The problem with having me as a mother is that I keep ‘treasures’ written or made by my two daughters, tell stories about them or worse yet – show and tell about some of their exploits. This past week I came across something my youngest daughter wrote when she was in the second grade. We were living in Fort Lauderdale at the time – the year before I went to seminary. Since I occasionally submitted material to Episcopal Teacher which was produced out of Virginia Theological seminary, I had sent her written version of what it was like to be an acolyte and it was included in the August issue.

Here is what she said, “On Saturday I had aklelighting practice for Palm Sunday. On Saturday I had a friend sleep over. On Sunday I had too walk around the people two times. I almost droped my candle. I had a great time.” Cute to be sure but actually she was doing a very serious thing – she was functioning as a shepherd – gathering and leading the congregation in a procession around the church – and as anybody knows – leading church people, especially Episcopalians – is not an easy task.

This past Lent the clergy of the diocese gathered at St. John the Divine, our Cathedral, in order to renew our ordination vows. Our chief shepherds Sisk and Roskam were there holding their crosiers, a fancy word for shepherd’s crook, to watch their ‘sheep’ process in. We were vested and some lucky verger had the job of trying to get us to line up in order of the year of our ordinations…worse than trying to herd cats much less us rowdy sheep. I posted on my face book page the question “If a bunch of sheep are called a flock, what do you call a group of clergy?” One person wrote back, “In our diocese we call them ‘trouble.”

The story of Tabitha, in Greek, Dorcas, meaning Gazelle, is a story of a shepherd. She is introduced as a disciple, the only time a woman is specifically named as a disciple. She filled her days with kindness and charity – taking care of others. The fact that the community was gathered at her bedside is testimony to the kind of life she led – sharing in a distribution of resources and spreading the reign of God’s realm.

What is it that makes one a shepherd?

Tabitha reminded me of Ella Mae Holmes, a former school principal, who in her 90’s shepherded 20 young children from the worst neighborhoods in St. Petersburg, to the Mahaffey theater once a month to hear the symphony orchestra. Miss Mae, as we called her, took delight in keeping track of her flock. What is it that makes one a shepherd?

Desmond Tutu said that most of our pictures of Jesus and the sheep are inaccurate. The sheep are always pristine white – clean – no burs or dirt or mud upon their little bodies which usually look cute, fluffy and happy. And Jesus, who is almost always pictured as white, thin, emaciated, and mild-mannered gazes lovingly down at the sheep.

When I was in Scotland, driving across the Isle of Mull, I got a different image of sheep and what it might be like to keep track of them. The rolling hills were covered with sheep – but they weren’t clumped together. There were a few sheep here, and there and over there – and some running away and some sitting stubbornly right in the middle of the road – not moving – keeping the car stuck until they decided to move on. It reminded me of a verse out of Isaiah 53, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own.”

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. No one will snatch them out of my hand.” No mild mannered man here – rather a determined one who cared deeply for those who decided to follow him. Jesus said that whoever heard his voice, whoever wanted to be healed, loved, found, accepted, and cherished would never be snatched away from him. Even if people strayed away to follow their own paths, Jesus would keep calling out to them until they returned.

In today’s gospel – the encounter between Jesus and the Jews took place within the center of Jewish worship, the Temple, during a religious festival. The temple authorities were challenging him, asking him who he was. They were at odds with each other – not Jesus against the Jews – but Jesus and his followers – all Jewish – arguing with other Jews about who Jesus was or was claiming to be. Most scholars today take great pains to explain that this disagreement was one internal to the community, like a family squabble.

Barbara Brown Taylor, in her book Bread of Angels, writes about the scribes and Pharisees in this way: “They make great targets. They are the nit-picking legalists who reject Jesus’ teaching because he keeps breaking their rules. They kept to very high standards which would have been alright if that had helped them stay in communion with other people, but it tended to work the other way around, by cutting them off. Some of the concerns were practical; hands were silverware in the ancient world and you did not want to share your food with someone who had just come in from trimming his sheep’s hooves, not unless he washed first.”

