Kari Myers tells the story about a friend, an Episcopalian priest who was leading a tour of the Holy Land. He and his parishioners were bouncing along a lonely dirt road when their Palestinian driver slowed to a stop. A flock of sheep was blocking the road. Behind the sheep a man stood yelling and flogging them with a leather whip. He was trying to make them move on ahead. Dismayed, the priest commented to the driver, “This is contrary to everything I have ever read in the Bible about a shepherd. I thought a shepherd was supposed to lead and the sheep would follow.” The Arab driver smiled and said, “He’s not a shepherd. He’s the butcher!”

Shepherds and butchers are indistinguishable in other areas of life as well. Just glance at the news headlines over the last few days. Some athletes turn out to be sexual abusers in shepherd’s clothing. Some physicians turn out to be fraudulent business managers in shepherd’s clothing. Some military officers turn out to be prostitutes in shepherd’s clothing. Some mortgage companies turn out to be usurers in shepherd’s clothing. Some politicians turn out to be bribe recipients in shepherd’s clothing. Some police officers turn out to be physical abusers in shepherd’s clothing. Some swimming pools turn out to be death traps in shepherd’s clothing. Some suburban neighbors turn out to be marijuana growers in shepherd’s clothing. Some clergy turn out to be spiritual abusers in shepherd’s clothing. There were plenty of butchers in shepherd’s clothing in Jesus’ day as well.
Such is the context for our passage from the 10th chapter of John. Jesus is addressing an audience of Jews and their religious leaders. Verses 1-3a develop the image of sheep gaining access to the security of the fold through a gatekeeper. Verses 3b-5 develop the image of a trusted and vigilant shepherd. After the crowd fails to connect the dots in this rather subtle analogy, the author of John has Jesus blatantly explain himself in verses 7-10. The Message translation reads, “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good – sheep stealers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for – will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. I am the Good Shepherd.”

Bible scholar E.F. Bishop points out that when Jesus explains that he is the “gate” or “door” for the sheep, that yet today Middle Eastern shepherds sometimes use themselves as the door to a sheepfold, lying before the entrance to keep sheep in and predators out (“The Door of the Sheep — John 10:7-9,” Expository Times, 1959-60). In addition to such this pastoral image of protection, the idea of a door through which one goes to encounter the divine reaches all the way back to Ignatius of Antioch, a contemporary of the Johannine literature, who referred to Jesus as the “door of the Father” (C.K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John: An Introduction with Commentary and Notes on the Greek Text, 1978).

If Jesus is the “gate,” then as Jesus’ followers we are the “sheep” and the thieves and bandits are all the other leaders who clamor for our attention and assent and loyalty. Johannes Quasten in an article in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly makes a further observation, “In verse 10 the robbers … come … only for their own advantage and not for that of the sheep. Transferred to the Pharisees, this means that they exercise their dominance, not in virtue of a divine mission or an inner call, but only to promote their own interests.” So one important way to separate the spiritual shepherds from the spiritual thieves and bandits is to discern whether a leader in question is just calling attention to him/herself and promoting their own interests, or whether these leaders are truly pointing and directing others to God through Christ. Another important observation to make about this passage is that John doesn’t paint the sheep as stupid, passive followers. Instead, the sheep have the ability and the responsibility to become familiar with and listen for the true voice that will lead them home to “life abundant” (v.10).

It seems to me that this passage offers a tempering perspective on all the political hullabaloo lately about which religious shepherds our Presidential candidates seem to be following these days: there’s Barack Obama and his racially inflammatory hometown pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright; there’s Hillary Clinton and the social activist of her Washington D.C. congregation Rev. Dean Snyder; and there’s John McCain and his speaking and endorsement connections with the equally controversial Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell. People across the political spectrum clamor for the clergy to be denounced, the parishioners to be judged for the company they keep and the churches to be vacated. But no one asks the question, “Are these shepherds through their conviction and passion helping to lead people through a gate to God, or are they simply calling attention to themselves?” As far as Jesus is concerned in our parable for today, there are always thieves and bandits lurking around the sheep fold. Running to another church or another pastor doesn’t solve the problem. Honing our discernment and clarifying leadership expectations may help solve the problem.

I have to admit, that of the 13 churches I’ve been actively involved with in my life, I really only chose one because it met my personal needs – that was Fridley United Methodist Church. Deb and I were newly married and expecting our first child. She worked for a collection agency and I worked for Honeywell and we rented a double bungalow on the border of Fridley and Columbia Heights. We visited the two United Methodist Churches in those two communities and picked one. The other dozen churches I’ve participated in over 50 years of life were either chosen for me by my parents, were a place of employment or internship or an appointment by a bishop.

I know that church shopping and swapping is a popular practice these days, but I confess that the concept is foreign to me. I’ve always been part of a community of faith not because of how nice the building is, or whether I liked the music, or whether I agreed with what the pastor(s) said, or whether there were quality programs for every member of the family, or whether they were in debt or not…no, those are sometimes helpful or hindering side concerns. But the main reason I’ve been an active part of some church for 50 years is that at each point in time I share a commitment to that family of faith and somehow or other hear the familiar voice of God in and through them.

At least in the United Methodist Church, membership vows are a commitment to God, denomination and church, not to the pastoral leader. One’s character and values are far more effectively judged by association with the vision and mission of the congregation over time than by individual statements of any individual leader at any single point in time. I know for a fact that everyone doesn’t agree with everything I say every Sunday, and I’m quite certain that everyone doesn’t agree with everything I say any Sunday!

Yet this is the kind of church I love to serve. This is the kind of church I see reflected in scripture: a church where real issues are addressed; a church where opinions are offered; a church where questions are welcomed; a church where diversity is embraced; a church where God is worshipped and not the pastor; a church where spiritual friendship sustains us collectively, rather than serves to advance our personal agendas. In fact, if we attend a church only for the purpose of advancing our own agendas; only for what the church can do for us rather than for what we can do through the church; then we ourselves have become one of those thieves and bandits lurking outside the sheepfold looking out for our own interests rather than for the interests of the sheep!
A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of the dust cloud toward him. The driver, a young man in an Armani suit, Gucci shoes, Oakley sunglasses and YSL tie leaned out the window and asked the shepherd, “If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?” The shepherd looked at the man, then looked at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answered, “Sure.”

The young man parks his car, whips out his notebook computer, connects it to a cell phone, surfs Google Earth live, targets the field, e-mails an image of the flock to office staff for counting and within 10 minutes has a text message on his Blackberry. The young man turns to the shepherd and confidently reports, “You have exactly 1,586 sheep.” “That is correct, take one of the sheep,” says the shepherd. He watches as the young man selects one of the animals and carries it to his car. Then the shepherd says: “If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me my sheep back?” “Okay, why not,” answers the young man. “Clearly, you are a consultant,” says the shepherd. “That’s correct,” says the young man, “but how did you guess that?” “No guessing required,” answers the shepherd. “You turned up here although nobody called you. You want to get paid for the answer to a question I already knew, and you don’t know anything about my business. Now give me back my dog!”
With all due respect to those of you who are consultants, our spiritual lives are far too valuable to farm it out to political and social consultants who think they have all the answers. God has entrusted to us the ability and responsibility, with the support of a community of faith, to listen for and follow the familiar voice!