The Good Shepherd

There are so many voices that tell us how we should live and what we should think. Advertisements are often the most difficult to deal with as they play on our deepest concerns and insecurity about fitting in; our appearance, success, power even if on the surface they seem to merely be informing us or promoting the product that they wish to sell in quite a humorous way.

When using the internet and apps, there is always a “request” that we agree to “cookies”. I like biscuits, but not these. In essence we are agreeing to targeted advertising, so we keep seeing pop-ups connected with our browsing history. Sometimes it is quite disconcerting how someone or something knows what interests us, isn’t it? When we think of our spiritual life, we have “pop-ups” of our own, ideas which can be negative or unhelpful, unworthy and misleading thoughts which just pop up unbidden. Do this/don’t bother with that/ it’s hopeless….they threaten to mislead us, to make us feel lost and hurt, to take us away from God’s way so that we wander off into our own uncertain future.

The passage from John’s Gospel where Jesus is described as the Good Shepherd is really the antidote to the fears and concerns that we can feel. Jesus reassures us of this presence with us all the time, just as the shepherds in his day were with the flock to lead, protect and look after their sheep 24-7, even sleeping across the entrance to the sheepfold to protect the sheep from harm. There is so much which can harm us in today’s world, and seeking the spiritual guidance and protection of the Lord for ourselves and for others is vital day by day, knowing that we are completely loved by God at all times, for he seeks the lost, and the Good Shepherd – amazingly – lays down his life for the sheep.

Lord of the 23rd Psalm,
I have known death,
and you have refreshed my soul.
I have known fear,
and you have comforted me.
I have known hunger,
and you have set a feast before me.
In the darkest valley
no calamity of humankind or nature has separated us.

Teach me to walk as you walk
Beside those in mourning
so that they will know joy,
Beside those in fear
that they will know comfort,
Beside those in hunger
that they will feast until their cup overflows.

As your goodness and love follow me,
May mine follow my neighbour
That the threat of the worst terrors
May turn to the knowledge of the comforts of
the house of the Lord,
Where you have invited us to dwell forever.

And so let me strive to help build on earth
What you have promised us in heaven.
In the face of all calamity, present and yet to come,
Let me lead my neighbour beside quiet waters,
The quiet waters of the Good Shepherd.

Amen