One time there was a little Jewish girl called Rachel who lived in New York in a cramped apartment. She had a beloved grandfather who was a rabbi and every week her grandfather would visit her. He would bring presents - little dollies, toys, books. Rachel says in her book that although the toys and dollies have long gone the blessings her grandfather brought are with her still. One day he brought a present which she eagerly unwrapped. Inside was a paper cup full of dirt. She was disappointed but tried not to show it. "Put a little water in it, Rachel," the old man said. "Water it every day and something may happen." She kept her promise to do so, even getting up early in the morning so she wouldn't forget. By the third week, when nothing had happened, she was finding it hard to remember. But one day there were two green leaves. She was amazed and expected the rabbi to be amazed when she showed him. He was not, of course. He smiled and stroked his beard. "Rachel," he said, "life is everywhere, hidden in the most ordinary and unlikely places." "And all it needs is water, Grandpa?" "No, Rachel," he said, "All it needs is your faithfulness."
We have two Bible passages about faithfulness breaking down and how God took hold of the breakdown and created a breakthrough to something better.
In Ezekiel we have in the background a vicious cycle of failure. The shepherd kings had let everyone down, including God. 'This is what the king does,' said the writer of Proverbs, 'he speaks up for those who have no voice.' The shepherd king is there for those at the bottom of society. I remember a great interview with Bill Clinton after his retirement. He came across as a flawed man but one whose aspirations were greater than the presidents who preceded him and succeeded him. Dimbleby asked him how he would measure a presidency. He said, "It is whether the little guy is better off, the struggling mother, the low paid worker, the shop assistant. You need to know you've made their hard life just a bit easier." He was right. He was biblical. We sentimentalise the 23rd Psalm - the Lord is my shepherd. It is a statement of political despair because the shepherd kings were useless, arrogant, self obsessed. Lost the plot. The psalmist turns away from them to God because the political system has failed.
And now they are in exile. The date 587 BC is crucial. It marks the great turning point of the Old Testament. On that day Jerusalem was finally destroyed and the Temple burned to the ground. The prophets say to the Jews in exile two things over and over again. Relinquish the past, let it go. Grieve but let it go. Receive a new future from God. Relinquish. Receive.
You might see what went wrong as a vicious cycle. Love of power led to misuse of religion. Religion was centred on telling the story of how God rescued them. That story should have tuned them up to look out for people who needed rescue.
It is called the triangle of vulnerability - the orphan, the widow, the refugee. Over and over again the prophets say to the kings, "Never mind all the religious self congratulation - how is it with the orphan, the widow and the refugee? Those with no family to give them love, those who have lost love and livelihood and protection, those who have lost their homeland and are in exile. How is it with them?" God is saying, "Until it is alright with them I can't hear you. You bore me with the praises and the sacrifices and the incense - you're wasting my time."
They had stopped seeing them. We stop seeing people we don't want to be bothered with. When I was working with St Martin in the Bullring I began to see the street people and they began to see me. It is dangerous when we stop seeing the people God is listening to. The less they listened, the more flamboyantly they worshipped and the deader their souls became.
Break down that leads to break through.
It's something we often say in the world of counselling. We breakdown to breakthrough. God said, "I'm going to be proactive, I'm taking charge of these needs. I'm coming after the broken and the wounded and lost and the homeless with love and healing and tender care. I will be faithful in a way the useless political leaders have not been. It is faithfulness that is the charm, it is faithfulness that brings life. I'm looking out for those in the triangle of vulnerability - the landless, the loveless, the homeless. I shall breakthrough into a new relationship with people."
Let's make the story bigger for a moment. However we read the Bible it is clear we are being told something has gone wrong at a planetary level. Something has messed up relationships big time. Our relationship with God isn't right. Our relationship with ourselves isn't right. Our relationship with others isn't right. Our relationship with the environment isn't right. Yet we cannot live well without all these relationships. We believe that God is trying to break into to this vicious cycle with renewed relationships. Someone once said that people come to church looking for some mixture of three things - home, hope and healing. We need an environment where we feel loved and safe. We need healing for our wounds. We need hope and meaning for our lives.
And we need the God who says, "And I will make them lie down." God will give rest and nourishment and healing. And those without a human family can be re-parented. And those with inner wounds can be loved into wholeness. And those who never feel they belong can be embraced. And God needs a community with an open heart that can breakthrough to all these people who have broken down.
Back to the Bible's story
Jesus came to a context where it was thought the exile had never come to an end. Yes, they had scraped their way back to the land but nothing was the same. So do you see that when Jesus says, "I am the Good Shepherd," he is really making a direct attack on Herod and the religious leadership and the Romans. This is politics. This is not just about a sense of love in the heart. It is individual but not individualistic. It is a public critique of a religious and political establishment that still didn't care for the poor. "How is it with the orphan and the widow and the refugee?" The triangle of vulnerability. It is a reference back to this passage in Ezekiel. Jesus positions himself as the real king, the true politician who doesn't exploit, who will speak up for those who have no voice. He positions himself as God entering the vicious cycle of failure and betrayal. And now you understand why he says to Peter, "Feed my sheep." They are coming Peter. They need healing for their wounds and a new home, a community to be and live in and they need hope that will kindle energy for life. They need faithful shepherds.
Rowan Williams once said that we are in danger of making Christianity into a commodity which we think we have to defend against other religious commodities. Islam. Buddhism. New Age. This is not the challenge. This is just what commercialism does to our mindset. The real challenge is to find out how we can be the presence of Jesus in the world where the poor person is trampled underfoot. How can we be the community that mends relationships - with God, ourselves, each other and the living environment? A community that says 'yes' to people.
A rabbi was talking with his students and they were talking about praising God at night and praising God in the day. One said, "How shall we know when it has become day?" A student suggested, "When you came name the trees and bushes?" The rabbi shook his head. Another said, "When you can tell the different sorts of birds?" The rabbi shook his head. He said, "It is when you see each person walking down the street toward you and you can say 'My brother, my sister.'" Because until you can say that, it is still night.
Tim Marks
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