The jobs no-one wants to do Easter 4
In today’s gospel Jesus uses the metaphor of the good shepherd. Bear with me if you have read this in E News this week, for those who haven’t read it I said that:
I’ve always been an advocate for contextual theology. In the case of the good shepherd many Pacific islands and their people have never seen a sheep let alone know what a shepherd is or does. So the next closest thing to a sheep is a pig. Jesus the pig herder. Pigs like sheep definitely know the voice of their owner or keeper.
In Papua New Guinea one pig herder states that “ We don’t have sheep on our island. In fact we have never seen one nor do we know what they are like but what we do have is pigs. And those pigs know our voice” he continued. Sometimes we will lose one of our domesticated pigs we are raising and so we will call out into the jungle a special call that we know only that pig will recognize. And when we call out, sure enough that little pig comes running straight out of the jungle and straight to us because it knows our voice. Not only does that little pig know our voice when we call to it but it knows whether or not a stranger is the one calling or if its owner is calling out to it and you can rest assured that it won’t come if it’s not the owner calling to it. Our pigs know our voices and when we call, they come
Biblical texts may not necessarily be understood if the readers or listeners have no concept of what is being talked about. Pacific Theology or Coconut theology is an appropriate recontextualising of the Biblical texts in order for it to be relevant to its readers and listeners. Or in the case of the theologies of Asia, Kosuke Koyama’s “Water Buffalo” theology.
When our children are under 5 years old we often let them dream about what they want to be when they grow up. When they are a little older they tend to choose jobs that they think their parents might like to hear. I always used to say I wanted to be a nurse, just because my mother was a nurse and it made her happy, but at the same time I wanted to work with my dad at the brick works so I could play with the clay. I know my parents emigrated to New Zealand to follow that dream of good education and opportunities for themselves and for their children. And they were hugely successful in attaining that without imposing any expectations on any of their 6 children. We all ended up doing what we wanted and were happy with our choices.
Being a shepherd and aspiring to becoming a shepherd was a job that was frowned on. Unless you owned the farm and all the profits that the farm made then yes perhaps this would be a good job, but a shepherd was equivalent to the basic jobs that one does because no one else wants to. When I think of the image of shepherding I hear the words of Jesus saying to the Pharisees with their head gear and flowing gowns “suppose one of you have 100 sheep and loses one”. It was a comparison that one just didn’t make. It was like saying to King Charles and members of the Royal family, suppose one day you go out and take your own rubbish to the tip. Although the mere thought of mundane jobs and tasks won’t kill them they probably take offense as the Pharisees did. It may not be one’s first choice of job, but beggers can’t be choosers. Like the Dalit caste in India, there are jobs and tasks that no one would ever want to do like picking up the human wastes of the rich. Every culture has the jobs that are the worst of the worst. I remember in between children my mum worked as a cleaner at the post office building off Victoria Street when I was in primary school. I hated having to see her go and do that job, but she had no choice. When we were all old enough she returned to nursing much to my relief.
The job of shepherding was often a task that people who didn’t own farms did because they could only do the work of a hired hand, which is why when a sheep goes missing the whole community particularly the community of the hired help are involved because the cost of the lost sheep is more that the pay that the shepherd would be receiving.
But this image of shepherding has been the most popular image chosen for the church and the Christian faith. Jesus is the shepherd and the church or people are the sheep. The term pastor comes out of this context. The good thing about this image is that the shepherd is a basic role that is not too high and inaccessible for us to connect to.
This metaphor has been diluted over the centuries by beautiful pictures and icons that depict Jesus carefully holding one sheep
while often appearing in a dissociated state, reminiscent of the powerless look many Renaissance artists have given Mary
What could be further from the vital, involved, alive person this meant for Jesus’ hearers. The shepherd in Jesus’ time had to be tough, protecting the sheep, especially at night, from wild animals and sheep stealers.
At the same time we know that in this environment the sheep did literally learn their shepherd’s voice. There was no need for brands, a mixed flock would respond to the two or more shepherds voices and separate to their respective shepherd when called.
In New Zealand today, my image of a good shepherd wears a woolen shirt in the winter and a black t-shirt in the summer like Wal on the front cover of our order of service and rides a quad bike followed by several working dogs as they move across NZ’s idyllic hillsides.
Unfortunately as we heard this week on the news, sheep especially rams can be dangerous and cause fatalities like the 80 year old couple at their Waitakere farm in Auckland being killed by an angry ram. Shepherds can and need to be tough.
In pastoral care, the nature of the balanced shepherd should know when to break the rules in matters of injustice or exclusion.
The nature of the balanced shepherd goes and gets and brings in the least likely as precious and vital to the whole. With protection, permission and potency nothing stops the nature of the shepherd from protecting those with the least power and resources,
with a love not strong enough to kill for, but powerful enough to die for. It says if you want to destroy you have to go through me first!
This nature of the shepherd completely turns on its head the concept of the despised and the honourable and embraces difference
by knowing each name and nature of those needing care.
As your minister I have to confess to mixing up your names occasionally, but I’m sure, like your children, nieces, nephews, they are all completely different, as each one of us here are valued and different. And I know you know my voice. I admit I do have a distinct voice. When I first heard a recording of myself in primary I was embarrassed because I thought sounded like a boy named Malcolm until Helen Clarke became prime minister and I thought yay there’s another woman with a low voice as low as mine.
So what of the wolf often depicted in myth as the devourer or destroyer, Little red riding hood or Peter and the Wolf. Little Red Riding Hood
brings elements of seduction, devouring and protection, not to mention loss of innocence. Wolves have got pretty bad press through the ages
That is until Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book where a pack of wolves raised a little boy as their own. . If you get a chance and want to watch a nice family movie on Netflix called .The wolf and the lion.
But for our purposes today, the part of the wolves’ nature we are drawn into is that which stalks, hunts and devours,
and threatens both the sheep and those caring for them.
To stay and protect against such a force that destroys takes much love and courage. There are many things in life that can feel like they have the potential to eat us up, whether like the duck we can’t run fast enough or like Little Red Riding Hood we thought the wolf was someone we knew who was nice. We get sick and hurt and, at times, get separated from one another. Things can frighten us and challenge the core of what we thought we knew for sure. We can feel attacked and abandoned at times, and at times like these, the nature of the shepherd hold us, carries us, and keeps us as safe as possible.
The nature of the shepherd is engaged leadership, good authority and a good model for us as a community of faith
to incarnate in our structure here at St Andrew’s on the Terrace. Whether at times we are sheep or shepherds,
we recognize each other and acknowledge the responsibility we share, in leadership and community together.
The balance of the tough shepherd with the nurturing shepherd is a different function than attacking, devouring, destroying
and scattering. But these too are part of our human nature and it is not enough to blame those nasty wolves out there.
Unity within diversity is a good value to uphold but unity isn’t achieved only by staying safe, especially when that is denying the true nature of the Gospel. Our community needs to be edgy, vital, and relevant, committed to life and care for one another, staying in relationship with boundaries, love and respect for difference, and protecting, permissioning, and when necessary being open and honest with one another.
Not to be devoured or to destroy either ourselves or each other, the Good Shepherd if we are able to is challenged to lay down their life for their sheep. Amen.
Audio of selected readings and reflections
Audio of the complete service
THANK YOU