‘’Which one of you,
having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the 99 in the
wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4)
The following is a Church of Ireland press release issued by
Dublin Diocese last week:
In November, the Church of Ireland will be undertaking a
‘census’ of the worshiping Church of Ireland population for the first time in
many years.
On three Sundays in November (3 November, 17 November and 24
November) clergy and parish officials will be attempting to ascertain the age
profile and gender profile of those attending services in Church of Ireland
Churches throughout Ireland. Worshippers on those Sundays will receive a card
on which they will be asked to indicate their gender and age. The card will be
completely anonymous.
The objective of the census is to provide information on the
worshiping Church of Ireland population and to enable parishes, dioceses and
the Church at an island–wide level to make decisions for the future based on an
up to date analysis of the Church of Ireland’s population.
It is anticipated that the 2013 census will be
repeated every three years in order to enable the Church to examine trends in
worship attendance and ministry throughout Ireland.
There is no doubt that the results of this survey will be
interesting and informative and may well be useful for strategic planning into
the future but in the light of today’s Gospel perhaps it should come with a
health warning which might be worded as follows:
‘This survey will
present an incomplete picture of the ministry of the Church and should be
treated with caution’
Why say that? Well let’s hear that verse from today’s Gospel
again:
‘’Which one of you,
having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the 99 in the
wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?”
Jesus couldn’t have made this any clearer – Parables can
sometimes be a little obscure but not this one! Our concern should not be primarily
for the people who are at the centre of the community of faith, not for the
gathered but for the lost and the marginalized. If we are in any doubt as to
the meaning Jesus intended us to take from this parable then we only have to
look at the one that immediately follows it, the Parable of the Lost Coin which
hammers home the very same point – Its not about what we have but rather what
we have lost! This was obviously a teaching Jesus wanted us to understand
clearly and so he tells us twice.
The proposed church attendance survey may have some limited
use but it is essentially an exercise in counting sheep and we all know what
happens when you count sheep – yes you go to sleep! There is a very real danger
that that will be the fate of the Church of Ireland as well if it just counts
bums on pews as an accurate and complete picture of the ministry of the Church.
So what about the ‘Lost’? Before we launch out on any
crusade to save souls left right and centre we need perhaps to remind ourselves
that we may be among the ‘Lost’. One of the greatest weaknesses of Christian
mission through the ages has been the assumption that we have the Truth and we
are going to show everyone how to find it! The history of Christian Mission is
often simultaneously a history of religious imperialism and cultural vandalism
as diverse communities all over the planet had their lives destroyed by an
arrogant army of zealots who imposed a very particular and often-inappropriate
model of Church on a people who were living quite happy lives until the Church
came and ‘saved’ them! Sometimes
being ‘Lost’ is not the worst possible fate! Indeed our modern guilt for that shameful
history may be one of the reasons we are not so inclined to go out in search of
the ‘Lost’.
It’s hard to see where that model came from because its not
the example of a Jesus who came alongside people in any and all situations and
listened to them and more importantly heard them. It’s not the example of a
Jesus who very often turned the tables on the ‘righteous’ and recognized and
acknowledged Truth coming from the lips of the despised. Its not the example of
a Jesus crucified who says to the criminal beside him ‘Today you will be with
me in Paradise’.
Throughout Jesus’ whole earthly ministry we see him pointing
not only to himself but to many who society perceived as ‘Lost’ and who were
ironically those closest to the way of Truth. One contemporary theologian, Rob
Bell has perhaps described a model for mission today that much more faithfully
follows the example of Jesus.
In his bestselling ‘Velvet Elvis’ he describes contemporary
missionaries as ‘Tour Guides’, not going out to tell everyone to come back to
the centre but going out to the margins and identifying and promoting the
places where God is already at work and doing great and wonderful things.
That is a task that all Christians are called to. If we sit
at home counting sheep we will never see those things and we will miss the
opportunity to participate in what Jesus seemed to think was most important.
So yes, we will fill out the survey and look forward with
interest to the results but lets remember that its not all about ‘where sheep
may safely graze’ but rather the lost sheep who will lead us into new
adventures in following Jesus.
Amen.
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