Perspective: The Bad Shepherd

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The Bad Shepherd

I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  When the hired hand sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away.  That's because he isn't the shepherd; the sheep aren't really his.  So the wolf attacks the sheep and scatters them.  He's only a hired hand and the sheep don't matter to him.

John 10:11-13 (CEB)

Arm me with watchful care
As in Thy sight to live
And now Thy servant, Lord, prepare
A strict account to give!

From "A Charge to Keep I Have" by Charles Wesley

Today is the Fourth Sunday in Eastertide, a day sometimes called Good Shepherd Sunday.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."  He goes on to say, "I am the good shepherd.  I know my own sheep and they know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.  I give up my life for the sheep."¹  On this day, we remember who Jesus is as humanity's Good Shepherd.  Among other things we remember that Jesus laid down His life, as a good shepherd does, to liberate humanity from the power of sin and death when He endured crucifixion.

The twenty-third psalm is attributed to Jesus' ancestor David, who shepherded his family's sheep before he was anointed to become his people's next king.  In this beloved psalm, a shepherd imagines himself as a sheep, and he imagines that God is his shepherd.  The psalmist proclaims that God, his shepherd, provides everything he needs.  He proclaims that, as shepherd, God leads him to "grassy meadows" and "restful waters."  He proclaims that, when he must "walk through the darkest valley," he is not afraid, because God, his shepherd, is there to protect him.²  In the same way that sheep are totally dependent on their shepherd, we are totally dependent on God.

This psalm, which describes God's care for humanity, has something to teach us about human beings, who bear God's image.  It teaches us that, when we find ourselves in any place of authority, not unlike a shepherd, we are called to lead, provide, or protect in accordance with the authority entrusted to us.

Perhaps, on Good Shepherd Sunday, we would do well to remember that not all shepherds are good.

The prophet Ezekiel was among the people deported to Babylon the first time the Babylonian Empire attacked the Kingdom of Judah.  Occasionally he was called to speak out against the people in authority among those who remained in Judah.  On one occasion, God commanded Ezekiel to "prophesy against Israel's shepherds."³  God told Ezekiel to say to them,

The Lord God proclaims to the shepherds: Doom to Israel's shepherds who tended themselves!  Shouldn't shepherds tend the flock?  You drink the milk, you wear the wool, and you slaughter the fat animals, but you don't tend the flock.  You don't strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the injured, bring back the strays, or seek out the lost; but instead you use force to rule them with injustice.⁴

In other words, the people in charge used their positions of authority not for the benefit of the people who depended on them but rather for their own benefit.

When people in positions of authority fail to do the jobs entrusted to them, bad things happen to the people who depend on them.  God told Ezekiel to say to the "shepherds" who failed to care for God's people,

Without a shepherd, my flock was scattered; and when it was scattered, it became food for all the wild animals.  My flock strayed on all the mountains and on every high hill throughout all the earth.  My flock was scattered, and there was no one to look for them or find them.  So now shepherds, hear the Lord's word!  This is what the Lord God says: As surely as I live, without a shepherd, my flock became prey.  My flock became food for all the wild animals.  My shepherds didn't seek out my flock.  They tended themselves, but they didn't tend my flock.⁵

When shepherds fail to lead, provide, and protect, their flock essentially becomes a buffet for predators.  When the kings of Israel and Judah failed to lead their people well, their kingdoms were attacked by larger empires, and their subjects were taken into captivity.

According to Jesus, "the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."  By contrast, the bad shepherd neglects the lives of his sheep as he seeks to enrich and glorify himself.  As we remember what Jesus, our Good Shepherd, did for us, His sheep, may we remember that not all people who seek positions of authority truly have other people's best interests at heart.  May we who are in positions of authority faithfully do what we have been trusted to do by leading, providing, and protecting to the best of our ability as our positions require.


