Washed-up sheep

And God has made us a little lower than the angels…(Heb 2:7). Unlike Ms. Wesley, I do not believe we are stupid, ugly, filthy and smelly to our Creator. Her lectionary reading should be taken as a warning: this is what happens when a biblical metaphor such as this is pushed too far, in a direction not intended by the biblical text.

This passage, intended to emphasize Jesus’ loving care and concern for all people (including the sheep “not of this fold”) was never intended to degrade the sheep who, in a manner far from stupid, listen to his voice. Jesus stops far short of Ms. Wesley, who seems bent on emphasizing the literality of the metaphor to the point of absurdity. Are we also to be shorn of our wool, and slaughtered for mutton as is the fate of all sheep? That would be within the realm of Ms.Wesley’s theology, as she goes on to portray a violent God “sacrificing” his son.

Look again. The other lectionary readings for this Sunday (particularly Acts) emphasize that God is the giver of life, not the taker, and the earthly life Wesley so deplores (the "ugliness that we are"??) is the very life that Jesus cherished and blessed with his incarnation.

This reading, published on the front page of our website, is an affront to anyone seeking a spiritual home. Please understand - there is a more excellent way! We were fashioned a little lower than the angels and are loved, forgiven, incredibly valuable children of God. And that is GOOD News!

Actually, I find this one of the better lectionary readings offered. Yes, it does leave out the being slaughtered like sheep, but look around yourself to see our violent God. How many people did God kill last night? How many people did God give up to all sorts of horrible things? God kills and makes alive. The miracle in Christ is that God makes US alive, even though we tend to be nasty terrible people to each other. The only part missing, is what we can do with those clean hearts. Overall, though, this is one of the better lectionary studies out there.

That's sad.

To clarify my previous comment: if this is indeed one of the better lectionary studies out there, that is sad because the images conjured (via metaphor) are so degrading to humanity and God alike.

Leaving aside for a moment the issue of a violent God (atonement theology vs. incarnational theology vs. Girardian theology vs. simply our understanding of God) the degradation of our good human flesh, created by God and embodied in God's Son, is an unhappy thread which runs through our theology.

Truly, we can do better.

Ms. Schuen: Thank you for offering your comments. I in some ways agree with or at least sympathize with what I understand of your concern -- there certainly is a high respect for the goodness of creation and for the God-given dignity of humankind in the scriptural witness, and sometimes that facet of our faith IS forgotten when we focus exclusively on human sinfulness. But I don't see this article as falling into that trap. It seems to me there IS something ugly about how we sometimes speak to and think of others and refuse to help or even notice the needy; that there is something filthy (though I wouldn't normally use that word) about our disobedience of God's call to follow Christ's way of love; that "smelly" perhaps isn't a bad word to use in describing our selfishness and materialism; that there is something stupid about our worry and our regular habit of thinking that, unlike all the times before, going our own selfish way will work great this time. Our created goodness does not disprove our sinfulness, nor does our sinfulness disprove our created goodness. We are capable of great things that give our Maker praise, and we are also capable of doing awful things that hurt and destroy. I don't see the 'created goodness and human dignity' side of our faith and the 'our sin is real and great' side of our faith as contradictory -- I see them as both (to use a favorite Lutheran word, paradoxically) true. And yet, God's love and faithfulness for us is unlimited, all the way to the cross -- all the way to the Good Shepherd who gives his own life for the sake of his wonderful (yes, created good) but profoundly imperfect (and, yes, "sinful") sheep.

If we are created as slightly less than angels, then we have fallen from such grace and are elevated to such stature only through the Good Shepard. A quote from Martin Luther: "Let us, however, by contrast compare His greatness with our weakness and say, “There is no reason why I with my tiny works should oppose His power like a fly or a mouse.” When we are exalted, we are the most wretched little grubs. In this way He demolishes our pride, righteousness, and uprightness. Though we should all our life go about attempting to please God, we should be nothing but worms in view of His majesty. Thus by this description of His majesty He replies to our pride and presumption, as if to say, “What do you expect to accomplish with your merit? I would pay no attention to this life. Trust in Christ, in another’s righteousness and not in your own work, for that is like a particle of dust in the heavens.”
Luther, M. (1999, c1972). Vol. 17: Luther's works, vol. 17 : Lectures on Isaiah: Chapters 40-66 (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (Is 40:13). Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House.

