I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.  (John 10:16)

When I look out of my window here, there’s a hill that rises up to the East of Lockerbie and usually there are cows out there grazing. I never know what breed they are. Similarly, when I drive to work in the morning there are sheep in the fields but I couldn’t tell you what kind they are. I’ve lived here in this rural town, surrounded by farmland, for thirty-six years now, but I grew up as a city boy in Coventry. When I moved here all of this was a mystery to me.

One of the things I didn’t get was this bit in John’s Gospel where Jesus says that he knows his sheep and they know him. I mentioned that to the Minister I trained with and he told me that in one parish he’d had a sheep he kept in a wee bit of land attached to the manse. One day he took it to be sheared and turned up to find this whole bunch of sheep and he had no idea which was his, so the shearer told him to call for it. So he did and this one sheep - his own sheep - came trotting out of the crowd to him. Apparently sheep really do know their shepherd.

That’s why, in the East where Jesus lived, shepherds don’t drive their sheep; they lead them because the sheep know their shepherd. There is a bond between them. This is the essence of Christianity. It’s what makes the Christian faith what it is. In Christ humanity knows God and in Christ God knows humanity. In Christ humanity knows God because we encounter him in the life of a human being like us, who taught in terms that everyone could understand, using the everyday language of everyday people In Christ God knows humanity because in Christ God shared the life of a human being - a fully human being like you or me - and knew all the things that make us tick: all the fears and the temptations; all the hopes, wishes and dreams. More than that though, he knew those he taught and chose as unique, individual people - as Martha and Mary, as Peter, James and John, and knew their foibles and little ways.

This is the Good Shepherd that we encounter in Christ - God who calls us into a relationship with him; a relationship founded on trust and faithfulness. And that faithfulness works both ways. In all the things that trouble us in life - though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death or suffer disappointments, betrayals, accidents or whatever - God is always with us. When Jesus says the good shepherd doesn’t run away when the wolf threatens the fold it’s a reminder that when faced with the Cross Jesus didn’t run away but faced death, as we all face death, ahead of us and going before us; leading us through death and on into eternal life.

“I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” This is what lies at the heart of Christianity - a relationship with a loving, forgiving God who gave his own son so that nothing we do - none of the stupid, thoughtless, selfish, greedy things we say or do can divide us from his love. It’s that simple. I wonder sometimes if the Church has sometimes buried that simple idea under a pile of creeds and dogmas and theological disputes; if we have allowed it to be drowned out by arguments over how the Church should be organised, who should run it, who gets to say what the ‘right’ interpretation of scripture is.

Jesus said that there were sheep that didn’t belong to this fold - his immediate followers - that he had to bring in to be his sheep to; that there would be one flock and one shepherd. Who did he mean? Perhaps the wider Jewish community. Perhaps the wider Gentile world. Either way they would be one flock. How have we done that over the centuries?

There’s a church building here in Lockerbie. It’s now the Catholic church. At one time it was, though, a New Licht, Anti-Burgher Old Secessionist church. Over the centuries we have divided ourselves over and over and over again into denominations and sects and secessions over sometimes the stupidest things. Does the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father or from the Father and the Son - the question that caused the biggest rift in the Church in history and one which continues today. And I have no idea. I don’t even know what the question means.

We are always going to disagree with each other. We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t. The trouble comes when those disagreements lead us to forget who we are and the essence of the faith - that we are the one flock with one shepherd and the relationship that speaks to. When we start throwing pelters at each other and setting up barricades between Protestants and Catholics, between Presbyterians and Episcopalians, between Orthodox and Dissenters; barriers that divide the fold and make nonsense of our claim to be brothers and sisters in Christ.

We are the one flock, called to put the disagreements and arguments between us into their proper perspective as the differences between brothers and sisters who nonetheless love each other. We are the one flock, called into relationship with each other because we share the one shepherd who knows us - each of us - as we know him. We are the one flock, whether we stand, kneel or sit to pray, whoever we deem to have religious authority over us, whatever creed we recite in church, if any. We are the one flock, across the world, proclaiming in a hundred different languages, in a thousand different cultures, in vestments gowns or t-shirts, the love of God for humanity revealed in the good shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep.

We, the Christian church, have a heaven-sent opportunity now, when communications across the globe are easier than ever. If we can set aside our differences and live in peace with each other because we are one flock, what kind of example can we set for the world around us? If we can look after our neighbours, through the running of food banks or offering shelter for the homeless, because we and our neighbours are one flock, what kind of example can we set for the world around us. 

We are the one flock. So let us listen carefully to what Jesus says - there are sheep who are not of this fold that are to be called in. Who are they? I don’t know - could be anyone. That’s the point - that’s the message of God, in Christ - that anyone and everyone is known and loved by God and is invited into relationship with him. The rich man in his castle and the poor man at his gate are alike invited to be part of the one flock. The billionaire and the beggar are alike invited to be part of the one flock. Black or white, old or young, weak or strong, wherever folk come from, whatever they’ve done, whoever they are, God knows all that and they are alike invited to be part of the one flock.

So let’s live in the hope - more, let’s live the hope - that one day the hatreds, divisions and disagreements that drive us apart will be swept away; that we will live as brothers and sisters loving one another in our diversity and caring for one another’s needs. Until that day let’s try to show folk what it means to see humanity as God sees us: as the one flock.