Good morning! Have any of you ever been to a sheepdog trial? Those dogs are amazing! With just a whistle or a hand gesture, they know exactly what to do with the sheep. It’s part training and a whole lot of instinct that makes them be that way. Now what happens when you take the sheepdog out of the field and into the home? Those instincts kick in and when they don’t have a job to do, they create one. Take my previous dog, Alvie Anne, for example.
My spouse is a professional musician, and we often have musicians stay with us when there is a concert in the Seattle area. Now, Alvie was a sheepherding mix – Border Collie and German Shepherd – and was hypervigilant. She knew who belonged in the house and who didn’t and if you were someone she hadn’t met before…guess who doesn’t belong? She would nip at a person’s heels and try to herd them out of the house! I had to watch her like a hawk. Not fun for the person, definitely not fun for me, but Alvie thought she was doing her job and never could understand what all the fuss was about.
Thankfully, Jesus didn’t have a dog like her in the Gospel story today, although sometimes the disciples acted like her. If they had their way sometimes, no one would belong to the fold but Jesus and the disciples, which was exactly the opposite message that Jesus was trying to convey.
The analogy of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is interesting. We often identify characteristics of the good shepherd with the people we choose to lead us in the church community, but that isn’t what Jesus is talking about here. Nowhere in this passage are any who follow Jesus depicted as shepherds or even assistant shepherds. Instead, all who gather around Jesus receive their identity as members of the flock. The sheep are the community, and they all gather around Jesus as the community of those who share in the mutual knowledge of God and Jesus, whose relationship to Jesus is modeled on Jesus’ relationship to God. We all receive our identity through Jesus’ gift of life for us.
Now, there is a pervading myth that sheep are dumb. However, scientists from the University of Cambridge have busted this myth. They performed some in-depth studies and proved that the average sheep can remember and distinguish between at least fifty other faces—including humans and other species, like dogs – and can recall them for several years. They are also capable of a wide range of emotions. All signals of high intelligence within the animal kingdom.
So why do we continue to think sheep are dumb? Well, like humans, sheep behave stupidly when they are frightened. For any creature who is scared, the brain shuts down its normal reasoning and goes into reptilian mode—fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. No one is at their best when they are frightened, especially in a crowd. We do dumb things. We hurt ourselves and each other. Perhaps this is why Jesus referred to us a sheep.
Shepherds spend a lot of time with their sheep—they care for them and notice if one of them is hurt or straying. Jesus spends a lot of time with the disciples and us. He calls us by name, just like a good shepherd calls his sheep…and furthermore, we know his voice. When we gather around Jesus, he leads us to where we are supposed to go. Of course, we may have other ideas. We may be enticed by other whistles or bells or even other shepherds. Then there is the fear—fear of death, fear of not having enough, fear of being hurt, fear of being the other—and fear sells. Think about insurance, politicians, advertising—all selling their own brand of fear. Fear divides us. It divides us from the shepherd, and it divides us from others in the flock.
There is so much in this modern world that clamors for our attention, for our worship. We painfully find out that these other things don’t know us by name. Sometimes, as sheep, we may stay in one place watching a butterfly flit across the meadow aka scrolling on social media or gorging ourselves on a particular indulgence aka bingeing Netflix, not paying attention to where the shepherd is moving us to, and then we are lost until we are found again. What draws you away from our shepherd? Do you know his voice amid all that competes with him?
Jesus speaks of thieves trying to steal, kill, and destroy the sheep. How many of us have experienced a thief of the spirit? The old adage “Comparison is the thief of joy” rings true here. When we are paying too much attention to what other sheep are doing or looking at shepherds in other pastures, we lose the connection to what our joy is: doing our best for God each day. That is what matters most. Can we say that we have done our best to follow Jesus when our head hits the pillow at night? There is safety in the flock community and in paying attention to the shepherd. He is constantly leading us to new places of pasture that we have never seen before or imagined.
What does it mean for the church to live as Jesus’ sheep? What does this type of church look like? Our story in Acts today gives us a glimpse: “All who believed were together and had all things in common…day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home, and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God…”
I find this passage heartening as we look for ways to join God in the work already happening. This glimpse shows us that the basic elements of Christian life can be translated in a myriad of ways that don’t involve a church building or a Sunday morning worship service at our preferred time. The converts in Acts were different than the other communities around them. They weren’t immune to hardship and adversity, but they had the strength of their shared focus of Jesus—devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Just like we are called to in our Baptismal Covenant. All the gifts we individually have become part of the common community. Where is Jesus leading us with all these gifts?
As we learned, our fear divides us, but the Good Shepherd unites us. Our gifts are strengthened when we heed the shepherd’s voice. Day by day, our Good Shepherd leads us to renewal and to a new way of being community. Jesus came that we “may have life and have it abundantly.” In this mixed-up world pulling you in every direction, Jesus has called you by name, my friends. Do you hear him? AMEN.