Village Shepherd

The Oprah Winfrey television show started in 1986 and will continue until at least 2011 because Oprah signed a contract to that effect in 2004. It is broadcast daily and has a world-wide audience of millions in 108 countries. Oprah is not a preacher and is not ordained, yet she presents a spiritual and religious message which people long for. Of course, the message comes in the context of entertainment but is none the less powerful for that. And the message varies in its presentation. Sometimes the programme concentrates on a commercial aspect - what to buy o enhance your life - sometimes it concentrates on people's stories. But it is aimed at giving people and communities a better life and Oprah herself gives away millions to support good causes, as well as raising millions for those causes through her programme.

Oprah manages to enable people to make a new start. Sometimes people examine their own lives and confess their problems and wrongdoing on television. Oprah is a good listener who is mostly non-judgemental and understanding, and this enables people to start again, making new relationships and mending old ones. Oprah acknowledges suffering and many of her programmes feature human stories of suffering, but she helps people to rise above their suffering and develops a culture of gratitude amongst her audience. She teaches generosity and she makes things simple. The success of her message can be seen in the massive viewing figures and the fact that she is one of the best-known women in the world.

But Oprah's message isn't new. It's the Christian message presented in a new, understandable, exciting, attractive and acceptable way which doesn't demand attendance at church or following a certain set of rules. Oprah offers guidelines and help to follow those guidelines, but it's then upto the individual to decide whether or not to follow those guideleines.

Jesus worked in just such a way to deliver his message in his time. He didn't preach, but told human stories with which people could connect. He took his religion of Judaism and presented it in a new, understandable, exciting, attractive and acceptable way. His message too was about new beginnings, starting again, receiving forgiveness, mending relationships, learning and daring to love. Yet even Jesus' message wasn't new. He took the old religion and packaged it in a new way.

All through the history of God with human beings, some people in every age have presented the old message - the message of God's love and care for human beings - in a new way. And this has kept the message alive for succeeding generations.

Ezekiel was the first prophet to be called by God during the exile. Ezekiel had been deported by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BCE, and his first task was to convince the exiles that things were going to get worse before they got better. He was ridiculed when he prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem which was thought to be inviolable, but was vindicated in 587 BCE when Jerusalem was sacked.

Ezekiel used graphic imagery to get his message across. Sometimes he acted out his message, like the time when he ate a scroll and the occasion when he made a model of Jerusalem under siege then lay on his side before it for months on end, to depict the number of years that Israel would be punished for their sins.

But after the destruction of Jerusalem, Ezekiel's message changed. Instead of predicting punishment and woe, Ezekiel then began to introduce a strong note of optimism. He relayed God's promise of salvation through a new covenant which God would make with the people. The book ends with a utopian vision of the Israel of the future, rid of its past evils and reestablished firmly under the rule of the Lord.

Today's reading from chapter 38 describes how this new vision will be accomplished. God will cleanse his people from all their past sins so that they may make a new start. God will bring the people back into their own land and to make it possible for the people to follow a new way, God will put his own spirit into the people. For the first time in history, each human being will have God's spirit within them God says, "A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you." And God will do all this in order to enable the people to follow God's guidelines for good living.

God's purpose then as now, was to enable people to get the best out of life, to enjoy life to the full. Then as now, that could only happen if people followed God's simple guidelines for living. As soon as people strayed from God's path, their lives took a turn for the worse. Keeping to God's guidelines gave people new life, freedom, enjoyment, fun.

Oprah Winfrey's message is that anyone and everyone can enjoy a wonderful life, if they face their past wrongs, accept God's forgiveness and move on. This was Ezekiel's message too, some two and a half millennia earlier. Jesus not only relayed the same message, but showed in his own life, death and resurrection how it could be achieved. Jesus showed too how amazing a life could be when lived fully in line with God.

We too can have a new start and a new and amazing life. Maybe we should start practising now.