Shepherding is Not for the Faint at Heart

 

PROPERS:          4 EASTER, YEAR C    

TEXT:                JOHN 10:22-30    

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S CHAPEL, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SUNDAY, MAY 8, 2022.

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The Shepherd’s life is solitary; the pastoral nature is sometimes dangerous.

 

            Today is traditionally known as Good Shepherd Sunday. That is because our scriptures – when read in-full – emphasize the image of the Good Shepherd.

 

            The highlighting even began last week, when the resurrected Jesus told Peter to “tend my lambs” and “feed my sheep.”

 

            Jesus, as you know, preached and taught in metaphors and with images that were familiar to his listeners. Parables about Samaritans, mustard seeds, weeds and wheat, rebellious children, and so on. These were familiar. Much of the Jewish population earned modest livings from agriculture.

 

            They were also Bedouins – people who tended sheep, wandering from one grassy area to another, from one oasis to another. Jesus knew that aspect of life.  That is why he said in Matthew’s gospel, “I was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Three chapters later, he tells the story known as the Parable of the Lost Sheep.

 

            So, the shepherd is a recurring theme in Jesus’ ministry.  He knows the centrality of the image of the shepherd in Jewish culture.  It was familiar to his listeners. They knew what he meant.  

 

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            It was not a simple, one-dimensional image which has become so popular.

 

            The life and work of the shepherd were solitary and dangerous.  They were mostly male. Those men stayed with the sheep and tended them.  He usually worked alone.  Threats to the sheep from wild animals were frequent and required vigilance night and day.

 

            The work of a shepherd was pastoral, but not in the sense you might imagine.  The sheep were led to pastures of green grass. But it also meant placing oneself between the sheep and danger.  It meant doing things that perhaps the sheep did not understand but were nonetheless for the sheep’s own good.

 

            The work encompassed cold nights and scorchingly hot days.  It meant being away from other people and seeking the safety and nurture for the flock.

 

            The job may require that the shepherd venture into rugged wilderness hills to seek a lost lamb of the flock.  Maybe it involved confronting a ravenous wolf or other carnivores seeking the lambs’ flesh.

 

            Being a shepherd in Jesus’ time was much than caring gently for a flock.  Mothers gathered here today know the complicated nature of providing care 24 hours a day.  It is not for the faint of heart.

 

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            I read an article in Atlantic Magazine a week or so ago that featured a developing crisis within evangelical Christianity.  I know this will shock… utterly shock… you, but politics is encroaching on the church.

 

            Nowhere does it seem to be more dramatic and pronounced than in evangelical churches.  We might think they would be safe harbors these days.  Hardly so.

 

The article, written by an evangelical Christian, cited a statistic that stunned me; in the last few years, 42% of all evangelical pastors have contemplated leaving their congregations or the ministry entirely.

 

            Their reason?  Being a shepherd, a teacher, a pastor is no longer what it once was.  Like the task of motherhood, it is not for the faint of heart. The bitter divisions in our country are driving even conservative pastors to leave their pulpits – hounded by those they seek to serve.  It is not just the more liberal, protestant denominations; the virus of rancor is epidemic.

 

            Why do I tell you this?  It has to do with your next rector.  He or she will be your shepherd and you should respect the job he or she is called to do.

 

            Like biblical-era shepherds, much of the work will not be glamorous. Much will be behind-the scenes. Whether there is a family involved, there will be loneliness and solitude.  The new rector will be subject to the same demands you face on a daily basis – and then some. 

 

There will be times when the rector has to weigh choices that are not simple or one-dimensional.  Some actions may not be popular.  That’s the life of a shepherd.

 

            So, why does a person choose to be a shepherd?  Maybe a question of that sort would have been appropriate for Jesus.  It was not and is not a simple, easy path.

 

Once, the iconoclastic Baptist pastor, Will Campbell, asked another pastor  -- an ornery curmudgeon -- why he had had entered the ordained ministry, the answer was straightforward: “Because I was called, you fool.”