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Easter 4
May 11, 2003

Shepherds or Peddlers

Ezekiel 34: 1-10
Acts 4: 5-12
Psalm 23
1 John 3: 16-27
John 10: 11-18


Few sets of lections are as clear as these in identifying the theme: "shepherd." Jesus contrasts the good shepherd and the bad shepherd (the hired hand). Ezekiel castigates the bad shepherd. Peter proclaims the ultimate shepherd to an audience of bad shepherds. In the epistle, John reminds us that the good shepherd is in us and among us, always the potential for us.

Back in 1997, Marshall Applewhite led his "Heaven's Gate" sheep to mass suicide. He was a bad shepherd, but his snaring of the sheep points to the failure of the would-be good shepherds. His sheep were ready to give their lives for a better world on high. Does that ring a bell? Was it Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna who extolled martyrdom? There was a belief in the early church that dying for Christ was a direct route through the gates of heaven. The cult suicide is different from martyrdom, but it has disturbing similarities to our own distant past. "For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain." (Philippians 1:21)

Here were young people ready to see dying as gain but without seeing living as Christ. Where was baptism, dying and rising with Christ, the passage they really sought? Where was the good shepherd when they needed an alternative to Marshall Applewhite? Who is that good shepherd? Is it Christ alone? Do we say, "Where was Christ when these sheep were being stolen?" Or, are we not also to say, "Where were we?" And, if we are also God's shepherds, then Ezekiel is talking about us. We clergy are called out by the prophet, but are the clergy alone to lead all the lost sheep in the world? Shouldn't the laity be included as well? Shouldn't we ask, "Where were we all when these sheep were being stolen away?"

Mass suicides get our attention, but more sheep are lost quietly. Sheep get stolen by just wandering off. We don't even notice. They are just gone. Who is in charge of noticing? Does your church notice? They don't just wander away from a congregation. They wander away from the way that leads to life. Watching the church rolls is a start. Watching the whole city is our calling. But we couldn't possibly watch the whole city unless the churches united for the task. Instead we torment ourselves with the entrepreneurial model of church leadership, the demand to sell ourselves in the religious market place, to beguile the wary religious customer or to hold on to our own finicky clientele. We can't see ourselves as shepherds when we are busy being peddlers.

The twenty-third Psalm is the most loved of the Psalms. Likewise the church could be the most loved of bodies within the community if it didn't behave like a hired hand, like jealous hired hands vying for the fat sheep. The good news is that the church is not bound to be a hired hand. The Good Shepherd is alive among us and in us and always a potential for us.
Roland McGregor, Pastor
Asbury United Methodist Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

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