Notes:

1. John 10:11, 14-15 (CEB)
2. Psalm 23:1-4 (CEB)
3. Ezekiel 34:1-2 (CEB)
4. Ezekiel 34:2-4 (CEB)
5. Ezekiel 34:5-8 (CEB)

The photograph of the flock of sheep was provided by the Agricultural Research Service and is public domain.

Sermon: Prophets and Children

Delivered at Trinity United Methodist Church in Laurens, South Carolina on January 17, 2021

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Prophets and Children

Audio Version

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli.  The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.

At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.  Then the Lord called, “Samuel!  Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”  But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.”  So he went and lay down.  The Lord called again, “Samuel!”  Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”  But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.”  Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.  The Lord called Samuel again, a third time.  And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.”  Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy.  Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’”  So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel!  Samuel!”  And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  Then the Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.  On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.  For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.  Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.”

Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord.  Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli.  But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.”  He said, “Here I am.”  Eli said, “What was it that he told you?  Do not hide it from me.  May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.”  So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him.  Then he said, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”

As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.  And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.  The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

1 Samuel 3:1-21 (NRSV)

They say that love can heal the broken
They say that hope can make you see
They say that faith can find a Savior
If you would follow and believe
With faith like a child

From “Like a Child” by Jars of Clay

Nearly three years ago, on February 14 of 2018, a former student walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida with an assault rifle.  He killed seventeen people – fourteen students and three staff members – and wounded seventeen more.  In the days that followed, some of the students who survived the shooting began organizing public demonstrations, demanding that lawmakers take action to prevent such shootings from happening again.¹  It was clear that these students were angry, and, truth be told, they had a good reason to be angry.  They were living in age when mass shootings were all-too-common, and they had grown up knowing that school shootings were a very real possibility.  The shooting they had just survived only served to confirm their fears that the people in charge were not doing their jobs.  These students had had enough, so they took action.

Reactions to the student-led demonstrations were mixed.  Some people applauded the young activists for their passion, their drive, and their courage.  Others were a bit more dismissive, suggesting that the students had become puppets for a particular political agenda, as if young people have no thoughts of their own about serious issues.  Some even went so far as to concoct conspiracy theories about the students leading the protests, suggesting that they were not really students who survived the shooting but rather “crisis actors” who had been hired.  Writer David French rather astutely observed that adults only think that children are wise when they happen to agree with them.²

Gun control is obviously a very contentious issue in our nation – and it is also not the subject of my sermon – so I will not tell you whether or not I think you should agree with the young protesters.  What I will tell you is that, even if you do happen to disagree with them, you would do well not to dismiss them simply because they are young.  Scripture teaches us that it is not out of the realm of possibility that God would call children to be God's prophets.

In the First Book of Samuel, we read about a woman named Hannah.  Hannah wants more than anything to have a child of her own, specifically a son, but unfortunately she and her husband have not been able to conceive.  To make her situation even more painful, her husband's second wife, who resents her for her favored status in the household, mocks her for her infertility.  One day, while Hannah and her family are at the sanctuary in Shiloh, making their yearly offering to God, Hannah steps away from her family to pray.  She asks God for a baby boy, promising to give him back to God if God answers her prayer.  The high priest Eli, who initially thinks that Hannah is drunk, listens to her story and blesses her, saying, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.”³

After Hannah and her family return home, God answers her prayer.  She becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy whom she names Samuel, which means “I have asked him of the Lord.”  Hannah later returns to Shiloh and presents her child to Eli.⁴  Samuel grows up in the sanctuary, serving God under the elderly priest's supervision.⁵

You might have noticed that Samuel is one of a handful of children in the Biblical story who are born to couples who struggled with infertility.  You might have also noticed that these children tend to grow up to fulfill special purposes.  Isaac, who is born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age, will be the son through whom God's promises to Abraham are fulfilled.  Joseph, who is born to Rachel and Jacob after they struggled for years to have children, will grow up to save many people during a famine as the governor of Egypt.  Samson, who is also born to parents who struggled with infertility, will grow up to fight Israel's oppressors, the Philistines.  John, who is born to the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth in their old age, will grow up to become the “voice in the wilderness” who prepares the way for Christ.

