Notices 11th May 2025
Happy Mother’s day!
A special welcome to everyone joining us in worship at Kingston today. Please join us for a cuppa and drinks for the children after worship
John 10:11-22; Psalm 23
“Sheep?! Is that all we are to you God? Stinkin’, awkward, stupid lookin’, clumsy, whimsical sheep?”
It all has to do with perception I guess. For many farmers sheep are the nec- essary supplement to an income on a land that does not get enough rainfall to sustain continuous cropping. For most of them, sheep are just hard work. The modern Australian shepherd spends as little time as possible with the mon- grels. Does he know them by name? Not likely. Sheep can reduce the most eloquent and gentle mannered farmer into a potty- mouthed, ill-tempered monster.
But maybe we give these sheep less credit than they are due. I heard of one grazier, a woman as it turns out, who always makes a point of personally rais- ing the abandoned lambs. Apparently, she nurtures them, hand feeding them, talking tenderly to them and she even gives them names! They become part of her family, and when it is time for them to be weaned, they are returned to the flock with an inflated sense of identity and self perception. They are ad- mired by the other sheep and quickly become the sheik sheep to be seen grazing next to.
When it is time to move the flock, she simply calls her adopted orphans and.., what do you know?., the whole flock just follows. She knows their names and the sheep trust her voice.
No yelling, just the gentle voice of the shepherd. Maybe there is something in this shepherd/sheep thing after all…