Sunday, April 29, 2007

Sermon: "Jesus the High Touch Shepherd"

Scripture: John 10: 22-30

Reverend Larry Gerber

We live in a changing new world of computer-raised sheep, but there's still just one Shepherd to follow.

In Psalm 23, the shepherd leads the sheep beside cool waters. In century 21, the shepherd weighs the sheep beside cool waters ? while he sits behind a laptop miles away.

We are used to the rogue image of the Bedouin shepherd ? crook in hand, flowing robes, Middle Eastern head-covering. We remember a young David, tending his father's flocks alone in the cold, battling lions and bears, engaging the God of creation in songs and poems that he would later pen into psalms.

Now consider today's e-shepherd ? Bluetooth headset in ear, Blackberry PDA attached to belt, Venti Mocha perched desktop alongside GPS receiver. He sits remote from his flock in a warm ranch house, a crook exchanged for a mouse, perhaps playing a game of Internet Spades while still on the clock.

That may be the appropriate picture in New South Wales, Australia, where cutting-edge technologies are being applied to an age-old industry. Ranchers attach tiny GPS transponders to the ears of baby lambs, and as these sheep grow up, they can be "watched" from a computer monitor. Throughout the day, sheep move freely from grazing areas to drinking areas to sleeping areas. Each channel between areas is wide enough for only one sheep to pass at a time, and as they pass between fenced-in zones, their transponders alert the shepherd where they are going and when.

"We can keep tabs on a single sheep from the time it is a little lamb to the time that it becomes lamb chops," says Bill Murray, spokesperson for the Australian Sheep Industry. "However, the main advantage is in sheep

handling, because the transponders allow the sheep to make their own decisions, without being hassled by people or dogs."

Allowing free-range grazing isn't about having self-actualized herds. It's about having unhassled, unhurried, tenderized ones. Apparently, sheep autonomy equals appetite appeal.

Beyond tastier flocks, e-shepherds also have well-organized flocks. Remotely controlled gates determine which grazing and drinking areas sheep are channeled into and for how long they remain there. Electronic scales are placed within each passageway so that every time a flock is "shepherded" from one area to another, each sheep can be weighed as it passes by. As a fully grown sheep passes through, a side gate opens sending it into a yard for those animals headed to market. As a pregnant ewe near birth weight passes through, a gate opens to send her to a prenatal area. In the future, animals due for vaccination will be given remote shots as they pass by and diseased animals can be detected and quarantined for medical treatment.

All from a distance. All without human contact. All electronically.

If David had controlled his flocks in e-shepherd fashion, he might have blogged the Psalms, text messaged Jonathon, and sent a fatal hard-drive virus to Goliath.

So the lesson from e-sheep is this: 21st-century techno-culture metaphors are light years away from biblical, agrarian culture metaphors.

Noting this, consider John 10:22-30. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is so not like the impersonal techno-shepherd. Here, as elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus uses a metaphor his audience will understand: He's the shepherd, and his followers are the sheep. So to understand what Jesus wants our contemporary audiences to understand, we must culturally unpack and translate what this sheep imagery means.

Begin with our non-agrarian understandings of sheep. They aren't bright animals. There's no parlor game question that ever asks: "Which is the smartest animal? The horse, the pig, the sheep, the dog, the cat?" Won't happen. Sheep blindly follow each other around with an unimaginative herd mentality. They need to be constantly provided for and protected so they don't starve to death or become wolf-lunch.

So is this the way that Jesus wants us to see ourselves? Maybe yes, maybe no. What is clear is that sheep are needy. They not only need a shepherd, they need a good shepherd. Good ones take their job seriously. Good ones take care of the sheep. They protect and defend the sheep. They lead the sheep to still waters and green pastures. They lay down their lives for the sheep. They look for lost sheep.

In Jesus' day, shepherds didn't have the fiscal means to own sheep, thus many were mercenary care givers hired to live and sleep with the herds. Many were 8-12-year-old boys in the family business, out in a field because few opportunities existed for them. In our Western career caste system, shepherds wouldn't be white-collar or blue-collar ? they'd be no-collar.

