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Readings:
Jer 23:1-6
Ps 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6
Eph 2:13-18
Mk 6:30-34
Twenty years ago, an escaped Merino sheep who had evaded
the shearers for six years, was found hiding in caves in South Island, New
Zealand. Shrek the Sheep became a national celebrity and a global headline with
the televised shearing of his approximately sixty-pound fleece. In his lifetime
he would go on to meet the Prime Minister, bring $100 million to the New
Zealand economy, raise tens of thousands of dollars for the Cure Kids Charity,
educate children through school trips and books written about his adventures,
and bring comfort through his visits to patients in hospitals and elders in
nursing homes. Upon his death in 2011, the director of the charity that had
benefited from his fame commented, “At the end of the day, it is the death of
an iconic Kiwi. He just happens to be a sheep.” According to local reports, a
memorial service for Shrek the Sheep was held at the Church of the Good
Shepherd.
For six out of his
almost 17-year life this sheep, temporarily without a shepherd, managed to
survive. The lectionary readings for this Sunday turn our attention to a
favored motif throughout the Bible, the relationship between shepherds and
their flocks. In Jeremiah, shepherd are metaphors for leaders and the
prophet warns of the perils of exploitative leadership and the judgment that
will befall those who abuse their positions and power. Psalm 23 finds in the
shepherd a soothing image of God who ensures the protection and fulfillment of
those who entrust their lives to divine care. In the gospel of Mark, Jesus
pities the crowds that follow him and his disciples, like sheep without a
shepherd. Though considering the adventures of Shrek the Sheep one really must
wonder if Jesus’ concerns are entirely warranted.
In all three biblical
scenarios, the dependence and vulnerability of the sheep are exposed and the
qualities of good shepherding revealed. Jeremiah’s sheep are trembling and
fearful, susceptible to being dispersed and misled. The anxiety of the
sheep in the psalm is alleviated by the ever-present company of the shepherd
with a sense for locating environments free of stress, want, and fear. In the
gospel, Jesus steps into the breach and nurtures those in search of a shepherd
with life-sustaining teaching and a meal. The verses that follow today’s gospel
reading tell of the feeding of the five thousand.
Sheep may be classified
as prey, but they are also providers. It is not in a shepherd’s best interests
to endanger sheep singularly or collectively. Whether a shepherd is a hired
hand or owner, caring for sheep is an investment. Sheep are sources of income;
their bodies provide humans with sustenance in multiple ways. A 2019 forum in
the interdisciplinary journal Animal Sentience explored in depth
the complexity of sheep and the “historical perceptions of sheep that fuel and
sustain contemporary media, popular culture, and farming practices.” The
conversation underscored the social orientation of sheep and their capacities
for learning, cognition, emotion, and personality. They challenged the
commodification of sheep. The authors of the lead article also observed that
“Christian and other theologies situate sheep in the contemporary consciousness
as obedient, passive, and uniform; this view has negative consequences for
sheep.”
That view has negative
consequences for humans as well! When interpreting metaphors that involve sheep
and shepherds, it is too often our tendency to focus on the shepherds when in
reality the majority of us are the sheep. Consider the consequences on understandings
of what it meant to be Church. For example, in a 1906 encyclical Pope Pius X described the
Church as
“essentially an unequal society,
that is, a society comprising two categories of persons, the Pastors and the
flock, those who occupy a rank in the different degrees of the hierarchy and
the multitude of the faithful…. the one duty of the multitude is to allow
themselves to be led, and, like a docile flock, to follow the Pastors.”
In pondering the concern
of Jesus for the crowd, that “they were like sheep without a shepherd,” I am
reminded of “Sheep Haiku” by one of my favorite poets, and fellow New Yorker,
Martín Espada.
A lone sheep cries out:
There are more of us
than them!
The flock keeps grazing.
What if Jesus’ concern
is that of a sheep for his own? What if the teaching he shares is a
warning that not all shepherds have integrity “woe to you shepherds”? Beware of
false shepherds, of pastoral and political leaders who see you as a commodity
to be exploited and manipulated. What if we were to remember that in the New
Testament Jesus is portrayed both as a good shepherd and a lamb of God?
Sources:
Martín Espada,
‘Sheep Haiku,’ in Alabanza: New and Selected Poems 1982-2002 (New York:
W. W. Norton & Co., 2003), 210.
Lori Marino, and
Debra Merskin, “Intelligence, complexity, and individuality in
sheep,” Animal
Sentience Vol 4: 25(1) 2019. Forum articles 25 (1)
-25(43), Vol 4 (2019), https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/animsent/vol4/.
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