"I am the Good Shepherd"

Sermon by Hilary Belden
Readings: Acts 4:5-12, Psalm 23, 1John 3:16-end, John 10:11-18

I am the good shepherd – one of the joys of recent days has been seeing various shepherds with their sheep – James Rebanks and his 9 year old son Isaac on Twitter helping a sheep with the birth of her twins - and Ben Hollings with his 7 year old ‘farmer in waiting’, Jamie,  on the Fordhall Farm website. Each of their 100s of sheep is a treasured individual.

I am the good shepherd.

There are several massive rows going on in the world around us –  the huge football row  seems now to be over  -  there’s a row between Taylor Swift the singer songwriter and her former manager. In both of these we don’t need to know the detail – we can see the fallout. There are the massive rumblings about the integrity and openness of life at the highest political levels – and about the awarding of contracts through the pandemic.  (I had to bite back all sorts of comments when a very lovely man in a Serco jacket was supervising the queue at the testing station at the Putney Leisure Centre – he could hardly be held responsible for all the problems with Serco.)  What about food poverty and Marcus Rashford’s campaign? What about Hammersmith Bridge – blighting normal life for so many local residents? What about the Grenfell enquiry: that company which knowingly allowed the installation of inflammable cladding ; the failure of building regulations to pick up the problem, the ignoring of residents’ complaints….the lives lost.

‘I am the good shepherd’  ‘This is his command: to believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.’ ‘he leads me beside still waters.’

Such a different picture – so pastoral and gentle. When we look at these two pictures, is this showing us that religion and politics are at loggerheads with each other – with nothing to say to each other? Would we be content to picture a kindly, loving shepherd while we are here and then, outside church, to act as though nothing can be done about the prowling wolves who attack the flock? I don’t think so.

In John’s letter, he pointedly asks ‘If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?’  From earliest times, we know Christian communities have been respected for their emphasis on loving, non-discriminatory actions – building hospitals, for example, and refuges for orphans and vulnerable people. Building schools and - in this country – the beginnings of an education system. Peter’s action at the Gate Beautiful enables the disabled man to walk again. It was typical of so much action by Jesus and then by his followers then – as it is today. Education, medicine, shelter and support – practical kindness: the monasteries, for all their faults, were centres of worship, healing, education, farming and food production, hospitality to travellers, for centuries. They challenged the prevailing conditions for so many people.  

Christian love inspires ethical action. We have done our share here through this last year and long before:  in the service of our working lives, and with the foodbank, with prisoners and the resettlement of former offenders, with homeless people, with those at risk of being cut off and isolated, simply with our own neighbours, with Christian Aid.

What if our politics were grounded again in what is best for people – and not what will bring in the most money? The Football row, as far as I understand it, was felt to be the assertion of profit over precious community history  - the working class pride - of the UK clubs involved. Taylor Swift has rerecorded her most successful songs to get them out of the hands of someone she describes as incessantly manipulative and bullying. The current storms around No 10 are about money, gain, greed, as well as about desperate needs in the pandemic.  If you have followed the extraordinary story of the sub post masters’ battle with the Post Office, or Hillsborough, you will be so aware of the crucial part played by moral conviction above profits, face saving and lies.

Suppose Grenfell Tower had been built to the sort of safety standards that we would all like to believe we can always take for granted? It was noticeable, in the first days of horror, that the local Methodist Church, the local Muslim community, and the local government team of Ealing were among some of the most effective operators because they understood and prioritised the needs of the survivors and offered practical, well-organised care. And don’t let’s start on the citizenship issues now arising for people who came to the UK as babies or young children, or the current treatment of many refugees.

Moral judgement and moral value: how well does the Christian message translate on the big stage of our politics and on the world stage? The Vaccine distribution debate is showing this up pretty clearly. We know there are no easy answers and no simple solutions. But the aim has to be morally grounded, morally  right: if it is  – for instance – to vaccinate the world so that we are all safe – or to build blocks of flats that anyone would feel proud and safe to live in – or to educate and rehabilitate  the many offenders who turn to crime because – at some point – their education failed to capture them, or to promote the opportunities of people of every ethnicity rather than writing yet another report when earlier recommendations have been ignored  – if we aim at morally strong outcomes, we  have a chance to reach them. 

I hope you’ll read the piece about her pandemic experiences as a young doctor which Evie Taylor-Davies has written for the magazine. 

If I had to answer the question, what is somewhere like St Margaret’s for, I would say that it is here to provide space to feel and see love in action, to receive God’s message of hope and love in the sacrament, to be a place of prayer, forgiveness and inspiration, to be a fellowship and to offer thought  that strengthens, that emboldens people  with moral courage and moral insight as they go out into the world. 

‘Dear Children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.’

Amen.