He seeks the lost
The impact of Jesus’ parables
can often be dimmed by our familiarity with them. Parables are not straightforward ‘moral
tales’. They are designed to disturb, to
undercut our logical view of the world, to shift our perspective until we learn
to see differently and perhaps glimpse the mystery of the Kingdom.
Today’s passage from Matthew is
not about flock management or animal husbandry. Jesus is trying to get us to grasp the
strange wonder of God’s kingdom mercy and love –a kingdom in which the lost are
sought and conventional measures of value are subverted.
I’m pondering this passage in a
context of anxiety, grief, and sometimes despair brought on by the climate
crisis. We have caused such damage to
God’s creation, the tragedy continues to gain in intensity, and the odds of us
succeeding in reducing the destruction to ‘manageable’ level seem so slim. We try to change to more climate-friendly
lifestyles, to persuade our neighbours to adjust their habits, to push our
leaders to enforce wider and higher-level
change…. Still, in so many ways
we are already too late.
And this brings a spiritual
angst alongside the fear and anxiety. I’m intrigued to read of people beginning
to study the theological implications of the loss of creation, and the psychology
of climate grief. But for today I just cling to this strange parable. It’s not just one sheep gone astray…we are
all lost. And yet God still seeks us.
Mags Bird
Collect
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
St Cuthbert, stained glass, Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland
| By ManuRoquette - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85672284 |
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