Psalm67│Ezekiel 34.11-16│Acts 16.6-10│Matthew 18.12-14
Psaumes 67|Ézéchiel 34:11-16|Actes 16.6-10|Matthieu 18.12-14
Sheep may safely graze
Do not stress God is there, in sickness and in health he will look after us, his sheep. He will feed, protect and nurse us. We just need to trust him.
Illuminated manuscript of Bede's Life of St Cuthbert, showing the discovery of his Incorrupt Body, c. 1180, British Library
Cuthbert’s desire for a monastic life had grown from that when he was a teenager while guarding sheep he saw a light descend from heaven and return escorting what seemed to be a human soul. That night was the night that Cuthbert’s mentor Aiden died.
During his life Cuthbert was a military man, a monk, a prior (deputy abbot), a bishop and a hermit. Of these he favoured hermit. I always thought of him as one of the great Celtic saints, but maybe I had not read enough. He was consecrated a bishop in York after it had been decided that Lindisfarne would have allegiance towards Rome rather than Ireland. However Cuthbert’s relationship with his God did not change. He continued to meet God in the silence of the night and the loneliness of the bleak Northumberland coast. As a monk he lived and worked in the three monasteries of his order, as a bishop he travelled.
Cuthbert’s response to the varying circumstances
of his life led me to think of the many changes we have had in our worship this
past year. Everybody in church, nobody in church, some in and many online,
YouTube, Zoom.
The lesson I have learned while writing this is
not the insight into communion with our Creator in the quiet contemplation of a
Celtic monk that I had expected to gain. But, that God can be alongside me
whether I worship in the consecrated nave or in what has become a sacred space
on a Sunday, the armchair in front of the TV.
Almighty God, who called your servant Cuthbert from following the flock to follow your Son and to be a shepherd of your people: in your mercy, grant that we, following his example, may bring those who are lost home to your fold; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Jane
Brown
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