The Good Shepherd - a sermon preached at the Ordination to the Priesthood of Rev. Linda Walters on September 24th 2011

 John 10: 1-16

 What makes a good shepherd?

 In terms of the example Jesus shows us, it's simple: know your sheep - love your sheep - lay down your life for your sheep. We'll come back to all that, but for now, I want to take you on a bit of a detour.

 Linda - remember you're a sheep. 

 Actually, everyone here is a sheep. Even Bishop Bob is actually a sheep. A sheep in shepherd's clothing, maybe, but still definitely, and first and foremost, a sheep. And...to be a good shepherd, you also have to be a sheep.

 Let me explain. This calling, to which Linda has responded - sometimes gladly and with joy, sometimes with doubts and tears and sleepless nights (not giving anything away, am I, Linda?) - this calling to be a priest in the Church of England can, of course, be pictured as the calling of a shepherd: to care for the sheep, to find the lost and bring them back, to bind up the injured, to comfort the distressed, to tend the flock and keep the flock together and defend the flock from attack. It is the calling of God to love his people, and in this simplest sense it is one in which we all share. We are all priests, along with Bishop Bob and Archdeacon David and every person, every last person in our churches. (And that usually means the person who sweeps up after we've all gone. Whoever you are, just remember: the last shall be first.) We are all called to be go-betweens for God, showing his love to every person we can, and bringing every person's needs back to God in prayer. We are all shepherds of one another - but some, like Linda, are called to representative ministry, called to live out the ministry of a shepherd publicly, as an example, as an encourager, as a leader.

 But Linda can't do that, any more than you and I can, unless she remembers she's a sheep. By which I mean: the deepest motivation and the surest guide for Linda's ministry as a deacon, as a priest, as a shepherd, is the life-giving relationship she has with God in Jesus Christ, through which - like a sheep - she has been, is being and will be saved. And the same is true of us all.

And of course, Linda knows this, as you do. But how easy it is for the ordained person, seeing themselves publicly set apart from everyone else to be a priest, to be cut off from their essential sheepiness, and to become a lonely shepherd. I've mentioned some of the tasks of the shepherd, which are certainly not always easy or light. So, if you're the shepherd - does it mean that you have to do it all, that it all depends on you? 

No. I believe the reason so many fall out of ordained ministry is that they think the whole life and health of the church depends on them. Sometimes, just for good measure, they add in the salvation of the world. And it's too much, and they crack under the strain and leave, or their ministry becomes and empty and joyless one, marked by a sense of failure.

Maybe, though, to be good shepherds we have to start by accepting that we can't do what Jesus did. He is the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep - so we don't have to. It's been done, by his Cross and Resurrection "it has been accomplished", and so in the first place we have joy because we know we are sheep whose shepherd keeps us safe. He has kept us safe - he has brought us this far. He is keeping us safe, as we breathe in and out, each sacred moment. And he will keep us safe, as we journey on into pastures unknown. We are sheep who have been saved, are being saved, and will be safe. We need to know this. And then, only then, as we breathe a great sigh of relief to know ourselves as sheep who are safe, because we know who our Shepherd is - then, only then can we begin to be shepherds ourselves, without supposing that we have to do it all ourselves.

So, Linda, Bishop Bob, everyone - rejoice in your sheepiness in order to be good shepherds!

There is a strange, disarming joy in discovering how often, as shepherds, we find the sheep looking after us, and our notion of ministry as something we do to others simply collapses. Linda knows this: you go to a nursing home, or to visit someone at home who is enfeebled by illness or pain, and you go thinking - "This is going to be a drain on me; after all, I've got to bring them God's love, encourage them, make them feel better, maybe even bring healing...". But then, as you leave, you realise (once more) that they have ministered to you, and that you have received more than you could possibly give. All you needed to do was be there. 

And so we learn that everything is reciprocal in the Kingdom of God; that everything - even for shepherds - involves receiving blessing as much as giving it.

But there are sheep to be tended. Every ordained shepherd, like Linda, will have some idea of what the shepherding tasks will be. But then there will be new challenges, new people whom God calls us, often unexpectedly, to meet with his love. And what matters most is the way we go about it; more than the words or the projects or the strategies or the Mission Action Plans, what matters most is the way we treat people, the way we tend our sheep.

 And we can all recognise a bad shepherd when we see one. I saw one in action a few years ago, when we were on holiday in Cornwall. We were in the car, the sheep were on the road, the shepherd was on his moped, frantically revving it to move the sheep along, one sheep got separated, the sheepdog seemed to have no idea what to do, the shepherd got off his moped and kicked the dog. It was a mess, a kind of this-is-how-it-shouldn't-be-done scenario. In Cornwall, obviously.

 And of course, this-is-how-it-shouldn't-be-done can be quite useful to steer us in the right direction. Linda and I have a joke sometimes (at least I think it's a joke) about how, as a curate, the best way she can learn from me is to see what I do and then make sure she doesn't do the same...I'm not sure it is a joke.

 But there is something positive, and very simple, we can say, about the business of being a good shepherd. To be a good shepherd you have to love your sheep.

 Yes, but what does that actually mean?

 It means that you see your people - the people God gives you, in church and beyond church, as God sees them.

 And that means...that you see them, all of them, each and every one of them, and especially the ones who aren't so obviously attractive or gifted, the ones who are downright awkward, the ones who seem to be trying to suck the life out of you every time you meet them, and also of course (thank God) the ones who bless you without even knowing it -

it means that you see all of them and each of them

as of immeasurable value

equally immeasurable value

because you remember that this is how God sees you.

 "All we, like sheep, have gone astray", and all of us are to be brought safely home by the Good Shepherd. And the same Good Shepherd is calling you, Linda, to play your part, your unique part, in the mysterious and wonderful work of saving, redeeming and re-creating his one flock.

 Linda - remember you're a sheep, and by God's grace you will be a good shepherd.

I'm going to end with this beautiful piece by Oscar Romero, which speaks to us all as priests and shepherds.

A FUTURE NOT OUR OWN by Archbishop Oscar Romero

It helps, now and then, to step back

and take the long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

it is beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of

the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.

Nothing we do is complete,

which is another way of saying

that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No programme accomplishes the church's mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about:

We plant seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything

and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something,

and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,

and an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results,

but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders,

ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.