Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. Jesus – as the good shepherd – is a familiar concept, but what is he really saying? Do we have to understand sheep and shepherds to truly get what Jesus is doing here? Sheep have not been part of my life experience – and then our daughter, Cecilia, decided to raise sheep. One night last year, I helped bring the sheep from the pasture into the sheep pen. The sheep really do follow the shepherd’s voice – and each other. And that whole shepherd’s crook thing? That is for real. How else are you going to catch a wayward sheep? or separate the ewes from the lambs? or the rams from the ewes?

It is strange that this text puzzles me since this is the central Bible story that all three of my kids learned at Christian Family Montessori School starting at age 3. Of course that was a very long time ago but I still remember how beautiful it was to see the catechist tell this story of God’s love to the youngest children. And not only tell the story but help them see it. 

The catechist starts with a green pasture surrounded by a fence. And then out of the box come the sheep and a shepherd figure. And then in a meditative way they read, or even recite, this text. (S, would you help me?)

The Good Shepherd calls the sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When the shepherd has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know the shepherds voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, they will run because they do not know the voice of strangers. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down their life for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as God (the Father) knows me, and I know God (the Father.) And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 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. (don’t put all the  sheep back in fold)

The teachers don’t explain the meaning. Instead they ask: I wonder, who is the shepherd? I wonder, who are the sheep? I wonder, how do the sheep feel being part of the flock?

When the children, at three years old, first hear this story, they don’t hear the whole passage that was read. The parts about the thief that breaks in and steals sheep, the dangerous wolf – these verses are set aside until the children are older, until they have the capacity to understand that bad things happen. The youngest children only need to know about the good shepherd. Hopefully they are already well acquainted with love and care and they recognize this in the good shepherd.  

Then the children get to practice telling this story with the figures on their own. They may not have all the words but they are learning that the shepherd is good and the sheep follow when they are called by name, when they hear the Good Shepherd’s voice. What a nurturing way for children to begin to have words and actions about God. They don’t understand theologically but seeing the sheep, and helping the sheep follow the shepherd is a concrete vision of following Jesus, of discipleship.

It is interesting that what is so obvious to three year olds, befuddles Jesus’ listeners. It is not as if this is the first time they have heard of sheep and shepherds. Shepherds are woven throughout their Jewish faith. Their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, were all shepherds. Moses tended sheep. Before he was a king, David was a shepherd. They must have sung the psalm: “The lord is my shepherd.” The prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel – and others, all use the image of God as shepherd often. Now Jesus, in that same prophetic tradition, speaks of the shepherd.

Maybe they are thinking too literally. To have this rabbi standing before them and say, “I am the Good Shepherd.” And then a few moments later say, “I am the gate.” What is he claiming? It just doesn’t make sense – unless you have imagination.

In this season, as we practice our imagination skills, here is another opportunity. The resources we are using during Lent suggest that this passage is about leadership and accountability. I let my imagination go there. Jesus is the kind of leader that mysteriously knows us, calls us, by name. Jesus is a leader that chooses to lay down his life. His “father” does not send him to die, does not demand that he die. Jesus says – I freely lay down my life. And so I am free to take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own free will. Jesus makes the choice to follow God, to care for his neighbors and the sheep. And Jesus accepts responsibility for his own actions. Last week we heard a story of Jesus responding to criticism from a foreign woman and being open to a new understanding of his own role. Talk about taking responsibility.

The Good Shepherd does not step aside when sheep rustlers or thieves come but instead the shepherd puts themself in harms way – as a distraction? as a decoy? as a delay tactic? as a way to get the rustlers to stop and see what they are doing? to give them time to take account of their actions? to protect the sheep.

So what does it mean for those of us who follow Jesus to emulate “good shepherd” leadership — even if we are only hired hands?    

Last Thursday I went to immigration court to be present and support people who enter that imposing building with fear and trembling. With this text from John in mind – the shepherd, the sheepfold, the sheep rustler, the hired hand, the wolf  – suddenly I have a different perspective on the court room than when I was there last month.

