Have you heard these or similar words: “We can’t fix the problem until the part gets in, and supply lines are really behind.”? Or maybe you have been told that what you are looking for, a freezer for example, requires you to be on a waiting list? Ever since the pandemic, it seems these words now belong to our daily life. They did for almost a whole year for my family regarding cars. Somehow or another, we were always down to one car, and that one was making funny noises, too. It was beyond frustrating, at some point all I could do was laugh about it. You know that slightly unhinged sounding resigned kind of laughter? Yeah, that one. So, when my new old car was finally delivered here from Colorado, you better believe there was a priest dancing in the street! Not only that, but guys, it’s a Subaru. There was obviously an Episcopal priest dancing in the street. I like this car so much, I even started looking for bumper stickers. I’ve never wanted one for my other cars. So of course now I look at other bumper stickers for inspiration. Do you ever pay attention to those a lot? They really can say a lot about the owner of the car. Their hobbies for example, I’m always impressed when someone has the 26.2 sticker on their car, because they ran a marathon. I’m also absolutely certain that I don’t want that sticker. Other bumper stickers can be sad when the death of a loved one is memorialized. There are stickers that declare your faith, or lack thereof. Stickers for your political candidate of choice. There are even attempts at philosophy, like carpe diem. And then I saw one that said: Lions not sheep, with a big head of a lion on the back of a truck. That one made me think. And then it made me sad.
Our psalm today is one of if not the most well-known biblical scripture reading there is. Psalm 23. It is highly recognized and even popular in movies and TV; it is quoted and made into memes on social media. But most importantly, it has given solace to countless people in their time of grief. We all know it. It begins with: The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want. God as a shepherd is a familiar pastoral scene in the Old Testament. It is a well-known allegory. The people themselves were nomadic shepherds. They knew how hard it is to be a good shepherd. Finding green pastures and still waters in the desert while leading a flock is hard work. By likening God to their shepherd who safely provides abundantly and even in excess, with cups flowing over, this psalm shows their absolute faith and trust in God. They will follow their shepherd; they will follow their God. When Jesus picks up this image of the shepherd in our Gospel reading today, the implication is crystal clear. I am the good shepherd; I am the Lord. I am your savior. Which makes the next sentence Jesus says all the more jarring. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. The disciples cannot comprehend this. What do you mean? Gods don’t die, not in their world. If anything, it’s the other way around, people are sacrificed to gods. The god Baal was even said to demand child sacrifices. What kind of lower-case g god dies themselves? How powerful can any god be that dies? How can this god save us when Jesus cannot even save himself? Jesus, don’t you know what we are up against? We are up against an empire. The Roman Empire claims their emperor is a god, he is also a powerful and violent leader, how can Rome be fought by a man who dies?
Let’s stay in this allegory of the good shepherd. Jesus compares Himself, the good shepherd with the hired help. The Roman emperor, and really all powerful and violent leaders in general, are the hired help Jesus warns about. Unlike God, they do not protect their flock from the danger, do not protect them from the wolves. Because the flock does not really belong to them, these leaders, this hired help doesn’t know them. No emperor, no head of any government can ever know all their people. We have trouble knowing ourselves. But the good shepherd knows his sheep, and we know him. Jesus knows us, he knows that we are afraid of death. He knows that we believe in scarcity. He knows about our fear of not having enough, we don’t feel safe. And this leads us astray, away from the flock and makes us cling to earthly power, sometimes even at the expense of our brothers and sisters. Loving our neighbors as we love ourselves is very challenging for us at times. It is why the shepherd lays down his life. Because his death has a purpose: resurrection. Jesus tells the disciples: I have power to lay my life down, and I have power to take it up again. Far from being overcome by death, the shepherd dies in order to save his sheep from death. He follows us into death itself in his pursuit of us, of bringing us in close and closer relationship with God. Jesus knows that the only way to save us is to assure us, that not even death can keep us from the good shepherd. Not even death can keep us from green pastures and still waters. He counters our belief in scarcity with the reality of God’s abundant love for us. We are safe and our cup overflows when we are the sheep of His flock.
Which is why that bumper sticker made me sad. Who wants to be a lion when we are called to be God’s sheep? Maybe we are still afraid of death. We definitely prefer feeling powerful over powerless. We clearly see the sheep as weaker than the lion and we know what we prefer. We know what we think is safer.
But how weak is a Christian sheep?
A flock is only as weak as its shepherd. And our shepherd dances with death for us. More than that, where the shepherd leads, the sheep follow. Even into death. When we like sheep follow Him, follow Jesus, we walk into death with God. And on the way, we follow Him to feed the hungry. We give water to the thirsty. We invite the strangers. We make sure people have clothes and good health. Because we know that whatever we do for our brothers and sisters, we do for Him. Because we may not always get it right, but we love our neighbors. We follow our shepherd.
How weak is a Christian sheep?
I never really cared for quoting scripture at strangers, but I think I’ll make an exception. I want a bumper sticker that says Psalm 23.
Because the Lord is my shepherd, and I try to be a faithful sheep.