Sermon for May 27th 2012 - Pentecost Sunday

(Ann Weems – The church is ... (from Reaching for Rainbows))

The Church is Pentecost – but what is Pentecost?

We talk about The Holy Spirit, mystical visions, flames and fire, being sent out into the world, speaking in strange tongues, dancing, rejoicing … all things strange and alien to us.

We like our worship to be precise, predictable, orderly … stick to the bulletin thank you very much, and please be done within the hour, we have things to do and don’t want to be late … We don’t do well with unpredictability and things that seem out of control – it’s the Presbyterian in us, the mainline denomination in us – it is the way we’ve been and we like it, so let’s not change it …

But what if the gift of Pentecost is the ability – no, the necessity of changing ourselves over and over, and becoming what is needed by the world out there to offer the Gospel??

What if Pentecost calls us to abandon the comfort of the way things are, and instead we are to follow the Spirit wherever that journey takes us?

What a radical and discomforting thought – to willingly abandon everything we know, everything we’re comfortable with, everything we LIKE, to follow the Spirit into the unknown … yet, ironically that is the very process we have for decades expected of our candidate for ministry.

We train them, support them, then after their ordination and commissioning we send them out into the vast unknown and expect them to minister to the communities they’re more often than not simply plunked in.

Over the years I’ve marvelled at the stories this has created throughout the Church. The minister and his wife who arrived in a prairie town in the mid-1970’s and she expressed surprise that they had electricity and running water … or the published story of the young minister at Smoky Burn in Saskatchewan who found himself in a double holer alongside a parishioner making small talk while gazing at the vast prairie landscape … the stories are incredible, diverse, uncomfortable and laughable … and every year they are added to as newly ordained and commissioned ministry personnel are sent out into the unknown and told – and we ARE told in our vows of ordination and commissioning – to TRUST in the Spirit.

To be fair, for the most part it works – the experiences that mould us and shape us in those first months of ministry are at times incredible and rewarding – though, as I look back I think an apology is in order for the patient folks in Bella Coola who endured long winding sermons that tried to be scholarly and notable, but reading now were … well, not so much …

We learn along the way.

We grow along the way.

We change along the way.

And we trust in the Spirit every step … every breath … every moment of the journey …

Yet, it is a strange dichotomy – we have one set of expectations for our Ministry personnel and another for the occupants of the pews … the Ministers are to trust in the spirit and embrace the dynamic possibility of change and movement throughout their careers, while the people in the pews are to endure the change and movement by the coming and going of the people in the pulpit: WE MOVE – YOU SIT …

Somehow I don’t think that is what the Spirit has in mind …

Yet, change comes … look back on the journey each of us have had within the Church and think about what it was like worshipping in our youth, and contrast that to what it is like worshipping now … in my youth, not really that long ago, we – that is the younger generation – didn’t stay up stairs AT ALL. We were taken down ten minutes before Church started and herded into a service of readings and hymns before being lead off to our curtained cubicles for our Sunday School lessons. Then our parents would gather us after Church was over and we’d head home … the minister was some strange almost mystical figure in robes who stood way up there removed from the rest of us, and who seemed mysterious and powerful.

In my teens,I met our new minister one afternoon playing basketball across the road from the Church in the gymn of the local elementary school. The afternoon ended with Rev. Bob getting a nose bleed from an errand palm of one of the youth players … it wasn’t my finest hour …

Yet, I can’t imagine Reverend Wes or Reverend Ross playing basketball with us, even five years earlier … and I look back on my ministry and I’ve swam, climbed rocks, danced (not very well) and participated in ALL manner of activities with our youth – all things I have a hard time seeing some of those grand old men who were the ministers of the past doing … Change … it’s inevitable – it’s subtle – and it’s ongoing.