Samuel, like these other children, will have a special purpose in life.  Not only has God heard Hannah's prayer and given Hannah the son she has desperately wanted, God is also going to honor her wishes that her son would be set apart for God's purposes.

One night, while young Samuel is trying to sleep, he hears someone calling his name.  Naturally, he thinks that Eli is calling him, so he gets up, runs to Eli, and says, “Here I am, for you called me.” Eli tells Samuel that he did not call him and then tells him to go back to bed.  Samuel leaves Eli, lies down, and tries to go to sleep, and again he hears someone calling his name.  Again, he thinks that Eli is calling him, so he gets up, runs to Eli, and says, “Here I am, for you called me.”  Again, Eli tells Samuel that he did not call him and then tells him to go back to bed.  Again, Samuel goes back to where he was, lies down, and tries to sleep.

Samuel does not realize that God is the One calling him, but God keeps on calling.  For a third time, God calls, “Samuel!  Samuel!”  Once again, Samuel gets up and runs to Eli.  At this time in Israel's history, very few people are hearing from God, but it occurs to Eli that just maybe God is calling Samuel.  He tells Samuel to go back to bed and tells him that, if he hears someone calling his name again, he should answer, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”  When Samuel goes back to bed, God stands near him in the sanctuary and says, “Samuel!  Samuel!”  Samuel does as Eli has instructed him and says, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  God then reveals to Samuel that judgment is coming to Eli and his family.

Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are priests.  Priests are mediators between God and humanity.  In other words, they represent their people before their God, and they represent their God before their people.  When people bring offerings for God, priests perform the ritual sacrifices, thereby representing the people to God.  Through the rituals they perform, they show people something about what their God is like, thereby representing God to the people.⁶  The priesthood is a position of authority and influence, and it not a profession one should take lightly.

Eli's sons are bad priests, and they are bad men, generally speaking.  They have used their positions of authority to benefit themselves and exploit other people.  When people bring sacrificial offerings to the sanctuary, Eli's sons help themselves to portions of the meat that are not meant for them.⁷  They also like to have their way with the women who serve God at Shiloh.⁸  Eli is complicit in his sons' wrongdoings.  He is aware of what his sons have been doing, but, aside from giving them what was doubtlessly a stern talking-to,⁹ he has done nothing to stop them from abusing their positions as priests.

God does not place people in positions of power so that they may benefit at other people's expense.  If God does indeed place people in positions of power, then God's intention is that they use their power in the service of God and other people.  Power of any kind, requires responsibility.  When people use the influence and authority entrusted to them in selfish, destructive ways or fail to use such things responsibly, they will face judgment, like Eli and his sons.

At a time when the grown-ups in charge are failing to do their jobs, God calls a child to be a prophet.  People wonder why kids can't just be kids, but the truth is that kids can't just be kids when adults just won't be adults.  Samuel lies awake all night, thinking about what God has told him, knowing that Eli will want to hear it all in the morning.  When morning dawns, Eli calls for Samuel and demands to hear everything God said to him.  Samuel tells Eli about the judgment that will befall him and his family, and Eli accepts his fate, saying, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”

As Samuel grows up, he continues to speak on behalf of God, and the people of Israel find him trustworthy.  Despite what people commonly think, a prophet's job is not to tell the future.  A prophet's job is simply to tell the truth.  Prophets reveal to people what God has revealed to them.  If they do speak of the future, they do so to bring people hope amid difficult times or to warn people what will happen if they fail to heed what God is saying to them.¹⁰

