Our airport moments. A reflection for Good Shepherd Sunday
The 4th Sunday of Easter always has the theme of The Good Shepherd.
So what I need for today is a good story about shepherding. Fortuitously Bishop Gary, our chief shepherd, kindly gave us an excellent one on Holy Monday at the renewal of priestly vows and the blessing of holy oils.
So if you think this is a helpful story then you must write and tell Bishop Gary that the cheeky Fr. David pinched his story and it was very helpful.
If you think it's a terrible story then you must tell me and challenge me to please come up with something original.
Bishop Gary’s story begins in a crowded Sydney airport. There are huge numbers of people queuing, lugging around suitcases and gradually getting grumpier and even more grumpier. Their blood pressure is rising quickly in direct proportion to their patience which is running down. There are lots of officious people with signs and high vis colourful vests, trying to make the whole thing flow smoothly. Tired and harangued, they too like everyone else, just want to be somewhere else. In fact anywhere else, but in the sterile, antiseptic environment of the airport with a lot of sweaty, cranky people.
There are a paucity of seats but eventually Bishop Gary finds himself next to a frazzled mum with three small children. Two are screaming at each other, while mum screams at them. Fun times for the whole family. The other child is calmly reading Winnie the Pooh out loud, completely unruffled by the blithering chaos that is reigning all around him.
Bishop Gary commends the young reader on his abilities.
‘You know that was one of my favourite books when I was your age and you read it really well. That was great reading.’
By now the other two are almost hysterical and Mum is looking longingly at the beverages in the club bar. Bishop Gary is wondering if one of the those nice big burly people in a hi vis vest marked ‘Security’ might be needed.
Finally, after what seems like 67 years, 10 months, 2 weeks, 5 days and 16 hours there is a muffled, distorted call for their flight over the PA. Upon hearing the announcement the mother takes the other two squabbling children, one in each hand and almost drags them along rushing towards the promised gate where escape and peace hopefully await.
As you know better than I, the preacher always preaches first and foremost for themselves; and only when the preacher has got their stuff together, can they begin to offer something to the listeners. So when Bishop Gary told that story on Holy Monday he was preaching for himself, to himself, and then to us priesty people.
Today I offer this story first and foremost for myself and then hopefully for you.
It is a helpful, potent story because it contrasts two styles of shepherding. The Mum who has lost all patience and the will to live, will drag her charges along with her, come what may. Perhaps it may have been better to tend her own needs first and then the complex and challenging needs of her offspring. If she was less tired, fraught and beleaguered, she may well have Shepherded better.
Then there was Bishop Gary who had the space and distance to offer encouragement and commendation to other child. There is a very real and pertinent lesson for me in all of this and it’s pretty blitheringly obvious.
The good news is that shepherding is not just a priesty thing. It is for everyone. It is every baptised person’s joyful vocation to cajole and nudge and encourage and support and commend and jolly each other along with helpful words and an easy to follow example that will get us all over the finish line and onto the waiting plane that takes us up, up and away.
Shepherding is not easy. We all fail, get frazzled and not know which way to turn. It is far too easy to get sucked into the energy of the here and now which distracts us as to why we are truly here; like the airport we are only temporary. When your antsy, the long term view is harder to see.
One other thing that Bishop Gary did not draw out of his story but it is something I have thought about.
It would be terrifyingly easy to think… Well if I was that mum I would have that scrap sorted out in 30 seconds flat. What was she thinking letting it go on so long?
If I was the manager of the Sydney airport logistics team, of course I could have had the whole thing sorted out in a couple of hours and you could apply the same sort of reasoning at all sorts of levels, to all sorts of organisations. If I was the head priest guy in the Anglican Church of Australia, I could have the whole Church of God sorted out quick smart.
Every day, and in every encounter we must make a conscious choice about what sort of Shepherd we are going to be. Sometimes it is not easy to make the right choice.
We will make the right choices and be good shepherds when we understand how much we need THE Good shepherd to shepherd us, especially in the airport moments of our lives.