And sometimes we only see it when we pause to look back and see how far we’ve come …

Children at worship. Children at Communion. ALL manner of change has unfolded around us in our lifetimes - Yet, for ALL the change, we’ve experienced as communities of faith, in our life time, I marvel at how resistant we really are to it …

Ezekiel, offering the prophetic query – “Can these bones live?” knew that resistence … Can these dry, dead, dusty, broken up bones live?

Can these (…) bones live?

Too often we look around us, especially in our modern era with so many people busy with so many OTHER things than Church, and we wonder CAN these BONES live?

This past week a fellow blogger from the Maritimes lamented on his blog Maritime Preacher that within the United Church of Canada there are Church congregations who are pleading to be allowed to simply die.

Nick Phillips writes a timely observation:

Yes, we do have too many churches. But some of these churches which wish to be left to die are actually churches in areas where there is a huge opportunity to share the Gospel message. One church in particular is in a residential neighbourhood, absolutely full of small families and they are the only protestant church in the area. And they are more than satisfied with continuing with nothing more than Sunday morning services presided over by a part-time aging retired minister.

Heart… breaking…

No wonder people don’t want to have any kind of connection to the church if this is the public message we are giving.

When did we lose our passion? Why? How? What took it away?

I can’t believe I serve in a denomination where churches wish to die when so many people in our communities are looking for hope, joy, love, peace… the things that our great and wonderful Father, our God in heaven, is just waiting to pour out for all who come to know him.

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do…”

Let’s bring it back!

Let’s bring Christ back into our churches and have the Spirit move us to serve faithfully, sacrificially, with our whole being so the world may once again know how great is our God!

Pentecost is about embracing the Spirit’s call of faith. Daring to dream. And having the courage to act on our faith … church suppers, knitting circles, yard sales, mens’ coffee, a booth in the local farmers’ market, support to the food bank, services out in the community, and being PRESENT … these are signs not just of life, but of the real and dynamic change that is possible when the People of God – you and I – take seriously the call of the Spirit to go out into the world and LIVE.

Can these bones live?

Yes, they can … if they dare to believe in the power of the resurrection, and are bold enough to go out into the world in the name of Christ proclaiming, sharing and LIVING the Gospel!!

I’ve journeyed in this United Church of ours for over 20 years in a place of leadership in ministry. I’ve experienced invigorating highs and soul crushing lows, I’ve seen the best and the absolute worst of what people can do, and I’ve known the dark lonely corners of feeling utterly rejected by the Church … and yet, at no point on that journey have I EVER felt the kind of hopelessness that would offer the answer NO, to the question “Can these bones live?”

The ONLY thing preventing these bones from living, is a lack of faith. And a lack of faith can only come when we’ve abandoned the call of the Spirit …

Today is Pentecost, the Birthday of the Church, the day when we celebrate and affirm the winds of the Spirit blowing over us and through us.

Today is when we say AGAIN “Yes!” to the question – can these bones live?

Today is when we say AGAIN – “YES!!” to the call of the Spirit.

Today is when we say AGAIN – “YES!!” to our ministry and our faith.

Can these bones live? (this is NOT a rhetorical question) …

Can these bones live? …

Can these bones live? ...

Then let’s go into the world and show them how lively and alive we truly are!!!

May it be so … thanks be to God … Let us pray …

Sermon for May 20th 2012 - To Go Out with Joy!!!

As I was reflecting on our scripture readings for this week I found myself thinking about what it is we are called to be about as a Church and as Children of God. As I reflected on the content of the message we are called to carry out into the world, I in turn found myself thinking about a submission I once made to a Canadian Theology magazine about my personal theology of ministry.

This coincided with my picking up and reading the memoirs of Reverend Richard Holloway, the former Bishop of Scotland for the Episcopalian Church, and for a time the primus (or head) of that denomination.

I had heard Rev. Holloway being interviewed on CBC’s Sunday Morning programme last week while I drove across Southern Manitoba and Northern Ontario, and decided I had to find his book “Leaving Alexandria” his memories and reflections on life, ministry and the Church.

