Today is called Good Shepherd Sunday, because in our lectionary of scripture readings for Sundays of the church year, very year, on the fourth Sunday of Easter we read the 23rd Psalm and a section from what’s come to be known as the Good Shepherd Discourse from the 10th chapter of John. So, what does it mean to be a ‘good’ shepherd? Before I answer that, it is helpful to understand the ancient and long relationship the Jewish people have with the concept of being shepherded as a people. Many psalms describe God as Shepherd, and one of the most loved, of course, the 23rd Psalm. Not only is God the people’s shepherd, but the Kings and others in leadership were also seen as shepherds of the people, doing God’s work among the people, responsible for the care of the people, especially the vulnerable people of society. Hear this passage from the book of the prophet Ezekiel.
Then this message came to me from the Lord: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds, the leaders of Israel. Give them this message from the Sovereign Lord: What sorrow awaits you shepherds who feed yourselves instead of your flocks. Shouldn’t shepherds feed their sheep? 3 You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve. 4 You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with harshness and cruelty. 11 “For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search and find my sheep. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and give them a place to lie down in peace, says the Sovereign Lord. (Ezekiel 34)
So, not only is God the good shepherd, also the lead shepherd, you could say. God has also granted responsibility for shepherding of God’s people to the people’s leaders, which some leaders have performed ‘less than ideally’, shall we say, and we still see bad and selfish leadership today, more than 2 millennia since Ezekiel was written.
Ok, let’s go back to my original question then, what makes for a good shepherd? Being on a sheep farm and having lived with a shepherd for almost fifty years, and raising two children who are both shepherds, I think I have a reasonable perspective as to how to answer that question, and connecting this to the biblical idea of shepherding.
But maybe I should start with the analogy of people to sheep. In his gospel, Matthew notes that when Jesus saw the crowds that gathered around him to listen to his teachings and come for healing, they were like a flock without a shepherd. He had compassion for them, as they were harassed and helpless. (Matt 9.35 - 36)
Sheep, like people are generally gregarious—they are social beings and like to be together. A single ewe that may inadvertently get separated from the flock will panic and run back and forth, around and around until it’s reunited with the flock. Sheep need to be with other sheep, sometime to their own detriment. Years ago we had a group of dogs that came to the farm and started to chase the sheep—just for fun. A number of ewes were badly damaged by the biting and tearing of the dogs and had to be put down. However, more died because they were smothered. The sheep being chased instinctively ran to the safety of the barn yard, and wound up corned by the dogs alongside the gangway, which is essentially a hill that leads up to the big barn doors to the hay mow. Their flocking instinct is so strong they stick together even in the face of danger, rather than separate themselves from it.
Sheep need a leader, they want to be led. Contrary to any sheep dog trials you may have seen, sheep naturally prefer to be lead, rather than be driven from behind. They can be trained to be driven with sheep dogs or even by people, but it’s not their natural instinct. You can lead easily lead sheep with a pail of grain—if of course they’re used to being fed this way. Each flock has a lead ewe, and every sheep in the flock will follow the lead ewe. A number of years ago we bought a flock of sheep and the lead ewe in the flock we nick-named Jumper --because she’d jump any fence, and as the lead ewe, the others would follow. She would literally lead the flock astray to places where they weren’t supposed to be, where it might not even be safe for them to be, and the flock simply followed. Well, we had to ship Jumper, for obvious reasons, and after Jumper left, and after some jostling for the new pecking order, another ewe took the lead. Without fences, sheep will simply wander from place to place and are always at risk of predation. They really are quite defenceless, when left to their own devices. Sheep really do need a leader or they simply go astray or get themselves in trouble. Jesus knew about sheep, and people! And sheep need good fences to contain them—they simply walk through the smallest gap. And good fence helps keep away the predators too.
So you can see that sheep as a metaphor for people is pretty apt. And so Jesus as metaphor for the good shepherd is equally as appropriate!
Vs 11. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. It’s that complete dedication and commitment, I think, which was the very first thing I learned, as a city girl, new to farm life. The sheep came first; their needs came first, especially in lambing season. Sheep are labour intensive, and behave in different ways than other livestock. And you have to love sheep to want to work with them. Because the sheep define who the shepherd is. Without sheep to care for, you are not a shepherd. And if the primary shepherd can’t be there, for whatever the reason, the shepherd has to make sure that a suitable substitute was on hand. To leave the flock with someone who doesn’t really understand sheep, is to risk the flock.
