Flocking Brilliant
Scripture: Genesis 29 1-10
Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the people of the east. As he looked, he saw a well in the field and three flocks of sheep lying there beside it; for out of that well the flocks were watered. Jacob said to them, ‘My brothers, where do you come from?’ They said, ‘We are from Haran.’ He said to them, ‘Do you know Laban son of Nahor?’ They said, ‘We do.’ He said to them, ‘Is it well with him?’ ‘Yes,’ they replied, ‘and here is his daughter Rachel, coming with the sheep.’ While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep; for she kept them. Now when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of his mother’s brother Laban, and the sheep of his mother’s brother Laban, Jacob went up and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of his mother’s brother Laban.
This Scripture might have really struck you as a question about biblical models of marriage, but I invite its exploration because there are lots of sheep related details, not because Jacob and Rachel are cousins.
The Bible is full of sheep and shepherds. Almost anyone who is a leader in the Hebrew Bible (or was a good one) spent a certain amount of time as a shepherd: David, Moses, Rachel, Jacob … all of them and even if they didn’t, they knew what a good shepherd looked like and when a bad shepherd failed. It's the primary metaphor of not only a good leader but of God. And if you are following along that makes us… well, sheep.
That’s right, sheep. My sheep experience is limited to watching my middle school best friend try to train her sheep for 4H, which doesn’t make the comparison to sheep feel much better. In fact, when chatting with Rev. Judy Dye, she was quick to pile on to the anti-sheep narrative. Sheep are stupid and she knew this because she grew up raising them on her family farm. She sings the praises of sheep dogs and of brown-eyed dairy cows, but sheep? Not so much. Folks perceive sheep as stinky and stupid and they assume that of the folks who care for them as well.
Given that most of us perceive sheep as dumb followers, we don’t want to be compared to them.
But maybe you have even been called a “sheeple.” Miriam Webster defines the 1945 term as people who are docile, compliant, or easily influenced. It became a popular line of attack from conservatives directed towards folks who listened to research or wore a mask during a global pandemic. It became a popular epitaph for anyone questioning Trump’s past choices or questioning his cruelty or denouncing white supremacy. And frankly, just like Trump, it has not gone away.
Rather it has grown into a phrase that says lions not sheep. I first saw a whole flock of ‘Christian’ moms at a hearing on book banning with cross emblazoned shirts that said, “Raising Lions not Sheep” a few years ago. Lions not sheep has its own website. There are shirts and bumper stickers and all kinds of MERCH. You can find a whole line of clothing with images that mesh this phrase with both the Christian Cross and a Machine Gun. Other slogans include; Give Violence a Chance, #FKH (F*ck Kamala Harris) and a voluptuous angel that says ‘Pray for peace. Prepare for war.” And the pièce de résistance, is the shirt with Donald Trump’s face, the American flag in the background and GOAT punctuated by stars holding the whole image together. He is for sure more goat than sheep and I guess ‘Greatest of All Time’ doesn’t have to mean you did something positive. (P.S. This company was fined for swapping out the made in china tags for ones that said USA. The owner, of course, feels he is being targeted by the justice system…in Utah. Pro Tip: google them at your own risk because your algorithm will start showing you even more disturbing content.)
Most of us would rather be a GOAT. The Greatest of All Time, even though both the Christian and Hebrew Scriptures are pretty anti-goat and overtly pro-sheep. Oh, and the Prophet Isaiah famously tells the lion to lay down with the lamb. So if you are missing my point, Christianity is pretty pro-sheep and even the band Cake has a great song to help you understand this. (https://genius.com/Cake-sheep-go-to-heaven-lyrics)
We typically don’t want to be sheep even if we are okay with God as Shepherd and grew up with a beautiful stainless window of a tan, hippy Jesus tending sweet little lambs with the utmost care… you probably don’t want to be sheep.
It is a rich metaphor, inviting us to understand ourselves, our neighbors, leadership and the divine. But it is only a rich metaphor if we understand it (which is the point of these pages because I suspect other than Cole Meador at UNL extension with 4H, we don’t have a working understanding of animal husbandry or shepherding practices in the Ancient Near East). This is where we have to do our work. These texts were created by and for folks with greater intimacy of the land, agriculture and animals.
This Scripture reminds us that we inherit the stories of shepherds, folks who cared for animals. Rachel meets Jacob when she is tending her father’s flocks (that’s right, girls are shepherds, too) and their first connection shows Jacob rolling the stone from the cistern to help water the flocks. The shepherds know where it is and they share it. Jacob and Rachel are in a long lineage of shepherds. Jacob’s 12 sons will name they are shepherds when they seek help in Egypt. David is a shepherd and every King of Israel will be measured against the metaphor of good shepherd.
The community’s life came from these animals and the shepherd’s role was to protect and defend and see to the well-being of the whole flock. Some of these shepherds were mobile, in part nomadic, but we modern folks should not imagine them as wandering; they never roam, they know where they are going (The Good Shepherd by Kenneth E. Bailey, 2014).
The whole community depended on the good shepherd defending the animals from theft by two-legged creatures and from being torn apart by four-legged predators like lions, bears, wolves and more. It is this lonely, ever watchful, reflective job to tend the flocks. They know how far the flock can travel, they know where there is water, they know where the pasture is best and they go with intention. And the Animals know the voice of the Shepherd.