As I wrestled with our readings this week, and the transition point we find ourselves in on the eve of Pentecost, Holloway’s words reminded me of what lies at the heart of my theology of faith and ministry, and it resonated with the place the Early Church found itself in today’s readings as they prepared to go into the world both propelled and motivated by faith.

I found a resonance between the scripture passages before us this morning, the wise counsel and reflection of Bishop Holloway, and my own creation from almost 12 years ago. I can still remember the afternoon when I sat down to write my theology of ministry – they are words that continue to motivate and underlie my approach to life, faith and ministry:

I would describe my theology of ministry in one simple word: JOY.

The definition of Joy in a dictionary refers to great happiness, or a source of great delight, but I want to be clear: I do not see joy as pasting on a happy face and pretending that everything is lovely. To me, JOY is embracing life in its fullness and proclaiming with certainty that we are never separated from God’s love.

Among many things:

Joy is being a child of God.

Joy is being a partner and a dad.

Joy is being welcomed into the most intimate moments of life and being asked to pray, of just be present with family and friends.

Joy is the opportunity to hold someone’s hand in a moment of tragedy.

Joy is holding a new born baby, or baptizing an adopted child.

Joy is weeping with the hurting and laughing with a Bible Study group.

Joy is watching a baby discover, for the third time today, her hand.

Joy is seeing the world through the Holy Wow of a three year old child, who is discovering what a wonder creation is.

Joy is building Lego sets with a five year old, and wiping away his tears when he scrapes his knee falling off a bike.

Joy is crying over injustice and rejoicing that we have a community that truly cares about us.

Joy is having tea with an elder who shares her memories of a world seven decades away.

Joy is having a pop with a group of teens who think everything is “cool” or “awesome.”

Joy is struggling to find our way, and enjoying the journey as much as the destination.

Joy is leading a worship service erupting with the noise of children and quiet with the reflective wisdom of seniors.

Joy is the quiet presence of the cognitively impaired in a care home.

Joy is knowing that sometimes life just isn’t fair.

Joy is the enthusiasm of welcoming in the visitor or the newcomer.

Joy is asking the tough questions and sometimes agreeing only to disagree, but knowing that we love each other anyway.

Joy is sharing the Gospel with the help of my puppet friends.

Joy is love eternal and everlasting.

Joy is knowing God’s love and being able to share it every day in some little way.

Joy is breaking bread and sharing the cup, then having a cup of coffee and a good chat afterwards.

Joy is planning a memorial service of a cancer victim, and sharing laughter and tears as a life is celebrated.

Joy is trusting one another enough to share life’s joys and sorrows, knowing that together we share God’s love.

Joy is embracing the homeless.

Joy is loving the unlovable.

Joy is praying for the sick and visiting the hospitalized.

Joy is making worship relevant, exciting and fun.

Joy is communication and community.

Joy is facing controversy and conflict and journeying to reflection, resolution and healing.

Joy is the ministry of all of God’s people.

Joy is being a servant of God journeying with God’s children and sharing the ups and downs of everyday life with openness, with honesty, and most of all with love.

Joy is making a difference in one life everyday.

Joy is the church, the children of God in action.

Joy is the journey of faith through all the twists and turns of life.

I could go on. But suffice to say, to me the theology of ministry is about doing, not taking. It is about using the gifts and talents which God provides to care for those around us and to welcome in all of God’s children.

A friend recently described my approach to ministry as “hospitality” and observed that I move to the periphery and work very hard to draw the circle in. He may be right. I value the outreach of the church, but sometimes we need to look close by and embrace those who are hurting right beside us in the pews, and that may be the toughest challenge we face, but it is a challenge I embrace and value.

To me, ministry is about action. It is doing, not theorizing. I’m not afraid of facing issues head-on, but at the end of the day, we must, as God’s children, be able to break bread and share the cup in faith, and if conflict prevents this, then we have to roll up our sleeves and work. I am not afraid of that.

