Page 12 - Moravian Messenger August 2019

Whilst on holiday in the Lake District, I had the experience of the
parable of the Lost Sheep being played out on a fell, before my eyes.
A gallant, young shepherd, with three sheep
dogs, skilfully rounded up about a hundred sheep in
order to 'flock' (or 'herd' - I'm not sure which is the right word
to use in this context) them through the gate, down the road
where I was waiting patiently in my car for the event to be over, and through the gate into the next field. However much
he tried - and I have never seen anyone so energetic - there were ninety-nine sheep who
fulfilled his intention, but there was one (ironically, but literally) 'black' sheep, who wasn't having any of
it! That black sheep charged through all four of them, several times (running at the dogs, so that the dogs didn't know what to do as it was not what sheep usually do, and the dogs got out of the way of the sheep!) to eventually find freedom on the fell by itself. It was literally a case of the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine to go after the one that got away, but eventually the shepherd gave up through sheer exhaustion. I had to refrain from applauding his efforts!
Whether it was his pride (for he knew he had an audience in those of us who were waiting to drive on), or the loss of the price of a sheep, or his concern for the sheep's welfare that
motivated him to go after it - bouncing all over the fell, sprinting up and down dale - to rescue the sheep, I have no idea (probably all three); but it brought to mind (amidst my giggling at the scene, my sincere sympathy for the shepherd, and my utter admiration at the belligerence of the sheep that got away) the love and effort of our Great Shepherd for us, that he pursues those of us who stray (and we all stray at some time or another). However, it also brought home, quite starkly, the realisation that there are just some folks who don't want to be 'found', loved and cared for. Some see this as being trapped, smothered, and restricted. However much the shepherd tried - and I give him full marks for his efforts and skill - that sheep just wanted to do its own thing; it wanted its freedom on the fell, and not to be in the field with the others.
Some people don't want God's love - or our love. That can be members of our own family, or people we encounter in daily living. That is a salutary thing to realise. It doesn't stop us from trying, and offering our love, so much so that we can feel hurt that what we have to offer them - with all its wonderful intention - is simply rejected. WE are rejected. Yet, in many ways, those sheep (or people) have to find their own way and we have to let them find their own way. The best we can hope for is that at some point, the sheep will realise what it is missing out on and return to the Great Shepherd (or to relationship with us) - there to be met, as we are, by God's forgiving and welcoming love - as in the parable of the Prodigal Son (or the parable of the Forgiving Father as I like to call it). And what did other bystanders make of the scene? Well, one lady laughingly said, 'Humm ... you don't see that on One Man and His Dog,
From the Sanctuary
do you?'
Br Peter Gubi,
Dukinfield
Congregational Register
Baptisms
9th June 2019 Aamir Samson Leominster 23rd June 2019 Rupert Evans Ockbrook 30th June 2019 Amelia Grace Groves-Bond Brockweir
Marriages
1st June 2019 George Phillips and Rebecca Owen
Deaths
21st April 2019 Pamela Carol Jones 30th June 2019 Sylvia Launder
Reception into membership:
9th June 2019 Esther Walker 9th June 2019 Neil Walker
Fulneck
Fairfield Ockbrook
Leominster Leominster
1 2 Eid-ul-Adha - Muslim
13 Manifestation of the of the Spirit in 1727
15 Raksha Bandhan - Hindu
21 The beginning of the Moravian Missions in 1732
23 UNESCO International Day for Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
( https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/slavetraderemembranceday)
The Moravian Messenger
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Dates to remember!