Love and hugs and sheep and shepherds

For a Rebel Rev I don't half get about a bit. Last week I was Greenwich Royal Naval Chapel. This week I'm with a small methodist congregation as they celebrate their 137 anniversary in the beautiful village of Bearsted.

If you are interested have a look at my sermon for Easter 4. A real mixture of theology and the reality of life.

May my words be in the name of the living God, creating, redeeming and sustaining. Amen.

It’s fantastic to be with you today to celebrate your 137^th anniversary. I understand that the church was opened in 1877 at a cost of £250 and that 10 years later a school room was added. Well as you know I’m the chaplain down the road at the St Augustine Academy and we’ve been in our new school building for 2 weeks. That cost a bit more than 250 quid, in fact more like 12 million. My how times have changed!

I am very fortunate in that the school has provided me with a lovely new chapel in the new build. Previously I was in a big office just off the canteen and loos. Great for passing trade but really smelly! The students hang out with me at break and lunchtime and eat their food and socialise. We listen to music and watch youtube music clips together. There can be up to 40 kids with me from years 7-11 and occasionally the odd 6^th former will stray in too. They tend to wait for the little ones to go and see me separately. I often have the students on the margins will me as well as the quiet ones. I also get kids come in because they are upset about something or another. The following is a typical conversation stream from a busy break time.

“I hate Mr so and so or Ms blah drives me nuts”

“Oh really. Why is that” Oi don’t do that remember the love and hugs rules. Sorry why has so and so upset you this time. Did you do your homework?” Sheepish look.

“Can I put the next song on?”

“Yes as long as if there are any women in bikini’s the men are in mankini’s!”

“Can I talk to you please?”

“Oi pack it in, leave the curtains alone and remember love and hugs everyone. Sorry honeybunch what would you like to say?”

“I think I have body dysmorphia”

“Have you been spending too much time on the internet again?”

“Mam can I ask you a question”

“Of course”

“Is Genesis historical fact or theological narrative?”

This all takes place over the course of 20-25 minutes and when they go back to their lessons I take several deep breaths. I wouldn’t have it any other way though.

As the first chaplain, in a school that wasn’t a faith school previously, I’ve had my work cut out but at least it’s a blank canvass. I’ve tried to create a Christian ethos that is embedded in the Christian virtues. I do 3 assemblies a week and a thought for the week, as well as a weekly prayer on a theme that I set throughout the year. I know powerfully what a difference love can make so that’s why I invented the love and hugs approach to life because love without action is meaningless hence me adding the hugs bit.

I think children can teach us so much about love. Some of these answers are from a research programme that asked primary school children what they thought love was:

When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."  Billy - age 4

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on aftershave and they go out and smell each other." Karl - age 5

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
 Terri - age 4

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more.
 Emily -age 8

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate," Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an imagination)
 Karen - age 7

 "Love is when Mummy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross." Mark - age 6.

Part of my work with the young people I serve is to encourage them to be individuals and to learn to give and receive what Christians call love. Some of them haven’t experienced it before and as said I know it can be life changing, so I want to spread as much of it as possible.

Ok so let’s concentrate on our readings for today. All of us have probably had some adult say to us or we have said to our children “if so and so told you to jump off a cliff would you do it” or “you’re not a sheep are you, don’t follow the crowd”

No matter which year of the lectionary you are reading Easter 4 always gives you sheep and shepherd readings. All this stuff about sheep and shepherds is hard for those of us that are city dwellers to understand properly. I am a typical street urchin. I was gobsmacked as a young person to discover that chips came from potatoes and worse still that they grew in the ground.

If you were brought up in more rural places, like this you, might have a bit more understanding but the people Jesus was having a natter to understood straight away because for his time, Jesus was using every day language and an everyday illustration.

In our world sheep are thought of as dumb stupid animals. It’s not a compliment to be called a sheep with connotations of following blindly. What I know from my regular trips to Ireland is that sheep are wanderers. They are often seen just wandering slowly in front of tourists cars, or wandering to see if the grass is greener on a higher piece of ground. There aren’t loads of fences and hedges in Ireland and the farmers round up their sheep by roaming around on quad bikes where they can or on foot and with dogs in the more rocky outcrops. All the sheep get mixed up. You often see ones with blue paint splodges with those with red or green markings. What I find fascinating is that even though sheep are wanderers and appear to be dumb animals they only respond to their own farmers/shepherds voice. Wow!

