“Sheep” Groups

Dear Friends,

Last Sunday I made a note in my sermon asking those who were interested in thinking, discussing and praying through the political and cultural implications God-as-shepherd and us-as-sheep write Sheep on their Connection Cards. Almost 40 of you did so.

But since so many of you missed church on Sunday, I wanted to give a wider opportunity for people to express an interest before I worked out the details of what that will look like. Just sign up here and I’ll include you on the communication as we go forward.

The invitation is at 8m 10s in the sermon. While it surely makes more sense in terms of the whole, I’ll give you the immediate context here:

This shepherding image Jesus uses — which is really an image of God that Jesus picked up from all over the Old Testament — this image strikes me as a really hard sell to culture that considers individual freedom the ultimate good.

We want no boundaries. The push seems to be to make everything we can a matter of choice. Thieves and robbers have sold us this lie: the abundance of our life is directly tied to the abundance of our choices.

Either God is a liar or the abundance of choice cannot be an absolute good…We would need more time, and a more discursive format, and maybe a glass of wine or a pint of beer, to think through the political and cultural dimensions of God as shepherd. If you’re interested in doing that — write down the word “Sheep” on your Connection Card send me an email. If there are enough of you, we’ll form a group. This stuff is important.

If you’re interested, just let me know and I’ll add you to the list.

In Christ,
Fr. Andrew