Herding cats
John 10: 1-10
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
May 3, 2020
Have you ever heard of the word “sheeple”? It’s a pejorative term for people who are easily persuaded, follow without question, don’t put up a fight—who act like sheep. Just recently I spotted it on social media in reference to the protests to re-open certain states. It became popular in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s on a conspiracy theory radio talk show, but it has its roots in George Orwell’s book Animal Farm in which the sheep are used as a metaphor for the clueless populace who believe everything the government tells them. And it was in Orwell’s book 1984 that the term “groupthink” was coined.
On the TV show Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, in an episode entitled “Authority”, Robin Williams plays an engineer who blames not only the doctor for the death of his wife but also himself for submitting his wife and himself to the doctor’s authority. As a means of expiating his guilt, he sets a series of events in motion in which he convinces complete strangers to do terrible things to other people. He instigates a flash mob pillow fight. He even goes so far as to design a deadly version of the infamous Stanley Milgram experiment which goaded test subjects into electrocuting others in increasing levels of pain. He wanted to prove that we are all susceptible to the herd mentality, no matter how intelligent or educated we are, and that when we are able to step back, to question, to think critically, it is then we become a human being.
The author of the gospel of John used imagery that was meaningful for his audience. The imagery of shepherd and sheep calls to mind the kingship of David, perhaps also the simpler times before Israel had a king, when God was their only shepherd. It also echoes the story of Jesus’ birth in which shepherds were the first to hear the angels’ news. These were comforting metaphors, a sustaining alternate reality to a people oppressed by an occupying force, who were now scattered and having to find their way after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.
But in today’s world to follow as a sheep would is the path of least resistance. It is easier to hate, to essentialize, to pigeon-hole and make assumptions, no matter what your politics are. It is much harder to love, to listen, to empathize and avoid making conclusions, no matter who you’re paying attention to. It’s easier to go along with the crowd than it is to suffer possible rejection. It’s safer and more desirable to maintain one’s personal harmony than it is to take a risk and engage in external conflict in a meaningful way. The greater risk is that we might end up sacrificing our values and moral standards, telling ourselves that what we do “isn’t as bad as those people over there”.
Which why I think the term “herding cats” is actually more appropriate and affirming. You’ve probably heard it used in a negative way, perhaps in regards to congregational polity or structure like ours. Even more so with this congregation because we operate by consensus. We are a church of critical thinkers, which is wonderful! Which means it can take a long time for needed change to occur. Every voice is important whether dissenting or agreeing with the issue at hand, and it’s usually more complicated than that. As we all know evolution takes a long time. And so there are times we must bear with one another in love. It’s not easy practicing patience while still keeping a steady hand on bending that moral arc of the universe toward justice.
By no means do I condone these protests to re-open states’ economies and yet it can be exhausting to watch people ignore common sense. Some have said that democracy means that this too is free speech but not when it could endanger thousands of lives and potentially overwhelm our already burdened healthcare system. Indeed it angers me that people are putting themselves and others in danger to protest the right to work instead of the right to stay home supported by our government. It makes my blood boil that white men with guns can bully their way into a state capital and engage in domestic terrorism while innocent black men kneel in protest and are reviled for doing so; that innocent black men have been killed because police thought they were armed. And yet I will not allow my anger to be transformed into hate. These protesters are being manipulated by big money and corporate interests that could care less about their lives.
Indeed it really is all about who is the shepherd, the voice that they are listening to, and the complete lack of a strong, clear, compassionate, intelligent, unified message. Even then, there would still be those who would rebel against such a message because the wounds, the injustices, the inequality, the bigotry in our nation goes back to the Civil War and before to its very beginnings.
And so if we are to be sheep and led by Jesus the Good Shepherd, let us then be foolish for love’s sake. As Cornel West said, justice is what love looks like in public. For it is love that creates the courageous space within us to have empathy, to love and pray for our enemies, for those we disagree with, to remember that they have people who love them and that they love, to at least wish them no ill will but instead to work for justice.
It is such a love that makes space even for gratefulness. During the Thirty Years’ War in Germany, Martin Rinkart was left to pastor the entire city of Eilenberg himself because all the other clergy had died of disease. In one year alone, 8,000 people died. Rev. Rinkart preached at every burial service, sometimes as many as 200 funerals in a week. He even had to bury his own wife.
