The Good Shepherd, His Sheep and His Dog

The Holy Gospel According to St. John, the 10^th Chapter

“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He

calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

In this story, Jesus says he’s a shepherd and a gate.  Now, I try not to be stupid except when I’m trying to embarrass my kids, but this shepherd, gate, bandit, thief, sheep story isn’t exactly straight forward even after Jesus tries to clear it up!  It helps a little to know that when he told this story, Jesus had just healed the man born blind on the Sabbath.  That broke a rule and THAT made the Pharisees mad, because rules were more important to them than people.  So when Jesus talks about thieves and bandits in THIS story, he’s taking a stab at the Pharisees for what they just did in THAT story.

Jesus then says he’s both a gate and a shepherd.  To make sense of that, it helps to understand that in Jesus’ day the sheep were kept at night inside a stone walled enclosure with a gap in the wall for the sheep to go in and out.  The shepherd would sleep lying across that opening so if anyone or anything tried to get in or out they would step on the shepherd.  That was their high tech security system!   So Jesus can actually be both the shepherd AND the gate, because back then, the shepherd WAS the gate.  

Of course, we’re the sheep.  Now, I’ve been told in my career that I’m not a sheep... that I’m a shepherd because I’m a pastor, but I’m no shepherd... MAYBE I’m a sheepdog, but there’s only one real shepherd and that’s Jesus.  So Jesus is the shepherd and the gate and you’re the sheep and I’m a drooling, shaggy, interim sheepdog.  

And since this is your new sheepdog’s first official Sunday, what I bet you would really like to know is, what’s this sheepdog really like?  How long will he be here?  Who’s the next, settled/permanent sheep dog going to be?  How long will it take to find that settled sheep dog?  Can this sheepdog or the next one get other sheep to come here to our pen?  How about some young sheep or even some lambs?  Will we be able to find some green grass somewhere?  That green stuff always seems to be hard to find!    

If I’m not too far off, you’re wondering what our time together is going to look like and feel like and what’s going to happen down the road and to be honest, your new sheepdog wonders the same sorts of things!  We’re all wondering things like that because this is a time of pretty big change. The way things WERE have stopped being that way, but the way things are GOING TO BE hasn’t quite fallen into place yet.  In-between times like this in any part of life can be pretty nerve wracking whether you’re a sheep or a dog!  That’s why in these in-between times we all want to know what the Good Shepherd has in mind for us?  

But if we’re honest, at least part of why we want to know is because deep down, we’d all like to be in control of it.  I know when life gets unsettled, I try to grab hold and fix it... but you know, just when I start to worry and stress and think I really, really NEED to be the one to fix it, the Good Shepherd works in my life in a way that sort of pats me on the head and reminds me that I can worry all I want, but it STILL won’t make me the shepherd.  I might be good at barking at dangerous things and wagging my tail at nice things and comforting sheep in scary times, but I’m NOT the Good Shepherd and it turns out that things go best in life when both the sheepdog and the sheep take a deep breath and simply let the Good Shepherd be the shepherd.

And you know, we really do have lots of good reasons to trust the Good Shepherd.  He leads us to green pastures and still water down safe paths.  He protects us with that rod and staff and never, ever leaves us alone.  The Good Shepherd loves us so much he’ll do anything to keep us safe, including lay down his life for us!  It turns out he’s called the GOOD Shepherd for a really good reason!

That Good Shepherd is also Good because he’s also willing to use some tough love to get us moving too when that’s what’s best for us.  He knows staying stuck in the sheep pen isn’t what the world needs from us and it isn’t where we will find the green pastures and cool water he knows we really need.  When it’s time, (and sometimes waiting for the right time is really hard for sheep and dogs) the Good Shepherd will call us gently out of the pen and into the world and into whatever is next for us.  The Good Shepherd also knows that new things (even when they are what’s best for us) are often scary to sheep and sheepdogs so it probably shouldn’t surprise us if, when the Good Shepherd says it’s time to get going and we refuse to get going, that the Good Shepherd will give us a poke with that stick to get our attention!

The easier way, of course, is to simply do our best to follow the Good Shepherd’s voice.  To live our lives the Good Shepherd way... the Jesus way... to live lives that are loving; do what’s in our neighbor’s best interest... be compassionate and generous and care for the least and the lost and the last in our world.  But even when we don’t live perfectly, and we won’t... even if we mess it up really badly, and we will, part of what makes the Good Shepherd so GOOD is that he will always care for us along the road... no matter how far off the path we go.  Even if we wonder into the valley of the shadow of death, the Good Shepherd will make sure death stays just a shadow.    When we follow the Good Shepherd’s voice, when we live our lives the Jesus way, we’ll find ourselves living a much better life.  Not just after we die either, but a better life starting now and lasting forever.  

The other option, of course, is to follow the other voices that are out there.  The ones that call in over the walls and ask us to go out of the pen, not the Jesus way, but some other way.  Those are the voices that say things like, my way or the highway, that things shouldn’t change, that might makes right, that compassion is weakness and generosity is for suckers.  Those voices are often the loudest out there.  They’re often the most insistent, promising a quick fix and someone convenient to blame when things go wrong, but the Good Shepherd reminds us those voices won’t bring us to the life God created to live. 


My deepest hope for my time here as your interim sheepdog, is that I can help us all take a deep breath in this in-between time and together listen closely for the voice of the Good Shepherd.  My most earnest prayer is that together we will follow that voice, no matter how long it feels like it’s taking or what path we end up having to follow.  So, for as long as the Good Shepherd says it’s right for me to be here, your interim, drooling, shaggy sheepdog will keep reminding all of us to listen for the Good Shepherd’s voice because THAT voice will always, always, always lead us all to green grass, cool water and abundant life.  Amen. 

This image is by Peter Ralston of sheep being taken out to an island off the coast of Maine.  To see more of Peter's work and to purchase prints visit www.ralstongallery.com