Samuel is not the only young person in the Bible God calls to speak on behalf of God.  God calls a boy named Jeremiah, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  Jeremiah objects, saying, “Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.”  God replies, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.”  God then touches Jeremiah's mouth, saying, “Now I have put my words in your mouth.”¹¹  Paul writes in a letter to his young protege Timothy, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young.”  Paul encourages Timothy to be a leader, a teacher, and an example for the congregation in his care, reminding him of the spiritual gifts the elders discerned in him.¹²

The prophet Joel speaks of a day when God pours out God's Spirit upon all people.  On that day, Joel says, sons and daughters will prophesy, young people will see visions, and older people will dream dreams.¹³  As Christians, we believe that Joel's prophecy was realized on the Day of Pentecost,¹⁴ which some people describe as the birthday of the Church.  In the Church, we need both the dreams of the elders and the vision of the youth.¹⁵

Is there perhaps something about children that makes them inherently prophetic, something that might give them an advantage in receiving the truth God reveals?

It has been said that prophets have a certain untimeliness about them.  In other words, they are not products of their time.  As effective outsiders, they are able to see the world around them a bit more objectively than those of us who are fully immersed in the world might see it.  Children possess both the innocence of having yet to grow accustomed to the way the world works and also the naivety to imagine a world that works differently.  Consider how often children ask their parents and grandparents why something is the way it is, and consider how often their parents and grandparents are at a loss to provide good answers for them.

In the Gospels, we read that one day some parents bring their children to Jesus so that He may bless them.  The Disciples try to stop them, presuming that Jesus has more important things to do.  Jesus says to the Disciples, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.  Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”¹⁶  According to Jesus, the Kingdom of God, the place where God reigns, is a place for the childlike.  The Prophet Isaiah describes a kingdom where wolves live with lambs, where cows and bears graze together, and where lions eat straw with cattle.¹⁷  In this kingdom, those who have been mortal enemies learn to live together in peace.  Isaiah states that “a little child shall lead them.”  Perhaps children know something about living in harmony with others that the rest of us have forgotten.

In the Gospel of Mark, we read that, when Jesus first begins His public ministry, He proclaims, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”¹⁸  The Greek word metanoia, which is translated into English as repentance, originally described a change in the way one thinks.¹⁹  In the Christian faith, we use it to describe a change of mind and heart that results in a change of behavior.  In the Gospel of John, we read that, when a religious leader named Nicodemus meets with Jesus by night, Jesus says to him, “I assure you, unless someone is born anew, it’s not possible to see God’s kingdom.”²⁰  If one cannot see the Kingdom of God without being born anew, then perhaps part of being born anew is seeing with newborn eyes.  If God is doing something new, as Jesus suggests when He proclaims that “the kingdom of God has come near,” then we must not be too set in our ways, and we must be willing to look at everything in a new way.  We must have the humility and open-mindedness of children.

May we listen to the prophets in our midst, no matter how young or old they happen to be.  May we listen with open minds and also with discernment.  May we recognize the gifts of the children among us, and may we encourage them to cultivate their gifts and use them in the service of God and other people.  May the children among us live boldly and use their gifts courageously.  May we all cultivate childlike humility and wonder within ourselves, remembering that, as Jesus says, the Kingdom of God belongs to the childlike.

Amen.


Notes:

1. Wikipedia: “Stoneman Douglas High School shooting”
2. https://twitter.com/DavidAFrench/status/965678855636836359
3. 1 Samuel 1:1-18 (NRSV)
4. 1 Samuel 1:19-28 (NRSV)
5. 1 Samuel 2:11
6. Rob Bell and Don Golden.  Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for a Church in Exile.  2008, Zondervan.  pp. 30-31
7. 1 Samuel 2:12-17
8. 1 Samuel 2:22
9. 1 Samuel 2:23-25
10. I have heard Brian Zahnd say things like this in his sermons at Word of Life Church, but I don't have any specific references.
11. Jeremiah 1:4-10 (NRSV)
12. 1 Timothy 4:10-14 (CEB)
13. Joel 2:28-29
14. Acts 2
15. I once heard A.J. Sherrill highlight this in a sermon at Mars Hill Bible Church, but again I don't have a specific reference.
16. Mark 10:13-16 (NRSV)
17. Isaiah 11:6-7 (NRSV)
18. Mark 1:14-15 (NRSV)
19. Wikipedia: “Metanoia (theology)”
20. John 3:1-3 (CEB)

Samuel Relating to Eli the Judgements of God upon Eli's House was painted by John Singleton Copley in 1780.

