Wilmot First Presbyterian Church

Scripture: Ezekiel 34:11-13

Sheep

Sheep are dumb.  At least that’s what I am told by people who work with them.  I don’t know what measure one judges their intelligence by, but I suspect it has to do with their ability to make decisions for their own safety or benefit. Word is, sheep aren’t good at this. Apparently they are not as dumb as domestic turkeys, but definitely slower than cattle, and not even in the same league as dogs, horses, or pigs.  I’m told they’re fairly stubborn too, and that they are not too aware of their surrounding and tend to wander and get lost.  I don’t know, they seem cute, but I have never worked with sheep, that’s just what I’m told.

I have seen videos of shepherds working sheep.  I don’t know if they worked like that 2000 years ago but when sheep of different flocks graze together, shepherds can separate their sheep by calling and the sheep know who they belong to. That doesn’t sound too dumb.  When sheep are lost, the voice of the shepherd can help them find their way back provided they recognize it.  When it is time to move to different pasture or grounds, new sheep, unfamiliar with the shepherd are “driven” there by the shepherd behind them, and often dogs beside them acting as a sort of fence for their own good.  Experienced sheep can be brought to better ground by the shepherd walking in front and calling.  They know to follow but are distractable by their appetite for grazing. Hmm, sounds like a sermon there too…

I wonder how much of their perceived cognitive deficiency is really just a manifestation of stubbornness?  Sheep wander off when they follow their own appetite for what looks good or best rather than trusting the shepherd to feed them or know where the best grass may be. When sheep are lost, once away from the flock they tend to freeze up afraid to move.  Is that dumb?  I hope not, it’s what my mom told me to do when I was little if I ever got lost in a store!  “Stay where you are, I will find you!  Unless they’re a police officer, do not tell anyone you are lost.”  So sheep (and my siblings and I) need to be found by the flock, or preferably by the shepherd so we can be brought to a place of safety and nourishment.  Lost sheep are not just sought by the shepherd, however.  Lost sheep are eagerly sought out by other parties with less nurturing intent and sharper teeth. This is a problematic circumstance if your self defense ability is as formidable as a sheep.

God likes to refer to us, to His people, as sheep.  Those who know God, and therefore also something of themselves, or who know sheep, enjoy the joke in this.  When we reference someone who leads our church as “the pastor” we are making reference to sheep and shepherds. Domestic sheep are not planners, they are not fighters.  Sheep are wanderers and they are consumers, and what they do produce, they produce by accident.  They are sheared, they are milked, they are occasionally sacrificed.  I confess to being a pretty standard sheep in many ways.  I am ignorant enough to lose my way, too stubborn or willful to follow the path or to readily turn around (Isaiah 53:6), and too proud to admit that what I may produce is often accidental.  There are others out there like me.  At least God says there are others out there like me (Rom 3:10). 

We are, in so many ways sheep, plain and simple, but every analogy has limits and this pastoral analogy ends at the part where we are kept to be sheared and milked.  Though we are sheep-like in our need for a shepherd to keep us, we are kept to be loved and nurtured (John 10:14-15).  The one who is sacrificed in our case is not the sheep for the sins of the shepherd, but the shepherd for the sins of the sheep.  Our nativity scenes and images include sheep, and that is fitting because in the case of Jesus, the Shepherd is also the Lamb (John 1:29).  When we look at a nativity scene with sheep, we should see a bit of ourselves in them as well. I am pretty sure the sheep there that first Christmas were too dumb, too distracted or too stubborn to recognize the Savior before them.  Will you be?

Prayer: Great Shepherd, kindly watch over Your sheep.  Keep calling us so we can hear and follow your voice, and find us when we are lost.  Thank you for becoming the Lamb for our sins.  AMEN

Activity: Do you remember a time when you were lost?  How did that feel to be lost, how did it feel to be found?