Power in the Meadow

“ I am the good shepherd; and know my sheep, and am known of mine, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd. ”

A controversy is raging in the Netherlands today. Somebody's flock of sheep is being used for advertising. Printed blankets with colorful slogans hang over the backs of the sheep, encouraging passing motorists to buy hotel accommodations online at hotels.nl . One Dutch journalist's reaction is at first amusement at the creativity of this campaign. His next reaction is outrage: “Now it's sheep, next they'll be advertising on cows and horses!” he writes. Imagine that. That would be something. Even for the Netherlands, where suicide by physician, narcotics, and prostitution have been publicly legal for decades. But cows and horses advertising— there has to be a limit.

The President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmandinejad , recently in the news for his defiance of United Nations regulation of that country's nuclear program, has a background that is truly chilling. He helped plan and execute the American embassy hostage crisis during that land's revolution. But more horrific, during the Iran-Iraq War, he trained and directed the Basiji . In an article just published in the New Republic , Matthias Kuntzel explains:

“During the Iran-Iraq War, the Ayatollah Khomeini imported 500,000 small plastic keys from Taiwan. The trinkets were meant to be inspirational. After Iraq invaded in September 1980, it had quickly become clear that Iran's forces were no match for Saddam Hussein's professional, well-armed military. To compensate for their disadvantage, Khomeini sent Iranian children, some as young as twelve years old, to the front lines. There, they marched in formation across minefields toward the enemy, clearing a path with their bodies. Before every mission, one of the Taiwanese keys would be hung around each child's neck. It was supposed to open the gates to paradise for them.”

These children were the Basiji , the willing martyrs, brainwashed and given by their poor families to aid the struggle for a purified Islamic republic. Over 100,000 of them died in that war. President Ahmandinejad helped to organize, train and dispatch these children walking to their deaths clutching plastic keys in the hopes of arriving in Paradise. I pray that they did. Today, he is again organizing an army of Basiji children, tens of thousands of them, ready to take suicidal terror to any foreign land. He makes no secret of this fact.

Using people, children like sheep goes almost unseen, without comment by an international press. Using sheep like billboards gets the attention even of the New York Times. Where are our shepherds at a time like this?

The replacement of the shepherds by non-Christian gatekeepers in our world has gone on for several generations now. It is the story of the 20 th century, and the reason that the last 100 years were the bloodiest in human history. The need for a return of true shepherds to bring peace and God's authority to us is obvious, but who are they and how do we bring them back?

The symbol of a shepherd tending sheep is as old as the earliest pages of the Bible. The first-born child in a new world, Abel, was a keeper of sheep. Abraham, Isaac & Jacob and all his sons were shepherds. “Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian,” Exodus 3:1 all the time he was in exile from Egypt. While tending that flock, he saw the burning bush. Jesse's youngest son David tended sheep before his career as giant killer, warrior, and Israel's greatest king. He wrote a song about this symbol of the shepherd, explaining what we also should know:

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” Psalm 23:1-6

The Psalms are full of shepherd and sheep imagery: “ Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Psalm 44:22 “For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” Psalm 95:7 “Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” Psalm 100:3

God is a shepherd, and He keeps His flock safe. It is certain that we are sheep, but we have gone astray. As Isaiah wrote: “ All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way;” and he then writes of the coming Messiah, “the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” Isaiah 53:6-7 He also wrote that “ He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” Isaiah 40:11

Shepherds in fields near Bethlehem were given glad tidings of Messiah's birth. Jesus was called “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” He warned against false shepherds who come dressed in sheep skin but are inwardly wolves. Matthew 7:15

Jesus taught that He is the Good Shepherd. He tends His sheep and keeps them safe. Now this life is hardly safe, and innocent people suffer and die daily. His promise is not to keep us from all harm in this life, but to keep us safe for eternity, even if we do suffer in this world, as He nearly promises us all. The devil is ever prowling around the flock, looking for stragglers, seeking whom he may devour. That devouring refers to one's losing the shepherd, wandering off in sin, and falling for the lies of the world, the flesh and that wolf. If we don't get back to the flock, to the shepherd, we are lost.

Christ is in heaven. His Church is here on earth. After His resurrection and before He departed, Jesus left power with His Apostles to be shepherds of the flock, His Church. They had available to them every power He possesses, for He is in them. And as chief pastors of the flock, they are empowered to teach truth, administer justice, heal sickness, absolve and bless the faithful, bestow sacraments, and defend the flock against enemies. They are therefore essential to the wellbeing of Christians in every age. This relationship heals a culture. Western culture has lost its shepherds. The Reformation brought doubt to the necessity of bishops due to circumstances and misuse of these authorities. But we are Episcopalians : that means we are a church headed by bishops, shepherds of the Church of Christ.

This concept lost hold of our culture in the wake of the Enlightenment, and men dressed in damask copes, wearing mitres and carrying crosiers became objects of amusement, no longer of respect. Most of them in Russia were exterminated. Most of them in America and Europe have been perverted in their seminaries. What can we do?

Go on. On January 28, 1978, in Denver, Colorado, one brave Episcopal bishop, Albert Chambers, determined to save the American Episcopacy by consecrating four new bishops to exercise Christ's authority outside the Protestant Episcopal Church. The fruit of that consecration includes the Province of Christ the King and its dioceses, its Archbishop, our own Bishop Provence, my ministry, this church, and thousands of sheep in churches across our land. We will welcome our own shepherd, James Eugene, this week back to Chico, where two years ago he was instituted as Bishop of the Diocese of the Western States. The flock moves on. We must go on.

By contrast with the darkness of a world able to call 100,000 children into suicide squads, our light is not very bright. But, as is said, “'Tis better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.” We light candles. We bear the cross. We follow the Shepherd and His appointed and anointed shepherds who will never desert the flock. A good shepherd is one like Jesus. He gives his life for us. He doesn't flee when trouble comes. He knows his sheep and they know his voice. He seeks other lost sheep in need of a shepherd, to bring into his sheepfold. He does all this knowing that, if he lays his life down, God will give it to him again. God commissions shepherds, and gives them their personal forgiveness and the ability to forgive to others.

After His resurrection, Jesus fed His apostles on the banks of the lake. Taking Peter aside, He asked him: “ Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.” John 21:15-17

We are fed. We are safe. We have come home to the Shepherd. Let us celebrate. Let us seek the lost. Let us go on. For we “ were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of [our] souls.” 1 St. Peter ii

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