I notice, in a new way, the very real “fence” that separates the judge, the lawyers, and other court officials from the people who come to tell their story, who come to plead for mercy. I notice that you can’t even see the gate or an opening in the ceremonial fence – unless you know where to look, unless you are allowed to use it. Is this fence keeping people out, or officials in? Are there issues of safety at play here or is it just a pretense of power and control? of separation?

Then my imagination really begins to churn. Do the wolves or thieves ever come to court, to this sheep pen?…

There are thieves that come into our neighborhoods looking for what they deem “illegal” sheep. They don’t enter the neighborhoods with tall fences, the neighborhoods with locked gates… Where is the hired hand who looks after the sheep? Where is the Good Shepherd? Will anyone lay down their life, of their own free will, to protect the sheep? Is there anyway to convince the sheep rustlers to stop?

In Minnesota, and right here in the DMV, there are people who are looking out for their neighbors. In some ways, many people feel like sheep these days, in danger of being rounded up and carted off. The neighbors who feel less at risk from the sheep rustlers have been bringing food to their neighbors who are staying inside. The less-at-risk neighbors help take children to school, stand watch on street corners and sing songs to the people who have locked themselves in their homes. 

Not only that, the less-at-risk neighbors sing songs to the sheep rustlers, thieves and strangers. In an unconventional twist, these “hired hands” (not to be confused with hired protesters) try to convince the rustlers and wolves to be peaceful, to stop hurting their neighbors.

SING – 

It’s okay to change your mind. Show us your courage. Leave this behind.

It’s okay to change your mind. You can come and join us.

Join us anytime. 

Will the singing calm things? Will any of these “strangers” or “sheep rustlers” be swayed? Can music “sooth the savage breast?” For sure, singing is a very different, unpredictable, response to violence. Where there are guns and pepper spray there are usually more guns and pepper spray. But these singing “hired hands,” whether they know it or not, seem to be taking cues from the “good shepherd” in the face of danger. They are putting themselves, willingly, in the path of the armed rustlers and wolves with weapons.

It is not only wolves and rustlers that are part of this dangerous landscape. There are also those inside that court fence, some that don’t look so happy to be there. In the courtroom this week, the DHS lawyer seemed less than enthusiastic about the job (or perhaps I am projecting.) Did the attorney really believe that the detained husband and father who has no criminal record, who has three young children (one with ongoing health risks) should remain in detention? Did the lawyer really believe, as was suggested, that the children and their mother, who are all citizens, could be supported by the pittance the man would earn in Mexico if he is deported? Is this attorney laying down the truth – to keep a job? Is the risk to the soul greater than the risk to the career?

“Shepherd” leadership invites people to consider the risks to their souls. Shepherds are sometimes willing to give up their own life – but do not demand it of others. On the other hand, authoritarianism demands that the underlings lay down their lives. Those who consider themselves on top keep themselves safe while offering up anyone with less power to the “manufactured” danger in the world. Autocrats don’t take personal responsibility, and hold only certain people accountable.

As followers of the Good Shepherd and people of peace, we do not take up arms. And we can decide if we want to put ourselves in harm’s way. It is a difficult personal choice. Unfortunately, the people who are in Iran or Palestine or Ukraine, or a whole host of other countries – don’t have as many choices as we do. We who live here in the wolf’s lair, paradoxically, have more choices; many of us are not at great risk. 

And we don’t all have the same risk factors. Those of us who are queer, or black or brown, or differently-abled, or struggling with health issues, or Muslim or Jewish, or immigrants, or parents or children… are at greater risk. Our capacities and abilities to risk, to lay down our lives, are not all the same. We respect that about each other. We give that grace to each other even as we work together to look out for the sheep, to look out for each other.

As followers of the Good Shepherd, we are together in this flock. There is a strange kind of power in being together, in knowing the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd knowing us. And, Jesus says, “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.”

I recently heard that “war is the end of imagination.” Maybe sharing life together, following the Good Shepherd, is near the beginning of imagination. I wonder, can we imagine that time – when there will be one flock and one shepherd? I wonder, how do we start living into that vision now?

(move the rest of the sheep back into the sheep fold)