Is Jesus this kind of shepherd? Obviously not.

The Shepherd. John emphasizes two elements of setting. The time is the festival of Dedication, or Hanukkah (v. 22) ? the Jewish celebration of the rededication of the Temple after Antiochus desecrated it while trying to force Greek religion and philosophy upon them. The place is the portico of Solomon (v. 23) ? the only remaining relic of Solomon's sacred temple which still stood, and the place where the Jewish king would make judgments and exercise justice.

So a controversial rabbi is teaching radical ideas and taking controversial theological positions at a time when Jewish culture in the presence of the Roman occupation, and the traditions and history of Jewish religious milieu are being honored and glorified. And Jesus is doing this in the very place where God's kings had always spoken to God's people.

The Jews' question and request (v. 24) are therefore painfully rhetorical. "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."

There's no suspense. They know exactly what he is saying because of when and where he is saying it.

Who does this Shepherd claim to be?

? Someone who works in the "Father's name."

? Someone whose "sheep" hear his voice.

? Someone who knows the sheep.

? Someone whose "sheep" follow him.

? Someone who gives to his followers eternal life.

? Someone who defends his "sheep," because "no one will snatch them out of my hand."

? Someone who is one with the "Father."

Jesus is no e-shepherd who engages his sheep remotely. The Shepherd maintains intimacy and proximity in order to meet the needs of his sheep. He is at least within voice-distance (v. 27). Jesus is a hands-on, high-touch Shepherd.

The Sheep. Jesus speaks of his sheep in front of an audience who does not fit that category: "You do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep" (v. 26).

Not everyone is a sheep of this Shepherd ? a difficult and sobering reality. The Shepherd does not crook-beat people into following him. He allows for some goats instead of all sheep.

But those who are Christ followers are described this way: "My sheep hear my voice" (v. 27).

For intrigued sheep then or now, a natural question emerges from this text. How do we hear our Shepherd's voice? Is it like Moses who heard from God audibly at Sinai? Is it like Elijah who heard the sound of sheer silence as God spoke? Or is it like pastor and author Rob Bell describing his call to preaching: "I heard a voice ? not an audible, loud, human kind of voice ? but inner words spoken somewhere in my soul that were very clear and very concise. What I heard was ?Teach this book, and I will take care of everything else.'"

Don't we all long for a voice like those three experienced?

Notice, though, that Jesus describes voice-hearing in two different ways: "I know them, and they follow me" (v. 27).

When Jesus knows his sheep he does so eternally (v. 28), and they are offered the Shepherd's protection and security. But this security is not earthly. Sheep may lose their life, their financial comfort and their social acceptance because of their faith. Yet those who have heard the saving call of God and responded can never lose their souls and relationship with the Shepherd.

In biblical times, and even in the Holy Land today,shepherds had shrill yells that would resound through the wadis and across the hills where their sheep grazed. The Shepherd's voice was firm, clear, loud ? and there was no mistaking it. It told the sheep, "I am your shepherd. I know the best path. Follow me."

When is the last time we have sensed God leading us to still waters and green pastures? When have we been asked to follow Jesus even when it is costly? Sheep regularly hear from their shepherd, they trust his voice and they follow.

Jesus doesn't fit the shepherd stereotype and it's probably fair to say that we aren't the brainless herd animals that we assume sheep to be. But the biblical metaphor is still timeless and rich, ultimately giving us a picture of relationship, protection and provision, allowing us to hear a clear voice that bids us follow toward soul-satisfaction.


Sources:

Bell, Rob. Velvet Elvis. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.

On Australian e-sheep: sciencealert.com.au/stories/CRCA/esheep.htm.

On Solomon's Porch: bible-history.com/backd2/solomons_porch.html.

Wright, N.T. Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense. New York: Harper Collins, 2006.