Easter 4 (B) + Good Shepherd - Leader + 4.22.18

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Acts 4:5-12; Psalm 23; 1 John 3:16-24; John 10:11-18)

 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep” (John 10:11-13).

What is leadership? In today’s gospel passage, Jesus clearly differentiates two different kinds of leadership. There is the hired hand, who will care for the sheep only in so far as she makes her wages. But he will not sacrifice himself for the sheep, because he is just in it to make a living. The shepherd, by contrast, lives for the sheep. They are his passion, and in a way, his children. The good shepherd will sacrifice for them. This, Jesus says, is a leader. Jesus willingly sacrificed himself as the ultimate Good Shepherd for us. But by extension, we, his followers, must do our own shepherding, too.

In an audio book I recently listened to, Lab Girl, scientist Hope Jahren describes how her lab would not work without her lab partner, Bill Hagopian. Although he complains bitterly out of their earshot about what pains they are, Bill is the one who will save a student’s research experiment from failure. He is the one who patiently walks them through how to do science, to the extent that Jahren suggests that the students’ reports are at least 51% Bill’s work in many cases. Although apparently ornery and anti-social, Bill is the quiet heart of the lab.[1]

In the same way, shepherds were the cowboys of the ancient world, and often lived out of public sight. But Jesus saw in them the kind of self-sacrificial leadership that he modeled. One that cared beyond what was just his “job’s worth.” Because sacrifice implies love, and love is what it’s all about. Because Bill Hagopian loves science, he helps students out at all hours and comes back early to continue an experiment.

Most Christians don’t see a lot of literal shepherds in our midst today. In one of our favorite hymns to sing in the Spanish service, “Vision Pastoral” or “Cien Ovejas” as it is more commonly called, the last verse goes like this:

“Pero todavía existen pastores
Que por las montañas a buscarlas van
Y cuando las hayan las traen al camino
Al camino bueno la verdad y la vida
Es Cristo el Señor”[2]

Or, in English,
“But there are still shepherds

Who go through the mountains to search [for the sheep]

And when they find them, they bring them to the way

To the good way, the truth and the life,

Which is Christ the Lord.”

All of us are wandering through the mountains of this life. And we are all called to be shepherds, in a way. To seek out the lost as we find them. To show them the way. But we can each do this in our own way. Perhaps we are called to further science. Or in my case, faith. Or perhaps it is learning history, or being present to our families. But the good news is that we don’t all have to be charismatic leaders.  We may be social, or we may come off as loners. But we must be willing to sacrifice a bit of what we have in order to serve others and to serve God in the way we are called.
Now, with all this talk of sacrifice, I think there is one thing we cannot sacrifice. And that is something elemental or essential to who we are. That thing that gives us integrity; that gives us authenticity. I saw a clear example of this in in the movie “A United Kingdom” about Seretse Khama, the last in a line of kings of what is now Botswana and the first democratically elected leader of that nation. While Khama was in England studying law and preparing to lead his nation, he fell in love with a young woman and married her. The only problem was that he was black and she was white. His uncle, the regent, and the country’s leadership (especially the British) felt very concerned about his unexpected choice of wife. And so Seretse defended himself. These are the words he shares with his countrymen in the movie:
“Is this the future for our Africa? We should not be fighting for segregation! We should be fighting for equality! That is where we should be focusing our minds, not on the wife I have chosen, who means you no harm! Whose only apparent crime has been to fall in love with me, and mine to fall in love with her! I cannot serve you without her by my side, but I cannot force you to accept this! Africa can never be free until all those who live in her, white and black, recognize that race must have no bearing on equality and justice! I am ready to serve you, because I love my people! I love this land! But I love my wife!”[3]

Seretse Khama was a wise leader. He cannily determined that US mining interests had discovered diamonds on his soil and made sure that his people and not the British colonial powers would be the ones to benefit. In addition, he guided his people from monarchy to democracy. He had uncommon amounts of wisdom and courage. But he could do none of this without the support and love of his wife, a woman who happened to be a different color.
We all need to own whatever truth that allows us to flourish in order to be able to serve others. For me in ministry, I needed to own my experience as a gay woman in order to be able to serve honestly. For each of us, that might be something different.

So to be shepherds who follow the Good Shepherd, we must also be true to ourselves as God has made us. So that we have courage to lead, sometimes with sacrifice, whether life takes us through the valley or plants us in front of the table of plenty, or likely, both.

Who and what do we love? Let us work for that and even sacrifice at times for that, true to ourselves, knowing that if we use every bit of what God gives us, then we have a chance at living into the abundant life that the Good Shepherd has in store for each of us.

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[1] A. Hope Jahren, Lab Girl, Audiobook Version, Random House Audio, 2016.

[2] Cien Ovejas, Letra (version Marcos Witt), https://www.letras.com/marcos-witt/cien-ovejas/.

[3] “A United Kingdom- Best Quotes” https://www.moviequotesandmore.com/a-united-kingdom-best-quotes/ from “A United Kingdom,” 2016.