It is not easy to summarize my theology of ministry on a couple of pieces of paper. Instead I am most comfortable going out into the world and living out my faith and ministry with JOY.

My understanding of ministry is living out the word JOY in all its infinite fullness.

I’ve been through many experiences since I wrote those words that have challenged me in my faith journey, yet I have clung to a persistent understanding of JOY, that even in the deepest darkest moment I’ve face, has allowed me to keep moving forward knowing I am not alone, and that I am a beloved child of God.

As a Church – as the people of God, we are called by God to share our faith. It is what motivates and underlies everything we do as a Church, yet we need to ask – what is it that we are sharing?

Do we truly share a message and a Gospel of JOY? Or have we gotten off the rails somewhere and are more focused on protecting that Gospel and ourselves from what may lay out there … are we more about uncertainty and fear than trust and faith and joy.

Reading Bishop Holloway’s memoirs, I’ve been struck over and over by the simple reality that too often what we promote in the Church as faith and as Gospel is actually based in fear … Jesus loves you, but if you don’t say the right words and believe the right things YOU WILL spend enternity in hell … is that fear or joy?

In a time when Church attendance is falling and people are starving spiritually, rather than opening the doors and welcoming in those who are searching, we have developed a troubling tendency to place restrictions and conditions on who may enter and what they have to do to be fully accepted …. Is this fear or joy?

And most troubling of all – in an era when demands on food banks and ministries focused on poverty and those being crushed by forces beyond their control, our Christian Charity has become more and more defensive, placing limits and conditions on our gifts, and chosing to deny help and assistance by uttering words like “responsibility” and “choices” while people are suffering … is this fear or joy?

Our Gospel – this gift from God offered through Jesus, and affirmed through the events of Easter – is a Gospel of Love … a Gospel of Inclusion … a Gospel of JOY … yet, when we look around at the impression most people have of Christian Faith, joy and love and welcome is seldom the image they see and experience …

Instead words like ‘judgemental’, ‘self-righteous’ and ‘stuffy’ are offered when people are asked about Church …

Yesterday I was told that I don’t seem like a Pastor because I don’t end my conversations by saying “God Bless you …” I couldn’t help but wonder if this need for a neat and tidy box and the assurance that comes the pastor saying “God Bless you” arises from a place of fear rather than joy … more than that though, I really wonder what impression a standard conversation ender (and it would end many conversations permanently!) like God Bless You would leave with the vast majority of people …

Fortunately though, there is every indication that the ability to change that lies within our hands. We are, after all, the Body of Christ risen, transformed and resurrected, and sent out into the world by the Prayers of Jesus himself, and by the commissioning of the Holy Spirit to share this Gospel and to celebrate the Joy of our faith – a faith based in love, care, inclusion and welcome …

Instead of buying into the fear that runs rampant in our world, our calling as people of faith is to confront and OVERCOME that fear with the joy of knowing we are the beloved children of God … and that we are to share that message with everyone …

May it be so – thanks be to God – let us pray … 

 

Sermon for May 6th 2012 - Good Shepherd Sunday

(the cross given to me in Jerusalem by a Coptic Monk at the Church of the Holy Sepluchre) 

Readings for this week: 

Acts 8:26-40

Psalm 22 (Part 3 & 4) (VU pg. 746)

I John 4:7-21

            John 15:1-8

Hymns for this week:  

Open My Eyes That I May See

God of the Sparrow

Blessed Be the Tie that Binds

In Loving Partnership

Joyful, Joyful

-----------------------------

Our readings this week take us on an interesting journey from last week’s readings about the Good Shepherd.

In The Gospel, Jesus is speaking of being the one true vine, while in the Book of Acts the emboldened disciples are beginning to go out into the world and evangelize the Gospel with Phillip sharing the Good News with an Ethiopian official and our Epistle reading speaks of God’s unconditional love for all … it’s a collection of heady and yeasty reading that challenge us to look beyond the moment and dare to dream and envision something more. They are reading that challenge us to respond to the world in a faithful way …

The Epistle reading speaks of love … God’s love for us and for ALL of humanity being unconditional and without limit … yet, so often our ability and willingness to live, celebrate, and most importantly, share that love is hindered by ourselves.

