SHEEP
IN OTHER FOLDS The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long. TEXT: John 10:11-18 “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. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” Some years ago I participated in a Bible study during which we were examining this passage from John’s gospel where Jesus says, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.” The question naturally arose: “Who are these other sheep?” One woman, who must have been a Trekkie, suggested that Jesus may have been referring to beings from another galaxy. She noted that among a seemingly infinite array of galaxies throughout the universe, surely there were many planets, such as our own, which were capable of supporting life, albeit in different forms. Whatever forms of life may exist light years from earth must also be part of Jesus' flock. Well, I don’t know if Jesus had a mission to the Klingons, Romulans and Ferengi to bring them into the same fold as the Jewish sheep. However, I think that’s a stretch for an interpretation of this passage. Most likely, Jesus was referring to the Gentiles, the non-Jews, both those living in Judaea and those beyond. Some have suggested a more narrow interpretation, that Jesus was referring to the Samaritans, who worshiped the same God as the Jews, but in a different place. Keep in mind that John’s gospel was the last to have been written, probably in the second century, nearly a hundred years after Jesus apparently said these words. By then Christianity had spread beyond Judaea, and there were more Gentile Christians throughout the Roman Empire than there were converts from Judaism. John wanted to assure these Christians that they were included in God’s plan of redemption. If we want to take a broader interpretation of Jesus’ words, then we can believe that wherever there are sentient beings, God cares for them as well. To the best of my recollection, throughout my entire ministry I have never conducted a funeral or memorial service without using the Twenty-third Psalm. It seems that more than any other passage of scripture, these verses bring more comfort to those whose lives are in turmoil and who have been devastated by the loss of a loved one. Why is it, that in this age of technology, cyberspace, bionics, when most people have no idea where their meat and vegetables come from, we still use a pastoral metaphor of sheep and shepherds. Growing up in an urban environment, we just didn’t see flocks of sheep roaming the streets of the city. So, how does one relate to Jesus as the good shepherd? Shepherds had not been part of our sophisticated cultural landscape until Brokeback Mountain came along. In this film the shepherds care for one another and let the dogs care for the sheep. The important thing to remember about the Good Shepherd and about the Twenty-third Psalm’s metaphor is that God cares for all his children, whoever and wherever they are. William Sloane Coffin died this past month. He was a prominent United Church of Christ minister who had been senior pastor at Riverside Church in New York, but was most well-known as a crusader for social justice, a leader in the movements for peace, civil rights, anti-poverty. When his son, Alex, died tragically in a car accident many years before, Dr. Coffin said in his eulogy: The one thing that should never be said when someone dies is “It is the will of God.” Never do we know enough to say that. My own consolation lies in knowing that it was not the will of God that Alex die; that when the waves closed over the sinking car, God's heart was the first of all our hearts to break. This is how the psalmist would see God. This is how Jesus would embody the love of God. God cares for all God’s children, and God’s heart breaks when anyone suffers and dies. The world is full of tragedy and heartache. We cannot measure the pain that occurs daily through accident or intentional infliction by one human being upon another. To dismiss the continued suffering of Katrina’s victims, or the tragedy of Iraq, or the genocide in Darfur as being irrelevant to us who live in this community, is to deny God’s concern and care for the sheep in other folds. Like the heart of God, our hearts should break for those who suffer the pain of the world. And like the Good Shepherd we, too, must reach out to them as well. There are sheep in other folds that are close to us in this community, and in this congregation. The faithful member who strays away, because of hurt feelings or calamity or grief or self-pity or unforgiven guilt or a feeling of failure. . .is still known by the good shepherd, and sought by him. There are those who feel they don’t belong here because they follow a different spiritual path, because they feel unloved and unwanted, because they are of a different ethnic or racial background, because they are gay, because they feel that they are beyond the pale of God’s love. We need to help them know the love of God and that all are welcome to the table of Christ. We are all God's children, all part of God’s family. A family rejoices in the contributions of each person and bears the hurts and pains when even one family member feels estranged and alienated. Elizabeth O'Connor has said that the primary task of a church family is to find a way to say to each other, “you are needed.” We are one body with many parts, each important to the operation of the whole. When the body of Christ is fragmented, it is not being faithful to Christ's intention. It is part of our mission as a congregation to see that the family of God is not fractured into isolated units. This means letting one another know that he or she are missed at our family gatherings each week for worship. It means letting the shepherd know when there is sickness or spiritual needs that ought to be filled. Even sheep know enough to cry out when they are hurting or threatened so that the shepherd can hear its voice and be present to help. Jesus said that we are to bear one another's burdens. The doctrine of the incarnation says that Christ lives in each of us and that we must be the Christ to each other. Following the good shepherd involves us in a growing flock. “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” (John 10:16). Jesus is always concerned about the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So he reaches in numerous ways to his fellow Jews. Yet he is always reaching to the “outsider”. . .the Roman Centurion. . .the Samaritan woman. . .the prodigal son. . .the tax collector. . . the thief on the cross . . .the obvious sinner who has no claim upon God and who doesn't deserve God’s attention. Following such a shepherd means that we become involved in also caring for those who have no claim upon God, who have no obvious right to receive his love, but who desperately need it. He leads us in reaching out to the elderly living alone in apartments in the church's community. He leads us in reaching out with creative caring to the young or the singles or the single parents or the poorly educated or the runaways or the disintegrating marriages in the neighborhood of our church. He leads us to engage in all sorts of ministries to persons that bind up and heal, that strengthen family life, that encompass singles in a larger family. He leads us to contend against the forces of darkness and despair, against community evils that exploit and debase the individual and undermine the fabric of society by causing the deterioration of meaningful relationships. He leads us into all these in order that people in their pain and hurt and need may hear the caring voice of the good shepherd and be brought into a supportive family loved by the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many voices that call to us seeking our allegiance for one cause or another. We need to guard against those that would lead us astray. We can do this by responding to the voice of a shepherd whom we know and trust and by remaining faithful to the flock in which we are gathered. That faithfulness compels our support, our encouragement, our positive attitude, and our determination to be the Good Shepherd to all God’s sheep. Harry Serio |
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