Vs 12 & 13. The hired hand runs away when the wolf comes, because a hired hand does not care about the sheep like the shepherd does. We’ve had some hired hands over the years, and like with all employees, some are better than others. But when it comes down to it, hired help generally don’t put their lifestyles, never mind their lives at risk for your flock, because, well, the sheep aren’t theirs. They’ve got no skin in the game, so to speak, so they’re not going to put themselves on the line. No-one can care for the sheep like the shepherd who owns them, the one who has seen countless generations of carefully selected breeding stock come and go, who has literally helped to birth the successive generations of them. And Jesus did lay down his life for his flock. You could say he had skin in the game. And you can’t show more love than that, it is the ultimate sign of total devotion and care.
Vs 14. I know my own and my own know me. In my experience, it is a good shepherd who recognizes specific animals in the flock--even without ear tags or tattoos and pedigrees. The good shepherd can tell you specific sheep’s’ dams and sires, their grand-dams and grand-sires, their sisters and brothers and can often identify from a distance who has won which prizes at which fairs. The good shepherd calls to their sheep, and they respond, they really will come to the shepherd when called, because they have learned to trust that voice, they have learned that voice is trustworthy. The hired hand just feeds them, a good hired hand may even care about them, but the shepherd actually cares for them, it is the shepherd who nurtures them. Like God cares for us and about us, nurtures us and loves us as only the God who knows us really can. It is the love of dedication.
It is Jesus’ dedication to caring for those in need that actually prompted these Good Shepherd verses in Chapter 10 of John’s gospel. This Shepherd Discourse comes right after John tells the story of Jesus healing the man who was born blind. Remember that story? He is expelled from his community for emphatically telling the religious authorities that he has come to truly believe that Jesus has come from God. Unless Jesus had come from God, there really isn’t any other explanation for his healing. After all never in the history of the world had someone born blind been given back sight! Banning him was equivalent to banning him from his entire community, from his family and his support system, from his entire way of life. Jesus hears that the man’s been banned from the community and seeks him out. Jesus accuses the religious leaders of sin, as they are being wilfully blind to the truth of the healing, blind to the truth of who he is and prioritizing themselves over people under their care. No skin in their game, they’re in it for themselves! Jesus reveals to the once blind man that he is the Son of God, and the man worships him, becomes a follower, a member of Jesus’ flock. Jesus will not leave the man abandoned, without a community. Jesus tells them: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold, I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” The Jews were the people who ‘belonged’. Jesus wanted to reach out beyond the Jewish fold, and bring other who had no flock, bring them in to hear his message of care and love for everyone.
This is an incredibly powerful statement for Christians, a call to radical inclusivity and acceptance of all people. We are all of God’s creation, all of God’s flock and Jesus welcomes all into his fold, whether they start off there or not. It’s a call to reaching out, to seek out and to bring and accept those who aren’t part of our “group”, however we wish to define that. It means inclusiveness and acceptance regardless of race, creed, gender and sexuality, which for some, like the religious ones who banned the once-blind-man from their community, may challenge us and our assumptions and may well take us initially out of our comfort zones. To be welcoming is more than saying anyone can come into the church, welcoming is an attitude, a way of behaving that lets people know you are genuinely glad to have them join in, actually inviting them in to be a part of the flock. This radical inclusiveness may mean a change of mindset, and the language we use, requiring us to check our long held prejudices and attitudes towards those who don’t look like us, behave like us, or hold to different perceptions and lifestyles. While there is much to be said for the security being part of a flock provides, the flip side of that is it can be hard to open the gate and be fully welcoming.
And this inclusiveness is one of our strengths, us Anglicans. Some would say radically so, because all people are welcome in the churches in this Anglican Diocese of Huron, regardless of race, creed, gender and sexuality. And you are a welcoming and loving community—I know it and you know it! But, outside of these doors, I’m betting that there are a lot of other people who don’t know how open and accepting Anglicanism is, who don’t know what a loving and caring group you are. I also suspect that there may well be people out there who are looking for an inclusive, caring worshiping community of people who will accept them for who they are, for what they are, and that Jesus loves them, and that they really are worthy of Jesus’ love!
Gone are the days of expecting people to just walk into the church, because the building is here. Some people are afraid of coming into church, unsure of what it’s all about. We need to get our message out there, and that’s a job for all of us. We are all called to show and tell the radical message of Jesus’ all-embracing love. Amen.