Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Is it bad to be sheep?

Text: Luke 13:31-35

Seems to me that sheep get a bad rap today. They are always portrayed and referred to as dumb animals that will follow one of their own into danger, off the edge of a cliff. It’s quite possible that sheep, certainly ones on farms that have been bred for wool or meat, are in fact pretty stupid animals. I’ve only been around sheep at county fairs and can’t really speak to their intelligence level. But they survived for thousands of years before being and their herding together is a survival mechanism just as it is for many plant eating animals (cows, gazelles, etc). Moving together means that the community is more likely to survive when attacked by hungry carnivores.

Humans, especially Americans, often take a different view of how to survive in the world. We are a group that almost worships individual effort. The greatest heroes in the books we read and the movies we watch are those that triumph through their own individual effort. We praise the sports players who rise on their talents and abilities. And we deride “the sheep” among us; those who place the work and good of the community above their own welfare.

In our scripture passage this morning Jesus laments the fact that he has attempted to gather the “lost sheep” of Israel under his wings, but they are unwilling. “The image we are given is of God/Jesus as a hen gathering a whole bunch of chickens under her wings. What might that imply about our relationship with those other chickens? It requires a physical closeness to be packed together under those wings. It implies a learning to get along with one another if we wish to stay packed together under those wings. How do we balance our own comfort level of space with this image of physically gathered together under God's loving wings? Being packed together in a pew? Rubbing shoulders with others on the way out of church? Sharing the peace by touching others with a handshake -- or an embrace (when appropriate)?”
http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/luke13x31.htm

Rev. Jack Sullivan, in his article on five things we can learn from the historic black church, tells us many black congregations travel across town or even hundreds of miles just to be together for worship or fellowship with other churches. Through these gatherings members maintain family ties, find strength and share their testimonies of the wondrous acts of God. And he quotes the words of Martin Luther King Jr. “We are tied together in a single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is structured.”

What does that mean for us as individuals and as a church?

We need to act as a community - seeking consensus, supporting decisions that are made by the whole even when we may not agree with them, reaching out and supporting one another [especially those who are on the edges of the community], being present so that we are a part of it. Those of us who tend to act alone need to be intentional about getting more involved with others and opening up more (even if that’s difficult), being aware of who is not present and reaching out to them. Be willing to ask for help and extend help.

And it means reaching out beyond the walls of this church to invite individuals into our community, and engaging with other churches to build larger communities that widen the circle even further.

The historic black church and others dealing with oppression know that it is necessary to pool their efforts to make progress. Those of us of all ethnic groups and backgrounds who have “made it” can learn a valuable lesson about the value of communities that grow and thrive because they move forward into the future together, encouraging and supporting each other so that God’s Kingdom might be more fully realized.

-Rev. Roger Osgood

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