ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

Sermon preached by Fr. Gerald Beauchamp at Solemn Evensong and Benediction on the Eleventh Sunday of Trinity, 23rd August 2009

Readings: Exodus 4. 27 - 5.1; Hebrews 13. 16-21

For the past five weeks Evensong sermons have been based on the second lesson, the Letter to the Hebrews. And nearly every Sunday the preacher has had a whinge. Last Sunday, Fr McGeary said that he wished he'd never come because he finds Hebrews so difficult. But this evening like sunshine after rain we have a couple of verses from Hebrews that are up there with the scriptural best. Chapter 13 vv 20-22 reads

Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

At the end of this dense theological treatise we are given a paean, a doxology, an exhortation and it has at its centre the shepherd. The shepherd is one of those images that seem to be engraved on our consciousness. Tomorrow, up and down this country in countless crematorium chapels, congregations will sing The Lord's my shepherd and many people will find it a comfort. It's familiar. It taps into a pastoral need: the desire to know that we are cared about (shepherded) when we are at a loss.

Ancient Israel was a pastoral economy. Sheep were essential for food and clothing. Shepherding was a basic skill. Many of the Patriarchs were shepherds. David was out minding the sheep when the prophet, Samuel came calling. The commission given by the Lord to both the Judges and the Kings who succeeded them was they were to be a shepherd to my people Israel (e.g. 2 Sam 5. 2). When things went wrong the sheep were scattered. So we read in Jeremiah

"Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!" says the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: "You have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the LORD. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, says the LORD. (23. 1, 2, 4)

The promise that none shall be missing was taken up by Jesus in his parable of the Lost Sheep where the good shepherd leaves the ninety-nine who are safe to look for the one sheep that was lost. No wonder that soon after the birth of the Good Shepherd it is shepherds watching their flocks by night who are the first to hear the good news and come to the manger in adoration.

Yet within this generally cozy scene there are darker themes. Sheep weren't just kept for the table. They were kept and slaughtered for the altar. Sheep had been slaughtered and their blood sprinkled on the doorposts of Israelite homes before the escape from Egypt. Once Jerusalem had its Temple a whole cult and priestly class grew up around the slaughtering of sheep.

The sacrificial lamb was an emblem of sinlessness, purity and freedom. So in the death of Christ his followers began to see that God's pastoral care was not simply extrinsic, some good done to the people. Christ the Good Shepherd did not simply stretch out his staff to hook the sheep by the neck to save them from falling or tapping them on the rear to urge them forward. Christ's work was also intrinsic.

Christ entered below the surface of the human condition. Christ was priest as well as shepherd and not only was he the sacrificing priest he was also the sacrificial offering. Towards the beginning of John's Gospel, John the Baptist beholds Christ and proclaims Behold, the Lamb of God ... a phrase that we repeat at the mass as we are invited to communion: Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

In the Anglican ordination service priests are told that they are called to be ... shepherds among the people to whom they are sent. ... They are ... to feed and provide for (the Lord's) family, to search for his children in the wilderness of this world's temptations, and to guide them through its confusions, ... they are to call their hearers to repentance and to declare in Christ's name the absolution and forgiveness of their sins.

But there's a further twist to the image. Although shepherds did necessary work in ancient Israel they were outsiders. Shepherds had to work around the clock seven days a week. Living rough they didn't keep the rules of hygiene. More importantly, they didn't keep the Sabbath. Shepherds were dirty. They were law-breakers. At best they were a 'necessary evil'. This means that the notion of the Good or Great Shepherd is paradoxical. A 'good shepherd' was a contradiction in terms but it's vital for our understanding of the work of Christ.

We claim that Christ is sinless but if he is truly human, then how so? If he is without blemish (like a sacrificial lamb) then how can he be one with us who are blemished? We're all sinners. We have consciences. Rarely a week goes by without us saying, doing or thinking something that we regret. There is no health in us. So how does Christ enter into the human condition without taint? The rather mechanical answer from doctrine is via Mary. Mary was conceived immaculately. Mary, the virgin mother guarantees that Jesus is born without the dark side but it also possible to speak of Jesus as human and sinless yet still able to identify with us in another way.

We know that when we sin we become 'outsiders'. We see ourselves as we don't want to be seen by others or by ourselves. Jesus may have not have been a sinner but he did know what it was to be an outsider. He knew what it was to live on the edge. By choice he was a Sabbath-breaker. He healed and forgave on the holy day. He dirtied himself. He ate with sinners and touched the untouchables. Finally, he died on a green hill ... outside a city wall. Jesus knew the outside from inside. He was, to use Thomas Merton's phrase the centre on the circumference. This deep knowledge could only be accessed finally by the shedding of his own blood, coursing his life for the life of the world.

As with Christ, so with his Body: if Anglicans are to keep faith with his faith then there needs to be more than doctrine. Anglicans need priests and need to be a priestly people who know humanity inside out and outside in. We need to be fearless in talking about humanity as we find it and not as we think it should be. We need to take seriously the God who has left no stone unturned because the stone turned is a vital symbol of this day, the first day of the week, the day of resurrection. If we are faithful to this calling then we shall have peace: peace not as the world gives (far from it) but peace as God gives in Christ. Challenging it may be but we can make Hebrews our own.

Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21make us complete in everything good so that we may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.