A week on Sunday I am preaching on 'The Good Shepherd' complete with Psalm 23 and John 10. It is well trodden territory - at least by other people, I think I've only done it once, as part of a series on the (predicated) I AM sayings of Jesus. So, I'm looking for an 'angle' that is less hackneyed.
Unfortunately the only alternative approach I've come across was from someone who was a couple of years behind me at college, and now ministers on the Welsh borders. Her views on what makes a 'good' shepherd were, well, a bit more James Heriot meets the butcher, to say the least. Shepherds in her view seemed to have two main functions - getting the lambs out alive and making sure they were fattened up for slaughter. Hmm. Not the best route to take with my congregation I suspect! And yet... maybe with a bit of urban sanitising it has potential...
A good shepherd helps to bring lambs to birth - almost a midwife role I guess. The idea that the shepherd is present before us, before we are born (or born again) and oversees our birth is quite a powerful one. There is, perhaps, a hint at prevenient grace - there long before we are able to discern it - bringing us into life in all its fullness.
A good shepherd prepares the lambs to fulfil their destiny - a life of service or even of sacrifice - a nurturing, parenting, teaching kind of a role. The idea that a shepherd doing the job properly will oversee the growth (physical and otherwise) of the sheep as they prepare, and are prepared, to do whatever it is they do - bearing more lambs, providing wool, providing milk, providing meat, being sacrificed (offered) to God.
Rather than a quaint chocolate box image, perhaps something a little more gritty is more useful? I'm still open to any other useful ideas - so long as they aren't too explicit on the vetinary or butchery images!
Comments
John seems to be painting a picture of Jesus as a succesor to David and Moses, paradoxically ignored and rejected by the very people who claim to follow and admire them (Num 27:7-18; Is 63:11; Ezek 34:11 and 23-24; Ps 78:70-72). Jesus is probably also shown as the true alternative to bad inauthentic shepherds (Ezek 34:1-10; Is 56:9-12; Zech 11:4-9). Good shepherd = ideal leader.
You know who his sheep are because they recognise his voice. The ones who don't aren't, says John.
But he's also a naughty shepherd because he has other flocks we don't know about. So he goes to places we may not want him to and calls people we may not want to hear and recognise him. We want this shepherd to ourselves, but he leads us out of the fold as well as into it.
A naughty shepherd - how Pythonesque! Love it.
"I AM the naughty shepherd..." hmm, I might try to work that in somewhere!