Even with familiar passages, it is important to remember that Jesus taught, and the Bible was written, in a very different day. I would guess that very few of us have had any direct recent contact with either a sheep or a shepherd. The closest most of us have come to a sheep is the last time we ate a leg of lamb. Eating mutton is great, but it hardly prepares you think about what it means to guide and protect sheep. My prayer is that this sermon will.

While we may not be overly familiar with first century farming, we know a great deal about our need for help. This is partly why we’re here. We have a human need to get in touch with Divine instructions. We hunger for meaning, thirst for understanding, and yearn for protection – protection from our own bad decisions and protection from a world of predators. We may not know sheep from the outside, but we know them from the inside.

As you likely know all too well, as a kid I raised pigs and cows. We were an Oklahoma livestock family. I have an early poignant memory of my sister running from the table, screeching in horror, because we were eating one of our pets. It was a steer named Baldy, which became a steak… we preferred not to name. My sister had trouble with that transition.

In any case, early in my life I never had any dealings with sheep. My earliest memories of sheep were at Sunday School. You will remember the teaching aides… pictures of bleached white beauties on a manicured green hillside… a blondish bearded Jesus caring the little lamb on his shoulder (both Jesus and the lamb were likely whiter than historically allowed). I remember well the scene of lazy sheep by lazier waters, sitting serenely, pastorally, beautifully.

Which is why my first meeting with real sheep came as such a shock. I was 14ish, and I went over to a friend’s house. His family raised sheep. Lots of sheep, in fact. There were pens and pens of these … not white, but dingy… not free, but trapped, … not pastoral but annoying … animals. And what I noticed was not how unintelligent they were (although they were), not just how dirty they were (although true enough), not how stinky they smelled… but what struck me was how undignified they seemed. That may seem like a bizarre reaction and I can only guess that it makes sense in light of my SS experience.

The stately white beauties who I thought of as those animals who could supply a wool sweater or worsted wool Armani had become a stinky penned beast. As I looked over the pens of sheep, and later helped feed the crazy animals who seemed to have a knack for doing exactly what you didn’t want them to do… I wondered where the sheep of green pastures and still waters had gone. The sheep were there, but without still waters they were just captivated beasts.

These things are true about sheep: they aren’t very smart, they are rather vulnerable, but notice the particular action that Jesus alludes to in verses 2, 7, and 9. The shepherd is the one who leads them through the gate, which is to say, out of and in to. The good Shepherd leads sheep out of captivity and into protective freedom. A sheep only has dignity following a shepherd.

“The thief comes (kleptis – kleptomaniac)… his activities are stealing, killing, destroying; the Good Shepherd comes to lead his sheep to life – abundant life.”

Today I want to talk about the 3 fundamental ideas which are in this text, and which in fact underlie most of biblical wisdom. 1) we are sheep, held in undignified captivity – often of our own making; 2) we can listen to the voice of Wisdom, who leads us through the gate of freedom; 3) living in freedom requires an open ear to a unique voice.

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters… he anoints my head with oil …

The only way this works is that we admit we need a shepherd. This implies that we can’t find our own way to green pastures, we need help to get to the watering hole, that our cup would be running on empty if it weren’t for his pitcher.

Anne Lamott (in her book “Plan B”) says that the anointing of Psm. 23 refers to a fragrant oil the shepherds would poor around the sheep’s mouth to keep flies from laying eggs there. When flies are allowed to go unhindered the sheep will shake their head, busting their head against a tree, just to get rid of the flies. You can imagine … well you don’t have to. We have flies of our own.

Why do people drink too much, take drugs, get in goofy relationships, gamble away grocery money? To get rid of the flies.

There are those in the Christian tradition that emphasize that this is because of our sin. We willfully walk into a parched land, away from the still waters of God. What we need is someone to lead us to repentance. There are others in the Christian tradition that emphasize our victim status, that we are finite creatures in a predator1y world and that we need protection and help. The flies come unbidden … they just come.

Both are true. It’s sad that liberals and conservatives can’t listen to each other. If they did they might learn something.

Of course the most important thing to learn is the voice of Wisdom which leads to the gate of freedom.

My grandfather would tell this 10 year old kid: “stay in pickup or you’ll spook the cows.” Now that had nothing to do with my looks, it was just that I was a stranger. They knew his frame, they knew the look of the pickup. If he drove a different truck, and used a different horn, they would be wary. Their stomachs would overcome their better judgment and they would eventually come, but were skittish.

Some of you have been feeding at the trough of wisdom so long that you know the voice well. Some of you are just learning to listen. Wherever you are, know that scripture warns you against following the voice of the thief, and against thinking you’ll be alright in that stinking pen.

A Hebrew scholar when asked if it were possible to sum up the OT in one word, replied: “remember.” It is God saying remember what I did, remember I’ll do it again. Not a bad motto for life. Much of the Bible is not just about getting out of the gate of captivity, it’s about staying in those green pastures, having a refillable cup, living abundantly through following that voice.

At times, during down moments, I’ve been tempted to think that the only difference between the lives of Christians and the lives of non-Christians is that the Christians went to church and talked about the good life and the non-Christians stayed home and thought about the good life while watching Meet the Press. Of course while there are many Christians for whom Sunday is just a rote exercise, there are many for whom Sunday makes Monday have meaning. These are the seekers, who listen to the texts, who sing hymns with full even if faulty voice, who don’t separate their lives into nice compartments.

What if when you encountered an “enemy” you let Jesus lead you into pastures of forgiveness? What if when you encountered a poor person, you let Jesus lead you to the calming waters of giving? What if when you came face to face with emptiness you allowed Jesus to anoint your head with oil which keeps the flies of boredom at bay and the flickers of hope alive in your heart? If we let this kind of shepherdship happen, we’d find an abundance of life.

The Greek word translated “abundantly” or (NIV) “life to the full” has two major meanings. One is the idea of abundant, over and above, full and running over. The other is what struck me: “extraordinary… as rarely seen among men.” Plato uses this word in the Apology, when he has Socrates say that his philosophy – his search after wisdom – was not all that perisson: extraordinary. It was certainly not worth being killed for, said Socrates.

Was John, clearly familiar with Greek philosophy, signally that the wisdom, leadership, guidance of Jesus was not just an intellectual quest, but one that would lead to a new extraordinary fullness? I would bet my life on it. And have. Your shepherd stands at the gate beckoning you to do the same.