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St Clement Church Fourth Sunday of Easter Community Service

Good morning

Apart from being the fourth Sunday of Easter, today is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday.

I’m sure that will tell you what our Gospel reading is for today.

Is a shepherd still relevant for us today?

What do you think?

With love to you all

Liz

Let us pray

Father God, we gather today under your care and protection.

Thank you for your loving kindness that never fails us.

We thank you for those with us and those sharing this worship at home, that you will guide our thoughts and actions to bring you glory.

Strengthen us and fill us with your peace.

Amen

We say together

Dear Lord, as we rise to meet each day, please let us be filled with Your spirit.

Wherever we go, let us spread love, joy, peace, goodness, and faithfulness.

Let us desire to become more like you and to worship you in all we do.

Help us desire these things so much more than the sin that entices us.

Thank you for always going before us.

In Jesus’ name. Amen

Hymn: 374 How sweet the name of Jesus sounds

Prayer of Penitence

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy,

to anger and of great kindness.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.

For as the heavens are high above the earth,

so great is his mercy upon those who fear him.

Holy God,

Holy and strong,

Holy and immortal, have mercy on us.

As far as the east is from the west,

So far has he set our sins from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,

So is the Lord merciful towards those who fear him.

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And all that is within me bless his holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my souls,

And forget not all his benefits.

Amen

Collect for Fourth Sunday of Easter Sunday

Almighty God, whose Son is the resurrection and the life: raise us, who

trust in him, from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, that we may seek those things which are above, where he reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

Amen

Readings:

Acts 4. 5 - 12

1 John 3. 16 - 24

Hymn: 234 Christ, whose glory fills the skies

Gospel: John 10. 11 - 18

(Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John

Response: ‘Glory to you O Lord’)

Jesus said to the Pharisees: ‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his Iife for the sheep. The hired hand who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away – and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’

(This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.)

Reflection

Today, on the fourth Sunday of Easter, our Gospel reading shifts away

from historical recounting of the events following Easter and Christ’s resurrection, to reflection about who was and who is this Jesus Christ?

Some of the earliest images of Jesus found in churches and tombs are not portrayals of Jesus on the cross, or the infant in the manger. Rather, they picture Jesus as the gentle shepherd.

When Jesus spoke of shepherds and sheep, He was speaking to people who had everyday experiences with lambs, sheep, kids and goats. Even if they made their living as a carpenter or fisherman, they knew or watched the shepherds all the time, moving the sheep and the goats from pens to the fields or hillsides. They drank the milk of these animals, turned that milk into cheese and eventually ate the animals.

Without a shepherd, sheep are easy targets – and, even if the wolves don’t kill them, they do, as Jesus says, scatter them, and for a lost sheep the world is a very large and scary place.

Is the image of sheep and a shepherd totally out of place in the world today? After all, there are many people in this country who will not have seen a shepherd or even sheep in real life – television, yes but real life, no. In biblical times, everyone knew a shepherd, it would have been a familiar and helpful metaphor.

Did you know that, once in a while, a ewe will give birth to a lamb and reject it. There are many reasons she may do this. If the lamb is returned to the ewe, the mother may even kick the poor animal away. Once a ewe rejects one of her lambs, she will never change her mind.

These little lambs will hang their heads so low that it looks as if something is wrong with their necks. Their spirit is broken.

These lambs are called ‘bummer’ lambs.

Unless the shepherd intervenes, that lamb will die, rejected and alone. So, what does the shepherd do?

He takes that rejected little one into his home, hand-feeds it and keeps it warm by the fire. He will wrap it in blankets and hold it to his chest so the ‘bummer’ can hear his heartbeat.

Once the lamb is strong enough, the shepherd will place it back in the field with the rest of the flock.

But, that sheep never forgets how the shepherd cared for it when its mother rejected it. When the shepherd calls for the flock, guess who runs to him first?

Yes, the ‘bummer’ sheep – it knows his voice intimately.

It is not that the ‘bummer’ is loved more, it just believes it, because it has experienced that love one on one.

