Today is Mother's Day! A day when everyone expects the preacher
to get around
to "motherhood" even if the text has to do with
"sheep and shepherds." Well,
I have just the story to take us from "motherhood" to
"sheep and shepherds"
and back again.
A first grader strutted up to the
front of the classroom and announced
to his classmates that when he grew up he was going to be a lion
tamer!
"I'll have lots of fierce
lions, he said, and I'll walk in their cage
and they'll roar and show their teeth and leap around . .
."
Then he paused for a moment,
looked around the room and added:
"Of
course, I'll have my mother with me!"
And, we do thank God, even when they are far away or no longer
with us here
on earth. By the grace of God and his gift of human memory we
take the
wisdom, the expectations, the values, and the love of our
parents into our
tomorrows---especially the wisdom, expectations, values, and
love of our
mothers. It is our mothers who go with us into our fierce,
frightening
worlds, helping us tame and turn anything and everything
that might prevent
us from becoming the whole and happy persons God intended us to
be.
The discipline and dependability, the care and consistency,
associated so
universally with motherhood, eventually move us forward in the
face of life's
challenges. To the degree that we take our mother's instruction
and example
to heart we grow in faith and human understanding.
Frankly, and here comes the transition you've all been waiting
for---"good
mothers" are a lot like "good shepherds" and,
"good shepherds" are a lot like
"good mothers." This fact may not be apparent to
everyone in this day and age
because most people have never seen a shepherd, except in
photographs or on
Christmas cards. Most people today have never seen a really
good-sized flock
of sheep and, if they have, they have not seen sheep in a state
of panic, as
wolves move among the flock, seeking to catch and eat the little
lambs.
Indeed, rural images such as sheep and shepherds don't always
translate
easily into modern life no matter what point the preacher or
teacher is
trying to make. On the other hand, our exposure to mothers and
motherhood is
almost unlimited. We know our mothers very well---so well that,
if I was to
say that a shepherd would do anything to protect and save his
lambs, we would
all chime in, "Just like my mother!"
It is true, mothers are a lot like shepherds, and shepherds are
a lot like
mothers. "Hirelings," on the other hand, are not.
Hirelings are not true
shepherds and, it would follow, for the same reasons, not true
mothers. For
instance, while we may, as parents, be blessed with good hired
sitters---
dependable, caring, and trustworthy---no matter how
conscientious and
attentive our child's babysitter may be, he or she is a
hirelings and not a
mother. A really good sitter may be like a mother, could even be
a mother
herself, but if she is a hireling, she is not a mother to her
charges any
more than a hireling is a shepherd of the lambs in his charge.
Good shepherds love their sheep so very much that, at least in
ancient times,
they were prepared to lay-down their very lives for their sheep.
Good parents love their children that much!
Good shepherds and good parents, in times of crisis---in times
of life
threatening danger---will, without hesitation, risk their own
lives for their
lambs; and, in fact, may, as a consequence, even suffer death.
Frankly while hired shepherds and hired sitters may care very
much for their
charges---in the face of danger, hirelings have been known to
panic and run
for the door.
In the end, the attributes that make "good shepherds"
and "good mothers" such
dominant life figures, somehow elude hirelings and, these same
attributes
have been known to elude many fathers too!
I may have the bias of a son raised from birth by a widowed
mother but, it
has been my observation that, with rare exception, when
sacrifices are to be
made, mother's are better prepared than fathers to make the
greater
sacrifices. There is no stronger instinct than a mother's
"sacrificial love.
Whether it be a lioness in defense of her cub, a mare her colt,
a doe her
fawn, a sow her piglet, a yew her lamb, or a human mother her
child---there
is nothing to compare with the fearlessness of a mother's
"sacrificial love."
Finally and sincerely, since the word pastor is Latin for
"shepherd," this
scripture passage always leads me to self-examination.
"Am I a good shepherd, or merely a hireling?"
"Am I willing and able to make sacrifices that truly make a
lasting,
eternal differences in the lives of others?"
The truth is, when I look back over my years of
"shepherding" and
"parenting," I confess that, in the former role, that
of shepherding, I have
always felt not like a "hireling," but more like a
watchful parent who is on
his way toward becoming a good shepherd of his flock. And,
conversely, in the
latter role, that of parenting, I have always felt, again, not
like a
"hireling," but rather, like a watchful shepherd on
his way toward becoming a
good parent of his child.
Does that make any sense? I hope so because I suspect that
other
"pastor-fathers" share my feelings. I felt this way 32
years ago, when I
started out in pastoral ministry, and 26 years ago, when I began
parenting. I
feel pretty much the same way today---that I am still in the
process of
becoming both a better shepherd and a better parent by growing
in each
dimension, separately and together.
In the portion of the 1st Letter of John, read as this morning's
Epistle
Lesson, we have the key to good "shepherding," good
"parenting," and good
"pastoring," as well:
"Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but
in truth and action.
. . . this is his commandment, that we should believe in the
name of the Son,
Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in
them.
And by this we know that he abides in us, by the spirit that he
has given
us." (I John3:18, 23-24)
Let us pray:
All praise be unto you, O God,
Good and Great Shepherd of the sheep.
You gather your people as lambs and you enfold them with a
mother's
all-embracing love. You refresh us like a stream flowing freely
with living
waters; you nourish us like a host whose table is filled with
good things.
This morning, as we gather to hear your refreshing word of
promise and
direction, we pray that we will honor your name as our daily
guardian and
eternal hope. Amen.