As I read this week’s reading from I John, I thought of a conversation I had this past winter with David Northcott, the executive Director of Winnipeg Harvest, one of Canada’s largest and oldest food banks. David was sharing an experience he had speaking to a United Church in Manitoba about the work they do in Winnipeg Harvest and the profound and increasing needs they are facing. During his presentation David offered the idea that caring for the vulnerable and the poor was a requirement of our faith as Christians. He shared the minister snorted in derision at the suggestion … as David described the dismissal and patronizing response he received from this particular United Church congregation he reflected by saying – “Why is this do hard? People are hungry – feed them … it’s not difficult …”

We are to love one another as God loves us … we are to care for the vulnerable, the needy, the poor, the hungry – the widows and orphans … why is this do hard??

It is hard, because we have chosen to make it harder for ourselves by rendering complex and difficult an issue that really is straightforward and simple … we are called to go out into the world and SPREAD the good news about Jesus and his ministry and message.

But we chose to put up barriers and conditions and dogmas … we chose to be restrictive and selective … we chose to be more concerned about membership and appearance then about sharing the transformative power of the Gospel … one of my experiences of seeing and feeling this active chose came several years ago at a meeting of Conference in Manitoba.

The theme for the gathering was Gardening and tending to the garden … over and over we heard about tending the gardens and harvesting the fruits and vegetables and savouring the sights and smells and sounds that go along with the garden … we celebrated getting our hands dirty turning the soil and carefully tending the plants … the imagery was selective though … there was no talk of pruning and removing dead wood … there was no talk of creating compost and nurturing the gardens with compost or manure … there was no talk of cleaning up the fallen leaves and plants and reusing them through composting or burning …

I asked the executive secretary of Conference, a retired clergy that I still have nothing but respect for why we consistently and constantly skip over those aspects of gardening when we use these metaphors in the church … why don’t we speak of pruning our plants and overgrown gardens and taking away the runners, the suckers and the dead wood and burning it? Why don’t we talk about taking the leaves and growth that is excessive and chopping it up and composting it to nourish the other plants later? Why don’t we ever talk about taking rich sweet manure and spreading it around the roots of our plants and working it in and helping them grow?

He laughed and said – “I had never really thought of that …” and we went on to explore the weakening of our theology and our experience as a Church that comes from using selective metaphors when we speak of who we are and what we are about …

We CHOSE to make our experiences of faith difficult by only focusing on the nice and the clean and the neat and the tidy and the easy … we don’t want to be disturbed by the shadowy places and the difficult aspects of being Church … the poor are kept at arms’ length … the needy are served through charities we support by our cheque books … and the hungry and the yearning and the searching can come, but don’t ask to change things, and don’t make things uncomfortable for us … we like it just the way it is …

We chose to be selective …

And then Phillip, the star of the early Church breaks on to the scene and shares the Gospel with everyone he meets … he is walking down the road and like a good hitchhiker catches a ride with an Ethiopian official on his way home … they get talking and Phillip begins to share with this man the astounding things Jesus had done, and how Jesus was the fulfilment of the promises God had made over the centuries … Philip shares the Good News and opens the door to the founding of one of Christendom’s oldest Churches – the Ethiopian Church … I’ve had two direct encounters with the Ethiopian Church – one as a student in Israel when at the back of the Tomb of Jesus in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre I was invited to kneel and pray in a tiny little booth manned by an Ethiopian Coptic Monk who then took my hand and allowed it to rest on the cold stone of the tomb as he nodded and smiled, then gave me a tiny wooden crucifix, that I in turn gave to my mom on my return, and that I found 20 years later this past Easter as I was looking through some of her possessions …

My other experience with the Ethiopian Church was when I was preparing for my ordination in 1993 at London Conference when two members of the Ethiopian Church came to Canada to speak about their Church and their country and the struggles they were going through. They stood before the packed hall in Windsor and shared the history and heritage of their tradition and the splendour of their ancient Church.