Dear Jeff, Thank you for your attempt to relate this weeks gospel lesson to our lives. Unfortunately, I think you have significantly missed the point. In our lesson this week, unlike the gate mentioned in Luke 13, Jesus comes to lead the sheep out of the pen, and into abundant life. Please, take a lesson from your own pastor, read his full thoughts in your monthly newsletter. Pastor Richard writes eloquently regarding Scriptural interpretation, the following is from his article in your church's newsletter this month: "The Bible is a written account of God’s interaction with the people of Faith. It is not truly a history, although there are historical events throughout. It is not a direct account of what happened, or exactly how things happened, as much as it is a record of Who made things happen (the Lord,) and how God acts on behalf of, and for the sake of those who trust in him. It is a story of faith, meant to inspire faith in those who read its stories." Found at: http://www.stmattspringfield.org/pdf/cnlapr12.pdf

The truth in this weeks text does not focus on how dirty the sheep are.

To the editors, please consider articles that honor both cultural and historical implications of the metaphors found in Scripture. To be relevant, we must find and use metaphors that use modern examples rather than those of an agrarian culture. As one questions: how can the Christian faith, first experienced and symbolically articulated in an ancient culture now long out-of-date, speak meaningfully to human existence today as we experience it amid a worldview dominated by natural science, secular self-understanding, and the worldwide cry for freedom?-Ted Peters

Haphazardly applying ancient metaphors to modern people seems to do more harm than good.
Dave

A general question to those bothered so much by this text study: Why? How is it offensive to hear that for those of us who are ugly, filthy, smelly, stupid and stubborn that we have a Shepherd who will lay down His life for us? If we're so good and perfect, what do we need Jesus for in the first place, anyways? Or are our imperfections not really all that ugly, filthy, smelly, stupid or stubborn? If that's true, why all the violent crime here in the US?

Kathy,

I think we'll likely disagree on whether those images are degrading to humanity, or simply descriptive of it. We all bring judgment upon ourselves, and it's rightly deserved. Some of us may forget because we have relatively good lives, but for a lot of people, life is ugly, filthy, smelly, stupid and stubborn. The Good News for those of us living through that is exactly as Jeff proclaims: God loves us and bears our sins in Christ, and that is what makes the difference. This is why we have joy even in the midst of these evils. This is what we mean when we say that Jesus has triumphed over sin...our sin.

Dave,

There's actually nothing in John 10 about Jesus leading sheep out of the pen. Simply that there are other pens that must be brought as well. Far more emphasis on what Jesus is about to do for us, which Jeff captures better than some pastors I know. As to relevance in our day, Jeff's proclamation is exactly how it can speak to us today. We're not looking to be told how wonderful we are. We're searching for Good News in the face of how bad everything seems to be.

Hello, Peter

Many, many thanks for continuing this discussion! Judging from the number of responses, we have clearly hit upon something vital. It's interesting to me how we have moved from considering the validity of this particular metaphor to a discussion on the innate condition of humanity. Perhaps that's as it should be, because ultimately we who are church will confront this issue many times over as we counsel people, write lectionary meditations, plan worship services, and attempt to minister as best we can to the brokenness of the world.

Each religion has its own set of axioms: statements we do not question but simply accept as givens. For Lutherans, arguably the most important one is "simul justus et peccator," loosely translated as "both saint and sinner." It is a description variously applied to we "sinner/saints" of the church which some have broadened to include all of humanity, because all of humanity has been redeemed through Jesus' salvific death - whether individual people acknowledge this or not.

So, that's our axiom and, relating it back to the filthiness of the sheep, it is true that sin is all-pervasive. There are simply no words to describe the pernicious influence it has, and the devastation it causes to humanity, and through us, to all of creation. So that's peccator, and it's the ugliest thing I know.

However, we were created to be defined, not by sin, but by God - who created us good, along with the rest of creation of which we are a part. My hope comes, not only from God's grace poured out upon our sin, but also from our story of origin in Genesis, chapter 2. "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good." To me, that's the best picture of how we were created. We weren't created filthy. We were created good. Good earth, good human flesh, good God.

