April 25: Fourth Sunday of Easter
I did a lot of thinking about sheep as I prepared to write this week’s scripture reflection, because Psalm 23speaks of God as a shepherd, and Jesus refers to his followers as sheep in the gospel from John for today. As I did a little research to learn more about sheep, I came across the following, written by Byron R. Merrill of Brigham Young University:
“Sheep are virtually defenseless against predators. They may struggle initially, but once firmly caught they become completely submissive. This submissiveness and helplessness necessitates almost constant care by a shepherd. Without a shepherd, they are easily scattered and destroyed. These characteristics of sheep make them a powerful symbol of human frailty, humility, patience, and long-suffering. They willingly follow a shepherd wherever he leads, be it to food and drink, to shearing, or to slaughter. They thus exemplify faith and trust.”
But we Americans have a hard time with the idea of following, of submissiveness. We like to think of ourselves as strong-minded and independent. Our insistence of going our own way and thinking we know best is a refusal to acknowledge the close relationship between ourselves and God: the opposite of being a sheep.
Once again we see the counter-cultural nature of scripture, since the first verse of Psalm 23 denotes the Lord as the psalmist’s shepherd. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”. Here the psalmist speaks of having great trust in the Lord.
However, we do not feel the need to trust in God when things are going well. Often it is only when we are stripped of our defenses that, in desperation, we turn to the Lord in humility, asking for help. Sometimes I think it is only when we are driven to our knees that we learn to trust, because trusting in God is hard.
In John’s gospel for today, Jesus’ statement that, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me” (John 10: 27) speaks of the intimate relationship between God and humans. Sheepherders know their sheep intimately and can tell difference between them.
I believe that trusting in God implies great intimacy with God. We do not trust those we do not love. So to trust God means to cultivate a lifetime of oneness with God. We become one with God when we listen to God. It is a circle: we listen, we respond, we learn to trust.
Our cultural tendency to go our own way comes into conflict, however, with our innate human longing to be known and intimately understood by the God who loves us. Most of us wouldn’t really like the idea of comparing ourselves to sheep.
What does it mean to cultivate a habit of humility and trust in God? What do you think?