Good Shepherd

When I was a kid, we lived in Australia for a year, and our next-door neighbor had a sheep station.  Sheep are a big thing down under, and as Canadians, we got invited to all kinds of things.  We got to see the sheep get dipped in some kind of medicine in what looked like a tiny dugout.  We got to see the sheep getting penned up for the shearing by the drovers, hard working and tanned, burly men.  We were shocked to see the dogs running over the backs of the penned-up sheep but even more shocked to see the drovers also walking across the backs of the sheep!  They were quick about it, and the sheep seemed none the worse for wear.  We even watched them wrestling the sheep into the shearing shed, pinning their legs and taking the razor right down to the skin of the animals.  It looked pretty traumatizing at first, but once the sheep were firmly held, they seemed to be okay.  We got to help picking off the loose or dirty bits of the fleeces and our hands got really soft from the lanolin in the fresh wool.  Then we watched the workers expertly flip the fleeces into big bins lined with burlap until they were full.  The bins were always in pairs and attached to a machine that would take one bin and rotate it over the second bin and squish its contents into the lower bin, then they would attach the top of the burlap and move it to the stack.  These burlap cubes must have been about three feet square and we kids thought it would be fun to jump on them and see how much we bounced!  We thought it would be soft but it was more like expecting a soft cushy sofa and getting a brick bench instead.  Wow!

It wasn’t our job to take care of the sheep.  And it wasn’t the job of the shearers to take care of the sheep.  That was the job of the Grazier, who owned the stations and kept the dingos away.  He knew that sheep who don’t get sheared can get into big trouble, even though they might like to escape from the shearing shed.  There was one sheep in New Zealand named Shrek, who escaped and when he was shorn, he lost sixty pounds of wool!  Sheep can get so weighed down by their wool that they can’t move to reach fresh pastures where green grass grows, and they can’t lie down by still waters to quench their thirst.

Good shepherds focus on more than just their sheep.  They also focus on the world that their sheep live in.  Shepherds who forget this part of caring for their sheep will allow them to overgraze their pastures.  Spending too long in any one paddock can lead to sheep having worms, or being impacted by drought conditions, or targeted by wolves and coyotes.

Sometimes we can be like stubborn sheep, wanting to avoid what’s good for us, and not recognizing how good we have it.  We don’t want to take the medicine the Good Shepherd provides for our souls, and we certainly don’t want to lose the things that keep us feeling warm and cozy and safe.  We don’t want to be moved from paddock to paddock to let the earth and grass recuperate from our use of the land. But there are times when the Good Shepherd knows we need to be sheared of all the things that weigh us down, fear, anxiety, depression, loneliness, and yes, maybe even too much stuff.  There are times when the Good Shepherd calls us to recognize when we have harmed the environment.  It’s hard to let go of all that, but we need to trust that the Good Shepherd knows what’s best for us.  And when our shepherd cares so much for us that he’s ready to even sacrifice his life for our well-being, that’s pretty amazing and humbling. 

Yesterday, people spent some time pondering the different images they had of our Good Shepherd.  If you talk to a shepherd who takes care of sheep for a living, as I had the opportunity to do just this week, the Good Shepherd is an amazing metaphor that resonates with them in a very powerful way.  But many of us have never touched a sheep or even seen a sheep up close.  The image of Jesus as our Good Shepherd can be as foreign to our lived experience as the image of a skyscraper would have been to a Roman Emperor.  Using this image today may be as enticing as a 1950’s jello salad, once all the rage at church potlucks, but never seen on restaurant menus.  In today’s society, it’s a metaphor that may not work well for us, especially if we think of sheep as docile and dumb.  They are anything but.  They can be tough, stubborn, creative, and easily spoiled by city slickers treating them like pets, as one of my farmer friends has often told me.  What kind of metaphors could we explore for Jesus that might help us feel more connected to him? Jesus is my homeless shelter?  Jesus is my Construction Safety Officer?  Jesus is my fire chief?  Jesus is my Astronaut?  Some of the metaphors that people came up with yesterday were amazing.  

Whatever metaphor we use that works for us today, hopefully it helps us to remember the characteristics of Jesus that can help us expand our understanding of who Jesus is in our lives today. Easter is a time to remember that Jesus had an abiding, unwavering kind of love and commitment to us all. And thanks be to God, Jesus continues to inspire and guide us and lead us into safe pastures.  May it be so for us all.  Amen.