To wallow in the peccator images so vividly described by Ms. Wesley in order to make the grace of God more precious, is to miss the point in my opinion. To follow that logic is to cry, with St. Paul, "should we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!" (Romans 6: 1,2)

As your writing so vividly illustrates, most people I meet (in church or out), have a vivid awareness of their own shortcomings. They know the world is broken, and most have many ideas of how they, personally, have contributed to that brokenness. It's less a matter of saying that my best efforts are as filth to God, as saying "I AM the filth." Ms. Wesley's interpretation plays right into that toxic cycle of shame and degradation, implying that we don't DO sin, we ARE sin. That's not our original identity as we were created by God.

What these people most need to hear is what you've said - that we have a Savior and a God whose grace is never-ending, profligate in a way we cannot imagine, and freely offered out of God's unconditional love. That's the Good News. Flogging people (especially newcomers to the church) with images of guilt and worse yet, shame, is not helpful, it's harmful.

It's also not a good evangelism strategy. Bluntly put, the filthy sheep/good shepherd metaphor is not our best foot forward when we are speaking to the unchurched. And we are ALWAYS speaking to them, or ought to be, in my opinion.

I'd like to end this post with a thought inspired by a pastor friend of mine who gently reminded me that our experience of the grace of God is tied to the fallen condition of humankind. That's true, as you've noted, but I don't believe it is the entire story on grace.

Grace appears to be, along with unconditional love, an attribute of God, something integral to the divine nature - not something God summons up only to cover our sins. God does not live for us, the creation. Dr. Brueggemann noted that to think this is akin to a child's thinking that her mother exists solely for the child's sake.

God's life is about God and as such, God has an existence and a work apart from God's creation, including us. Collectively, humanity may be only one of the infinite "folds" this Shepherd tends. Perhaps we can agree that, whether summoned up in order to heal us of the consequences of our sins or simply present as the ground of God's being, God's grace and unconditional love are the most precious things we will ever know.

I think the basic mistake is to focus so much on the sheep, whether they are cute and fluffy, or whether they are smelly and dirty, and to miss the point: the love of the Shepherd. There are so many forces in life that want to define us in different ways -- whether that is dirty or smelly, or cute and fluffy, whether that is as successful or failure, whether that is rich or poor, or of a certain ethnic background. But the sheep are defined by one thing: the love of the shepherd.

Peter is right AND Kathy is right.

What a great discussion Jeff’s blog has precipitated. The range of comments proves at least one point conclusively – biblical metaphors do elicit a wade range of interpretation. What also seems true in this exchange is that how the metaphors are invoked is largely determined by a-priory theological assumptions. Were we Christians not predisposed to think in terms of original sin or bondage to sin or even what Kathy Schuen noted, "simul justus et peccator," would we even be discussing the relative moral merits of sheep?

Kathy’s further commented, “Bluntly put, the filthy sheep/good shepherd metaphor is not our best foot forward when we are speaking to the unchurched. And we are ALWAYS speaking to them, or ought to be, in my opinion.”

This point is what most concerns me. The gospel is inherently wrapped in metaphor. How we use them is vitally important to our message, both to the uninitiated (unchurched) and the sometimes over-initiated, the folks in the pews. I have found in my 25 years of ministry that most people don’t need the church to tell them how to feel badly about themselves. Most people are painfully aware of their baser motives and what is broken in their lives. Moreover, it seems that the church, in over emphasizing human brokenness, actually exacerbates the situation – we need to be awash in sin in order to elicit God’s grace.

Again, I appreciate the challenge to my own theological reflection elicited by this discussion. What follows is a homiletic reflection on the 4 Easter 2012 texts, shaped in large part by this very discussion.

