St Mary's, Appledore, North Devon

Reflections

Reflection for 8-12-25 from Paul Smith

What do you think a man does who has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost? He will leave the other ninety-nine grazing on the hillside and go and look for the lost sheep. When he finds it, I tell you, he feels far happier over this one sheep than over the other ninety-nine that did not get lost. In just the same way your father in heaven does not want any of these little ones to get lost.

From the Good News Bible published by the Bible Societies and HarperCollins. Publishers, © American Bible Society 1994, used with permission.

Do you have to feel lost to be lost? In this case, a sheep. There are fields with sheep very near where we live. If one of these sheep gets out and strays down the lane or into another space (like our garden), does it feel lost? Or only if it can’t get enough grazing? Do these sheep have any sense of belonging or identity? Maybe it was different in Jesus’ time?

What does it mean to be lost? Is the state of “lost-ness” connected with being unhappy or frustrated, or can we be “happily lost”? Maybe the feelings and knowledge of “lost-ness” just happen after a time? Or maybe the idea of “lost-ness” in this passage is to do with relationship? The idea of being “found” is when we discover that the reality of the presence of Jesus is not just connected with believing, but with the realisation that this Jesus is a real living presence who wants to come and be in your life somehow, and wants to have a connection with our hopes and fears, and to give us a sense of his reality in some way, maybe very personal.

So to be “found” is to realise that this living Jesus want to find you in some way. Our lost sheep may actually think that they are in a better place than being with the flock. On the other hand, Would we really want to live alone and out of relationship?

In the story we don’t know whether the sheep actually wanted to be found. When we are lost sometimes we don’t want to be found either. But perhaps, when we are found, it is wonderful! Is the way we are living now actually the right way for us, or do we need a change? The Good Shepherd is waiting, just open the door.

O God, forasmuch as without you we are not able to please you: mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may direct and rule our hearts: through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. (Collect for Trinity 19)