The Good Shepherd . . .

I think it is kind of hard for us to relate to all that biblical imagery about sheep and shepherds. Last time I looked, there aren't that many sheep in suburban Dallas. Although, for a number of years we lived right north of the Haggard farm in Plano, and every day when I took my kids to Harrington Elementary School, we passed a bunch of sheep and a few llamas and a donkey or two, plus some cows. It was a pleasant bit of the pastoral and rural smack dab in the midst of Plano. Thank you, Haggard family -- even though news reports just last week said the Haggard family is selling off most of that property for development, and the sheep will be gone.
A pity.
But even with our brief glimpses of the little animals, we didn't truly get an understanding of shepherding -- not like in the days of Ezekiel and later Jesus, who referred to himself as "The Good Shepherd."
Back in the old days -- not the '90's, but biblical times -- shepherds worked 24/7, usually alone with a couple of dogs and on a isolated hillside, where the sheep could find food. Shepherds were low down on the list of people who mattered, yet they were as important as anyone in those societies, not only because they provided food, but because they were a constant presence -- and a quiet and faithful one at that, whose only mission in life was to protect what God had given them -- silly, stupid, wandering, flighty sheep, who were always running off looking for the next best thing to eat over the next hill.
Jesus didn't make that title up regarding himself. It comes right out of the 34th chapter of Ezekiel, a prophet who wrote 600 years before his birth, when the people of Israel were about to lose everything -- home, country, temple and their place in the world -- to the conquering King of Babylon. It was a terrible and difficult time of great anxiety for them, and seemed to be without end.
Ezekiel, never one to mince words, called again and again for them to find the center of their being in God, and return to the core of their faith, and thus protect their existence both as a nation and as individuals. They didn't listen. Silly, stupid, flighty people who kept wandering away from God.
And, ultimately, they did lose everything, just as the Prophet had warned.
But in the 34th chapter, Ezekiel speaks words not of condemnation, or "I TOLD you so." Rather, he brings words of hope and restoration for the people. He talks about God as the only shepherd we need, the one who loves us and cares for us, even and especially when we are lost and alone, even and especially when those silly other things around which we construct our lives fail.
Come this Sunday to worship for the last Sunday of the Christian calendar year, the Feast of the Reign of Christ, our Good Shepherd.
Pastor Grant Palma is preaching and he is always a treat. Don't miss it!!!
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