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Sheep, Sheepdogs,Shepherds, and COVID-19

My church has recently finished a sermon series over the 23 Psalm. Not only was it especially timely during such a national crisis as the corona virus, but I believe it’s an especially applicable message for those that shoulder the burden of having to lead us, especially those who lead us in the church. As the daughter of a pastor, I see firsthand the grief, the stress, and the pressure that pastors are under during this unprecedented time; they agonize whether to open, whether not to open, wishing their parishioners would simply trust the leadership that they’ve chosen and their leaders that have been placed there. During my church’s sermon series of the 23rd Psalm, our pastor provided a lot of historical and cultural context behind the task that shepherds at the time were to endure to protect and care for their flocks. (For clarification, my pastor does not happen to be my father, but I see all of the pressure my father is under and assume my pastor is under the same.) It’s made me realize that while Jesus is our shepherd and we continue to be dumb sheep that have no sense of what is good for us, it is our pastors that are the sheepdogs: working for our Shepherd as they try to lead us towards what is safe and good and right. So first, I’d like to address our pastors.

Dear Sheepdogs, I can only imagine the type of pressure that you are under right now (although, as the daughter of a pastor, I get to witness it secondhand). I know that as our pastors, you have continually tried to do what is right and what is in our best interests, not only during this pandemic of Covid-19, but throughout your careers/callings. First of all, I’d like to thank you. Thank you for your prayerful leadership, for your compassion, and your willingness to serve in a time that is stressful to say the least and to serve a people that don’t always treat you the best.  

There are a lot of great things about sheepdogs. One of their best characteristics is that they are there to protect the sheep that they have been placed in charge of. Sheep are known to have very poor depth perception. They can’t see in front of their noses, and have to rely on smell and sound to even be able to locate their mothers/babies amongst the flock. Just as sheep can’t see beyond their own noses, I’m afraid that a large majority of members of the church are the same way. Church members—you have to be able to see past your own noses. Your stubbornness and inability to think of the consequences of your impatience and your unwillingness to trust your pastors could quite simply end up killing you or someone else. Someone you sit with on Sundays. Someone you take communion with or pray with.

Another thing about sheep is that they are incredibly SELFISH creatures. Their first instinct is to surround themselves by the others in their herd so that they can put others between themselves and the threat. They don’t want  anything to happen to themselves, so they move as far to the middle of the herd as possible to put as many sheep between themselves and the threat. This is something else that has been sadly prevalent amongst church-goers and their attitudes towards reopening and their pastors. Yes, you may have the right to not wear a mask, but by refusing to wear one, you are putting not only yourself but your friends, your family, and your fellow Christians at risk. Church members are committing the equivalent of placing their most vulnerable friends, family, and community members between themselves and a wolf, all in the name of their “personal freedom.” This is where the sheepdog comes in. Sheepdogs work to protect all of the sheep; the sheep in the middle that are protected by the rest of the group, the most vulnerable sheep that are on the outside of the flock, and all of the rest. Just as the sheepdog commits maneuvers and movements to protect all of the sheep, so do our pastors. Instead of sacrificing the most vulnerable members that are older, sick, and more, pastors are doing their best to keep their vulnerable parishioners safe. The fact that pastors are not opening the physical doors of their churches is their way to circle the wagons and protect their flock. In my experience, the ones that are the most vocal about opening the physical doors of the church building are those that are older and the most vulnerable to COVID-19. That’s like the most vulnerable sheep in the flock complaining to the sheep dog for not letting them be exposed to the wolf.

The fact of the matter is that the sheepdog is the direct line of communication between the shepherd and his sheep. The role of the sheepdog is to lead the sheep in the way that their shepherd believes is best. This is the role that our pastors have over their congregations; they are delivering messages that are inspired by God to us and we are to trust their leadership when they are leading us in responsible ways. We as sheep are selfish, impulsive, and stupid creatures that continually want to do things that are against our own best interest. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t want to have to deal with the responsibility, the pressure, and the blow back that our pastors are having to deal with right now. We need to remember that our sheepdogs have our best interests at heart, and that they are in an extremely precarious situation. To my fellow sheep, let’s trust our sheepdogs to keep us safe, to make the right decisions, and to protect us from our own selfishness and stupidity. The Shepherd knew what he was doing in putting them in charge.  

