Care and feeding of sheep

4 Easter B 2009
Acts 4: 5-12; Ps 23; 1 John 3: 16-24; John 10: 11-18


It’s a good Sunday for sheep stories. I heard two new ones this past week, from your fellow members.

One tale told of an old rancher back in Eastern Oregon. This old cowboy was a nice man who never wanted to hurt a fly. The storyteller said that one day he paid a call on the rancher and found him very upset. Asked why he was upset, the rancher said that he had just fired one of his foremen. When asked why he had fired him, the rancher replied, “I had to. The man ate his OWN breakfast BEFORE he fed the sheep.”

The old rancher was a nice man, but nice didn’t get in the way of how he knew a man was supposed to care for sheep.

The other story was told during an argument about how dumb sheep really are. “Sheep are stupid!” said one of your fellow members. “No they’re not!” replied another. “Oh yes they are!” said the first. “Not always,” shot back the second. “I knew some sheep that were very smart. It depends on the shepherd. If the sheep spend a lot of time with the shepherd, they become like the shepherd.”

Maybe it doesn’t much matter what the sheep are like to start with. Maybe it matter what the sheep are like in the end, and how they get that way.

I know that I am not personally the Good Shepherd, even though his words in today’s Gospel challenge me to ask what motivates me in my ministry, what guides my concerns and decisions—the hired hand? A delicate matter, since I’m one of the few on the payroll here. Or does someone else drive my ministry, someone more simple and more bold? But the Good Shepherd stands in the midst of all of us this Sunday and we are all challenged by his words and his example. He “lays down his life for the sheep.” He calls and the sheep know his voice. He does not run from the wolf. John’s letter says that it is not just the Shepherd who loves in this way; we are to “lay down our lives for one another…in truth and action.” What does it mean to be this community of the Good Shepherd?

The sheep become more like the Good Shepherd the longer they spend time with him. How do we best spend quality time with the Good Shepherd? Through prayer? Through the sacraments? Through engagement with one another in community? Through serving in the shepherd’s name? The only way we become like the shepherd is by spending time with him through our regular Christian practice.

The more time we spend in the Shepherd’s company, the more we become like the Shepherd, the more we share his mind and his heart.

The Good Shepherd feeds the sheep before he eats his own breakfast. What questions do we ask here: How can we survive? Can we survive without changing? Are these shepherd questions?

Or are these shepherd questions: how can we spend more time with the shepherd so that he can change us? And who are we called to feed?

The Good Shepherd has a large sense of his flock. “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.” The community of the Good Shepherd does not wish to keep its circle small.

How can we spend more meaningful time with the Shepherd so he can change us? How can we best love one another? Whom else are we called to feed, to invite, to include?

These feel more like Good Shepherd questions. I’ll live with them today I believe the Good Shepherd wants us to live with those questions as his own beloved community.