8th Sunday after Trinity 2024 St Andrew’s Milngavie
Today we celebrated the eighth Sunday after Trinity accompanied by Alison.
We have been informed from the diocese that the Electoral Synod will meet on 21stSeptember to discuss the process to select the next bishop. There is a sheet of paper on the notice board where you can put one word suggestions for qualities you would like to see in your next bishop. This needs to be completed within the next few weeks.
This Week
Monday 2.15pm – Book Group, Carolines – Murder Mystery Special!
Tuesday 10am – Prayer Group in the Garden Room.
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in the hall – Friendship House closed for July
Readings for next Sunday – 9th Sunday after Trinity – 2 Kings 4:42-44 Ephesians 3:14-21 John 6:1-21
Today’s readings – Mark 6:30-34,53-56, Ephesians 2:11-22, Jeremiah 23:1-6
Today’s gospel is based on practical Christianity. It illustrates that Christianity demands not just theory but practise as well. The apostles returning from their mission report. “All that they had done and taught” Mark 6:30
Here Jesus teaches the crowds and heals their sick friends and relatives. In the verses omitted from today’s reading he also feeds the five thousand. Another very practical example of his compassion for the crowds whom he describes as the sheep without a shepherd.
The image of Jesus as a Good Shepherd which occurs throughout the NT continues an OT theme depicting God in these terms. Just as Jesus entrusts his apostles to take up the role as shepherd of the people, so in the OT the leaders of Israel are described as shepherds and both Moses and David were shepherds.
On my walks around here one encounters many sheep on the hills. Yesterday we went on one of my favourite walks up beyond the Bracklinn Falls, just north of Callander. The path takes us through a busy sheep farm. I remember one time there seemed more sheep than usual and we watched the shepherd heard his flock through the farmyard out into the hills the other side. It was a joy to see him working his flock, making sure they were all accounted for and to see how the sheep responded to him.
Shepherds do need to be on the ball, a laidback shepherd is no use to his sheep. Shepherds need to be with their sheep and know them, so they can protect them from harm and lead them in the right direction.
Biblical images of shepherds leading their flock contrast with the modern image of shepherds walking with a border collie. But in biblical times a shepherd needed to go into dangerous situations. They were often faced with craggy outcrops and vicious wolves. Today’s shepherds sleep in their own beds. Biblical shepherds slept with their flocks, ready to act if danger threatened.
Jesus, God with us, God incarnate lived with his flock. He did not preach the kingdom of God during the day and retreat to a heavenly place at night. He did not set up a permanent pulpit in temple or synagogue or restrict his teaching ministry to the Sabbath. But combined his teaching with practical demonstration of it – out in the everyday world. Like a good shepherd he was prepared to risk his life for his sheep. And in the Eucharist especially we recall how he scarified himself and brought salvation to us. Jesus practised what he preached, and he sent his followers to do likewise.
Chaplaincy is a recognize form of ministry established in many institutions. Many years ago, I remember visiting the chaplaincy at Blandford Camp. Various presentations were given on the role of the chaplain in the context of the army.
Essentially it is very much a pastoral role supporting the soldiers and their families in all matters spiritual and other. But their ministry is not just simply an armchair role of kindness and encouragement or leading worship in the sanitised surroundings of a garrison church. These padres like the shepherds of the NT are expected to walk alongside their men and women in the front line of battle. They are completely unarmed as they work with them, praying for them, supporting them in many situations and in some cases putting themselves at risk.
Like the first disciples we are sent to continue Jesus’ mission in the world.
The very word pastoral comes from the Latin word for a shepherd, and it is often used to distinguish practical Christian ministry. But practical action shouldn’t be separated from knowledge of the scriptures, or our worship and prayer as one informs the other.
We need to remember that the good shepherd himself combined teaching and doing, that was the example Jesus sets us.
We are called to take our faith into the world, and we can do that in ways that are best suited to own gifts and situations. We are not all in a position to carry out ambitious community projects, or like the padres step into a theatre of war. But we can all pray for each other and pray for God’s people, encourage and support each other.
Whatever form it takes practical support of others, when carried out in the name of Jesus Christ, is effective ministry and a reflection of Christ’s ministry in the gospels.