At the end of their presentation the floor was opened to questions and the first question came from a woman who stood up and asked why they had spoken of male priests and male leaders and male monks – where are the women? She asked, Why are there no women in leadership role? Why are there no women priests?

One monk look confused and glanced at the other who shrugged and then said, “We’re orthodox, it’s what we do …”

The hall gasped in horror …

Next came a question from a man who talked about the millions of dollars of aid we had ‘just’ sent to Ethiopia and the fundraising music videos and concerts to help the country with its famine. He then noted that the monks had spoken of thousands of priests and monks and hundreds of churches and monasteries … what do they do to justify their existence? He asked.

Again the two gentleman looked confused and bewildered and one of them offered and answer – “they pray” he said … only to be met with a bigger gasp of horror from the floor … I don’t know what other questions were asked because I left the hall at that point and headed elsewhere with some colleagues who were shaking their head in sad disappointment at a Church that fails to know its own history and heritage and that fails to see the value in prayer and devotion …

We chose to make things harder then they need to be …

We are called to evangelize – but what is it that we are to evangelize? Too often we CHOSE to focus our message of evangelism on a narrow understanding and interpretation of the Gospel. We want people to know Jesus and to ‘get right’ with Jesus, but we fail to share the fullness of the Gospel with them, with each other, and with ourselves …

The Gospel is MORE than just uttering the right words of faith. The Gospel is about reorienting our lives to something more. To living God’s LOVE.

Theologian Walter Bruggeman suggests that the heart of the Gospel is the social ethic that is contained in the ancient Exodus-Sinai narrative that drives and supports the Judeo-Christian tradition.

Bruggemann observes of this narrative that it calls us to seven distinct, faithful and obligatory actions:

-      To canel the debts of the poor once every seven years

-      To charge no interest to members of the community

-      To embody a permanent hospitality to strangers

-      To ask for no collateral from the poor for loans

-      To not garnish wages or withhold wages from the poor

-      To show no injustice to anyone, particularly the resident alien or foreigner among us

-      And the economy is to make provision for the poor, needy and hungry by leaving enough grain and produce in the fields for them to gather for their needs

Chapters 23 and 24 of the Book of Deuteronomy lay out the expectations for living the Covenant with God offered through the Exodus-Sinai experience … and Bruggemann points out that this narrative understanding is what motivated and undergirded Jesus in his ministry.

Jesus understood the abundance of God. He actively CHOSE to celebrate the abundance rather than dwelling on protecting and restricting it. And that for Bruggemann is most obvious in the very act of communion:

Jesus TOOK bread, Jesus GAVE thanks for it, Jesus BROKE bread and then GAVE it to his disciples …

A simple loaf of bread – a symbol to some of how precious the Gospel is – how valuable it is – something to be protected lest it be squashed or ruined … a simple loaf of bread that Jesus took and after giving thanks BROKE IT and gave it out to his disciples …

Jesus CHOSE to share. Jesus CHOSE to break the bread and GIVE it out to others because it was a sign of ABUNDANCE and WELCOME and LOVE! Broken, it is there for ALL to share … Broken, it is a reminder that we can chose to be safe and secure and tidy, or we can trust in God and tear open the doors, let the crumbs and the bread scatter to be shared with all, and broken we are made WHOLE in God’s gift of Grace.

Jesus is the true vine … it is a powerful metaphor of faith when used in its fullness rather than in a narrow way … it is a reminder that in the face of a modern world that has lost its way, we are called to so much more … we are to go into the world and be evangelists sharing the good news and living our faith …

We are to go into the world and CHOSE to share the Gospel …

May it be so – thanks be to God … Let us pray …

Sermon for April 29th 2012 - Good Shepherd Sunday

Jean Vanier writes of the Good Shepherd:

Jesus reveals that he is the Good Shepherd.

