Links for today’s readings:
Sep 23 Read: Jeremiah 50 Listen: (8:42) Read: 2 Corinthians 9 Listen: (2:26)
Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 50:6
My people have been lost sheep;
their shepherds have led them astray
and caused them to roam on the mountains.
They wandered over mountain and hill
and forgot their own resting place.
Reflection: Stray Shepherding
By Erin Newton
In my first year of Hebrew classes, my professor explained verb tenses and used Psalm 23 as an example. He stressed, “The Lord is shepherding me”—not simply, “is my shepherd.” His point was that the guidance of our God is continual and ongoing, not just a point-in-time fact or a past action. I have taken more classes since that day two decades ago, but this statement comes to mind often.
A note here: We must remind people that the old theory that shepherds needed to be harsh and even “break the legs of a sheep when it was unruly” is false and debunked. That’s a terrible shepherding method and a horrendous advocation for abuse. (The Park Forum has written specifically on this point in Urban Legends and Good Shepherds.)
Over the last year, I’ve experienced the “sheep without a shepherd” situation. Matthew 9:26 speaks of this: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Oddly, I was a member of a functioning church. It was a church in transition and, despite reaching out to the pastors, my concerns fell through cracks. And then again two months later. And then again two months after that.
I follow an account where a photographer’s husband is a shepherd in Switzerland. It has been fascinating to see a modern-day shepherd’s life and then reflect on modern pastoral care for the church. This Swiss shepherd spends half of the year with his flocks in the mountains. He is separated from his human community for months, being integrated and connected to his sheep and goats. He knows their personalities, their struggles, their life cycles. They move up and down the mountain depending on the season.
Change is inevitable and not necessarily bad. Jeremiah’s shepherd is moving the congregation over the hills and mountains. But it’s astray. These shepherds, who were revered among their community and blindly followed by the flock, are not as wise as they proclaim to be.
The result is a lack of rest. No peace in the community. No peace with God. No peace internally.
With all the verses about human shepherding, I’m so thankful for Psalm 23. The Lord is shepherding me. I’ve moved into a new flock with a new set of shepherds who dwell among us, knowing our lives and our hurts. But it’s still the Lord who ultimately shepherds. And he does not lead astray. He guards me; I don’t have to be his defense.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Show us the light of your countenance, O God, and come to us. — Psalm 67.1
– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.
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Read more: Urban Legends and Good Shepherds
Abusive leaders have used this metaphor to justify “wounding” parishioners with “tough love” because they are “good shepherds.”
