Psalm15│1 Samuel 16.1,6-13│Hebrews 13.1-8│John 10.11-16
Psaumes 15| 1 Samuel 16.1, 6-13 |Hébreux 13.1-8 |Jean 10.11-16
Shepherds and Sheep – follow your leader?
Two of today’s readings, 1 Samuel 16.6-13 and
John 10.11-16 deal with aspects of leadership. In 1 Samuel 16.6-13 Samuel
is called to choose a King for Israel – he picks a shepherd. In the
well-known passage from John, Jesus describes himself as “the Good Shepherd”,
who lives, and is prepared to die, for his sheep, whom he knows and whose sheep
know him.
Both readings remind us that we need good leaders
who have our interests at heart and a stake in our welfare. We may or may
not choose them, but God, who knows them as He knows us, does, and we must
trust Him to put us in good hands. We need to pray that we are granted
the discernment given to Samuel to find the right leaders, not hired hands who
will flee when they see the wolf. Those who will truly speak God’s word,
the outcome of which (as the author of the last verse of the Hebrews reading
points out) can be seen in their way of life. Or as today’s psalmist puts
it: “He whose walk is blameless and does what is righteous, who speaks the
truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbour
no wrong and casts no slur on his fellow-man, who despises a vile man but
honours those who fear the Lord, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who
lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the
innocent”.
Leaders, please note!
Carol de Lusignan
Editor’s
note: Born in 1829, Edward King served successively as
assistant curate of Wheatley (Oxon), chaplain of Cuddesdon Theological College,
principal of Cuddesdon, Regius Professor of Pastoral Theology at Oxford, and
finally as Bishop of Lincoln (from 1885 until his death). A man of personal
holiness and pastoral zeal, he is most remembered for his teaching on the
pastoral duties and spiritual life of the clergy, exemplified in his fatherly
care of individuals, both as priest and bishop. In his moral and pastoral
theology he was much influenced by the work of the German Jesuit theologian
Johann Michael Sailer. King was a Tractarian High Churchman (a.k.a.
‘Anglo-Catholic’), a member of the Church Union, and a friend of Edward
Bouverie Pusey and H. P. Liddon. In 1888 charges were brought against him by
the Church Association for certain catholic liturgical practices, though the
ecclesiastical court of Dr E. W. Benson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, decided
the case substantially in King’s favour in 1890. By his saintliness of
character and unsparing devotion to his episcopal ministry, King won the
affection and reverence of all classes of people. (From https://forallsaints.wordpress.com/).
God of peace,
who gave such grace to your servant Edward King
that whomever he met he drew to Christ:
fill us, we pray, with tender sympathy and joyful
faith,
that we also may win others to know the love that
passes knowledge;
through him who is the shepherd and guardian of
our souls,
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.
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