Last summer I was on a single track mountain pass between Kerry and Cork. It was built on an old famine trail and is called the Healy Pass. Just as I got to the summit where the views are breathtaking I was greeted by a sight I hadn’t seen before in that spot. One shepherd, one dog and about 500 sheep filled the road in front of me. It was incredible watching the shepherd guide these sheep over this beautiful mountainous scenery. All I could do was drive very slowly behind for the 2 miles it took for him to get to his field. The sheep kept darting off but they were all brought back time and time again.

So Jesus is being a bit savvy with his parable because he knows that people are free spirited wanderers (like sheep)but he is also saying that if we listen we will hear his voice above all the other cacophony of sound that goes on in our world because he is our shepherd.

This stuff of being known by name is so important. It’s like when Jesus calls Mary when she mistakes him as the gardener. It’s in the calling of her name with the same inflection and familiarity that Mary realises who it is. God knows all of our names and says them with that same familiarity because our names our safely written on the palm of God’s hands. Isn’t that wonderful?

Then we move on to the next clever bit of imagery. Jesus wants us to follow him into the sheepfold but even when we get in there he knows we are not totally safe and he warns us about that even in our place of shelter and rest, thieves may come in to steal and kill and destroy. What is it that comes and gets us when we think we are safe and in the sheepfold. It could be doubts, like Thomas. Mother Theresa also had a very barren prayer life but it didn’t stop her praying. It could be separation or divorce or bereavement. It could be unemployment, debt, illness or disability. In fact the list is endless.

For me I think once we’ve listened to Jesus and have followed his call we still need to keep a check on ourselves. A few years ago I was very sick during Holy Week. In fact I had to have an emergency blood transfusion. That imagery of me having life saving blood dripped into me in Holy Week was not lost on me. What I was surprised about was that blood stings as it drips into you and makes your arm ache. Language about the blood of the lamb was floating around my addled brain and it made me realise that being open to Jesus and Jesus’ life saving spiritual energy means we all have to be open up to be stung. In other words faith has a cost. If it doesn’t it’s not a real and deep faith, it’s like having politics without principals or science without humanity. Instead of asking “Why me” in those situations I’ve learned to ask “Why not me” because otherwise if I stay with the why me it’s like wishing it on someone else.

There is a Native American story I really like. I use it a lot with the kids at the school “A grandfather was explaining to his granddaughter that at times he had 2 wolves fighting in his heart. One wolf is full of jealousy and hatred and rage and the other is full of love, kindness and compassion. The child asked “Granddad which wolf will win the fight? The granddad replied “The one I feed” 

Ain’t that a great story? It doesn’t matter if you are inside the sheepfold, you still have to continue to follow Jesus while you are on the inside of the fold, otherwise what are you doing there? What are you feeding inside of yourselves? Which wolf will win the battle in your heart? We must take responsibility for our own continued spiritual education and development and for maintaining high standards of expectations with regard to Christian behaviour. If we only behave in Church and then are a right royal pain outside then maybe we haven’t quite got the message right.

I was mediating in a dispute between a couple of students recently. When they left it still wasn’t finally sorted and I had to arrange for them to come back and see me. I asked them in the meantime not to say anything to each other that they wouldn’t say in front of me. When they came back later they were much calmer because they were keeping their words in check.

If we really believed God was with us in everything we say or do, would we say and do some of those things?

To make my final point I need to change the way the passage is edited these days because I think we miss one crucial nugget from Jesus. In verse 15 Jesus says “I have other sheep that are not of this fold.” Lots of people in the church are often perplexed by the thought that you can be of God and not be of the church. It worries people. Why? I just don’t get why we worry about all of that. Jesus was saying all this long before there was a church. In this I think Jesus makes it clear that all of God’s children, all of God’s sheep, all of God’s creation, are not all of one flock. I think that is extremely exciting for those of us who are passionate about interfaith dialogue. If we truly understood this verse would we still be arguing about the ministry of women or about equal marriage and the place of LGBTI people in the church and God’s Kingdom? Would we continue to row about our differences or would we get to the point where we can quite rightly celebrate our differences?

That verse, which was not included in today’s reading, may be the most important one for us to reflect upon, and embody, and make our own as individuals, as a church as a worshipping community thats been in this place for 137 years. I believe God does have other sheep and will and does provide for them as God does and will provide for us. In fact, until we can really embrace that singular crucial fact that God is there for all to have abundant life, it strikes me as impossible for us to claim what is at the heart of this gospel – that Jesus comes so that we ALL might have life, and have it abundantly.

Amen