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Political Protest is Biblical

I’m not sure if your social media timeline currently looks like mine. If you live smack dab in the middle of the buckle of the Bible Belt, I’ll take a wild guess and say that it more than likely does. You see I’ve had the misfortune of being a liberal, Democrat Christian in the middle of an area where if you swing a stick you hit five conservative Southern Baptists at once. And the fact that I happen to be a Christian means that when anyone of my faith speaks to me, they automatically assume that I agree with them politically. That I automatically worship the same “white Republican Jesus” that they’ve disillusioned themselves into believing in. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Because in my small town of the Bible Belt, I believe I’m one of the few Jesus followers who has the letter “D” next to my voter registration. Maybe that’s what has led me to the thought that political protest for injustice isn’t just essential, it’s Biblical. 

In the book of Matthew, Jesus enters the temple to see individuals that are buying and selling and changing money in what is meant to be a holy place. Jesus didn’t use his words. Jesus didn’t take a knee. Jesus didn’t “protest peacefully.” He flipped a table. He overturned the belongings of the money changers, destroying their property, and drove them and their animals out of the temple with a whip. However, when I publicly posed this question I was told that the incidents are nothing alike and that Jesus had a legitimate grievance against the merchants who were sinning by desecrating the temple. I would think that the desecration of a human life would justify the destruction of property, but I digress. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that “a riot is the language of the unheard.” 

Jesus himself grew up and lived in an oppressive environment for himself and other Jews living under the regime of the Roman Empire. While not a zealot like Judas Iscariot, I think Jesus did in many ways encourage a subversion of the status quo, by those that he befriended, those that he ate with, and those he defended. 

Take for instance the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery. When the Pharisees bring this poor women to Jesus’ feet, she had been caught in the act of adultery. According to Jewish law, she should have been put to death (Don’t even get me started on where the man was and why he wasn’t brought to be stoned as well). But Jesus didn’t follow the law. Jesus didn’t pick up a rock to throw at her which would have been in his right to do so according to Hebrew law. Jesus instead “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” I’d say Jesus’ refusal is one of the most notable acts of political protest there could be.

As Christians, we are tasked with a moral obligation to speak out against injustices against those that could be considered “the least of these” (or those that have been oppressed), and I would think that the African American community has been one of the most oppressed groups in our nation. Proverbs tells us to “Speak up, judge righteously, and defend the cause of the oppressed and the needy.” Jesus himself said “’Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’” He constantly spoke up for the oppressed of his day: the woman caught in adultery, the sick, the sinners, the poor, the Samaritans, and more. Take for instance the story of Jesus and the woman at the well. As a Samaritan, the woman at the well was considered one of the lowest of the low. She was a Samaritan, she was a woman, and she had had five husbands, while living with a man she wasn’t married to. Matthew Williams, New Testament Chair at the Talbot School of Theology for Biola University says “ she was an outcast within the outcasts. Rejected by the Jewish people; rejected by her own people; apparently even rejected by her five husbands, she was unclean and carried shame around with her every day of her life. Perhaps that is why she came to the water well—alone—in the middle of the day. “ When everything about the law and the culture told Jesus to stay away from this woman, to not touch her with a 39 and a half foot pole, Jesus went right up to her, asked for a drink, and told her of the love that only God can provide. He didn’t give in to the status quo and continue to support the social constructs that would continue to oppress this woman; Jesus saw her for the individual that she was, recognized her worth, and spoke out in love to her despite what society would see as her “otherness.” With this example, Jesus showed his followers that those on the margins of society are immensely valuable and children of God. Even though his society and his culture would have more than likely taught Jesus that those who were different than him were not as good, not as holy, and not as valuable, Jesus showed his followers through his actions that not only are those who are seen on the margins of society valuable and made in God’s image, but that we should step away from the paths of prejudice that may be ingrained in our nations, societies, or even families to treat others as equally loved and valuable children of God.

Ultimately, to protest is to rise up against the status quo and those in power as a means to voice one’s concerns, grievances, and pain so that it can be corrected. Perhaps we should see political protest as holding up a mirror to those in power, so that they may see their flaws and attempt to right them; a practice Jesus himself was apt to use. By flipping tables, by speaking in parables, and by pointing out the political and spiritual leaders’ hypocrisy, Jesus himself fought in his time as an equalizer for those that were on the margins, those that were forgotten and oppressed. As individuals currently protest for justice for victims such as George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, I can imagine if Jesus were on Earth today he would take up a sign and join the protests himself. He might even flip a table or two.