Millstones and the Good Shepherd

 

Wall-size painting of Christ as Good Shepherd surrounded by multitudes of people, painted by Ruth Owen Pook and hanging in The Chapel of the Good Shepherd at The (Episcopal) Cathedral Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Reflection for morning worship with the Community of Brendan the Navigator on Tuesday 10th December 2024

The Gospel reading set for tomorrow, Tuesday, is the much loved Parable of the Lost Sheep (Matthew 18:12-14), but to place it in context I have chosen to start the reading at the beginning of the chapter.

The disciples come to Jesus and ask ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?’ They really want heavenly greatness for themselves. But Jesus knows that wanting to be great is not the way to greatness in the kingdom of heaven. So he calls a child to him and says, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’  Humble, weak, ordinary human beings, as trusting as this child, will be greater in the kingdom than those who push themselves forward.

Jesus is concerned that disciples who seek greatness will mislead ordinary folk, and be like a stumbling block to them, causing them to fall below God’s standards, in other words to sin. So he warns them, ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.’

If we look around Christ’s church today, we see all too many cases where leaders who want to be great have become stumbling blocks to ordinary Christians like you and me. A few have done evil things, and must dread the millstone. Others, from different Christian traditions, have sought to protect their positions, their friends and their churches by covering up the evil behaviour, of others. This has seriously damaged victims, and caused many good people to turn away from the church.

As we all know, the Roman Catholic Church has been seriously damaged by clerical abuse scandals and cover-ups, here and around the world. And our own Anglican Communion is not immune. Recently we have been shocked to learn of the appalling abuse of young men by John Smyth, a Reader in the Church of England. Senior clergy and leaders covered it up for many years, enabling him to move to Zimbabwe, and then South Africa, to continue his abuse. The Church of England is in turmoil. The Archbishop of Canterbury has been forced to resign for not taking timely action, and there are calls for other resignations.

We can only hope and pray that in the Church of Ireland our Safeguarding Trust processes are robust enough to prevent anything similar here.

Christian leaders of all traditions must beware of the dangers Jesus himself warned of, and choose the path of humility, the child-like humility of someone who knows the overwhelming power of God’s fatherly love for all his creatures. They must be open to give an account of themselves.

But what of the little, ordinary Christians? Jesus goes on to reassure us with his Parable of the Lost Sheep. He is our true and faithful shepherd. He does not rest until he has found any of us who is lost. And if he finds us, he rejoices, more than he rejoices over those that never went astray. When we see church leaders misbehaving, we should take comfort in this: ‘It is not the will of (our) Father in heaven that (even) one of these little ones should be lost.’