JESUS THE PATIENT SHEPHERD

 

Sermon delivered on the Sixth Sunday After Trinity the 19^th July 2009 by Fr Nicholas JG Sykes in the congregation of St. Alban's Church of England, George Town, Cayman Islands.

 

Scriptures: Jeremiah 23: 1-6     Ephesians 2: 11-22      S. Mark 6: 30-34, 53-56

Jeremiah 23: 4 "I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing," says the Lord.

One of our basic human needs is the sense of belonging, and our families, society in general and certainly the Church have a great influence on our individual lives through the sense of belonging that they either give to us or deny to us. And this is why issues such as party affiliation, residency, status and citizenship are important to us. It goes deeper than being merely a matter of financial advancement. The term used these days for this is "identity". Who or what we belong to confers upon us our identity.

So it was that as the General Election approached this year, a number of the political candidates garnered the support of small crowds of individuals dressed with similar patterns of T-shirts. Some of the independent candidates did this as well as the candidates of the two main parties. Perhaps the main parties prevailed in general in the election over the independent candidates because of the stronger sense of identification that they offered voters. Voters were being invited to be a part of an island-wide group, rather than merely part of a district group.

At this time two months after the elections it has not escaped general notice that the Government of 2003, which was the Government that has just come back into office, got into lots of trouble because of its handling of the sensitive issue of the Cayman Status grants; and now in a period of economic difficulty the issue has been raised of special residency grants. In their different ways, people of widely differing backgrounds and viewpoints will be asking the question: Do we have shepherds that are set over us who care for us, or should we feel afraid? In the Cayman context, certainly, such a question will be applied not only to the local Cabinet and the Leader of Government Business/Premier-Designate, but also to the British Authority as well. It does not escape local attention, for instance, that Mr. Brown the Prime Minister, who is, for better or for worse, undoubtedly our constitutional Prime Minister, has spoken of the Cayman Islands in recent international gatherings as if he has a duty to wipe us out - at least, that is how his words through the imperfect filter of the Press have come over to us. So the question, again, is: Do we have shepherds that are set over us who care for us, or should we feel afraid?

To have a sense of belonging, then, is very important to all of us for our spiritual and mental health, and this sense of belonging, I consider, is at the heart of one's religious faith. Our Old Testament lesson this morning from Jeremiah speaks of the shepherds of Israel, which no doubt referred then to King Zedekiah and the ruling class of Judah, who scattered the flock, who caused the people to be driven into exile. They symbolise those leaders who cause people not to belong and care nothing for that; and those of our time and place with power or influence over others in immigration matters should be admonished by this Word to exercise their power with care and compassion. The promise on the other hand that the Lord makes, is to gather up the remnant of the people and to set up shepherds who will care for them. In our Old Testament Lesson this is combined with the Messianic hope. The "Righteous Branch" of the line of David will be raised up by God, and because of his wisdom and justice Judah and Israel will be rescued and given security. This then is a prophecy of the "Good Shepherd", and there is much to be thought about on this theme from the New Testament readings today. St Mark reports in the Gospel today that when Jesus saw a great throng of people that had followed Him, He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

We should note that this observation is made at a time when Jesus had recommended to the apostles that they should come away to a lonely place by themselves in order to rest. Like many other good leaders though, they found even their rest time being disturbed by people who clamoured for attention. No doubt there would have been justification for Jesus to have asked people to let Him and His disciples alone for a time. The account makes it clear, however, that Jesus had compassion upon them. Whether or not they were a nuisance at this point was entirely irrelevant. He shepherded them out of His compassion. We are told that He began to teach them many things. His compassion for them did not permit Him to let them feel unwanted. In St. Mark chapter 6 this is followed by the Feeding of the 5000, which again was an act of compassion. After that He did dismiss the crowd, and St. John tells us that this was to avert the impending popular intention to declare him as their king. That could have been a fatal threat to Jesus' programme. But the people's clamouring went on, and Jesus' compassion went on. Jesus had told the disciples to row the boat to the other side of the Sea of Galileee while He dismissed the crowd, and from the account we read of a remarkable night and painful progress on the sea against a strong wind, and of the mystery of Jesus' walking to them on the water. Then after all that, once again we read of the clamour of more people after they arrived at Gennesaret, and no doubt every single one of the numerous healings that took place, even of those who merely touched the fringe of His clothing, took power from Him. As always He took responsibility for them, and none who came for help went away feeling unattended to.

Jesus' compassionate shepherding should be thought of as the incarnation of the compassion of God, who we may apprehend in faith as our Father and our Shepherd, who, through all the difficulties of our condition that we encounter, cares so greatly for us. St. Paul in the lesson from Ephesians reminds us, as he reminds the Gentiles whom he was addressing, how great was the separation from Christ and the alienation from the divine polity of Israel that we have escaped from through our new identity via baptism and incorporation into Christ by His grace and power. "Now in Christ Jesus we who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ." That instantly reminds us what great cost God’s compassionate shepherding is to Him, and it indicates too, especially to a mind steeped in the Old Testament, how effectual it is for us. The blood of Christ is, in the words of the hymn, the one, true, pure, immortal sacrifice. Now, when we turn our soul to submit to the Heavenly Bridegroom, whatever our own condition may be, whatever our clamour, we are attended to and made whole, because He has compassion on us and has set a shepherdly care over us, so that we ought not to fear any more, nor be dismayed. Let this compassionate shepherding be the basis of our new identity, known by us, and made known to all our neighbours.