Perspective: God Is in Control?

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

God Is in Control?

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars that you have established;

what are human beings that you are mindful of them,

mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them a little lower than God,

and crowned them with glory and honor.

You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;

you have put all things under their feet...

Psalm 8:3-6 (NRSV)

This is the world we live in

And these are the hands we're given

Use them, and let's start trying

To make it a place worth living in

From "Land of Confusion" by Genesis

Lately, a lot of people have been saying that "God is in control."  I'm sure that many, especially pastors, have been saying this in order to comfort people in a time of fear and uncertainty.  Still, I suspect that others might be saying this as an excuse to shirk any personal responsibility they have right now.

I'm not so sure that, at this present moment, the most God-honoring thing a person could say is that "God is in control."  Consider the implications.  If God is indeed in control, as people say, then why have more than three hundred sixty-seven thousand people in the world died of COVID-19?  If God is in control, then God is either directly responsible for the pandemic or complicit for not preventing it.  According to St. John, "God is love,"¹ and according to St. Paul, "love is kind."²  Inflicting people with a deadly illness is neither loving nor kind.  As Greg Boyd recently pointed out, if Jesus Christ, "the image of the invisible God,"³ was in the business of healing people of their diseases, then God must not be in the business of inflicting people with diseases.⁴

I believe that God gave human beings free will.  We have the power to make choices, and the choices we make have serious consequences for ourselves and for the world around us.  At the very beginning of the Bible, we read that "God created humanity in God's own image" and then proceeded to give humanity charge over the world and over all of the other creatures that live therein.⁵  In other words, God made human beings like Godself by giving them the ability to shape the world God created.  Perhaps one could say that we are co-creators with God.

It is hard to reconcile the idea that God is in control with the idea the human beings have free will.  If God is really in control, then our choices are either illusory, since God is the one making them for us, or inconsequential, so that they do not interfere with God's will.  On the other hand, if God gave us free will, then God must have yielded some of God's control over the world to us.

I am not suggesting that God is inactive or that God does not have a plan for the world.  Jesus taught us to pray, "Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."⁶  He would not have taught us to pray that the Kingdom of God is made manifest on the earth if God has no intention of ever making such a request a reality.  Furthermore, God is able to use our choices and their consequences - be they good or bad - in order to bring about God's purposes.  According to St. Paul, "We know that God works all things together for good for the ones who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose."⁷  Though God has a plan for the world, God is not orchestrating everything that happens along the way; however, God is ready for every contingency.

There are plenty of other things that could be said about God to comfort people at this time.

God is love.

God is good.

God is with us.

God is trustworthy.

God is not unmoved by our pain.

God brings good out of evil.

As beings created in God's image, we have been given the power to make choices that have real consequences.  We must be mindful of how our choices affect other people.  We must not use God's sovereignty as a lazy answer or as an excuse to be irresponsible.  God has a plan for the world, and when we align our choices to God's will, we give God the opportunity to work through us and not in spite of us.

Notes:

1. 1 John 4:8
2. 1 Corinthians 13:4
3. Colossians 1:15
4. Greg Boyd.  "COVID-19: A Kingdom Perspective."  Woodland Hills Church, 03/15/2020.
5. Genesis 1:27-28 (CEB)
6. Matthew 6:10 (NRSV)
7. Romans 8:28 (CEB)

The photograph "The Blue Marble" was taken by an astronaut during the Apollo 17 mission.  It has been released to the public domain.