The Ven. Richard I Cluett
May 7, 2006
Acts 4:4:4-14; 1John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18
I know that the images of sheep and shepherd appear frequently in scripture - in-cluding today’s lessons on “Shepherding Sunday” - But it occurs to me that 21st century Americans don't really identify with sheep. Our images have to do with different animals. As an example, our cars are identified as mustangs and jaguars. Its a little hard to imagine an “eight cylinder Sheep”!
The names we give to our school mascots and sport teams don’t have to do with sheep. Can you imagine the “Liberty Lambs” or the “Freedom Fawns”? Instead, mascots are lions, tigers, bears. I did part of my seminary training at Yale, and the Yale mascot is the “bull dog”. After the occasional touchdown by the Yale football team, the stands erupt into a rendition of “Bull dog, bull dog, bow wow wow, Eli Yale!” Its a little hard to imagine the singing of “sheep, sheep, baa, baa, baa, Eli Yale!”
In our day we seem to want images of strength, speed, aggressiveness, quick-ness, alertness, domination. We like to see ourselves as dynamic, in control self-sufficient. Not sheep-like!
Well, are we strong enough, quick enough, alert enough, shrewd enough, to deal with whatever life holds for us? Do we have the “Right Stuff”; do we have what it takes...?”
How does that image relate to the person we really, deep down, know ourselves to be? Are we really wild cats, bears, lions, or tigers when we reflect on who we are or what we are?
There is another Yale song, usually sung towards the end of the evening. Its called the “Whiffenpoof Song”. Whiffenpoof?! The theme song of battling bulldogs? “We are poor little lambs who have lost our way. We are little black sheep who have gone astray... God have mercy on such as we...Baa, baa, baa.”
Maudlin, to be sure, but the lamb image does have an insight into the frailties of our human nature.
The image of the Good shepherd raises serious questions about power. In some ways we feel not as super-persons, but rather as pawns in a power game (at work, at school, as a citizen, perhaps in life, itself) who could use a caretaker.
Are we more like lambs that have gone astray than like lions that exercise domin-ion, or bulldogs that have the world by the tail? Can we hear, know, understand what it means when Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd.”
In one of the optional lessons for today, Ezekiel prophecies in the name of God, “I am the good shepherd.” Then he describes others who claim to be shepherds. “The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the crippled you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought; and with force and harshness have you ruled them.”
He goes on to say that the shepherding of God will be “as a shepherd seeks out his flock when some of his sheep have been scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scat¬tered...” Jesus says that there will be “one flock and one shep¬herd.”
God has brought you and me from our lost-ness and scattered-ness into the Church, into the community of faith, into his flock, into the fold, into his king-dom, into his life. We are not meant to be alone, isolated, from God or from one another. We are part of a community that gives us our identity, nurtures us, strengthens us, comforts us, challenges us, and encourages us.
It is the shepherd who draws us into this flock, who finds us when we are lost, heals us when we are wounded, restores us when we have separated ourselves from the flock. The shepherd is Jesus.
If the image of the shepherd points to the nature of God, points to the way of Jesus, it also points to us. Perhaps true power and true humility are found in the same person. Both were found in Jesus. Both were given to his continuing pres-ence, the Church. Those of us who follow him are also called to a life of true hu-mility and true power.
When Jesus says that he is the Good Shepherd, he is telling us how we are to be. We are to be involved with dirty hands and sweat. We are to confront the false shep¬herds who scatter or lead the sheep astray. We are to search out those who are lost; those who have no hope; those who have wandered away from safety. We are to share with the hungry and bring them to water. We are to see that there is shelter from the storms. We are even to offer our lives for their sake.
“O God, grant that when we hear His voice we may know Him who calls us each by name, and may follow where he leads.” Amen.
