Reflection: "God - the Loving Shepherd"This Sunday is sometimes facetiously called "Sheep Sunday" by irreverent preachers, because on this Sunday, every year, the lessons are similar to the scriptures we read this week.
This week’s Gospel reading gives us John's description of Jesus, the Good Shepherd and the Psalmist's song: "The Lord Is My Shepherd" gives us a sense of security. So, I wondered, as I read these words, why sheep? Why not eagles? I can picture us as eagles, soaring high up in a gorgeous blue sky, instead of being in a mob of daggy sheep, wandering aimlessly in some dusty paddock in the outback. The prophet Isaiah writes ... "They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31). That’s more like it. That's what I’d like to read on a plaque on my office wall. Why not call ourselves “eagles”? Why do we have to be sheep? But then, I have to be honest with myself - and think that maybe it's because our prayer of confession got it right when it says: "... we have erred and strayed from God's ways like lost sheep. Too often we’ve followed the devices and desires of our own hearts ..." and so on and so forth. We seldom soar, like eagles, but all too often we act like sheep. I’m sure that at times we’ve all erred and we’ve all strayed – just like lost sheep. I know that and you know that. And the Bible tells us that, using it as a metaphor for the reality of our lives. Lives we live together in our families, at our work, in our community, in the church - every day. It’s interesting that the sheep metaphor finds its meaning in the fact that sheep are communal, by their very nature and we don’t even have a different singular word for one sheep. The term is always understood to be both singular and plural, as in: one sheep and a flock of sheep. I'm a bit sceptical of anyone who writes about the love of God for his "sheep," and how to cook lamb chops, in the same book. But maybe Jeff Smith’s book “The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast: Past, Present, and Future”, has it right. Jeff, who also happens to be a Methodist minister, as well as a good cook, says the meaning of the metaphor is simply that you and I together, like sheep - plural - are a community, a flock of faith in which we are cared for by God, as the shepherd who cares for sheep, and that's what God intends. We're in it together, and together we’re shepherded by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. That's a good corrective to the excessive individualism of our day, that leaves so many of us feeling very much alone, even when we’re in the presence of our God. More like a sheep at the mercy of a predator, than a lamb in God's arms of protection. Protection provided in Jesus' story by the sheep being together in the sheepfold - not just in his willingness to go out into the wild to find them. The nineteenth century Princeton theologian, Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, whose work was to have great influence on the original "Fundamentalists," apparently considered this to be fundamental: "That in Jesus Christ, God was 'saving the world and not merely one individual here and there out of the world.' " That in Jesus Christ, God came as a shepherd, to his sheep”. And we can see that the language in John's gospel is reminiscent of the 23rd Psalm. What is eloquently sung there about the Lord's care, guidance, and protection of the flock is here, in John, reaffirmed in terms of Jesus. I did a little research and found a book called “Approved Practices in Sheep Production”, which says that in caring for sheep, and I quote: "Most important is that ...continuous attention (is) required. Sheep are often quite helpless and fall easy prey to predators, especially dogs, coyotes, foxes, bobcats, and eagles. They might even fall prey to such hazards as wire fences, or to ditches and gullies in which they might lie and suffocate unless aid came quickly. Parasites and disease are also ever-present problems to guard against." The book says sheep have a lot of problems - well, so do we! The book says sheep face a lot of dangers - and so do we! The book says sheep are best tended together and so are we, says the very clever book we call the Bible - with its image of God as our shepherd. But what about us? The image of the sheepfold and us as the sheep, is not intended to make us feel sheepish, dumb, or individually unimportant. Rather, it’s intended to reinforce the importance of all of us, to the shepherd. The sheepfold, then, whilst constraining and confining and sometimes crowded, is not claustrophobic. Rather, like with children, the setting of boundaries gives us security, by knowing how far we can stray, and being aware of the dangers of going outside of the boundaries. It frees us to live life as God intends: to live each day to the fullest - just what Jesus meant when he said, "I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10 NRSV). In our world, where the closest most of us will ever get to a sheep is in a book, or on TV, or by touching the wool in our suits, skirts, slacks, or socks, we still need a shepherd, who will lead us and guide us and occasionally prod us to show us the way we should go. And the good shepherd, who gives his life for the life of the sheep, for your life and mine - that we might live and have life abundantly, is Jesus Christ. Aren’t we blessed! Are YOU feeling blessed today? It’s often said that we are blessed to be a blessing and that means that we should use all the love and grace that God has given us to go out into our world and share that love with others. Let them know that God wants to have a personal relationship with them, too. Then, we need to let the Holy Spirit work on them to bring them around. Do your bit and plant the mustard seed, knowing that it will be watered and nurtured, with the help of the Holy Spirit, so that it, too, will grow into a mighty tree. Think about that, as you go about your daily business next week, next month, next year and then do your best to take advantage of the opportunities to witness, which God puts in front of you. Pastor Rick
1 Comment
Lena Beryl Blok
2/5/2023 06:26:59 pm
Thank you Rick for your message. I always like to think of Jesus as being the Loving Shepherd. We all go astray and it is good to know that He loves us, cares for us and leads us back into His way. I feel very blessed. It is true, we must be blessings for others.
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