(John 10:11-18)

Happiness: It may well be that someone would be happier coming to church even if they did not believe that Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead. The BBC is running a series called the ‘Happiness Formula’. One of the core ideas coming out of this is that ‘social capital’ makes you happy. In one sense ‘social capital’ is nothing more than new words for an old idea. The core idea of social capital theory is the idea that social networks (of which church is one) have value. Happiness is best predicted by the breadth and depth of ones social connections (Putnam 2000:332)It is particularly the case in a community as fragmented as Shepherds Bush you are going to be happier people coming to church getting to know a wider group of people and learning to care not only for your family and friends but learning to care for a wider group of people who might otherwise mean nothing to you. Caring: This figurative, elegant, and instructive passage uses the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd as an illustration in caring. It repeats the imagery of the Shepherd used Some 600 years earlier in, the psalm written by King David – ‘The Lord is my Shepherd (Psalm 23). In this passage Jesus is described as the Good(1) Shepherd. In Revelations Jesus is described not as a shepherd, but as a Lamb – worthy is the lamb that has been slain (Rev 5:12). These two images are a counterbalance to each other. We are all leaders and led, carers and cared for. My job description as a parish priest is both to love you and to allow you to love me. We are all givers and receivers. You as the congregation get the leader you deserve. I, as the priest will only ever be as good a priest as you help (and teach) me to be. Caring is a simple decision to look out for the good of people. There is a difference between caring and indulging. Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association for Head Teachers suggested that millions of middle class children are underperforming because their parents are too soft to impose discipline. Research (John Hopkins and Stanford Universities USA 2005) concludes that children with TVs in their rooms do worse in Maths, reading and language tests than those without.The Good Shepherd will lay down his life for the sheep (John 10:17). Jesus laying down his life does not only refer to the cross. In reality, Jesus lays down his life every day. Every day he humbled himself and every day he decided to obey the Father's will as of first priority. In conclusion, let us remember that by God's sovereign grace, he has chosen us. But a question remains, have we who believe the gospel, chosen him? Not have we chosen him, vaguely locked somewhere in our dim and distant past but have we chosen him today in the same way that we might have chosen him yesterday and the day before. Anyone who would come after me must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (Lk 9:23)Come to church not to make your life regular and ordered and calculated. Come to church to live a life of passion.Passion - passion and compassion undermine the world of competence and competition, which unconsciously shapes so much of how we live our lives. Passion, as the capacity and readiness to care to suffer and to die and to feel is the enemy of a blank, detached uninvolved reality. Passion is derived from the Latin word passionem (suffering, enduring). I would never underestimate the passion of the English. Putnam, R. (2000) Bowling Alone, New York, Touchstone
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