Shepherd, Flock and Choice

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.” (John 10:27)

 The pastor of an affluent suburban parish, not located in Monroe County, was speaking to the Sunday school class. He told them that as pastor he was like a shepherd and members of his congregation were the sheep. Then he put this question to them: “What does the shepherd do for the sheep?” A little girl in the front row raised her hand and answered, “He fleeces them.”

Now, I’m fairly certain the little girl who answered the question didn’t have the pejorative or derogatory definition of “fleecing” in mind, namely, “to strip of money or property by fraud or extortion,” but rather, the original one, “to shear a sheep of its wool.” Unfortunately, however, as we well know, every once in a while a bad shepherd comes along who does, in fact, exploit the sheep.

The word “shepherd” appears more than 500 times in various contexts in the Bible, beginning with the first “keeper of sheep,” Adam’s son Abel. The greatest heroes of Israel’s past – Abraham, Moses, David, and Amos – were shepherds, and, of course, Scripture portrays God in the words of the best known and best loved of all the psalms, the 23^rd -- “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want…”  Here God is depicted as a faithful and good shepherd who leads his flock into well-being and abundance, keeping it safe from every danger.

Not all shepherds mentioned in the Bible, however, were good ones.  Some were fleecers in the pejorative sense. Kings, for example, as God’s anointed deputies were referred to as shepherds of Israel, but, occasionally they turned out to be wolves in shepherds’ clothing.  In response, God raised up prophets like Ezekiel to denounce them in words like these:   

Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them. (Ezekiel 34:2-6)

 No one to search or seek for them until Jesus of Nazareth entered human history.  Jesus, whom we believe fulfilled Ezekiel’s prophesy, frequently drew on the image of ‘kind shepherd’ to describe himself.  Earlier in John’s gospel, for instance, he says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”  In today’s reading also from John, he says, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”   Our shepherd promises not only abundance, well-being and protection from harm, as described so beautifully in the 23^rd Psalm, but also, promises eternal life.  Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to be in his flock?

Unlike those of you who grew up on farms, Gloria and I grew up in the city, so we don’t know much about sheep, other than that certain choice cuts of them taste good grilled or baked, particularly garnished with mint jelly.  Recently, however, we returned from a glorious trip to New Zealand, where sheep outnumber people 4 to 1, so we had plenty of opportunity to further our education on the subject.  

We observed, for instance, countless flocks of sheep grazing on the most beautiful landscapes imaginable calmly munching away at their food.   We observed several of the female variety, ewes, being milked by a state of the art, German designed, machine that, among other things, measures individual output.  We watched as a reluctant one was shorn/fleeced, in less than three minutes, by a skilled handler with electric clippers.  We watched as a shepherd with voice commands to a trained dog moved a group of them, effortlessly, from one area to another.  And yes, we did sample cooked portions of them a number of times as part of the local cuisine, washed down with delicious locally produced wine!

Something, which people of biblical times understood quite well, and was reinforced for us in New Zealand, is that sheep are totally dependent on their shepherd.  Left to fend for themselves, sheep won’t survive.  It’s the shepherd who cares for them, nurtures them, feeds them and keeps them out of harms way.  This, of course, is what Jesus does for us, if we let him.

I must admit, however, that I’m not entirely comfortable being compared to a sheep.  Sheep, after all, are rather dumb.  They lose their way very easily, have no sense of orientation, lack a homing instinct, seem to always look down and don't care much about their own welfare.  They’re not dumb so much because they lack intelligence, as because their herd instinct is so strong that it blocks their ability to foresee consequences.  If one sheep goes over a cliff, for example, the whole herd will go over as well.  Dumb! Or if the lead sheep refuses to eat, others won’t eat either and they all die of starvation.  Dumber!

Likewise, we humans often suffer when our herd instinct becomes stronger than our intelligence.  We too have a tendency to follow the leader or the crowd sometimes to our own detriment and the detriment of others. Last century’s most notorious example…Nazi Germany and the Holocaust (shepherd – Adolph Hitler.)  This century’s, so far, Islamist extremists who applaud as martyrs suicide bombers killing innocent people (shepherd – Osama bin Laden.)  And, also from today headlines, the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech with its obvious “copycat” overtones reminiscent of what happened at Columbine and on other U.S. campuses.

Young brothers and sisters, do you follow a leader or crowd that puts you or others in danger?   Do you, for example, smoke cigarettes or use other addictive drugs because of peer pressure?   Do you identify with rap artists who glorify violence, denigrate women and urge “no snitching?”   Do you fail to do what your parents ask you to do because of what your friends might think?  

Dear friends all, when confronted by a challenging decision, perhaps a moral dilemma, do you tend to do the right thing, or the popular one?  Are you more inclined to listen to a Madison Avenue huckster or a radio shock jock than Bishop Matthew?

You too may not like being compared to a sheep, but the evidence is incontrovertible that we humans do, in fact, often act like sheep. There is, of course, a big difference between us and them. We have intellect and free will, so we can choose our shepherd.  We can choose to follow the Good Shepherd or not; we can refuse to listen to his voice, in effect, turning our backs on his offer of abundance, well-being, security, and eternal life.  But baaa….wouldn’t that be an incredibly dumb thing to do?!

Anthony J. Sciolino

Acts 13:14, 43-52

Revelation 7:9, 14-17

John 10:27-30.

Fourth Sunday of Easter.

April 29, 2007. (Cycle C).