Good Sheep and Bad Shepherds
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.
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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 about 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 fails. The metaphor of not only a good leader, but God is framed as a shepherd, which makes us …well, sheep.
That’s right, sheep. My sheep experience is limited to watching a middle school friend try to train her sheep for 4H, which doesn’t make the comparison to sheep feel much better. In fact, when we announced this sermon series, Rev. Judy Dye messaged me about sheep. 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. When mama ewes wouldn’t, Judy’s family cared for the littlest lambs bringing them into their home and feeding them with a bottle. She remembers the strong smell of the lanolin and how folks looked at her and her family when they noticed the strong odor that lingered on them wherever they went. Tending sheep is hard work and not respected. Folks perceive sheep as stinky and stupid and they assume that of the ones 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. Perhaps you have witness folks using the phrase “sheeple.” Maybe someone you know has even called you a sheeple … you know, for wearing a mask or denouncing white supremacy or following science or questioning our President’s choices. Perhaps you have received that comment or viewed that meme and thought, “Yeah … I’m the sheeple. Yeah, I’m the mindless follower, resistant to critical thinking skills and scientific research. Yeah, I am the one being used by the wealthiest Americans while living near poverty. Yeah, I’m the sheeple.” And that might have been the kindest response you could imagine because you missed Maria Walker’s sermon on the phrase, “Bless Your Heart.”
We 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. I have been reading about sheep, spending weeks with academic journals and books and even an extension agent from UNL about modern care of sheep and goats.
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 next several weeks 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 with 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. 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.
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. When an animal 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. 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 folks 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). 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. Rachel is tending her father’s flocks likely in a style where the flocks are taken out in the day and brought home at night.
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. 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, 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 didn’t get a high ACT score, doesn’t mean they will just do what you want them to do. They, it seems, are stubborn. They will not go through the gate unless the lead sheep does or perhaps a goat. The goats on the other hand are curious and they can defend themselves if they needed. 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. In the ancient near east, folks kept both together. Their well-being was the work of the shepherd, defending them from theft by two-legged creatures and from being torn apart by four-legged preachers like, lions, bears, wolves and more. It is this lonely, ever watchful, reflective job to tend the the flocks. Most of us would prefer to consider ourselves goats, even though the New Testament or Christmas scriptures are a little anti-goat. 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 shepherd.
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. And the complication of goats isn’t just that they are good at eating weeds, but because goats will go places. They are often used to lead the sheep to slaughter. Even today, Cole says goats lead the sheep to the show floor … which is a nice way of saying ‘to slaughter’.
Perhaps we are called to be a little more sheep and a lot less goat. Perhaps this metaphor reminds us in the vast universe we should be humble about our own wisdom, perhaps it reminds us to flock together and to honor that instinct of being community. Perhaps we are a lot more like the sheep than we like to admit; a little high maintenance, a bit stubborn, and interested in the most tender grazing grounds. We are called to lean into our being as sheep and hold our leaders accountable to the model of the Good Shepherd.
This week we saw folks name they are Christians and then storm our nation's Capitol. This week we saw symbols of faith alongside symbols of hateful white supremacy. As we learn more about this horrific, yet unsurprising scene, 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 week we saw ego and white supremacy on full display, heard shouts of violent threats and witnessed anti-semitism in the name of a Jewish Rabbi. 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 goats leading sheep to slaughter and bad shepherds manipulating a flock with no regard for their welfare.
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. 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, the name of Jesus will be spoken in hope (not fear) and we will seek to be earth as it is in heaven. This week showed us who we are, but this is not who we have to be. We are called to be more.
May we have the courage. Amen.