Abundantly
“Abundantly” by Pastor Rosanna McFadden
Good morning! We are three weeks away from Easter Sunday, a Sunday which the lectionary — the three year cycle of Bible readings — observes as Good Shepherd Sunday. Sheep herding is an ancient business; one which still goes on today in places all around the world. I found a story about sheep herding that I thought was interesting:
A shepherd is tending his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a shiny new BMW appears. The driver is a young man in an Italian suit, designer shoes and expensive sunglasses. He rolls down the window, leans out and asks the shepherd, “Hey! If I can tell you how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?”
The shepherd looks at him, and agrees. The driver plugs his cell phone into a laptop and connects it to a GPS and starts a remote body-heat scan of the area. He sends some e-mails, receiving the answers, he prints a 100 page report on a portable printer tells the shepherd: “You have exactly 1,478 sheep.”
The shepherd answers: “Impressive. Choose your sheep.” The driver loaded it into his car and the shepherd says: “If I can tell you what your business is, will you give me my animal back?”
“You’re on.” the young man answers. “You’re a business consultant,” says the shepherd “You are right! How did you guess?” says the man. “Simple,” the shepherd replies. “You drive into my field uninvited. You want me to pay you for information I already know. You answer questions I haven’t asked, and you don’t know anything about my business. Now give me back my dog.”
I am joining a large group of people — maybe even some of you — who don’t know very much about sheep. But for the audiences of the Old, and most of the New Testaments, sheep were a familiar part of the landscape. The Hebrew people were nomadic herdsman; sheep were livelihood, currency, survival. They were a poetic simile, when the author of Psalm 114 describes hills skipping like lambs; it was a more pointed metaphor for the prophet Nathan when he described to King David how a rich man had taken a poor man’s only lamb — and David realized that he was the man who had taken another man’s wife. Sheep were an integral part of the Jewish sacrificial system, where an animal could be killed to take on the sin of human beings. It’s no great leap of imagination to apply that image of purity and innocence to Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. What is interesting is that Jesus is both lamb and shepherd: we as God’s people are also sheep — not too bright and prone to go our own way — and Jesus is the shepherd who keeps us together, keep us safe, and goes out looking for the lost.
John chapter 10 uses the sheep metaphor to talk about a flock which knows the shepherd’s voice because the shepherd knows them each by name, and when the shepherd goes out, the sheep follow him, because they trust him and know his voice; they wouldn’t follow a stranger. And verse 6 says, Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. My goodness, what about metaphor do you not understand? Because Jesus is going to continue working this image through verse 18; all the way through a shepherd giving up his life for his sheep.
It really is a lovely metaphor, which carries overtones of green pastures and still waters and the care of a shepherd who knows each sheep by name and loves every charge in his care. You probably know that pastor and pasture come from the same word, and Spanish has a feminine form of that word, so I get lovely messages from Pastor Danis of Elim which have been run through Google translate which begin, Dear Shepherdess . . . I love that.
All of which makes me happy to be a shepherdess tending sheep rather than herding cattle and being a cow girl. Stick with me for a bit, because there is theological significance here. Cattle driving is a phenomena of the American West, where there are large stretches of flat, mostly dry territory and lots of cattle need to be moved from one place to the other for forage and water — and ultimately to be slaughtered. Herders are on horses, higher than the cows, yelling at the cows to get them to move, driving them from behind or hemming them in on the sides, but not going ahead of them, because the cattle aren’t going to follow they have to driven. This is why I’d rather be a shepherdess than a cowgirl. You as the flock at Creekside may appreciate that, too.
I’m not suggesting either one is easy work. If you read on through Jesus’ extended metaphor in verses 11-15, he talks about danger to the sheep from thieves or wolves; the shepherd may have to lay down his life for the sheep. That is what the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, did for us. But this passage also speaks to why the sheep follow the shepherd at all; not because of force or intimidation, but because of relationship. In ancient societies, and maybe in some more recent ones, the shepherd would actually live with the sheep, staying with them throughout the months when the sheep were out in the fields. When you spend all your time with a group of animals, you give them names, you understand their personalities, you know them — and they know you.
Any shepherd, especially a good shepherd, wants what is best for the sheep in his care. He will defend them from thieves and predators, and go looking for any that are lost. But it is not only this posture of keeping the sheep from harm which is part of being a good shepherd — a good shepherd wants the sheep to thrive and flourish. The shepherd wants them, in the words of verse 10, to have life and have it abundantly. And I hope by this point in the teaching, Jesus’ disciples have figured out what he’s talking about, “Oh, like we’re the sheep.” Verse 10 makes the contrast between what the forces of the world wants for the sheep — to steal, kill, and destroy — and what Jesus wants for the sheep — that we would have life, and have it abundantly. Jesus stands in opposition to the forces which steal, kill, and destroy; but Jesus goes even further. It is not enough that the sheep stay alive, they are to have lives which are rich and purposeful and meaningful. The Greek word means “exceedingly,” “beyond measure,” or “beyond expectations.”
I find the pastoral imagery of the 23rd psalm helpful here, because of course, life is not just one long series of green pastures and still waters. It is needing the guidance of the shepherd’s rod and staff and experiencing that guidance as presence and comfort; it is knowing that anywhere we can go, our shepherd has already gone and promised to go with us — even through the valley of the shadow of death. And at the end of that psalm we have this vision of abundant life: surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Sisters and brothers, fellow sheep of God’s pasture, may we always follow the Good Shepherd who knows us by name and protects us and leads us in paths of righteousness, that we may have life and have it abundantly. Amen.