1 December 2008
Good Sheep:
Dr. Dora Chaplin, the only female professor at the General Theological Seminary during my time there, delighted in startling her all male students with off-color comments in her classes and remarks which challenged the general thinking about almost every topic under consideration. She refused to buy into the standard way of understanding and teaching the “Faith once delivered.” I strongly suspect that the phrase “the Faith once delivered” would have fallen under her usual caustic commentary. The Faith has been delivered many times and will continue to be…nothing about it is static; nothing about it is “once.”“Jesus said, Feed my sheep, not count them,” was one of her routine assaults on those in the Church who were mainly concerned about numbers. She believed, rightly I have come to agree, that those who “count” sheep may get lost in the “bigger is better” mentality which afflicts so much of our culture…and so much of many of our churches. The Evangel, The Good News, is about feeding the sheep…whether it be one sheep or one thousand…not about being concerned about having more sheep than the next parish or diocese or national church. I don’t believe Jesus gives a hoot about numbers…all of us belong to Him, anyway. Why should we be concerned about numbers if Our Lord isn’t?
I know I am swimming upstream. And the torrent coming down upon me is overwhelming. The Evangel calls us--impels us to “feed” God’s sheep…whether or not they may ever darken the doors of any Christian Church…whether or not they ever see the Light and become Episcopalians….whether or not they have the good sense, should they live in Dallas, to become members of St. Thomas the Apostle. We are sheep feeders…not sheep counters. If we get caught up in “counting” sheep we can easily forget the call to feed them. It’s that simple. Our society and even many in our churches are obsessed with numbers.Do we not believe that our Gracious Creator and Loving Redeemer and Powerful Sanctifier intend to draw all of the creation to the heart of God? Must everyone in the world be Christian for the Christian enterprise to succeed? Does one need to be Christian to find and know God? Are we Christian because we are afraid if we were not our eternal souls would be in peril? Being concerned about ones spiritual skin seems a poor reason to claim any religion. Is God out to get us or to lovingly feed and nurture us? What kind of God is your God?
That’s the question I hope people who come to us seeking God will ask themselves: “What kind of God is your God?” Is our God here at St. Thomas the Apostle a God who nurtures, feeds, tends, loves, comforts, holds close, supports, calls us to serve everyone? Or is our God a God who counts heads?
I am as happy as the next member when new people find God here in our community. I want them to know they are fed here, not merely or mainly counted.
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