You can imagine when the Pharisees in today’s gospel heard Jesus refer to himself as a shepherd how insulted they might have been. They held high positions in the temple. Jesus was describing himself and God (the Father and I are one) as being with or like the lowly. To be a shepherd was to be discounted, looked down upon. It was a very common occupation but those who were shepherds were not property owners, they led an itinerant life and probably weren’t the cleanest, or best smelling folk around. But remember that in Luke’s gospel the shepherds are the first to go to the stable in Bethlehem so Jesus has a long association with shepherds and sheep and seeing events in surprising and scandalous ways, and turning the tables on those who want to be seen as first and held in high esteem.

Do we today hear the voice of the shepherd? Lee Koontz, a pastor who blogs on the theological pages of the internet wrote that a friend of his told him that being a pastor is like being a stray dog at a whistler’s convention. That image for pastors is funny but it also applies to humanity in general. When we are unclear as to who the shepherd is for us, we end up running this way and that, following other voices or practices for short periods of time and then being disappointed that we don’t feel spiritually fulfilled, (I hear a lot of conversation about whether or not someone is feeling spiritual or finding spirituality in the church – Jesus didn’t say, “Follow me and become spiritual. He said “Follow me and treat people the way I have treated you”). When we are following our own desires, ignoring the people, the world, the creation around us, we often don’t feel that we are in a right and real relationship with God. In other words, we are lost, following some path that leads away rather than toward God.

Sometimes we don’t know we’re lost. We just keep on pretending to know where we’re going even though somewhere in the back of our minds we are asking “What are we doing?” Where am I” Maybe we’re so busy navigating life—searching for money or prestige or good looks or a promotion that we are more or less ‘lost in space’ and are clueless as to our relationship to others—which means we’re clueless to our relationship to God.

I confess I watch a lot of reality shows – they are great studies in human nature – and also commentaries on how we view other people. Look at these TV shows: American Idol – The Apprentice – Survivor – Top Model – Top Chef – The Bachelor – The Bachelorette – Dancing with the Stars -they are all about discarding people who because of their behavior or because of their failure to do something right or good enough or – because we just don’t like them – they are thrown out. In essence, our culture is saying “get lost”. We vote them off or kick them out or fire them – not because they are sinners – but because they weren’t good enough. Could you ever imagine a game show called “The Gate” where people had to compete with each other to get into heaven, to be with God, to be loved, to be accepted, to be found?

In the church there are games we play at conference and camp settings. They are called New Games – because the concepts are new. There are no winners or losers in these games. The point is to get everyone involved. One game is called Sardines. One person hides and everyone hunts for that one person – like hide and go seek, BUT when you find that one person you hide with them – quietly – until everyone has found the one hiding and are packed in together like sardines. No one is left out or tagged out.

The only game more fun than this one is a version of musical chairs. Usually while music plays, people walk or run around a circle of chairs. When the music stops, a chair is removed and then everyone has to run to find a chair. The person without a chair is out. But in New Games, if you can’t find a chair you go sit on someone else. This goes on, each time a chair is removed people sit on someone else until all the group is piled on top of each other sitting on one or two chairs. No one feels out – everyone is laughing like crazy. People are pulled in rather than being put out.

Now there’s an image of Christ the shepherd for you— playing sardines or musical chairs with us. Not only searching and finding, but sticking with us until the whole community is gathered and turned into a tangled pile of joyful, giddy adults and children.

Jesus said “I and the Father are one.” Jesus made the invisible God visible through his own life. The character of God was shown through the life of Jesus a life of compassion, healing, acceptance, forgiveness, inclusion and love…the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. When Jesus said, “Follow me,” he meant this is the way to live your lives. Be compassionate, be accepting of others, reach out to offer words of healing, and feed the other sheep. Care for others as I have cared for you.

Yes, we are all sheep but I do not for a minute believe that Jesus meant for us to stay put in a pen, waiting for someone to come and take care of us. As whole and healthy people the true shepherd calls us to join him in the care and feeding of those who cannot – are not able – to care for themselves. Whether you are a grandparent with a feisty 7 year old grandson, or a second-grader trying to bring people into worship, or a 90 year old who has a passion for music – you are called to follow Jesus in the shepherding ministry. You are never too old and never too young. Jesus calls to all of us. The question is ‘do you hear his voice?’