In my last sermon, I talked about how we have a God-shaped hole in our soul that only the Living Water of God’s love can fill.

The Samaritan woman at the well was trying to fill that thirst with her many partners. I was trying to fill it with work and books. What we both needed was the Good News of Jesus. The hardest part of being a Christian is accepting that you’re accepted.

This Good News was so amazing that I wanted to offer the living water of God’s love to others. So I went to seminary and became a pastor.

Pastor…. That’s a weird word. It comes from the late Middle English: from Anglo-Norman French pastour, from Latin pastor ‘shepherd’, from past- ‘fed, grazed’, from the verb pascere according to dictionary.com.

Pastors are shepherds. I’ve heard this many times. There’s a ministers’ conference called Shepherding the Shepherd. People prayed last month that I will “Shepherd your flock” during the time of the threat last month.

I confess that I haven’t really ever felt like a shepherd. I believe there is one shepherd, and that’s God. The Holy Trinity. We have Psalm 23, that comforting psalm that says “The Lord is my Shepherd.” I would be an awful substitute. Yet Pastor means shepherd!

I’ve always pictured myself less as a shepherd, and more as a border collie. I’m with the flock. I understand a little bit more of what the shepherd wants, but I’m still an animal. Still trying to figure out what the Good Shepherd wants and where Jesus wants me to move the flock. It’s not my flock. I’m part of it. A little different, but not much. I’m a border collie with my eyes on the shepherd trying to figure out the commands and will of the shepherd.

Many of you have asked me why COVID-19 is happening. I don’t know! I’m just a dog! I have no better idea than you do. I don’t know what the broader meaning is. Not yet. We can speculate together. My hunch is that there is no why, no real cosmic message behind this… but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’m the border collie and Jesus is the shepherd. Jesus being the shepherd, the gatekeeper, the protector of the flock. At first reading, I’m inclined to equate it with Psalm 23, to take comfort in it. And it is comforting. But then I think, “What the heck kind of shepherd is this?! I don’t want the shepherd to die for the sheep, I want him to beat the snot out of the wolf with that weird stick of his!”

Jesus seeks to do what the religious authorities won’t do. They are the hired hands who run when the wolf comes. And the wolf… that could be any sign of evil. The big bad wolf comes to eat the sheep… Yet the wolf, in the first century context could be Rome. In the myth of Romulus and Remus, a she-wolf feeds the 2 boys who go on to found Rome. In this understanding, Jesus is protecting the flock, the agrarian farmers of Israel, from the wolves of Rome. And those hired to protect the flock, the religious authorities, are the hired hands who have run away.

We should not be surprised that this is a very political metaphor Jesus is using. Our faith is inherently political. By political I mean how we live together. Not partisan which is one party or ideology defeating the other.

What I fell in love with in the UCC is our grass-roots style. Our bottom up style. We place our faith not in the hired hands but in the Good Shepherd. We don’t need someone to stand between us and the shepherd. We have our flock. We have the border collies that are our pastors. And we have the shepherd who loves the flock and calls us each by name.

That’s comforting. We might not know the reasons why the shepherd is doing what he’s doing, but we do know that we’re united. We’re not scattered. We have community. Maybe more so now. Now that we’re separated we’re reaching out more, responding creatively. Finding ways to close the space between us. That is comforting. There are all sorts of creative stories coming out about how folks are reaching across the distance to still be community. In my best friend’s town of Bloomsburg, PA, they have a Friday evening porch dance party![1]

We too often look for security and love in powerful figures, like those who are in positions of power who claim they can fix things for us. Yet in the first sign of trouble or in the first time their self-interest is threatened, they turn and run. The religious just can’t believe that this trouble-maker, rule-breaker named Jesus is who he says he is: the Son of God and Savior. Time and time again, Jesus uses the metaphor of a shepherd to teach us how we ought to love and care for each other.

So I don’t know why COVID-19 is happening. That’s above my pay grade. All I know is that the best thing to do is to keep our distance. Limit social interactions. As hard as it is not to see you all, I think this is the best path. It’s hard for me because you know how dogs love to greet people and dance around and get treats. But this is where we are now.

And we’re in the season of Lent which is the season to take stock and reflect on our behaviors. It’s the season to assess where we’re looking for love and to adjust our behavior. As one pastor on Twitter said, “I commented to a friend this morning that what we’re doing now IS Lent. Giving up everything so our friends might live? Sounds pretty familiar to me.”[2]

Maybe WHY is the wrong question. Why does the shepherd have to lay down his life? Why did the hired hands run away? Why does the wolf attack? That’s all above our pay grade, and the Gospel of John is uninterested in answering those questions. Maybe our question is HOW? Knowing that Jesus is the good shepherd, how will you respond? How will this disruption of our routine affect you? How shall we live together so that there’s one flock and one shepherd?

May we look not toward the hired hand. May we drop the labels that divide us and give us a false sense of security and superiority. For the Shepherd has other flocks than these. How shall we come together in this time when we are to remain separate?

How? Phone calls. Live-streaming worship. Facebook Bible Studies. Texts. Emails. Letters. Prayer. More time spent looking at spring blossoming in our world together.

My challenge to you is to write a letter to someone in the church. Call someone in the directory. Connect here on our Bible studies and our worship services. Send in a picture of your face and we’ll tape it to your pew.[3]

Take stock. Take a breath. Listen to the sound of your heart, and reach out to those who are in it. Look for the shepherd. And if you feel lost… know that the Shepherd is looking for you. Amen.

Works Cited

[1] From Channel 16, WNEP story: https://tinyurl.com/wlhejpu

^[2][2] @chettpritchett on 3/16/20 at 12:45 p.m.

[3] Email those to: luke@uccmedina.org or via Facebook messenger or however you get in touch with Pastor Luke