GATES, SHEEP AND VOICES The Rev. Brian E. Backstrand May 11, 2014
Today is the fourth Sunday in the Season of Easter. It is traditionally known as Good Shepherd Sunday. Each year on this date we encounter sheep. But our reading this morning from the Gospel of John does not contain an explicit reference to Jesus as the Good Shepherd. That comes in verse eleven where Jesus says I am the Good Shepherd and that reading is one that we will hear next year. Instead, we are left with gates, sheep and voices.
The scholar C.K. Barrett in his commentary on John, points out that John can struggle a bit in his Gospel when it comes to providing us with one sustained image. For John wanders. He does not seem interested in providing one focused clear point like Luke and Matthew and Mark when they deliver a parable of Jesus. If the disciples are at times confused and do not understand what Jesus is saying, we may join them in being confused.
As evidence, Barrett points to our text for this morning—the one dealing with gates, sheep and voices. Here Jesus is at times a gate and Jesus is at times seems to be the shepherd. He uses the term watchman and speaks of sheep listening to and recognizing voices. He says that the man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep and speaks of thieves and robbers who climb in by other ways.
So where is Jesus exactly? The disciples wanted to know. The text tells us that Jesus used this figure of speech but they did not understand what he was telling them. So Jesus has to spell it out. In verse seven he says I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep… I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out and find pasture.
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Is herding calves like herding sheep?
Marilee and I got a taste of gates and animals on Friday around noon when our neighbor, Joe Nichols, called us with that wonderful message that all keepers of livestock and other animals dearly love. Joe said Did you know that one of your calves is out?
That one little question completely rearranged our day! We in fact were sitting at the table at the time looking over a to do list and instead we ran out of our apartment and into our car and down the hill looking for calves.
The calf in question was standing quietly by a long stretch of fence on the western border between pasture and corn field. We got out of the car and moved towards the calf who now was looking at us from a distance and getting excited.
Mother, calvers and other cows all on the other side of the fence didn’t care. Marilee stopped while I swung around the calf, giving it a wide berth to get ahead. The calf at times looked relaxed and at other times looked like it would try to jump the fence. What to do…
Then I remember that we had a make-shift gate just ahead. A sixteen foot opening made out of a hog panel. It was wired up to be permanently closed and it had never been opened during our tenure on the farm, but it was a gate. So, while Marilee was on the north of the calf and the fence was on the east, while the corn field was on the west of the calf and I was on the south, I worked on the rusted wires holding that sixteen foot gate together until finally it came loose.
Things began to look up. I swung open the gate half-way and stepped back to the south to give the calf a nice opening while Marilee began to urge it forward. May be we should name this calf Jinx or Gottcha. The calf came close, passing between a large bush and the fence and now close to the gate. Then it got nervous. It didn’t want to enter. Great. It started to try to go around me and out into the corn field but I stuck my arms out and extended my stock stick. As I did this, I sense trouble. For here trotting up quickly was another calf that seemed to be saying Oh look, the gate is open. What fun! The calf outside tried to move past me again but I stopped it and then it –somewhat reluctantly—walked calmly through the gate before the other one made it through and we were done.
And so –with gates and calves instead of sheep—I stumbled upon a parable of my own. The calf knew where we wanted it to go. It saw the gate open and the pasture beyond. But then it got nervous. It didn’t seem to want to be in and yet it didn’t really seem to want to be out. Right at the gate and faced with a choice to be in or out it seemed to get really anxious.
Are we this way? Are we this way when it comes to important choices and we know what to do? Are we this way when it comes to relating to God?
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Just two weeks ago now Marilee and I found ourselves up in Rice Lake at Grace Episcopal church for the baptism of Carssen, our granddaughter. After the baptism I sat down for some post-worship treats at one of the tables and met Tyler. He had heard of our little band of cows and calves and he innocently asked if we were planning to put them all out of pasture.
It turns out that Tyler is the conservationist for Barron County and we launched into a brief conversation about rotational grazing that eventually led to his telling me about an environmentalist with the very intriguing name of Alan Savory. Savory has this idea that a lot of our problems with grassland management in the world stems from our misguided notion of keeping animals from wandering around on the land. We pen them up. We keep them from waterways. In the West, we irrigate and grow corn instead of manage grass. Armed with studies and considerable evidence, Savory conducts seminars in Bolder Colorado and works world-wide. Originally from Rhodesia, he is especially interested in Africa.
When cattle walk upon the land, they open the soil up. This action along with grazing and manuring the land opens up channels that actually result in carbon dioxide being returned to the soil from the air. It enters these channels where it is stored in the ground. The sod is strengthened rather than weakened when animals wander in their seemingly aimless patterns on the land.
In Zimbabwe where Savory has long worked, livestock farmers work with goats and with cattle. They herd them during the day so that they slowly graze the land in comparative freedom. Then at night they turn them into large protective pens known as kraals. These are thick barriers made out of sticks and branches woven together. On line, they appear to be about ten feet in height. Zimbabwe has a lion population that is thriving—actually increasing. To protect the livestock, the cattle are herded into kraals at sunset and the gate is closed. The lions cannot penetrate the kraals which are scattered about the grasslands of Zimbabwe. This simple pattern has revived the ecology of the area. The grasslands are coming back—even in drought years. And the rivers and streams are increasing in flow because trees and brush that consume more water are removed by the grazing cattle.
Here we have a modern example of that ancient pattern of livestock management from Jesus day. Animals go in and out and find pasture. Animals are herded together in large enclosed structures.
In ancient times in Syria and Palestine, several shepherds would herd their sheep into one fold. When morning came and it was time to head out, they called their sheep and their sheep heard their distinctive voice and followed. John says They will not follow a stranger but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers. So, at the beginning of another day of grazing, one shepherd would call his sheep and lead them out. Flock by flock they would pass through the open gate and leave the sheepfold.
When Jesus says I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved we get this image of safety and security and protection at night. To be left out is to be exposed. In Africa, to be exposed to lions and jackals. When Jesus says he will come in and go out and find pasture we get this other image, an image of freedom and nurture and guidance in coming out of the safety of the sheepfold and into a new day.
Today is Mother’s Day and our thoughts are traditionally a long way from cattle, sheep, kraals, lions and pasture. We honor our mother’s and remember the countless ways in which they nurtured us. Guided us. Protected us. Maybe at times we might of felt a little bit herded when we were kids and trying to be obstinate. But our mothers were the ones who nurtured us. We honor them today for giving up so much of their own lives for our sakes. And by extension we think of others, step moms, aunts, perhaps older adults in our lives, women who were wise and who looked out for us.
This Gospel lesson paints a picture of safety, nurture and care. It suggests that God is a loving presence and protective presence. It suggests that we can find a peace and a security and a freedom in living in the presence of God. God is present in this account as a gate to be sure, opening and closing, providing freedom and protection. But God is also a presence as the voice that Jesus says the sheep know.
On this day of honoring those women in our lives who have nurtured us, let us also think of the nurturing and feminine qualities of God as a nurturer. Let us once again be reminded that as Spirit God is present to guide and lead, to protect and encourage, to bless and love and enable.
Amen.