Sheep, shepherd, they seem to come up a lot

Sheep and shepherd metaphors abound in the Bible. I’m not making any pronouncements but I have probably preached about anything that abounds in the Bible more than once and sheep and shepherds are certainly not an exception to this. So if I have preached about these before why not give in and preach about Mother’s Day today? There are two answers to that question. First, as far as I can see, for a male preacher, preaching about Mother’s Day or mothers or anything like that seems to be a lose-lose kind of proposition. Second, the more I considered the Lectionary texts for today the more I realized that there was something to say about the Great Shepherd that I had never said before . . . so I said it.

It struck me that while I have looked at how we are sheep and how Jesus is the Great Shepherd I had never really thought about how we work with the shepherd even as we remain sheep. The primary impetus for this thought was the Acts reading. I couldn’t get away from that picture of the early church caring for each other in such an extraordinary way. The picture kept reshaping itself for me into sheep being cared for by a shepherd.

Knox Presbyterian Another look at “shepherd”

St. Mark’s Presbyterian Another look at “shepherd”

I hope you enjoy this slightly different direction for this week’s texts and a very happy Mother’s Day to all.

Blessings,