Although the word Good is used in most translations,

It does not capture the nuances of the original.

In Greek, the word is kalos,

Which can be translated as ‘noble’, ‘beautiful’, ‘perfect’

‘precious’ or even ‘wonderful’

So every time I use the familiar phrase ‘good shepherd’

Please translate it as

‘wonderful shepherd’ – ‘THE shepherd’

          (p.184 Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John)

He goes on to note:

Shepherding is about caring for those who are weak, lost and in need

It is about presence, love and support.

Shepherds are needed as much today as they were in the time of Jesus, to love people and guide them to greater life. (p. 185 Drawn into …)

For Vanier, the gift of being a Good Shepherd – of emulating the example offered by Jesus is not about being perfect, but being perfectly human.

The Good Shepherd is about Trust – trust being given, and trust being returned … the good shepherd is about the giving of one’s self without hesitation or regret … the good shepherd is about humility – recognizing our faults and our weaknesses, owning our strengths and caring gently and carefully for those around us …

This idea builds on the concept embodied within the account offered by John. John is a carefully constructed gospel. It doesn’t just throw the stories of Jesus out there willy-nilly, but rather has woven them carefully and thoughtfully into a tapestry that helps tell a story while revealing the majesty and glory of who Jesus was and who Jesus continues to be …

This brief story of Jesus proclaiming himself to be the Good Shepherd takes the ideas identified by Vanier, and combines them with the notion of being called out.

The verb at play in the tasks before the Good Shepherd is not to simply lead the flock in and out of the paddock, but rather to call the sheep out into something more – something bigger than they can imagine, or even at first flush believe … The Good Shepherd is about inspiring the flock to step boldly and faithfully into the unknown and experiencing the fullness of God’s love  …

As I thought about what image conveys the tasks of the Good Shepherd that are here for us to live, emulate and embody, my mind wandered to the kids’ movie entitled “Babe” that is about the adventures of a little pig who manages to experience a major life lesson … and along the way, helps to illustrate many of the ideals and concepts of The Good Shepherd in a most unlike way.

The movie begins with Babe being born in a massive modern barn and as the other piglets are being taken off for parts unknown, as the runt, he is pulled out of the conveyor belt and taken to a fair where he is entered as both the object and the prize for a “guess the weight” contest.

Babe is won by a local farmer named Hoggett, who brings him home with the idea of having a menu of ham, bacon and other porcine delicacies after Babe has fattened up a bit … but as in any good story, fate has other ideas in store for Farmer Hoggett and his farm, and this little pig.

Babe is missing his mother and doesn’t fit in with the other animals on the farm … he is adopted by Fly the sheep herding Border Collie mother, who along with her partner Rex were once award winning Shepherding dogs – with countless titles, ribbons and trophys to their credit.

Rex is furious at Fly for such a contemptable action like adopting a pig and letting it be with their puppies – to Rex animals should know their role on the farm and things should stay the way they have always been – the subplot is born! … As the movie progresses, young Babe is nurtured and guided by Fly the female border collie, as well as Maa, the old matriarch of the sheep. Babe picks up pointers and over and over proves to be a pretty competent and capable sheep herder, even for a pig!

One morning it is Babe who intervenes and prevents the theft of the sheep. Then Farmer Hoggett begins to see young Babe exhibiting his skill at herding chickens and begins to wonder if this little pig is something special, and perhaps this little pig might be able to shepherd the sheep too.

As Babe starts to shepherd and guide the sheep he begins by using the tactics of Fly and Rex the Border Collies biting the sheep and growling at them, but when the sheep balk at his barbaric wolf like treatment, he begins to guide the sheep by asking politely and winning their trust …

Farmer Hoggett watches and takes note of the remarkable things this little pig is capable of doing.

