April 23. 2017

Background Scripture: John 10:1-15

Devotional Reading: Matthew 5:23,24

 

I really don’t know much about sheep and even less about shepherds. Of course, I’ve seen flocks of sheep in meadows, more abroad than here in the USA.

  

I do remember one day quite a few years ago in Broadway, England, when I decided to cut through a field filled with sheep, rather than take the roadway a quarter of a mile less. After all, I’d heard that sheep were not all that intelligent and were mild-mannered as well. But, a third of the way across the field I began to get a bit edgy, for the sheep seemed to look at me with lessthan-friendly eyes. At the same time, I searched my memory and couldn’t remember ever reading of someone who had been maimed or even attacked by one sheep or more.

 

But, when at last I got to the other fence, I decided I wouldn’t do that again – and I haven’t.

 

So, earlier this week when I began to prepare this column and read some more about the good shepherd and his flock, I came to the conclusion that although few of us have much or anything to do with sheep, we do have some affinity with them.

 

Like them, we need a shepherd, a trustworthy someone we can follow with trust.

 

One of the things I have just learned about sheep is their dependence upon the voice of the shepherd. Sometimes shepherds with their own flocks share a good place together with their flocks. But early in the morning, each shepherd calls to his flock and the sheep know their shepherd’s voice and come only to their shepherd,

 

Good and bad shepherds In John 10:7, Jesus says: “I am the door of the sheep.”

 

I had always assumed this was a metaphor, but I learned that in a sleeping place of some risk, the shepherd often chooses a narrow entrance so that his body can close off access to him and his flock.

 

“All who have come before  me are thieves and robbers,but the sheep did not listen to them, I am the door” (10:8,9). Jesus goes on to describe the shameful role of the “bad shepherds.” The shepherds come to deceive and rob, but Jesus says:

 

“The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep … No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord. “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again, I have this command from my Father” (10:18).

 

This last statement from Jesus is vital: Jesus is not the victim, but the victor. They cannot take from his life because he is already giving it.

 

The result will not be the victory of their will, but his. I don’t think this means Jesus wanted to die, but he knew perfectly well that was where he was headed. If, by some chance, the disciples could have spirited him away from Calvary, no one would realize that Calvary and the Garden tomb were not the end of the story– but just the beginning.

 

The Bad News of Good Friday shrinks in comparison to the Good News: Christ is Risen! The voice of The Good Shepherd is still within and among us. But Jesus also said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away - and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep” (10:11-19).

 

Today’s shepherds

 

What about the presumed “shepherds” of today?

 

I have grave concern about both the question and the answers. But first … I graduated from the University of P e n n s y l v a n i a ’ s Wharton School of Finance and Commerce in 1952, but although I enjoyed my subjects and learned a great deal, by the beginning of my junior year I had made the decision to answer a call to the Christian ministry. I graduated (B.S. in economics) in May 1952 and entered seminary in that fall.

 

As a seminary student I served parttime a tiny congregation at the foot of the Alleghenies.

 

After ordination I served for five years a church in what is now suburban Harrisburg, Pa., before going to a church in Crestwood, N.Y., a suburb of New York City, where I served as Minister of Education and did graduate work at Union Theological Seminary.

 

Three years later I was assigned to a suburban congregation of Reading, Pa., where I remained for 13 years. In 1977 I became a member of the staff at First United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas, director of New Dimensions Ministries, retiring in 1994.

 

Along the way I have written church school curriculum for the EUB and United Methodist churches, involved a nationwide youth mission, served as a member and president of Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship, helped to open a coffee house ministry, became active in Crisis Forum (during the turmoil of the 1960s), marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C., served on the Board of the Isthmus Institute (science and religion), conducted a ministry of healing, organized and led special interest tours abroad and written five books.

 

And, beginning in June 1964, I have written this weekly column against 2,750 deadlines. I’ve cited all of the above to indicate the background from which springs my writing of these columns. I’ve been around!

 

So, keep that in mind when you read my column next week, so you will know from whence I am coming.

 

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for  Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.