There are two styles of tending these animals. One where the flocks are taken out in the day and brought home at night, often by a child in the family, like Rachel in this passage. Others moved their animals from one area to another, staying outside with them for seasons with intimate knowledge of the weather. Traveling after the spring rains to the lush grasses and moving when they needed to for the well-being of the animals and the land. Shepherds know the needs of the animals and those needs dictate the decisions the shepherds make.
According to Tomas A. Golding, most shepherds would have cared for both sheep and goats and the value of these animals were in their secondary products rather than their meat (“The Imagery of Shepherding in the Bible Part One and Part Two,” Biblotheca Sacra, Jan 2006). The value of the sheep is in its wool and the value of the goat is in its dairy production.
The goats are curious and they can defend themselves. They like to get up high and they will eat almost anything, which is why even today folks with sheep keep goats because they eat weeds and tree leaves and probably old shoes if you let them. The goats are a little more hardy, can travel a little more in a day, and don’t require as much water (a real plus in an arid climate).
Sheep on the other hand will not eat just anything or drink any old water. They have to feel calm and safe, the grazing must be tender and right for them and the water must be clear and calm. Which is a tall order when you don’t live in Ireland. And sheep will not just go where you want them to go. They follow a mama ewe or a grand-mama that guides the flock. Cole says, if the shepherd wants the flock to move, they have to get that Matriarch to trust the shepherd to guide them and then the flock will follow.
Sheep may not be smart in the way we imagine, but our extension agent, Cole, says they teach you patience and they have their own wisdom, they have an instinct to be together and flock. It’s Flocking Wisdom. They are cautious - not just about what they will eat, but about where they will go. Unless they get scared, they will likely stay together and, just because they don’t do what you want doesn’t mean they are stupid. They have a different wisdom. They, it seems, are stubborn and maybe, just a bit high maintenance.
But they are worth it. Because folks kept sheep.
While the value of the goat was in the milk, the sheep’s was in the wool. When a lamb was slaughtered for meat, it was usually young and so more tender, it was also usually male because it turns out too many males in a fold leads to problems (not just in the past, but Cole noted the same thing in the present). When an animal was slaughtered, every bit of it was used; bones made into needles and tools, hides made into sandal straps and pouches for milk and wine and water, etc.
The thing about slaughter is that Mama Ewe wasn’t very good at leading members of her flock to their death. Which means shepherds used a goat. Even today, Cole says goats lead the sheep to the show floor … which is a nice way of saying ‘to slaughter’.
Goats lead the sheep to slaughter. Perhaps that Trump shirt was right on the nose all along. And while I’m not so convinced that sheep go to an eternal heaven, I think the metaphor stands that goats, or at least this goat, is making hell right here, right now.
In his inaugural address Trump named he was “saved by God to do this work” and immediately set to work signing orders that pull our communities and workplaces apart. Raids have started. Deportations are starting, as promises. He invited ICE agents in the sanctuaries and schools and hospitals because he knows access is sacred and community is strength and he is not a good shepherd.
St. Andrews UMC had a welcome planned for refugees that included furnished and safe homes but Trump’s team stopped their arrival. These refugees had engaged in years-long processes to be here and the only thing left was to get on the plane.
This is not new but he and his teams are more efficient, a blitz of terror and ruthlessness. Four years prior he had incited a scene of horror in that very place. Hate and white supremacy, crosses and weapons and a chant to “Hang Mike Pence” rang out across the rotunda. Police officers died and Trump named the guilty, “January 6th hostages” during what is historically a unifying and inspiring presidential address to the nation. Not this time.
We must consider our faith because this moment was fueled by a Christian faith and it didn’t look very faithful. This week reminded us that bad theology is dangerous. This moment was years in the making and our tradition has a part to play in the toxic extremism that bad shepherds could so easily deploy. This week didn’t look like a good shepherd or a fold of sheep with the wisdom of flocking together. It looked like a goat leading sheep to slaughter and bad shepherds manipulating a flock with no regard for their welfare.
We have work to do. And perhaps this sheep metaphor is humbling and complicated. We might wish we were goats, but we are called to be sheep and when we are leaders, we are called to be good shepherds.
We like to imagine ourselves as the Greatest Of All Time, a little bit independent, able to be curious rather than cautious, able to defend ourselves rather than wait for the salvation and deliverance of a flock and sheepherd.
Perhaps we are a lot more like sheep than we like to admit; a little high maintenance, a bit stubborn, and interested in the most tender grazing grounds along streams of calm, cool water.
So let’s flock. And if we can remember the wisdom of flocking, of community, of trusting a mama-ewe and a good shepherd, maybe we can be sure everyone has the food that will nourish them, water that is clean and a safe place to rest. It’s not too much to ask. There is wealth. There is wealth, enough.
Maybe it’s time to be stubborn in the name of the flock.
We as people of faith are called to set a new boundary, to name a better way, to say this is not faithful, this is not Christian and this is not the way of the Good Shepherd. A Good Shepherd and a good leader is vulnerable, braving the elements with vulnerable sheep and doing the best they can to take care of every sheep in the flock. Even as our faith is filled with mystery and metaphor, Jesus echoed this one again and again. And we can be clear of its value and meaning, the way this metaphor calls Christians to practice faith. This clarity of faithfulness will not come through easy unity that lacks accountability.
This transformation comes through the hard work and deep reflection. With the Good Shepherd, the ends match the means, the cross will be lifted in healing (not harm), the name of Jesus will be spoken in hope (not fear) and we will seek to be earth as it is in heaven.
May we have the courage. Amen.