From Vulnerability to Good Shepherding

4 Easter b  April 29, 2012

Acts 4:5-12  Psalm 23 
1 John 3:1-8     John 10:11-16

Lectionary Link

   The Gospels just like much of the Bible reflects in metaphor the occupational situation that pertained in the lives of the original listeners and readers.  So during the time of Jesus it was common to use agricultural metaphors.  In John’s Gospel, there must have been familiarity with growing of grapes, because in the Vine discourse, Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.”  But today on Good Shepherd Sunday, we have the adoption of metaphors that pertains to animal husbandry, particular in the care of sheep.  There was a long history of shepherding in Israel.  Before becoming settled in the Promised Land, the tribes of Israel were nomadic sheep herders.  The most famous King of Israel who was the archetype for the expected Messiah, was King David.  Perhaps the most famous Psalm of all is Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”  This Psalm is associated with King David who began as shepherd boy of his father’s flock and he rose to become the most famous Shepherd of the people of Israel. 
 In the Hebrew Scriptures leaders and Kings were referred to as shepherds; some were good shepherd and some were bad shepherds who forgot God and exploited their people.

   And while today is Good Shepherd Sunday, one must note that the writers of the New Testament used many, metaphors to speak about Christ, so many that one wonders about the explosion of metaphors that surround Christ.

  How is it that Jesus could attain so many titles and inspire such metaphorical descriptions of his life?   Each person within one’s community inspires contrast and comparisons.  Each person gets nicknames, titles and designations, and sometimes you really can’t repeat everything that you’ve been called.  We give our public heroes and athletes special names and title.  Who in popular culture is the King?  Elvis, of course.  Which athletes get called the Great One?  Muhammad Ali and Wayne Gretzky.  When one falls in love, it creates new language as well.  When in love people use superlative language, exaggerated language as an attempt to represent their feeling in language.

   On Good Shepherd Sunday, we can note some ironies about the use of shepherding metaphors.  Jesus is the good shepherd.  Jesus is also the gate to the sheepfold.  But in the Gospel of John, Jesus is also the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  Jesus is Shepherd, Gate, and Lamb.

   In ancient shepherding, the shepherd was literally the gate of the sheepfold.  The sheepfold was a stone walled enclosure with one entrance.  And the shepherd literally slept in the one entrance and exit from the sheepfold.  His body kept the wolves out and the sheep in.

  Jesus as the Lamb of God stands in the ancient tradition of God’s people understanding that God has found a way to provide for mercy and forgiveness.  When the human community practiced “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth,” the lamb of God was a message to humanity that God is so great that God forgives.  Jesus as the Lamb of represents the end of retaliation as a way of understanding our relationship with God and with each other.  God’s mercy is great enough to allow forgiveness as the way of relationship.

  Today is Good Shepherd Sunday, and we have read the famous discourse in John’s Gospel about Jesus as the Good Shepherd, and we've read perhaps Psalm 23 is the most popular portion of Scripture in the entire world.  This Psalm includes a discovery about God and so the psalmist wrote, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want.”

  Shepherds symbolized the leaders in ancient cultures and the church has adopted the image of the shepherd as a metaphor for the role of the clergy of the church.  A bishop carries a crosier or shepherd’s staff as one of the symbols of the pastoral office.

  I actually think that the shepherd image needs to be re-worked to be made applicable in modern and post-modern times.  The shepherd image was a metaphor with more richness of connotation when societies and churches were more paternalistic in nature.  By paternalistic, I mean when the educational gap between leader and the herd was so great that a lay person in the church was regarded to be in the role of a dependent child with a parent who made most of the important faith decisions on behalf of the child.

  We in the Episcopal Church retain hierarchical structures with bishops who carry shepherd’s staff but at the same time we do not regard lay people to be like children who are to follow the orders of the clergy.  Our baptismal vows are the great equalizer between clergy and laity since we both recognize only one Good Shepherd, Jesus himself.

  I believe that there is a fuller application for the good shepherd motif and I think that this motif has tremendous relevance for our lives and our world today.

  To simplify the Gospel lesson, we can say that the human condition can find us in one of three conditions: the sheep, the good shepherd and the bad shepherd.

  All of us in life are often in the role of the sheep.  By being in the role of the sheep, I mean that each person in life experiences the conditions of vulnerability.  Vulnerability can be seen in both extreme and benign ways.  If I am building and I don’t have architectural or engineering skills, I need the skills of one to help.  That is a benign sort of vulnerability and in the ways in which division of labor in society works, we are often dependent upon the experts in fields where we lack expertise.  There are other conditions of vulnerability that are more pronounced in terms of human need.  A young child is vulnerable and dependent for many years.  A sick person or a person weakened by the conditions of age or poor health lives in vulnerability.  A person can be in vulnerable conditions when in financial difficulty or relationship problems, loss of job, or loss of a family member or friend.  The conditions of vulnerability call out for good shepherding.

  Our world experience shows us that both good shepherding and bad shepherding happens in our world.

  The greatest dilemma in our world today is not that things happen that cause the conditions of human vulnerability—vulnerability is the human condition.  The greatest dilemma is that the skill and resources that are available within the human community do not always get applied to the conditions of human vulnerability.

  There is enough knowledge and there are enough teachers; and yet conditions of illiteracy and ignorance prevail in many places in our world.  There is enough money in our world, but the money does not get applied to the conditions of poverty in many places in our world.  There is enough food in our world, but that food does not always get to the people in our world who are hungry.  There is enough medicine and there are enough doctors in our world but equal health care does not get distributed to the needs of our world.

  There are enough religious people in our world, but the message of the Gospel and God’s good news for everyone does not get out to people who see their lives as dominated by bad news.

  We are not going to change the fact of vulnerability in the human condition.  The conditions of freedom means that vulnerability will continue in this life.  But since freedom is a condition of life, freedom figures prominently in whether this world will be dominated by good shepherds or bad shepherds.

  What is a bad shepherd?  A bad shepherd is someone who has power, knowledge and wealth and uses power, knowledge and wealth for either one’s benefit alone or actually uses power to exploit those who do not have power, wealth and knowledge.

  The good shepherd passage is a rebuke of bad shepherding.  Certainly just having the ordained offices of ministry does not automatically make one a good shepherd and there are many failures amongst ordained ministers to prove that office does not guarantee that one will be a good shepherd.  And it is also true that just having a medical degree will not automatically make one a good and compassionate doctor.

   What is the motivation for us to be good shepherds in our lives?  First empathy should be enough to motivate us.  When we are vulnerable, we want good shepherds to come to our aid and assistance.  We don’t ever want to be exploited by others.  Our experience with our own situations of vulnerability should motivate us to be good shepherds to those who are in need.

  The example that Jesus set for us is the chief inspiration for us to use our power, knowledge and wealth to be good shepherds.  The essence of the good shepherd is this:  The good shepherd lays down his life for the life of the sheep.

  We have lots of room to grow towards being good shepherds.  Can we lay down our financial lives, our power, our skills and ability to serve and lift up the vulnerable?  That calling to be better shepherds is always before us.

  So we have three images that simplify our life roles into three positions.  A vulnerable sheep.  A good shepherd.  A bad shepherd.  In our vulnerable conditions, I pray that each of us will always find good shepherds to help.  And when we are brought in the path of those who are vulnerable, let us respond as good shepherds knowing that the prime reason that God has blessed us with power, knowledge and wealth is to learn how to be good shepherds in life.  Let us give thanks for Jesus as our Good Shepherd and who has shown us how to lay down our lives in service for one another.  Amen.