***************
“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 restores my soul.”

There was a day when the words to this most beloved of Psalms were as well known as the cadences of the Lord's Prayer. It is still the most widely read text at funerals and continues to evoke dreamy sigh, even from those who have never heard it before. The idyllic image of the strong and benevolent shepherd tenderly caring for each lamb as if it were a child of his own household, somehow stirs within us a deep longing for protective intimacy and the kind of sacrificial love John talks about in today's second lesson. “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want.”
This Psalm, along with the Good Shepherd passage in John’s gospel, derives its power from a pastoral metaphor no doubt familiar to Jesus’ audience and one commonly employed by prophets before him. They knew what Jesus was talking about when he called himself the “Good Shepherd” and found no need, then to question the literality of Jesus’ claim. As biblical scholar, Marcus Borg, writes, “metaphors can be profoundly true, even though they are not literally true.” In other words, we don’t have to imagine ourselves as wool bearing herbivores in order to appreciate Jesus as our caring shepherd. At the same time, as Borg notes, “The primary limitation of a metaphorical approach is the danger that the imagination will roam too freely, producing uncontrolled, fanciful interpretations that have little or nothing to do with the actual text.” Here is one example of what Borg warned, snatched, as it were, from the front page of the ELCA website. A BLOG entitled, “Washed Up Sheep,” by Jeff Wesley, a member of the St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Springfield, PA, had this to say about the sheep metaphor employed by Psalm 23 and Jesus:
“Well, guess what? Sheep are ugly, filthy, smelly, stupid, stubborn animals” writes Wesley. “Deep down we too are ugly, filthy, smelly, stupid and stubborn. …”
Ms. Wesley goes on to say, “We are ugly in the way we speak to and think of others or turn our eyes from those in need. We are filthy with sin, breaking every commandment almost every day, much as we try not to. We are smelly with the material things of this earth that we must accumulate and indulge in. We are stupid, thinking that we are in control of our lives and that our worrying about everything - big and small - has merit and makes one bit of difference in a situation.”
She may be right about all these human foibles as they apply to most of us some of the time. Never-the-less, her description, I believe, is a perfect example of a biblical metaphor pushed to the extreme. Though we confess that we humans are captive to sin and depend upon God’s forgiving grace, is it necessarily true that we break every commandment almost every day, are smelly with material excess, and stupidly obsessed with control? As Colleague, Kathy Schuen wrote in response, “This passage, intended to emphasize Jesus’ loving care and concern for all people (including the sheep “not of this fold”) was never intended to degrade the sheep who, in a manner far from stupid, listen to his voice.”
Why am I making such a big deal about a seemingly inconsequential blog on ELCA website that, I am guessing, no one else in this room has read? The answer is, somebody read it. I read it. Somebody with no other message of who God is in relationship to us, may have read it. If that is all they ever read about the Christian faith – that we humans are, in God’s eyes, “ugly, filthy, smelly, stupid, stubborn animals,” I could hardly blame them for never turning the page to find out more.
The term, pastor, is derived from the Greek word for shepherd. From the very beginning of my vocation as a pastor, I have believed that most people don’t need to be told to feel badly about themselves. Furthermore, even though my vocational title is “pastor,” I hardly regard any of you as sheep in the manner described by Ms. Wesley. You are intelligent, caring people and, from where I stand, don’t smell badly either. We are created in the image of God, according the Bible, even though we all fall short of what God would have us to be all the time. “Simultaneously saint and sinner,” is how Luther described us. We are victims of our worst inclinations at times, but at other times rise to the highest callings our abilities permit. In short, though we may be in bondage to sin, we are created good.
Getting back to Jesus’ sermon in the Portico of Solomon, today’s gospel reading, the emphasis here is on the shepherd metaphor, not the sheep per se. As much as we 21st century people might want to hold onto a serene pastoral image of shepherd and sheep, it was not an image easily recognized by the Jesus’ disciples or the members of St. John's church. It’s not that there weren’t any shepherd’s in Jesus’ day. There were plenty of shepherds in the first century, but most of them were the “hired hand” variety that Jesus speaks of in today’s Gospel. Though perhaps unfairly, these shepherds were perceived as untrustworthy day laborers, thieves, and cowards – not the self-sacrificing tender of the flock, described in the 23rd Psalm.
In fact, so pervasive were the examples of unscrupulous shepherds, the prophet Ezekiel likens the corrupt leaders of Israel, their priests and princes, to these back-alley keepers of God’s flock, the people of Israel. Ezekiel calls them cowards and thieves and then gives voice to God’s declaration that God will be the shepherd of Israel, taking the job away from the priests and princes. We who call ourselves, “pastors,” ought to take note. Thus, when Jesus calls himself the “Good Shepherd,” he is not only claiming the role already staked out by God, but also launching a sharp criticism against the official leadership of his day, including the Pharisees whom he specifically likens to hired hands who run away in the face of adversity. This is the background of today’s Gospel.
Reading on, one notes that there is a lot of tension in the crowd between those who know Jesus as their shepherd and those who are responding to other voices. Far from depraved and gluttonous sycophants, Jesus seems to regard his audience, the sheep if you will, as discerning participants in this debate over who speaks for God. If the underlying metaphor of this gospel is to continue to have meaning for us, I suggest that we think of ourselves as sophisticated sheep, capable of discerning the voice of the good shepherd over the din of greed marketing and fear mongering.
As to our other sheep-like attributes, we get that we are in bondage to distracting and corrosive forces that lead us to do harm to ourselves and others. Without a doubt our fear of want can stir up in us motives of greed and selfishness. We will eat the grass all the way down to the dirt and still butt heads with one another over bare ground. But Jesus isn’t catering to our desperate depravity in this text. He is calling us to lift out heads out of the dirt and use the good, created gifts of our brains and hearts tell the difference between the shepherd of God and some pretender who is playing to our worst instincts and deepest fears. Unfortunately it is often still the shepherds cum pastors who lead the flock into the darkest valleys. Prosperity gospels subscribe to the same crass marketing slogans that would have you believe you are not a complete person without Nike’s on your feet and a Nissan in your garage. All you gotta do is ask Jesus, says Pastor Joel Osteen, and the security only wealth can guarantee will be yours. While Joel is pedaling a gospel of wealth, countless other shepherds are telling us we are ugly, filthy, smelly, stupid, stubborn animals deserving of the damnation.
I ask you. Could it be that the Good Shepherd, the one we call Christ Jesus, is simply calling us into a relationship of grace and trust. Could it be that that the message of the gospel is to lift up and celebrate the goodness of our creation and bask in the abundant grace of God that pours forth even without our summoning depravity? Could it be that the Good Shepherd is calling us out our self-obsessed fears and asking us to use our gifts of creation for the sake of the world? Listen. What voice do you hear?

