Sunday 12 September 2010

Background

Whenever a church service includes the baptism of a small child,the congregation are reminded that God's love does not depend onthe child's achievements or personal qualities. As yet, the childhas no CV to boast about. There is no testimonial or characterreference, except perhaps that of the parents and grandparents (whoare, it goes without saying, the perfect unbiased witnesses!) Thechild cannot respond to God's love, but in baptising them we affirmthat the love of God doesn't depend on anything they have done orcan ever do. God's love is unconditional.

Jesus tells us nothing about that one sheep. We aren't told whetherit was particularly aggressive or awkward to handle, or whether itmade a habit of getting lost. All we know about it is that it islost. The response of the shepherd to this crisis is swift - heleaves the other sheep (presumably in a safe place) and tracks downthe lost one. The prompt action of the shepherd models theunconditional love of God.

All too often throughout history the Church has turned God'sunconditional love into a power-trip, making demands of people whoknow they are lost and desperately want to belong, turning God'sfree gift of new life into a performance.

Could this be because we, like John Wesley (one of the founders ofMethodism) in his early years of ministry, do not understand ourown need, or sense the presence of the shepherd who spares noeffort to find us? Could this be because we ourselves have not beenrescued by the Good Shepherd yet?

To Ponder

How deeply do you know yourself to have beenrescued by the Good Shepherd?

Imagine what it could have felt like to be one ofthe 99 deserted by the shepherd. What might you want to say to theshepherd? And how might the shepherd respond?