SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

[cappie]

In this today’s Gospel, we read the report of the return of the Twelve, Jesus invites them to come away from the crowds and rest. To get away, Jesus and his disciples board a boat in hopes of finding a deserted place. But the crowds notice this and arrive ahead of them. The crowds are so persistent that Jesus and his disciples cannot find a place to be alone. Mark’s Gospel tells us that Jesus is moved with pity he looks on them like sheep without a shepherd and begins to teach the crowds.

The shepherd is used over 1,200 times in the Bible about God only, a figure of speech by the biblical writers to get us thinking about what God is like. God is like a shepherd. God is like one who has a crook and knows how to use it. God is like one who abides out in fields with the ones for whom he cares.
 
 This simply is a fact of life. Just as no one is an island, so is no one free from authority and these guiding influences. This is what arouses Jesus’ compassion for the crowd today: they are like sheep without a shepherd. Jeremiah says in the First Reading that Israel’s leaders, through godlessness and fanciful teachings, had misled and scattered God’s people. He promises God will send a shepherd, a king and son of David, to gather the lost sheep and appoint for them new shepherds. And he begins teaching them. Of course, they had shepherds, but those false shepherds had led them to seek the real shepherd.

So then, what are sheep? Since we are the sheep in this metaphor that we use for God, we ought to know. You know, don’t you, that there are critics of the church who would call us disciples of Christ, “sheeple.” It’s meant to be a derisive term for the unquestioning following, not so much of Jesus, but of the culture warrior preachers. But in many ways, we act like sheep, we are sheeple.

Sheep are not known for their intelligence, but they are quite bright in their own way. While they can easily get their little horns caught in briars or get lost, it seems that most of their brains are dedicated to their flock and their shepherd.

In a flock, sheep will arrange themselves in concentric overlapping circles of sheep with the strongest and biggest sheep on the outside and the youngest and weakest sheep on the inside. We could learn from these sheep in terms of being neighbours to each other.

In addition to their ability as a good neighbour, the sheep is singularly focused on its shepherd. So much so, that the sheep learn the voice of their shepherd, his scent, and even his silhouette upon the sky as the shepherd stands on a hill.  The sheep learn somehow that this one shepherd, in however he calls to them, whether through sight, voice, or smell, is to be utterly trusted – and not only that, but all other shepherds are to be mistrusted, or at least sceptically investigated.

 Mark defines the content of the teaching of Jesus as “the Good News of God” (Mk 1:14). The Good News which Jesus proclaimed comes from God and reveals something about God. In everything which God says and does, the traits of the face of God are visible. The experience which He Himself has of God, the experience of the Father, is visible. To reveal God as Father is the source, the content, and the purpose or end of the Good News of Jesus.

A dramatist of a century earlier travelled from coast to coast. He was a skilled speaker. He always concluded by quoting a passage from the Bible, one evening he chose the 23rd Psalm.  Each phrase was couched with perfect intonation and nuance. And when he finished, the audience jumped to their feet and gave him a standing ovation. They had never heard the psalm read so skilfully.

An old man at the back, shuffled to the front and walked up on stage with the dramatist. "Mind if I say the 23rd."  The old man's voice cracked as he began. His words were choppy and uneven.  He went on through to the end  when he had finished there were no sounds of applause. Instead silence. Then the dramatist looked out to see some persons with bowed heads; What did you do? You didn't recite the psalm as well as I did, yet I have never seen an audience so moved by your words. How did you do that?" "Son, you know the psalm. But I know the Shepherd."

 Have you discovered the Great Shepherd's desire to provide for you? To lead you to green pastures during wasteland? To quench the deepest thirst, we know? Then you know the Shepherd of the Psalm. Go, be sheep, follow your one and only Good Shepherd who heals and teaches and then enables us to bring life and healing to our hurting world.