Tuesday 25 February 2020

Psalm: Psalm 145:8-21

Background

The writer and Lake District shepherd, James Rebanks, describes in his book The Shepherd’s Life the huge challenge when several mountain shepherds and their dogs seek to sort their sheep from one another’s once the flocks have come down the mountains to the farms for sheering or lambing. He describes the flocks as “one swirling mass, a woolly carpet laid over the lower slopes of the fell” and he writes of the seconds with which one shepherd has to open or close a gate as several hundred sheep come running towards him and he has to quickly judge which are his and which are those of another shepherd. Once the sheep have been sorted, each shepherd leads his flock “away like the shadows of clouds blown across the lower slopes of the mountain”. Judging sheep from sheep is no easy task.

Which are we, we might ask: sheep or sheep? To which side do we belong? Are we a goodie or a baddie? Saved or unsaved? Righteous or unrighteous? The reading from Ezekiel suggests that we shouldn’t always be so sure we know the answer. To us, one sheep looks remarkably similar to the next. But to the shepherd, the answer is as clear as valley light in the time it takes to swing open a gate.

Lent, which begins tomorrow, is a period for deep self-reflection. It gives us the opportunity to reflect on our own faith journeys, on the things we have got wrong, and the hopes we have to get it right. We might not be our best selves every day but each day we have the chance at renewal and to thus learn from what came before. God understands and welcomes us with open arms as we come down the mountain, through the open gate and back home to his flock.

To Ponder:

• What will you commit to this Lent?