Hearing Our Shepherd

Today's readings: Psalms 111; 149, Genesis 28:10-22, Hebrews 11:13-22, John 10:7-17

One of the most popular images of Jesus is that of The Good Shepherd. Sheep were an integral part of his culture and the traits and importance of shepherds would have been familiar to his audience. He contrasts the role of the shepherd – who would lay down his life for his sheep – to the role of hired hand, someone who was likely to flee when things got dangerous. He also speaks of the thief and the wolf, who scatter and harm the sheep out of greed and selfishness. Jesus is confident his own flock will hear and know him and be led to safety.

Sheep are not especially bright, but they know their own shepherd because he or she lives among them as a constant companion, protector and guide. They don’t have much choice but to become familiar. We, on the other hand, are free to follow our shepherd or not, to listen for or to ignore him. How can we come to know the call of our shepherd and to discern it from the hired hands and thieves who may be wolves in shepherd’s clothing?

We can know his words. Reading the Gospels for ourselves is very different from trusting others to interpret scripture for us. Many a thief has used it to bilk well-meaning sheep from their money and eventually their faith. Sitting down regularly with the Gospels and reliable sources of commentary to help us understand them in context will teach us to recognize the voice of our shepherd.

Our shepherd’s voice will lead us to abundant life. Any message that leaves us feeling diminished or unloved by God is being delivered by an inept hired hand. Of course our shepherd will challenge us and correct our path for our own good, but only in loving ways. Christ is always calling us out of the wilderness onto the path of life, not tangling us up in thorny condemnation.

We can pray. Not necessarily long, bleating prayers to fill up the silence, but quiet prayers that leave room for us to hear the divine voice always present to us. If we are out of practice it may take us a while to hear that voice, but we’ll know it when we do.

We may be smarter than sheep, but we still need our Good Shepherd.

Evening reading: Psalms 107; 15

The Needs of the One are The Needs of the Many

Today's readings: Psalms 2, 148; Isaiah 49:13-23;  Isaiah 54:1-13; Matthew 18:1-14

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one.”

 - Mr. Spock, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

"Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end... but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature ... And to found that edifice on its unavenged tears: would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell me the truth!"

- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

“The needs of the one … outweighed the needs of the many.”

- Captain Kirk, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Humankind has always struggled to balance individual need against the need of the greater community. One modern tool to achieve this balance is our choice of economic system: capitalism, socialism, communism, etc. These models lie on a continuum from individualism to collectivism, and all have achieved various levels of success – if measured economically. Measured spiritually, all fall short because they are not ends, but means. How do we approach this struggle of knowing what and when to sacrifice?

Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice of his life, but sacrificial living need not be so extreme. In the parable of the lost sheep, the shepherd leaves behind ninety-nine sheep to find one. That’s great if we are the one, but most of the time we are among the ninety-nine left on the mountain. Do we pray for the shepherd and the lost one and hope to celebrate their return? Or do we grumble about being temporarily inconvenienced and blame the one’s misfortune on its own failure to keep up? Are we willing to sacrifice a little so the one may survive? Often our answer depends on whether we’ve made the choice freely or been coerced … but the shepherd doesn’t survey the sheep about whether he should go.

In our society, sacrifice is valued mostly via lip service. We “sacrifice” trips to the movies or Starbucks to keep our debt down or to pay for our children’s college. Rarely are we called on to make true sacrifices in the sacred sense, which benefit us not at all. Or maybe those opportunities only seem rare because we are more apt to find reasons people have failed themselves than reasons to help. Does the shepherd seem concerned with whether he is giving the lost sheep “a hand up or a handout?” Are we prepared to make the real sacrifices necessary to save the lost in our society? Because in the end, the hands up are more costly in time, money and comfort than are the handouts. If Jesus is our example, we should be willing to sacrifice ourselves, but unwilling to make excuses to sacrifice others for the sake of convenience.

Evening readings: Psalms 110, 111