Readings:
Acts 4: 5-12;
Psalm 23;
1 John 3: 16-end;
John 10: 11-18

Collect:
Risen Christ,
faithful shepherd of your Father’s sheep:
teach us to hear your voice and to follow your command,
that all your people may be gathered into one flock,
to the glory of God the Father.  Amen.

Reflection

I love the imagery in the readings today, maybe it’s because of my rural roots and the memories of the times I spent helping my uncle with his sheep.  Many long fun days caring for those animals, making sure that they were healthy, safe and well.  Seeing the relationship that he had with those sheep was amazing, only the occasional one having a name, but he knew each and everyone.  When they had lambs, he knew whose lambs were who’s.  We would spend hours out there with those sheep and the love that he had for them was so tangible.  Yes, there would be moments when he’d get frustrated with them, especially when you were trying to get them penned up so that we could work on them, one or two of the sheep not liking the idea at all would break away from the flock causing all of us to run madly around the field trying to them all back together again.  Then if one of his sheep died, or he lost a lamb, there was a real sense of loss.  It’s this deep seated relationship that I saw between him and his sheep that, I guess, helps me to relate to this very rural imagery, in both the Old and the New Testaments, of God/Jesus being shepherds of their sheep.

For me this intimate relationship between us and God is what is at the heart of our faith.  Knowing, as the Psalmist says, that God knows our going out and our coming in.  It’s that we are known by name, and although we all have our faults and foibles, God continues to actively love and care for us.  Even when we run away or turn our back on God, we are never abandoned.  

This imagery goes beyond our relationship with God but also should inform our relationship with one another.  We are God’s sheep and sheep live in a flock or a community.  Living in community requires there to be a relationship between each member of that community.  Sometimes these relationships work well, whilst at other times they can be strained to breaking point or ultimately break.  It’s when these relationships become strained and difficult that we need to work harder at restoration and forgiveness.  Remembering at all times that imagery from Psalm 23 of God leading us to the table to sit with our enemies.  As we work through the tensions within community, it is then that the community becomes stronger.  We only need to look at how, at the beginning of the pandemic last year, communities started to come together to care for one another to see the strength that community brings.

I believe that as the church in this part of Milton Keynes, we are called to foster relationships with one another and with all God’s children.  The how we do this is always the challenge, but as much as anything it’s about how we as individuals live out our faith.  How we interact with our neighbours, both friends and enemies.  It’s about seeing, and knowing God in each person we encounter and as a church offering that unconditional welcome that reflects God’s unconditional love for us.

Over this last year, there may have been times when you have felt separated from the community, when you have felt that your relationship with the Watling Valley has been broken.  As we come through this challenging period there is a need for all of us to work hard at restoring these relationships, getting to know each other again, reforming and reimagining what our community looks like.  Taking time to listen to each other’s hopes and fears, anxieties and dreams.  Sharing what we have learnt over the last year about ourselves and our relationship with God.  Then together, with each other and God, creating that strong vibrant community of members of God’s family in the Watling Valley.   A community that at is heart is one of honest and open relationship, impacts the lives of all God’s children and we can only do this when we know in our hearts that intimate relationship between ourselves and God.

I finish with this meditation and image, courtesy of rootsontheweb.com 
(© 2002-2021 Roots for Churches Ltd):

The ‘good shepherd’ is here; you are his beloved sheep. Listen to his voice – he says…  I know my sheep.  I know you.
I know you on the outside, and I cherish what I see.
I know you on the inside.
…when you are fearful or anxious, and I long to give you peace.
…when you are vulnerable, and l long to protect you.
…when you are confused, and I long to lead you.
…when you are lost, and I long to find you.
…when you are happy, and I rejoice with you.
I am the ‘good shepherd’ – come and find pasture.

Mike Morris