          One morning, Babe is challenged to lay down his life for the sheep when wild dogs break into the paddock and attack the sheep, leaving Maa mortally wounded. It is young Babe who dashes into the fury of the attacking dogs and drives them off … it is too late for Maa who dies of her wounds, and when Farmer Hoggett arrives and finds the little pig covered in blood, he assumes the worst and decided the time for this little pig to become dinner has arrived …

Babe is saved from the butcher block by Mrs Hoggett who calls from the house to tell Arthur, that the police just called about wild dogs attacking sheep nearby …

And, so the life of the little pig reprieved, Farmer Hogget hatches a plan to enter the young pig in the local sheep dog competition … Farmer Hoggett finds a loophole – the application asks for the name of the animal in the Sheep Herding trials, but doesn’t ask if it is a dog … so young Babe is entered in the contest under the simple name ‘Pig’ – keeping with Farmer Hoggett’s repeated affirmation “That’ll do Pig. That’ll do.”

Babe is taken to the competition, where Fly and Rex realize the the sheep won’t listen to him because he doesn’t have the appropriate password that tells the sheep he is to be trusted, it is Rex who runs back to the farm and humbles himself before the sheep and learns the password that will let Babe do what needs to be done …

I won’t give away the ending of the film – it is ONE very much worth watching, especially if you have little people in your world who would enjoy a movie night on the couch … it is one of those films worth watching that has nothing offensive or bad, and is just a very sweet story …

The lesson of Babe though is, as the narrator tells at the beginning – the tale of an unprejudiced heart. It is the story of the Good Shepherd.

The good shepherd who will lay their life down for the sheep …

-      the good shepherd who will chase off the wild dogs, the poachers and those who would do the sheep harm,

-      the good shepherd who will treat the animals fairly and with justice,

-      the good shepherd who will challenge the way things are and create a new way of seeing and experiencing the world,

-      the good shepherd who will transform reality, lives and who will call the sheep BY NAME and love them all …

The Good Shepherd who calls the Border Collies, the Sheep, the farmer, and the community out into bigger things than they ever thought possible. The Good Shepherd who embodied and shared trust while also willingly offering themselves for others …

The tiny little pig shows our kids – and us, if we take time to watch the movie – how to live a life worthy of the lesson offered by the Good Shepherd … living life sharing with others.

All of this – the story of a little pig with an unprejudiced heart – the call of the Good Shepherd – and the values identified by Vanier from this reading, lead us to the place where we stand fully in the presence of God, and like the ancient Psalm that celebrates God as the shepherd, we place our trust and faith fully in God … and it takes us to the place where Vanier’s closing thoughts on this reading and the idea of the Good Shepherd resonate within us:

There are, of course, tragic death through wars and accidents.

There are sicknesses that bring death at an early age.

The death of those whose lives have come to an end after a full life

Can be painful for those who are left behind.,

But it is a passage to God and into eternal peace for those who die.

Their time has come …

As children they received life,

They lived life as young people,

They gave life as parents,

Or as people who communicate life to others

Through their commitment and love

As old people they gave life to others through their presence and love

The joy of human beings is to leave this earth

Having given life to others

Who in turn are called to give life to another generation.

Isn’t this the cycle of life on our earth?

Spring brings leaves and flowers,

Summer brings maturity,

Then comes autumn,

When the harvest of grain and fruits is picked and eaten to give life.

The leaves fall and nourish the earth, also to give new life.

Then there is the silence of winter,

A time of waiting for new life to rise up.

The Good, the Wonderful, THE shepherd

Leads us into this cycle of life

Where we are called to receive and give life …

          (pp. 192-93 – Drawn into the Mystery)

Life that allows us to affirm and live and embody the words of the Psalmist who knows that God is with us in every moment of life, from the darkness of the valley of the shadow of death to the lush green pastures where our cups and our beings over flow with blessings and love …

May it be so – thanks be to God … Let us pray …