[Propertalk] Fwd: Proper 11 b - Part 1 of 2

[Joe Parrish]

Forwarded:


Bob Morrison


THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY                                8thSUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
2 SAMUEL 7:1-14a                                                                                                              PROPER 11 B
EPHESIANS 2:11-22                                                                                                         PSALM 89:20-37

MARK 6:30-34, 53-56                                                                                                          19th JULY, 2015
 
            When I can, I like to be able to walk. It seems to refresh me. I don’t know how much, if at all, it helps make up for the desserts!
            I’ve had a picture up on my office door for two or three weeks. The caption reads, “You should sit in nature for twenty minutes a day. Unless you’re busy. Then you should sit for an hour.”
            That seems to be true. So I try to walk and, when I’m in an area where the vegetation at the side of the path has grown up, from time to time I’ll run my fingers through the tall grass or the wildflowers. Somehow, it seems to root me, to connect me to the earth, and to the dirt whereof I am made. One day, I’ll return to that dust, but, in the meantime, I’m content to feel what the sun, and the soil, and the rain have produced. It makes me alive. Except …
            Well, this week I read about Giant Hogweed. Such a curious name. It’s a plant that can grow up to seventeen feet tall and has a mass of small white blossoms on it. Like Queen Ann’s Lace on steroids. It’s present here in Oregon and the Extension Service out of O.S.U. has someone in charge of tracking it down. You seem it’s a weed, a nuisance brought to Oregon and several other States by birds and water. More than a weed, though. It’s a danger. If anyone touches it, it can create ulcerated dermatological conditions that have been known to last six or seven years. And if its juice or any part of it gets in your eyes it can lead to blindness.
            So much for a pretty plant with a decorative white flower. It’s a threat to life. It could disrupt a family. The medical care, therapy and recovery could bankrupt the people who come in contact with it. And all through a careless, thoughtless touch. If only we knew what we were doing. If only someone walked with us and told us not to touch this, but to tell the Extension Service to have it uprooted and destroyed. 1
            Unless we have such a guide, however, we’re dependent on our own wits, our common sense, such as it is. But who would think that such a threat would exist in plain sight, within arm’s length.
            Guides, be they in the form of a book, or an O.S.U. article in the paper, or a fellow admirer of nature – guides are SO important.
            Jesus described the people of His day bas being like sheep without a shepherd. They might wander into thickets and become so entangled they couldn’t extricate themselves. They could wander to the edge of a cliff and be butted off by some thoughtless, overly-energetic sheep at the back of the crowd, pushing everyone nearer and nearer to disaster. They could succumb to the tactics of a pack of wild animals, herding them away from safety into the jaws of killers. Or they could simply show up, looking for food.
            There are so many ways that sheep can get into distress, danger and difficulty that to be leaderless is so often disastrous. And when the leader is looking out for number one, not anyone else, that’s just as bad. In fact, it’s worse. The presence of a false leader might give a sense of security until you discover that he or she has left already, quietly perhaps, in order to satisfy his or her own needs. By which time it may be too late – like trying to untouch the Giant Hogweed after you’ve brushed its stem. False leaders are, simply put, the bane of any group’s existence.
            That’s why leaderless sheep aroused such feelings of compassion within Jesus; that’s why He was so incensed at the shepherds. Those who had the skill, the knowledge, the responsibility to enable everyone to lie down in safety, to feed on lush green pasture, to drink from clear, cool water; that’s why Jesus was so incensed when the shepherds neglected, ignored and misled the people.
            THAT’S why Jesus, in hearing Peter’s pleas for forgiveness after Jesus’ resurrection, said to his  errant friend, “For Heaven’s sake, Peter, feed my sheep! ForMY sake, tend my lambs! Make sure that they know not only how to be and stay safe, but help them in any and every way you can as they journey through life.”
            This was so necessary to say and to develop in Jesus day and it’s been true throughout history. It’s only being realistic to say that it will ALWAYS be true until the sheep are gathered into paradise where there will be nothing to trouble them, nothing to attack them in any way.
            Until then, Jesus forces to look, to listen to reach out and respond as we and others ask, “What sort of a leader are you?”
One of the things we tend to forget, however, is that, for all our discomforts, and ailments, and challenges, WE’RE really pretty safe. We HAVE our Shepherd; weHAVE a fold in which to find shelter and support. In fact, we – the Church, the Body of Christ in the world – WE are now shepherds.


[continued on Part 2]


 

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