You were going astray like sheep

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On Songs of Praise a Methodist shepherd was trying to teach Aled Jones how to use a sheepdog to herd some ducks. ‘You’re not telling the dog what to do, Aled,’ he scolded as the ducks went in the wrong direction and the dog scurried around rather aimlessly at their heels. ‘I can’t remember the commands,’ Aled replied. Helen and I sympathised. We’re always struggling to remember the right commands for Phoebe, our son’s dog.

What persuades people to go in the right direction? Can they be nudged, like a sheepdog stealthily creeping into position to cut off the most obvious escape route? If the dog and the herder can work skillfully together the ducks will almost volunteer to be penned in. It becomes the obvious thing for them to do. In the same way, if the government nudges us to start a pension it becomes the accepted way forward when, without any shepherding, many of us might have decided to spend our money now rather than save it for the future.

How does God nudge us in the right direction? The writer of 1 Peter says God does it by leaving us an example of patient acceptance and total trust in the face of suffering. The example of Jesus on the cross heals us, says the writer, by encouraging us to live for righteousness and follow in his footsteps. ‘You were going astray like sheep,’ the writer concludes, ‘But now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.’ The ducks are safely penned in. The shephard can quietly close the gate.

Comments

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