The Good Shepherd

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Have you ever thought about all the different ways that God is described in Sacred Scripture? It’s amazing. For example, The Lord is King, The Lord is a warrior, God is wisdom, God is Father, God is love, and God is creator. Jesus is described as our brother, a teacher, a friend, and the one we have in today’s Gospel, The Lord is a shepherd.

The reason that we have so many ways of describing God is very simple. God is so beyond anything we can imagine that He can’t be described adequately in any one way. God isn’t either a King or a shepherd. God has qualities that we humans attribute to both those things and many others.

Each of these touches upon some different reality of God so that we may better understand Him. They’re analogies that somehow give us greater knowledge of who God is. Since many of these analogies and metaphors come to us from ancient times it’s often bit difficult for we modern men and women to really understand what they’re saying to us. And so it is with shepherd. We need to know something about what it was to be a sheep and a shepherd in the time of Christ if today’s gospel is going to meaningful to us.

First of all sheep were not primarily raised for food during the time of Christ. For the most part they were raised for their wool and their milk, and because of this the sheep would graze together with their shepherds in fields for long periods of time – for years. The relationship between sheep and shepherd was more like the relationships we have with our pets. The shepherd and the sheep got to know one another and understand one another in much the same way we come to know and understand our dogs.

Secondly, sheep were not herded. They were not pushed or frightened or forced into going where the shepherd wanted them to go – they were led. They had a certain freedom. The shepherd would lead or call and the sheep would follow.

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Now if I can change gears just a little, I’d like to talk about our family dog, Chelsea. We have a very cool relationship with Chelsea. She is a people dog. More than anything else she just wants to hang with her people. If you leave for even a few minutes, when you come back she acts like she hasn’t seen you all day.

And she’s a pretty good dog. Mostly obedient although she has eaten several pairs of shoes, a few dollars, one of my homilies, my son’s hat, two wallets, and a trash can full of tissue. One time when we were having steak for dinner, she was just hanging around waiting for something to fall on the floor. After a while she got frustrated and whined a little. Not getting what she wanted, she suddenly ran to the front door barking, which usually means someone came to visit. So I went to the door, opened it, stepped out to look and found no one. When I turned around there she was on my chair eating my streak. Bad dog! Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.

Usually, when we go out, even if it’s only in our back yard, I keep her on a leash. I’m just afraid she might run out into the street and get hurt or go off chasing a squirrel and get lost.

But lately I’ve been letter her out back without the leash and on certain streets I’ll take the leash off just to see how she handles it. Mostly she’s very good, if she gets ahead I call and she stops and waits. Sometimes, she gets ahead and she stops on her own and turns around to make sure I’m still there. “I’m with ya, keep goin’” and she continues. If we come to an intersection I say “Stay” and she stays.

But one time recently my wife Luanne and I were out back raking leaves and cleaning out the garage and Chelsea was right there with us. She was just hanging out sniffing things and curious about what we were up to. More often than not she was just laying in the grass watching us.

Well at one point I asked Luanne “have you seen the dog”

“No I haven’t”

So the calling began. And she didn’t come. I was getting nervous. I went looking for her. Finally, she emerged from the yard next door. Now this is one of those neighbors who never mows the lawn, and whose back yard is literally more like a jungle than a suburb. Chelsea came around the fence with a “sheepish” look on her face and in some obvious discomfort. When I got close I noticed that she was covered with burs. You know those spiny Velcro-like things that stick to a dog’s fur like little needles. I spent the next 20 minutes removing those burs and brushing her.

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Now lest you think that I’m telling you all this just to show you what a cute puppy we have, even though it’s true – there is a connection to the good shepherd. When we can’t totally understand something in scripture because we are so removed from it by time and culture we can sometimes use similar experiences from our own lives to better understand what the scripture is telling us. In this case it’s our pets.

When you think about it aren’t we all a little bit like Chelsea; mostly being led by the Lord, hearing his voice and following? There is something about us that makes us just want to hang with Christ.

But sometimes we get ahead of ourselves and have to stop and turn around and find comfort in the fact that He’s still there even when we can’t see Him.

Like Chelsea eating a shoe or a wallet we too find ourselves getting into mischief, things the Lord doesn’t want us getting into. We feel guilty and a little “sheepish.” We often find ourselves in the dog house with the Lord, and each other.

At the end of the day we forgive Chelsea / and at any part of the day God forgives us when we go to him.

And when we really run off and lose ourselves completely and really get in trouble the Lord goes looking for us, calling our names. And when He finds us all stuck and covered with burs He’s not going to yell and scream and punish. He’s going to be concerned, He’s going to bring us home, and as gently as possible remove those burs. If we who are sinners know how to be good to our pets, how much more God knows how to be good to his children.

Our analogies and our metaphors about God are always going to be inadequate. Something will always be lacking because God is so much beyond anything we can imagine. And so it is with sheep and shepherd – dog and owner, because our relationship with God is not as much like a pet and its owner as this analogy might suggest. As much as we love our dogs and cats and guinea pigs or whatever, we will never be able to become dog-like and share in their dogness so that they can share in our humanity. – We can’t give them our life. Yet that is exactly what Jesus has done for us. Christ humbled himself, took on the face of a man and shared our humanity for the sole purpose of sharing his Divinity with us.

And so through our prayer, our community, and the sacraments we can better come to understand our relationship with our God, who reveals himself to us in a myriad of ways if we only have eyes to see and ears to hear.

When we find ourselves covered with burs, dirty, and tired; when we find ourselves so busy with our lives or so distracted by sin that we lose sight of Christ; when we’re lonely and afraid; stop – listen for His voice and follow it. He’ll take us home where it is safe, where we’ll find healing and forgiveness, and where we’ll find perfect love in the arms of our God who is our good shepherd; Our Father; brother and friend.