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May 7, 2006
John 10:11-18 ~ "Divine Security"

I’m having a hard time deciding who should play the part in the new movie. You know, the new historical action movie the studios have announced based loosely on our scripture passage today and the 23rd Psalm. I think they’re going to call it something like “Shepherd Impossible!” or “Braveshepherd” or I’ve even heard “Indiana Shepherd and the Grassy Plains of Doom!”

They haven’t announced who will play the starring role as The Shepherd, although there’s already a movement on the internet to get Tom Cruise to recreate his famous role of secret agent Ethan Hunt, only now as secret sheep caretaker Ethan Herd. But I’m not sure he’s right for the part. I’m still toying with the idea of a more low-key and wiser action hero, like Samuel L. Jackson, or even getting a totally different kind of star in, like the marvelous Lucy Liu, or, heck, any one or all of the Charlie’s Angels, present or past!

It’s a little hard for us to get our minds wrapped around the concept of the shepherd, so well known from scripture, as an action hero, or anything other than the caring, comforting, sacrificial shepherd embedded in our hearts and minds and stained glass windows.

In actuality, shepherds had less to do with stuffed teddy bear lambs and more in common with rugged action heroes. Sarah Dylan Bruener, my favorite blogger, reminds us that in the ancient Mediterranean world, “shepherding would be less about serenity than about survival. Shepherds had a hard life. To make sure that their sheep had enough food and water, they had to roam far from home, and they paid a heavy price for it. They were exposed to the elements, and suffered from heat during the day and cold during long, sleepless nights guarding the flock from human and animal predators. [The people who depended upon the shepherds] were in turn more vulnerable to predators, and that's a major reason that shepherds were generally thought of as dishonorable characters, leaving their families so exposed. If after all that a shepherd lost too many sheep to illness, injury, starvation, or dehydration, the whole family would perish -- the flock's welfare really was the shepherd's own.” (1)

If you watched Texas Ranch House on PBS these past few weeks, you got a small sense of the life of a shepherd. At the end of the show, the historical ranching experts determine that the Cooke Family Ranch did not end the summer with the resources to sustain them through a winter, and, if they had been a real ranch family of 1867 they would have to either leave the ranch completely or risk dangers such as starvation or attack.

But it makes perfect sense as to why we have such a beautiful, pastoral, pleasant image of shepherds. For starters, few, if any of us have ever really been near sheep, shepherds, or perhaps even rolling hillsides! I realized that the most recent visual I’ve had of sheep herding was in the Academy Award winning film of this last year, Brokeback Mountain, and it only served to reinforce this shallow impression. The movie begins with two young men in the mountains of Wyoming taking care of a grand heard of sheep. Director, Ang Lee – melding incredible cinematography with the haunting guitar melodies of Gustav Santaolalla – at one point fills the screen with nothing but the serene white and gray figures of sheep as they pour over a mountainside. Other than a few scattered occasions of realism, when smaller sheep are hoisted up on the horses back to get them across a stream, or when they come upon a carcass of a lamb attacked by a wolf, we never do not get the full impact of sheep herding. But that wasn’t the point of the movie, was it?!

Regardless of how accurate our images are, the icon of the reassuring and devoted shepherd seems as powerful today as it ever has been. Rabbi and author Harold Kushner reinforced this when he said in an interview, “No matter how grievous a funeral was, no matter how tragic a memorial service was, if I just started to recite the familiar words of the twenty-third Psalm, ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures ...’ it tranquilized the congregation. It just made people feel calm”. (2) I’ve experienced the very same thing throughout my ministry.

Like ancient people, we have a deep and abiding need to believe there is someone who is in charge, and that this person cares about us so deeply, he or she would lay down their life for our safety. These three characteristics – authority, compassion, and a sacrificial spirit – go together to give our souls the ultimate sense of security we need to get by in life, with all the tumult and chaos and frustrations. Believing there is someone with the ability and power to take control, and that that person has a heart of compassion, kindness, and love for us that will compel him or her to look out for our very best interests allows us to feel secure.

So my made up movie star question is still appropriate… perhaps even more so now. Who will play the part of the shepherd? Who plays the part of the shepherd for you?

