Easter IV: Shepherds and Herders

This month's Smithsonian magazine has a wonderful article on the Lake District of Scotland, which includes reference to the shepherding profession there, which has been passed down through many generations.  With true dedication these shepherds have continued to pursue their pastoral vocation despite economic challenges. They have pride and care for the renowned Herdwick sheep.  Today's gospel [John 10: 11-17] has Jesus call himself the Good (or Model) Shepherd while contrasting that role with the role of a hireling herder.

There is a dramatic difference.  A hireling has no skin in the game; a good shepherd is invested in those animals in his care.  A hireling is only doing a job and collecting a paycheck; a good shepherd exercises a vocation that issues in relationship with those for whom he cares.  That is manifest in his unconditional service   A hireling will try to coerce his sheep; a good shepherd motivates them to do his will.  (I cannot help remembering photo images of Nazi soldiers as they herded Jews, gays, and others into cattle cars bounds for death camps.  Contrast that with images of Pope Francis cleaning the sores of lepers,  lovingly washing the feet of poor people, non-Christians and "sinners," indeed in so many ways demonstrating God's universal love through self-sacrificial pastoral care.

Remember that John's gospel was written on and after the turn of the first century, C.E.  I do suspect that the gospeller was thinking back to the bloody Jewish Revolt in the year 70, when the Pharisees fled Jerusalem and went to Jamnia on the seacoast to reinvent Judaism into a rabbinic form.  When the dangers came, these false shepherds did not stay with the sheep.  A good shepherd, by contrast, faces the threat and when necessary will lay down his life to save his flock.

Our epistolary reading is from First John, also a very late writing.  First John is written to a parish wherein bad shepherds have led much of the membership out of the church.  It would appear that their departure was related to teaching -- doctrines, opinions, interpretations.  These know-it-alls, who  imagined that they had it all "right," fractured the congregation.  These false shepherds had made themselves "anti-Christs" by breaking the unity for which Christ fervently prayed in today's gospel. 

What counsel do you think the author of First John offers to this faith community already under fire  from a hostile Roman culture and now rocked by division?  Well, he has two things to say to them.  First, he reminds them of their identity as the Children of God.  Then he praises their knowledge.  That consists, not of knowing doctrinal or creedal formulae, not of having right theological notions, but rather by knowing  God's life, love and will for the world made manifest in Jesus.  They know to emulate his life and to follow his teachings in order to heal the world, in order to bring the cosmos to its completion, restored to God's vision.  Those are our marching orders as well.