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TO JUST BE SHEEP April 13, 2008
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep... I know my own and my own know me… My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” John 10 Selected
Okay, so maybe I really don’t get this because I didn’t grow up in a rural community around sheep and shepherds and all, but can anyone here tell me … besides tradition… why the 23rd Psalm is so universally loved or why the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is one of our favorites? On the surface, I get the part of about leading us beside still waters since apparently sheep can’t drink from moving water and could die of thirst without someone to lead them. And I get the part about knowing us by name because who doesn’t want to be known by name. That sounds great! Digging a little deeper, I even get the part about anointing heads with oil and walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Apparently the anointing with oil refers to the fragrant oil a shepherd would put around his sheep’s mouth to prevent an infestation of flies. Otherwise, the flies would lay their eggs in the soft tissues of the sheep’s mouths, and when the eggs hatched, the sheep would go crazy, butting their heads against trees to dislodge the infestation. And I have even heard a few biblical scholar-types speak of the valley of the shadow of death as an actual place… a dangerous, canyon-like stretch of terrain in the Promised Land where shepherds were forced to lead their sheep, protecting them from the attack of predators all along the way. Again, it sounds great!
But the trouble I am having this morning is that even though most of us here are so far removed from rural life that we probably can’t even tell the difference between sheep and goats, no matter what spin I might put on these passages, we at least know that being compared to sheep isn’t really a compliment! The little we do know about livestock suggests that sheep are “slobbering, untidy, dumb animals who exist only to be shaved or slaughtered!”*
A mug I was given ten years ago says it all. The Gary Larsen Far Side cartoon brings to life what most of us think about being compared to sheep. “Wait! Wait! Listen to me! We don’t HAVE to be just sheep!” Truth be told, we don’t want to be just sheep.
It’s a no-brainer. Springtime in the rainy Willamette Valley is not a good time for sheep. On the best day, they are up to their bellies in mud and now they are being sheared. Their future is determined by a spray-painted X on their backs! How am I supposed to get you to feel at all positive about being compared to sheep? We don’t want to be sheep.
Thankfully, Barbara Brown Taylor in her book, The Preaching Life offers us a new spin on these ancient passages. Speaking of her own ignorance of all things rural, she writes, “Imagine my delight… when I discovered… someone [who] actually grew up on a sheep farm in the Midwest… according to him sheep are not dumb at all. It is the cattle ranchers who are responsible for spreading that ugly rumor, and all because sheep do not behave like cows… cows are herded from the rear by hooting cowboys with cracking whips, but that will not work with sheep at all. Stand behind them making loud noises and all they will do is run around behind you, because they prefer to be led. You push cows… but you lead sheep, and they will not go anywhere that someone else does not go first – namely, their shepherd – who goes ahead of them to show them that everything is all right.”*
But as helpful as this description is in understanding the Biblical story, I’m still thinking that most of us would rather not be sheep because now we think that sheep are slobbering, untidy, dumb animals who prefer to be led! The last time I checked, following isn’t all that popular with us! We don’t want to be sheep!
Well, get over it! You see, everything isn’t always about us! Is it possible that when speaking the words “The Lord is my shepherd” the Psalmist wasn’t thinking about us but was thinking about God? Is it possible when the Gospel writer spoke of Jesus as “the Good Shepherd” he wasn’t thinking about us but thinking about Jesus? As much as we might not like being compared to sheep, get over it. These passages aren’t about us! These passages are about God and about God’s divine presence in Christ. Everything isn’t always about us!
It is just a guess, but maybe those living in the time when the Psalms were first recited understood that God was the focus of the poetry. Maybe those who sat with Jesus as he taught understood that his metaphor was a way of speaking about God’s presence in him. Unlike those of us who live lives far removed from our agrarian roots, the image of the shepherd was an image from the first hearers’ daily lives. In fact, for people in the early Hebrew community even the king was called a shepherd. Shepherds were protectors. Shepherds cared for their sheep. From a sheep’s perspective, the shepherd was the one who not only was present at birth, the shepherd sustained their lives. Shepherds were leaders. Sheep knew their shepherd’s voice. When many small flocks were mixed together at a watering hole, as was their custom, a simple call from one shepherd would extract his sheep from all the rest. If sheep can trust, they trust their shepherd!
But even if we can get over thinking that this is all about us and begin to get that it is really about God… about God in Christ, we still have trouble understanding these passages from the Bible because, at least the last time I checked, most of us don’t have our own personal shepherd. The only shepherds many of us have ever seen either ride around on four-wheelers in the mud of the Willamette Valley grasslands or, if you’ve spent anytime in Big Sky Country, you may have seen the Basque shepherds living solitary lives leading their herds across the open range. It is hard to fully comprehend the Biblical story when we don’t want to be sheep and we don’t know any shepherds.
So that got me to thinking – who are the “shepherds” in our lives? Who are the ones who give life and sustain life? Who are the ones who protect and lead? Who are the ones who know our names and whose voices call us to follow? I tried out a few thinking of some of the important people in our world… teacher, mentor, president… but I couldn’t come up with any one image that seems to capture the Biblical intent. Any ideas? How would you begin the psalm “The Lord is my………..?” If Jesus were talking to you what would he say that would makes sense in your life? “I am the good ……………………….”
Many of us know of the work of Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a doctor who specializes in the process of dying and in how we grieve. She tells a story that gives us a glimpse of a relationship that might work for some of us today. She speaks of a little boy she once worked with who was in the final stages of cancer. She asked him to draw a picture that showed her how he was feeling. He drew a dark and scary self-portrait, with thunderclouds in the sky, and a cannon pointed directly at his heart. When Kubler-Ross saw it, she did not say anything. Instead, she took the picture and sketched a figure of herself in a white hospital coat, standing close to the little boy in the picture, facing the cannon with him, her arms securely around his shoulders. A few days later, without being asked, the young patient drew another picture of himself. In this one the sun was shining, there were flowers everywhere, and his self-portrait now showed a smile on his face.** A shepherd is one who stands with us… one who understands… one who holds our hearts.
The truth is, it isn’t as easy for us to come up with one image… one word… one way of speaking about this God who loves and protects us… who leads us and sustains us. The author of the Gospel of John must have known this because we are given a variety of identities for Jesus… the bread of life… the light of the world… the vine… the gate… the way, the truth, and the life. But even these don’t capture the power of the image of shepherd when heard with first century ears. When it comes to a shepherd and sheep, it’s all about relationship. When it comes to God and human beings… when it comes to Jesus and his followers… it’s all about relationship… a relationship based on unconditional love. Maybe bust being sheep isn’t so bad after all!
*From The Preaching Life by Barbara Brown Taylor, pages 140-141. **From Lectionary Homiletics, Volume XIX, Number 3, page 14.
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