There’ll be many a shepherd scanning the weather reports over the coming weeks, as lambing time continues, and as upland flocks lamb out on the hills. They’ll be hoping for a dryer spell of weather, after a winter that’s had a deal more rain than we’ve wanted. Where fields and fells are soaked and sodden, lambs are hard pressed to find any dry ground to lie on.
Sheep need to be marked of course, especially where flocks mingle on the open fells. Smit marks identify a beast as being part of a particular flock, belonging to a particular farmer. Sheep and shepherds turn up a lot in the Bible, and Jesus called himself the good shepherd, the shepherd who will give even his own life to protect his flock. One thing that’s done when a child is baptized is that he or she is given a smit mark that shows this child now belongs to Jesus. The sign of a cross is marked on each child who comes for baptism.
The proprietary marking fluids used on sheep come in a variety of bright colours; but the cross marked on us when we’re Christened is invisible. No-one can see it; it’s as if it wasn’t there. It becomes visible only when we make it visible.
We herd our sheep or drive them. We may use dogs or quad bikes, or a combination of the two. Last Sunday I saw a flock being moved very efficiently using children, which saves on dog food. In the Middle East, and certainly at the time of Jesus, sheep are led not driven; they hear their master’s voice, and follow. And it’s when we do that that the mark of the cross on us can be seen: when we listen, and hear, and follow.
When, in fact, we live cross-shaped lives, by which I mean lives that reach upwards like the upright of the cross, acknowledging God’s love for us and offering our love in return - and praying to God through our Lord Jesus Christ; and reach outward like the arms of the cross, where we love our neighbour, where we care for those around us, where we are there for others as needed.
How do we learn to live cross-shaped lives? We always learn best from example. Parents and godparents make promises when they bring a child to be baptized, and the heart of those promises is that they’ll set their child, their god-child an example of love and care, and of following Jesus. But all of us who say we’re Christian have a share in that promise. It’s our calling as Christ’s folk to make clear to those around us just whose mark we bear: a cross-shaped mark made visible in cross-shaped living, in the way of life that Jesus summed up like this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.”
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