She(e)p-Herding

Jeremiah 23:1-6

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the LORD.

Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the LORD.

Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.

I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the LORD.

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: "The LORD is our righteousness."

 Ephesians 2:11-22

So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called "the uncircumcision" by those who are called "the circumcision" --a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands-- remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.

He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.

So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 

He said to them, "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.  Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them.

As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.

When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.

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When I say “shepherd” to you, what is the first thing that comes to mind?

When I say Psalm 23 to you, what is the first thing that comes to mind?    (go ahead, shout it out)

How many of you think you know at least part of Psalm 23 by heart?

Psalm 23 is another one of the readings for today. Let’s try it and see how much we know without looking.  Keep your Bibles closed, now….

Here we go.

(by heart – slowly….)

So why do you think that Psalm is so familiar to so many of us?

How many of you know other Psalms by heart?

Is it because we relate to being sheep? Why?

Do we really want Jesus to be our shepherd?  Why?

How do we tell a good shepherd from a bad one?

What would a bad shepherd lead us into? What would a good shepherd lead us into?

Scripture is full of references to and stories about shepherds and about sheep. One of our most beloved descriptions of Jesus is The Good Shepherd. Jesus refers to himself that way. His disciples write about him, using that as a description of him. His last words to Peter, according to John’s gospel, before his ascension, were “feed my sheep; tend my lambs”. And so, we too are called by Jesus to be shepherds, to tend and guard God’s people, especially those who are most vulnerable and least able to take care of themselves.

In each of our scripture passages today, there is a reference to shepherds and sheep –  direct references coming from both Jeremiah and Mark, and an indirect reference from Paul. As a supplement to my time with the scriptures this week, I spent some time with my nose in a book called The Good Shepherd, by Dr. Kenneth Bailey. Dr. Bailey is ordained in the PCUSA, and he spent 40 years living and teaching in seminaries and institutes in Egypt, Lebanon, Jerusalem and Cyprus. He has written many books and developed many educational video lectures focusing on the interpretation of the New Testament from a Middle Eastern perspective. This particular book goes through passages in the Old and New Testaments where God speaks through prophets, and where Jesus speaks, each speaking about shepherds and the way they reflect God’s love and caring for us – when they are good shepherds, that is.

In Jeremiah, as we heard today, the Lord speaks through the prophets to those who scatter and destroy the Lord’s people, the sheep of God’s pasture. Far from attending to them, these bad shepherds have driven them away. Since they have not attended to the flock, the Lord will attend to them for their evil doings. Then the Lord will gather up the flock from all the lands where they have been driven, and will bring them back to their fold. The Lord will raise up shepherds over them who will do well by them, for the sake of the Lord’s name. They will no longer live in fear, or go missing.

The people of Israel saw David as the kind of Good Shepherd that God described, and they prayed for a Messiah who would save Judah so that Israel would live in safety forever more.

And of course, Jesus is that Good Shepherd. But Jesus does not clear away the evil. Instead, Jesus tends to the people who have been abandoned by King Herod. Herod was supposed to be the king of the Jews, the good shepherd for them, but his focus was not on the people in need, but on the leaders he wanted to impress.

At the point in Mark’s gospel where today’s reading occurs, the disciples have just returned from their time in the villages, where they had been sent out in twos by Jesus to heal and to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of God was here and now. But they also had come back to be with Jesus in the midst of a time that was filled with tension for the people and with grief for Jesus in particular. This was the time right after John the Baptist had been killed by King Herod – killed in order to please a young girl who danced for him, a young girl to whom he had even offered half of his kingdom, if she wanted it. But on the advice of her mother, she asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. And according to Mark, the king did not want to refuse her out of regard for his oaths and the guests. And so he commanded a soldier to go to the prison where John the Baptist was being held and to kill him.

Dr. Bailey points out in his book that all this happened at a banquet that Herod was giving for the 1% of Galilee – for the leaders and big names and high ranking people. Herod was the king of the Jews at that time. John the Baptist was not killed by the Romans, but by a leader who should have been a shepherd to the people of Israel. But he was an example of a bad shepherd – the kind of shepherd described in our Jeremiah passage – the kind who does not care properly for the sheep. Because a shepherd is not one who lords it over the people – a shepherd’s work is humble and lowly and hard. It is not kingly work; it is more like servant’s work. It is loving work.

In the gospel, Mark tells us how Jesus first tries to provide a time and place of rest for the disciples. But the people are stirred up, they are anxious, and they are seeking out Jesus. They figure out where Jesus and the disciples are heading by boat, and they rush there by foot and get there ahead of them. And how does Jesus respond?  Mark tells us that “he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd”. He abandons his plans for rest, and just like a Good Shepherd, he attends to their needs. Our reading for today skips over it, but this is where he puts in a full day of teaching and healing, and when it’s time for dinner, the disciples want to send the people away, but Jesus, instead, prepares a banquet for them. Herod made a banquet for the 1%, a party that brought about death, but Jesus makes a banquet for the 99%, a gathering that brings life. Just like in Psalm 23, Jesus tends to the flock, keeps them from want, tells them to lie down in the grass on the hillside, restores them.

Let’s shift focus for a minute to our reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Paul is reminding them how Christ has brought them, as Gentiles, into the fold. Paul is describing the flock that is God’s people, where it matters no more that they were aliens or strangers. Jesus has broken down the dividing wall, the hostility between insiders and outsiders. He has created one new humanity. He has reconciled us all together. We are God’s people, the sheep of God’s pasture. In the Kingdom of God, the shepherd will leave the 99 sheep and go seek out the one that is lost, to bring it back into the fold.

It is a fact about sheep that if they are afraid, they will panic and will hide. They make themselves hard to find, both for a predator and for  a loving shepherd. Don’t you think that sounds like what we tend to do, too? We might pretend that we are not lost, that we’ve got it all together. We might hide behind our masks of confidence and our shields of artificial protection. But Jesus will come looking for those who are lost, and will bring them back into the fold, where it’s safe, along with the rest of the flock.

But what about if we are the sheep who are safe in the flock? How should we behave toward the one that is brought home by Jesus? Will we be welcoming, or will we be skeptical about those who don’t look or behave or act the same as us? Will we be welcoming sheep, or will we be sheep that make other sheep feel excluded?  Will we share our pastures? Will we eat and drink and follow the shepherd together?

The world is filled with the terrible consequences of hatred and violence. It is hard not to get sucked into the culture and patterns of fear, distrust, despair, that is almost always the precursor to these terrible acts, that so often end up in lives being cut short. As Christians, we are called to be counter-culture – to unexpectedly bring hope, compassion, peace, into those places and conversations where it seems that everyone is determined to join in on the anger and hostility and fear that so often prevails.

Jesus came for the least and the lost, to bring all together into community. To bring us together into community. To be the body of Christ, with all the diversity of hands and feet and eyes and ears and noses. Jesus redeems us all, and calls us to be the beloved community together. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. If we live as if the beautiful words of the 23^rd Psalm are meant for us, then we trust in God to provide and protect and guide us, and to keep us together. For the only way we can truly be together, can truly set aside fear and isolation and exile for ourselves or for others, is to accept the Lord as our Shepherd, our Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep. Amen.