I've found helpful the following quote from "Spirit of the Hills" by Dan O'Brien: "...Joe Standing Elk was no beginner at searching for lost sheep. He knew sheep and knew their shortcomings. It was their shortcomings that always seemed to get them into trouble. They were careless animals. Not stupid like many people thought, just careless. They lived a life that was only partially conscious of their surroundings. Their instincts seemed to fail them much too often...their strength was not enough to free them. Most often Joe knew, it was a question of a single sheep...being detained and so separated from the others, and when that happened they were lost. Panic preys easily on sheep, and when a sheep panics, there is nothing it can do for itself. That is when the shepherd must do his job. How well a shepherd can anticipate the actions of a panicked animal is the measure of his skill. Joe Standing Elk was a good shepherd."

Diane,

Excellent point!

Kathy (and Dennis),

I have a different understanding of simul justus et peccator. While I agree that we are created in the image of God, we have destroyed that goodness with our sin (if we can kill God on the cross, there is nothing good that we can't kill). I believe the statement 'I AM the filth' does accurately describe our human situation. The sin we do, we only do because we are sinners (see Romans 1, or the True Vine text we've got coming). We're sinners because of our rebellion against God, and we can't fix that. I don't think the church needs to convince people that they have sinned, or that they are sinners in many cases, but we need to start there as an initial description of the problem we face. Saying we're cute and fluffy when we're not is just a polite lie. And we can dare to face the ugliness of our situation because we have Christ.

The only thing that makes us 'justus' at all is Christ's death and resurrection. This is a totally new creation. It's because of that alone and only, that we can say we are simul justus et peccator instead of simply peccator. This is why we need to continually drown the Old Adam/Eve in the waters of Baptism.

Practically, the difference in the messages I think we have is your message seems to be 'you're not really as bad as you say you are/you can grow into the potential God created in you' vs my message is 'Despite being as bad as you say you are (or worse!) and despite the fact that you've destroyed the potential God originally created in you, through Christ's death and resurrection, God will freely create new life in you.'

Evangelically, I think trying to convince people they're not as bad as they are misses the point of Christianity, because there are lots of ways completely unrelated to Jesus that can accomplish that. The point isn't whether or not you're good or bad, but that in Christ you are made good. Those who are good/well have no need of a Savior/Physician.

Thank you so much for this post. You have fed my hungry soul today with another holy words from God.
:God wants a relationship with us so much that God is willing to take us as we are. What did we do to deserve that?" Really a good question, that just show how He gave His unconditional love/