In the midst of all this death and suffering, Rinkart wrote the text for the well-known hymn “Now Thank We All Our God”.
Now thank we all our God
With hearts and hands and voices
Who wondrous things has done,
In whom this world rejoices.
Who from our parents’ arms,
Has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours today.
Hate shrinks and narrows. Love expands our hearts in such a way that we can be generous and thankful even in the worst of times. Fear drives us to fight or flight or freeze. Love, which leads to peace, opens our minds to step back and pause, to question our motives, to think critically and ethically about what we are living through. Hate and fear threaten to destroy what binds us together. Love creates and sustains that unshakeable, unbreakable covenant of being human together.
And so at this Table let us renew our commitment to love and to be thankful, even as we commune not only with Jesus’ death but with the more than 244,000 who have lost their lives to this virus the world over and with their families. Let us join our hearts to those on the front lines of this virus: nurses and doctors and health practitioners and therapists; truck drivers and mail carriers and grocery clerks and warehouse pickers and meat packers; journalists and TV crews; scientists and lab researchers and epidemiologists. Let us join our hearts this holy month of Ramadan to our Muslim friends and neighbors who are fasting and praying and sharing what they have. Let us join our hearts to all those who are caring for those in nursing homes, for those serving hot meals, for hotels housing those without homes, for all those in prison and detention centers.
And let us pray for those who won’t wear a mask, for those who protest staying home, for those who believe in conspiracy theories, and for our government, that justice would roll down like a mighty stream, that we would all lay down our weapons, that Love would be their shepherd, if only so that Love would indeed be our shepherd.
Amen.
Benediction —Seamus Heaney,
stanzas from “The Cure at Troy”
History says, Don't hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.
Call the miracle self-healing:
The utter self-revealing
double-take of feeling.
if there's fire on the mountain
or lightning and storm
and a god speaks from the sky.
That means someone is hearing
the outcry and the birth-cry
of new life at its term.
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
May 3, 2020
Have you ever heard of the word “sheeple”? It’s a pejorative term for people who are easily persuaded, follow without question, don’t put up a fight—who act like sheep. Just recently I spotted it on social media in reference to the protests to re-open certain states. It became popular in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s on a conspiracy theory radio talk show, but it has its roots in George Orwell’s book Animal Farm in which the sheep are used as a metaphor for the clueless populace who believe everything the government tells them. And it was in Orwell’s book 1984 that the term “groupthink” was coined.
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| Mural "Pasterz", Bielsko-Biala, Poland |
The author of the gospel of John used imagery that was meaningful for his audience. The imagery of shepherd and sheep calls to mind the kingship of David, perhaps also the simpler times before Israel had a king, when God was their only shepherd. It also echoes the story of Jesus’ birth in which shepherds were the first to hear the angels’ news. These were comforting metaphors, a sustaining alternate reality to a people oppressed by an occupying force, who were now scattered and having to find their way after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.
Indeed it really is all about who is the shepherd, the voice that they are listening to, and the complete lack of a strong, clear, compassionate, intelligent, unified message. Even then, there would still be those who would rebel against such a message because the wounds, the injustices, the inequality, the bigotry in our nation goes back to the Civil War and before to its very beginnings.
It is such a love that makes space even for gratefulness. During the Thirty Years’ War in Germany, Martin Rinkart was left to pastor the entire city of Eilenberg himself because all the other clergy had died of disease. In one year alone, 8,000 people died. Rev. Rinkart preached at every burial service, sometimes as many as 200 funerals in a week. He even had to bury his own wife.
In the midst of all this death and suffering, Rinkart wrote the text for the well-known hymn “Now Thank We All Our God”.
Now thank we all our God
With hearts and hands and voices
Who wondrous things has done,
In whom this world rejoices.
Who from our parents’ arms,
Has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love,
And still is ours today.
And let us pray for those who won’t wear a mask, for those who protest staying home, for those who believe in conspiracy theories, and for our government, that justice would roll down like a mighty stream, that we would all lay down our weapons, that Love would be their shepherd, if only so that Love would indeed be our shepherd.
Amen.
Benediction —Seamus Heaney,
stanzas from “The Cure at Troy”
History says, Don't hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.
Call the miracle self-healing:
The utter self-revealing
double-take of feeling.
if there's fire on the mountain
or lightning and storm
and a god speaks from the sky.
That means someone is hearing
the outcry and the birth-cry
of new life at its term.
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