Sunday 13 April 2008

At the Annual Parochial Church Meeting on Friday evening, which some of you will have attended, we remembered the past year and then looked to the future. What is so encouraging is that the past year was full of good things which we can really celebrate and thank God for. And the theme for the future was based around growth. Not just our hopes for growth, but concrete plans we are working on to grow the church by introducing new services and providing more support for our work with young people by employing a children’s worker. If you missed the meeting then you will be able to read about it in the next edition of Family, the parish magazine.

Obviously all that we do in this church has to be rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are described as his body, and must try always to be as authentic as we can possibly be to his teaching. One of his commissions to the first disciples and therefore to us, was take the Gospel out into the world. To draw people to him. He used the image of a shepherd seeking out lost sheep and going out to draw more sheep into the fold of God’s love. That is why as a church we must never be content to simply be as we are, however good, stable and balanced that may be. A healthy, authentic church will constantly be looking forward, looking to grow its mission.

In the bible, in both Old Testament and New, the nature of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is explained for us through the use of metaphors such as the word pictures of shepherds and sheep that we have in today’s readings. These metaphors can be incredibly helpful. They somehow bring to life and show us very clearly the nature of God’s love and how we are called to respond to it.

The idea of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is firmly rooted in the Old Testament – the psalm set for today is probably the best known and loved psalm we have, Psalm 23. It opens ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, therefore can I lack nothing’ and ends ‘Surely goodness and loving mercy shall follow me all of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever’. Words of comfort assuring us of God’s constant concern and protection. Concern and protection that is revealed completely in the New Testament through Jesus Christ.

The image of Jesus, like the shepherd with his sheep, watching over us, keeping us safe and leading us to, as the psalmist writes, to green pastures and still waters, is very real. It is experienced in our lives in the pastoral ministry of the church; the loving concern of people one for another; the chorus of prayers laying before God all those people and issues that concern us. A little later in this service I am going to dedicate the new table for the cross of prayer that we have commissioned in memory of Ruth Morris. It is visible reminder of the constant pastoral ministry that flows within and from this church, carved with the words ‘Bring it to the Lord in prayer’.

The metaphor of shepherd and sheep goes much wider and deeper than reassuring us of the pastoral dimension of God’s love. The point of this morning’s gospel reading is not really the shepherd but the gate. It is a parable not so much about how we can trust in God to look over us. Although this he surely does. But a message that to come to Christ, to accept Jesus as our shepherd, the protector and guide that we follow, calls us to make a deliberate decision for God. This is not always easy.

Recall for a moment that stunning encounter of Peter with the risen Christ at the end of John’s gospel. Jesus has died and the disciples have returned to their original work as fishermen. The risen Christ has appeared to them on the beach and prepared breakfast for them. After breakfast Jesus asks Peter, not once but three times, ‘Peter, do you love me’. After he has been asked this a third time having replied ‘yes Lord you know that I love you,’ Peter almost breaks down in despair that Jesus does not seem to believe him. Each time Peter responds ‘yes’ Jesus gives him a commission, ‘feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep’. Now it is Peter’s turn to take on the mantle of shepherd. But with this mantle there follows the warning ‘someone will take you where you do not want to go’ and finally ‘follow me’.

To Peter ‘follow me’ meant a great deal more than mirroring Jesus’ concern for those in need and reaching out to those who did not know about Jesus Christ. Peter, Jesus was warning, would be called to follow him to the cross. To love him so completely that he would be willing to lay down his life for him. The gate through which Peter had to pass was one that took him into a completely different world. A where his own concerns and priorities were set aside and replaced by living for God through our love of Jesus Christ.

Jesus invites us into his fold. Life for sheep is very risky, they need protection. The safe place for them is in the fold with the gate closed. But if the sheep simply remain in the pen, however safe it is they will gradually run out of food and water. So they have to value something more than their safety.

It is a metaphor for our lives. It is easy to see our lives always being best protected by looking for safety. If we look to our society we are given the impression that happiness is found through self-interest and prosperity, where our first priority is to think of what is best for us in our lives. Jesus talk of thieves and robbers in this reading is a reference to those who would appear to be shepherds to others, but in practice their purpose first and foremost is to promote their own interests. But if we enter the sheepfold by the gate, by the cross of Christ, then we are committing ourselves to freeing ourselves from self-concern. Loving Jesus so much, that we would even be willing to lay down our lives for him.

It is a life-changing gate that Jesus invites us to go through. But the promise that comes with it is equally life-changing – we are promised abundant life. Life so full with meaning and purpose that the things we are called to sacrifice become less and less important. We are freed to be led out of the fold by our faith in Jesus – to come in and go out and find pasture.

It is not longer the safe secure life we thought was what we needed. And that is the message our church proclaims. We have passed through the gate. We are willing to follow Jesus, dying to old lives and rising to new ones. And that freedom gives us the courage to look to grow our church. To place as our priority the desire to bring more and more people to know Jesus Christ. We may not always feel safe and secure, but we can be certain of one thing – we can answer Jesus’ question truthfully with the words ‘Yes Lord, you know that I love you’.