbers decline, and for too long we have listened to the prophets of doom, often even within the Church, telling us we need to manage decline…
But a Church managing decline is not a Church I want to be part of, and I suspect most people would agree – I want to be part of a Church like that early Church – a Church that was involved in transforming communities.
In Christian Aid Week we are obviously called to look at and help with work that is often going on many miles away – it is desperately needed work touching people’s lives every day. In many ways the work represents overall a drop in the ocean considering what is needed, but for thousands, even millions of people, that work is completely life changing.
We can play a part in that…
But our work in transforming communities is not limited to that – the transforming gospel is one that is relevant within our own communities as well. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be part of a Church that is seen by people from outside like those people in the early Church were seen – seen as awesome, attractive and something that others wanted to be part of…
I mentioned a moment ago about the declining Church and some of the features of a declining Church are a lack of vision to see clearly the opportunities around us, a lack of fellowship – people simply meeting together as part of the family of Christ, a lack of charitable giving – one of the first things to be cut when a Church struggles financially is outward giving – it shouldn’t be, because in that giving we are offering something of the love of Christ to people who desperately need that love…
Transforming communities begins like it did in the early Church – with a few people capturing a vision and others catching that vision. Today throughout the world Christian Aid is offering people a chance to capture a vision – to capture a vision to help some of the most needy people in the world, and we’re called to be a part of that vision…
But today and every day we face another challenge, or rather an opportunity – to capture a vision of the gospel which changes lives, beginning with ours and moving out into our communities…
To go back to that first illustration I used of the actor and preacher reading Psalm 23 - we may know the psalm well enough but are we truly following the Shepherd ?
If we are then we can be a people, a family, who are celebrating – a family who are devoted to doing those things which the early Church did, and to celebrate as we welcome in new people who have caught the vision – people who will continue to help transform us and people who will work with us in allowing God to add daily to the number of those being saved…
The gospel reading ends (John 10:10) with the words of Jesus – ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly’ – may we embrace and enjoy that abundant life and share it wherever we can. AMEN
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