Of course, the answer to the question is God, and if we need to make it a little more tangible, then God-in-Christ. This is the clear and consistent message of both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures: while there may be men and women in your midst who are kind, loving, and giving, ultimately only God will fit the bill for such a powerful part of our lives.

But, you and I both know that it is hard to be satisfied with such a spiritualized answer to a need that is so real, so immediate, so powerful. When we are in the throes of deepest sorrow or despair, when we have the weight of the world upon our backs, or we are lost and need to find our way – we look for a face, a person, a beating heart to be our shepherd.

And here is the mystery of our faith: there are people who can at times become for us the shepherd we yearn for in God. But as with all mysteries, there is another truth: no single person can be that shepherd ultimately, for each of us are sheep as well.

We put people in our lives into the role of shepherd all the time. Perhaps it is a parent, or a teacher or a counselor. Perhaps it is a doctor, a therapist, or a pastor. Perhaps it is a spouse, a neighbor or a friend. For a moment, they can be a channel of the one Great Shepherd, and offer the word of comfort or challenge you need, provide the wisdom or the stability for which you long. But they will eventually fail. I wouldn’t call them “hired hands” according to scripture, for scripture says the problem with hired hands is that they “do not care” about the sheep. But they fall away nonetheless. They are human, after all.

One of the greatest challenges for a pastor is to imagine the fate of those in a previous congregation who mistook the pastor, me, for the Great Shepherd. I know it happened, and happens even here, for I hear the words you say to me, and feel the appreciation you offer. I ponder quite often the fate of the youth at First Presbyterian in Grapevine, Texas and the members and friends of Park Avenue Christian Church in New York City, particulalarly of those who relied too heavily upon me as their shepherd. Of course, they have had new pastors come and care for them deeply, but I still worry about those who clung too close to me as pastor, and, knowing full and well that I am human, feel at times more like a hired hand who has run away than a shepherd who lays down his life.

At the Board of Elders meeting this past Thursday we talked about the structure of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and how the pastor is an Elder among Elders, and that Elders are also charged with sharing the role of “flesh-and-blood/here-and-now shepherd” with the pastor. It is a joy and a relief to me that we have such a group of people who understand the power of comfort, of being there for people who are in sorrow or who are burdened with life. After worship today we will begin the process of calling more folks to these positions, as well as to the Diaconate and the Trustees. The Elders of the church share with me the humbling honor of being the hands and the heart of Jesus when his flock is in need.

And finally, the greater paradox of the faith is that even those of us who know we are called to be shepherds to the flock, understand fully that we never leave our role as sheep ourselves. If this were an Action Movie, that would make us both the star of the movie and the extra who simply walks across the street in the background at just the right time and just the right place. I am both shepherd and sheep. The Elders of Franklin Circle Christian Church are both shepherds and sheep. If this is true, then it is not hard to imagine that perhaps God intended every single one of us, no matter what our role in the church or society, to not simply be the sheep looking for comfort, security, and care, but also shepherds offering comfort, security, and care to those in our midst who look up to us, who depend upon us.

At the end of the filming, we realize that there is really only one star to this movie, and that is Jesus. The only one who really will come through for us in the end – more reliably than Tom Cruise, Samuel L. Jackson, and Lucy Liu combined! But this is a very wise star, this Jesus, and we see he has stepped off the screen early in the movie. Jesus, a star who shares not only the credits with all the other actors of life, shares also the starring role, as well. We take over the starring role, and shepherding one another through the difficulties of life may seem like a “Mission Impossible,” but ultimately, it is a role we were created to fill, and after all is wrapped up and “in the can,” when we finally get to enter the theater to watch the screening of what we have starred in, maybe, just maybe we’ll see Jesus, the Great Shepherd, really never left the screen. We will see him throughout the movie in our own words and deeds. Now that’s a winning movie if I ever heard of one!
Amen.

(1) Dylan's Lectionary Blog ~ Sarah Dylan Breuer at http://www.sarahlaughed.net/lectionary/

(2) Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, November 26, 2004 Episode no. 813 at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week813/feature.html

Copyright 2006 -- The Rev. Allen V. Harris

Franklin Circle Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

1688 Fulton Rd., Cleveland, OH 44113-3096