Safeguarding Sunday
READING: 1 Corinthians 13
For many churches in England this is also Safeguarding Sunday and 1 Corinthians 13 has been chosen as an appropriate and suggested alternative reading
Love That Makes Room
I wonder what helps us to feel safe enough to be ourselves ?
Perhaps it is being with someone who listens without interrupting. Someone with whom you can disagree without fearing their anger. Someone who respects your boundaries and never makes you feel that their affection depends on doing what they want.
Within such relationships, we begin to trust that we matter, that our voice counts, and that we do not have to hide parts of ourselves to belong.
On Safeguarding Sunday, we bring our longing for relationships like these into the presence of God. We also recognise that trust can be difficult. Some wounds are known; others have never been spoken about. Each of us brings our own story, and nobody needs to share more than they choose.
The film The Sheep Detectives offers a rather unexpected starting point for thinking about safeguarding. Based on the popular novels by Leonie Swann, the film follows a flock of sheep who set out to solve the mystery surrounding the death of their shepherd, George. On the surface it is a charming and humorous story. Yet beneath the humour lies a surprisingly profound reflection on community, memory, courage, truth, and change.
The sheep misunderstand one another. They cling to familiar assumptions. They worry about change and struggle to know whom they can trust. Yet they remain bound together by a shared life.
Perhaps in that we recognise something of ourselves.
Then into our shared life church life come Paul’s familiar words: “Love is patient; love is kind.” – that reading which we heard this morning from Corinthians.
We often hear this reading at weddings. Yet Paul wrote it to a Christian community struggling with rivalry, status and power. Some people thought their gifts made them more important than others. Some voices carried greater weight.
Paul asks them to reconsider what makes a community Christian. Eloquent speech, impressive faith, extraordinary generosity: none of these is enough without love.
A church can have beautiful worship, inspiring preaching and busy programmes, yet still overlook someone who feels frightened, diminished or unheard. Paul invites us to recognise love through the way people are treated.
One of the most telling figures in the film Sheep detective is the Winter Lamb. Different from the others and never fully accepted, the lamb lives at the edge of the flock. Yet from that position, the lamb notices things others miss.
I wonder whose voice we might overlook because they do not quite fit our expectations?
Perhaps someone who struggles to express themselves. Someone whose experience challenges our comfortable picture of the community. Someone who asks a question we would rather leave unanswered.
We need to hear people because their lives matter. Their belonging must never depend on being useful, agreeable or easy to understand.
“Love is patient.”
Such patience gives someone time to find their words. It does not hurry them towards feeling better or suggest that they should have moved on. It understands that trust may grow slowly where trust has been betrayed.
“Love is kind.”
Kindness notices discomfort. It respects a refusal. It takes a concern seriously, even when doing so makes life complicated. Sometimes kindness requires the courage to interrupt familiar patterns and ask whether someone is safe.
Paul also says that love does not insist on its own way.
For those entrusted with responsibility, this matters deeply. Our position, experience or good intentions do not give us ownership of another person’s life. Their dignity comes from God. They have a right to boundaries, to choices and to being heard.
As the sheep in the film investigate, they discover that understanding the present requires an honest encounter with the past. Things forgotten or ignored have to be faced.
Church communities face that challenge too. Affection for a place, gratitude towards a leader, or loyalty to an institution can make difficult truths painful to acknowledge.
But “love rejoices in the truth”.
That gives us a searching question: when we speak of protecting our community, whom are we protecting?
Love calls us to attend to the person who has been hurt, even when their experience unsettles a story we have cherished. It makes room for truth, accountability and change. Remembering honestly can help prevent harm being repeated.
Another striking image in the sheep detective film is the challenge of sheep crossing a busy road. The road represents the movement from what is familiar into what is unknown.
There are moments when a community stands beside such a road. We know our familiar ways. Changing them feels unsettling. Yet love may call us towards different ways of listening, sharing responsibility and responding to concerns.
We can take those steps together, accepting help and recognising our limits.
Paul puts it beautifully: “Now I know only in part.”
There is humility here. None of us sees everything. We need other perspectives, especially those we have been least willing to hear. And when a safeguarding concern arises, love includes passing it to those responsible and seeking appropriate help.
We must handle carefully Paul’s words about love bearing and enduring all things. They must never become an instruction to remain where we are being harmed. Seeking safety, setting boundaries and asking for help are expressions of dignity. Nobody has to earn God’s love by enduring cruelty, or be hurried towards forgiveness and reconciliation.
In Jesus, we encounter a love that attends to people others push aside. God comes among us as a child dependent on human care. On the cross, Jesus suffers human violence and the misuse of power. God knows vulnerability from within.
That love shapes the community we are called to become: a place where acceptance honours each person’s dignity, where harmful behaviour is challenged, and where speaking honestly does not threaten someone’s belonging.
Such a community grows through ordinary choices: listening patiently, respecting boundaries, acknowledging mistakes and responding when something feels wrong.
We will not always know another person’s story. We can still help make room for them to experience gentleness, respect and care.
I wonder what small step we might take this week to help someone feel safe enough to be themselves – and safe enough to tell the truth?
Image: from the movie The Sheep Detectives, IMDB
