Don't look at the shepherd

The image of the good shepherd has been instilled into our psyches since the early church. There is  nothing wrong with this focus and in some respects it needs to be retained, John's images of the good shepherd are found in chapter 10 which starts with the initial images from which we draw the idea of the sheepfold, the walls, the gate and the shepherd who lays down his life. Just, as perhaps we need to, we focus on the imagery and place Christ as is intended in the metaphors at the centre. In doing this we actually take our eyes away from why the good shepherd is there in the first place. Yes, we must trust the good shepherd, yes we must listen to the shepherds voice all of the good that is there we need to understand and note. Yet, I feel we see only half the metaphor and pay little if any attention to the rest. Why is the good shepherd there in the first place? Do we as owners of our own land and stock not make note of the thieves that are around or do we go out forgetting that they are around trusting that our locks and gates and pens are secure? We are only human, we forget, we do not always obey the dictates of good sense and acknowledge the good shepherd's work and we are lax in our own ways. Animals have an instinct for the wrongness that evil brings and trust in rightness of the good, we need to see both.

We have allowed our own avarice to lead us into the hands of thieves

We always associate ourselves with the sheep, highly intelligent who know where to look for good pasture and can lie down when there is a shepherd but what happens if we are lax, sheep tend to wander and despite calls to come back. In doing so perhaps we morph into a shepherd as we care for our families and communities, but are we good? The issue here is not the good stuff but the fact that in our current lives we have allowed ourselves to wander and in doing so make it harder for the strictures of safety and well being to be observed as we struggle with life. The shepherding of our lives according to our thoughts and our own efforts open the way for the thieves and the corrupt to enter into our society disguised as part of our own 'flocks'. We forget that adherence to community and love protect us from those things that create discord and hatred. We allow ourselves to be gulled into a false sense of security through our own wishes rather than through our fulfilment of Christ's presence in our lives.

We have filled ourselves with malice, deceit and hypocrisy (1 Peter 2.1-3) and in doing so we allow those that lead to become not as shepherds but often as thieves of our lives. If we look at the way we live we can see that we are burdened while others are not, those that are not often (not always) care only for themselves and not for the community. This is not something spiritual but reality in a cold world which thrives on our greed and our mistakes. We need to look only at the governments of the world to see that it is the interests of the few that are at the heart of their governing and not of the whole. We need only look at how we determine those that govern to see that what we as a community thinks is over ridden by the whims of whatever "party" is in place. At the end of the day we have allowed the thieves to come in, yes, partly from not heeding the voice of God but also from not heeding what we are told about community, about love, about compassion. The last few verses of Act 2 tell of a different community that was just forming, a community that looked out for those who could not look out for themselves. It is clear that it was not blind adherence to Jewish laws that made the community what it was, it was not blind obedience to rules and regulations it was an understanding of how a community operates to support each other from least to greatest. It is putting aside our needs for the sake of those not as fortunate. It is not communist, where some are more equal then others, for this is the trap that sinks us into the grip of thieves who take our lives. We care for each other within the flock with love and are guided, not led, guided through our life by the words of the shepherd. Perhaps it is time for us to perceive the thieves that surround our lives and find the guidance and voice of the shepherd who is God so that we can find together the pastures that are peaceful and open to all. A recent posted video perhaps explains this in poetical form as we step into a new future.