New series today on what it means to be SENT >
How do we understand this, how does it play out among us, where are we SENT from and what are we SENT to do?
Those are the bigger questions guiding this series, but here are a couple of starter questions for you today:
Do you ever feel like a ‘sheep without a shepherd?’
Or maybe even a ‘suffering sheep without a shepherd?’
Intense line of questioning there, I wonder if and when you’ve felt like that – it can happen in many ways, many contexts, out in the world and even inside church community as well.
At times in life it can seem we are sheep without a shepherd.
What does that look like?
Being on our own, without a guide or leader to help us. Relationship breakdowns, even a lack of relationship can be part of this sense of being sheep without a shepherd. Maybe even competing voices and different motivations too…
I’ve seen this in some of the soccer teams I’ve been part of >
Where there are competing voices, some interested in the overall performance of the team and others more interested in their own performance at the expense of the team, and a lack of clear direction or guidance coming from the coach or leadership of the team to bring the team together and align towards the same goals together.
As I said a few weeks ago talking about the best teams, the best teams are collectively working in the same direction, towards the same goal, and when it all starts to click we know what that looks like – we can think of the Brisbane Lions in the past two AFL seasons, the Broncos of 2025 (not so much 2026 as yet but that’s ok!)
And stepping back into church space, do we want to be a team that works together with the same goals in mind? Of course there are some big differences in church where God is already at work and he works through us through the Holy Spirit and the gifts given to us, but a team of people working together towards a common goal that serves the needs of their community is always a good thing! Working together to serve the needs of our community – I don’t know about you but that’s the sort of team I want to be part of.
Back to being ‘sheep without a shepherd’ >
This can also feel like being lost, being unsure, lacking a purpose or meaning and even lacking a future… But if there is a clear direction, working together to serve the needs of a local community, that’s where these great things like purpose, meaning and future can all start to come in.
What about the suffering sheep, not a nice place to be. A place we would rather not be.
It’s not good to be suffering, let alone suffering without a shepherd.
We hear about this in our second reading today from Romans 5, one of the great passages of scripture we hang our hats on: suffering producing perseverance, perseverance character and character hope.
There is and there will be suffering – reality check for us there.
And there are different types of suffering >
There can be suffering that comes at us like health battles or things we didn’t see coming in our personal lives, relationships, lots of things we could go into there.
These things we ask for God’s help in, we find support in our community and loved ones around us, these things we don’t choose, that come at us, and lead to suffering.
But there are also other types of suffering, types of struggle that we do choose to take on, that we willingly participate in, that are actually part of the Christian life, that are part of doing something and going somewhere as Jesus calls us to follow him.
There’s a self-help author I’ve read a bit of who says something on this topic, in terms of the struggles of life >
He talks about the choice we have to avoid struggling in life, or the choice to know or to find out what we are willing to struggle for…
And this actually ties in pretty well with this line in Romans, when we know what we are struggling for we can see more clearly how that struggle, that suffering produces these good things like perseverance, character, hope. We could add in resilience there too, iron sharpening iron, gaining experience and knowledge that informs us and we can then share to help others. Very good things!
To avoid this type of struggle is actually missing out on what it can produce, where if we take on a struggle with a clear direction, good support around us, knowing why we’re doing it and where we want to go – then we can see how God produces these good things in us and through us, and in and through other people as well.
One other sporting example for you today – if you follow the AFL there was the Big Freeze game last week where funds are raised to fight MND, Motor Neuron Disease.
The man behind all this – former footballer and coach Neale Daniher – recently passed away after a long battle against the illness, and in his story we can actually see the bringing together of both suffering that comes at us and we don’t choose – his MND diagnosis – but also his significant efforts – the struggle he chose – to raise money to fight the disease, not just for his own benefit but people across Australia fighting it too. Amazing story and one the AFL world continues to be inspired by.
Let’s jump across to a few lines from our gospel reading now, where Jesus – the ultimate suffering servant as he is sometimes known – does something and he also says something, two very significant things for us to know and remember:
First > he sees the crowds, and what does he do?
He has compassion on them, because they were ‘harassed and helpless,’ like sheep without a shepherd.
Jesus knows when we are like sheep without a shepherd.
He sees it, he knows it, he knows our suffering, whatever type of suffering it might be.
And he does something about it, he has compassion on his people which leads him to act >
What does he do? He ‘sends out workers into his harvest field.’
That’s us – the people Jesus sees, knows and calls to be his own SENT people, out into the world to love, to serve and to share the good news.
It’s incredible in this passage where the disciples are sent out to ‘drive out spirits and heal disease’ – amazing to see how Jesus gives them that authority, and the miracles that can and still do occur because of him. We can take this more as spiritual healing that happens for us today, where we are renewed in body, mind and soul by Jesus’ grace, but that doesn’t mean physical/mental/emotional healing doesn’t also continue to happen among us, and we continue to pray for that as we come up against it.
So Jesus sees the crowds and he sends out people to be among them, and second > he says this line which really stands out to me in this passage:
‘Freely you have received, freely give.’
‘Give freely, because I have given freely to you’ Jesus says.
How else can we take this?
Don’t hold back! Be ‘dared to move,’ what I was saying a few weeks ago in our COMMUNITY series.
This good stuff you have is not only for you, but is also for them, for others, for people in desperate need out there. Not exclusive to us but inclusive for all people, that’s what Jesus has done for us and continues to offer us and all people. What we’ve just witnessed being ‘freely given’ in Baptism today! Forgiveness of sins, a place as a seen, known and loved child of God, beautiful stuff!
So if this is what we are called to do – to give freely as we have freely received, in Jesus’ own words, we need to hear it.
As individual people we need to hear it.
In our everyday lives we need to hear it.
As church, we need to hear it. Freely you have received, freely give.
So as Jesus GIVES FREELY to us, we can be encouraged, supported, inspired even to GIVE FREELY of what has first been given to us.
The beautiful thing is that we have access to our good shepherd, we’re not alone, we’re seriously never without a shepherd! Even if we feel ‘without a shepherd,’ Jesus is there, he is with us.
And that gives me confidence, it can give us confidence as we step out in faith, as we love and serve others as God calls us to do, as we consider the needs of our community and seek to speak life into what we see around us.
We’re not doing this alone, even when it feels like it.
Even if there are relationship breakdowns or even a lack of relationship with people around us, God cuts through that.
He is big enough, his also close enough to us – to cut right through to our core and change us, to be more like him.
The good shepherd cuts through our weakness, our shortcomings with his strength, his provision, his ongoing presence with us and for us.
We are not without a shepherd, Jesus is with us.
And if we are suffering, chosen struggles or not, Jesus is with us.
And because of his presence with us we can freely give, as we have freely received.
Lord we thank you for your free gifts, that you have won for us new life in you, that we can be changed to be more like you, that we have roles to play in loving and serving those around us and in our local community. Help us in the suffering, in the struggles, you know what they are for us. Remind us of your presence with us and your provision for us, and lead us to have compassion as you have had compassion on us, which leads us to step out in faith in what you have done, are doing and call us to be part of as church together. Amen.
//
Tom Kitson 