Spiritual Service and the Lost Sheep

There's a story related in the gospels of Luke and Matthew as well as in the Gospel of Thomas (not included in the canonical bible) that's known as the Parable of the Lost Sheep. It's a story Jesus told in response to the hierarchy of his day who were questioning his dealings with what they called "sinners". He used something people where familiar with as an analogy and spoke of a shepherd who had 100 sheep. He reasoned that if one sheep got away, the shepherd would leave the 99 that were doing great and go to seek and find the lost one. Jesus didn't say the shepherd threw up his hands and said "Oh screw it. There's no hope for that one! Any way I'm busy here with the goodie goodie sheep." Nor was he suggesting that being "found" meant converting the lost one to a particular religion because he didn't have one. It seems to me the deeper meaning is helping another to feel their direct connection to Love, God, Spirit, Itself. If we can't do that then what is any religion or spiritual path good for?  I know in my own experience, I've been most transformed by those who helped me do that. The specific body of teachings or rituals are just the gateway to that connection. This doesn't mean in any way that it's wrong to be an integral part of a denomination or spiritual path. I just think that those who do identify with one way need to stay alert to what it's really about ~ the transformation of one individual at a time until everyone on the planet feels the divinity within ~ that satisfying connection to the "nobler nature" (a term Steven Pressfield uses). If we accomplished that, I suspect there'd be no more war, greed, violence, etc. etc. etc. Imagine that.

And the cool thing is, we each play the role of shepherd and lost sheep at different times in our lives. As Ram Dass so simply puts it, "We're all just walking each other home."