I wonder how many of us have been ‘bummer’ sheep – we’ve felt rejected, unloved, lost, but, a ‘good shepherd’ has scooped us up and carried us through difficult times … and whatever the guise of that shepherd … we don’t forget do we?

There is a real difference between a good shepherd and someone who is merely paid to look after the sheep. As the gospel reading clearly states: the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, whereas the hired hand, who does not own the sheep, doesn’t look after them when danger threatens.

If we are honest, we all know that we need someone to lead us, protect us and guide us. We are a lot like sheep – and sheep need shepherds.

Sheep are flock animals – they like to be together. They don’t do so well on their own. There is safety in numbers and they seem to know this. So, they tend to spend a lot of time together.

We humans are ‘flock animals’ too, aren’t we? We like to be together. We like to gather in groups. There is an innate drive to surround ourselves with like-minded people, in sports, politics, at work and in school. We tend to flock together. ‘Birds of a feather’ flock together, as the old saying goes. As a church congregation, we are sometimes called a flock; but, what is unique about congregations is that we are not necessarily, ‘birds of a feather.’ We may be C of E, and we may all live within a relatively small radius of each other, but beyond that, we have a number of differences – different ages, we grew up in different parts of the country, we have different tastes in music and literature, we may well have varying political views, and so on, and so on. We are NOT exactly ‘birds of a feather,’ except we are all followers of Jesus and attend a C of E church. So, here we are, flocking together, as best we can.

Christians are supposed to spend time together. We are not intended to be on our own. That’s why Jesus created the Church. That’s one of its primary purposes. So that we sheep can come together and be kept safe; and so that we can join together in seeking guidance from our shepherd … especially in difficult times.

Sheep have very good hearing. Each day when the shepherds gathered together with their flocks, it was noisy and chaotic to say the least. The shepherds and sheep were all mixed up but, at the end of the day, the shepherds would call for their sheep, and the sheep would follow their own shepherd to a safe place to sleep. In the midst of all that chaos, and all those competing voices, the sheep would hear their shepherd’s voice and follow their shepherd. That’s what we’re supposed to do – listen for our shepherd, our good shepherd, and follow Him.

There are plenty of competing voices clamouring for our attention – voices on television, radio, computers, tablets and so on; but there is only on voice that really matters. Sheep are good at listening to the voice of their shepherd and we need to be, too; now more than ever.

Sheep are also natural followers – they don’t like to be pushed; they prefer to be led; and it is their shepherd that leads them.

Sheep are often said to be stupid because they can’t be herded like cows, but when you think about it, they trust their shepherd and go where the shepherd goes. They let the shepherd go first, to make sure the way is safe and then they follow him.

Isn’t that what Jesus is asking of us – to be his followers? He’s not going to push us. He’s not going to force us. Instead, Jesus just keeps calling us, in many and various ways, inviting us over, and over again to follow Him. He promises to lead us, to protect us and even to lay down His life for us. He invites us to trust Him – to trust Him and follow Him.

Jesus is our good shepherd, the Good Shepherd – the leader our world needs right now. We are His sheep, flocking together, listening for His voice, and following Him.

Perhaps this image of us being sheep and Jesus as our Good Shepherd is not so out of date. Our world has not outgrown its need for a shepherd. We are blessed to have a shepherd who is good, loving and faithful; who promises to lead us all the days of our life through trials and tribulations and whatever this world throws at us.

We can help this shepherd by being good and faithful sheep; by continuing to flock together, faithfully listening for His voice, and following Him.

Amen

Let us declare our faith in God

We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named.

We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love.

We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high.

We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Amen

Hymn: 457 The King of love my shepherd is

Intercessions

On this Good Shepherd Sunday, we bow our heads in the quietness of this place to remember the One who gave His life for His sheep. As members of His flock, we give thanks for all that He was, is and always will be to those who follow in his footsteps.

Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer

Holy God, your Son remained with his disciples for forty days after His resurrection, teaching them to love all people as friends and neighbours. We too are His disciples and we offer our prayers for the Church, the world in which we live and all those with whom we share it.