Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

Well, the Search Committee for Central’s next ministerial leader has formed and met. Central has taken the next step in embracing the challenges and opportunities that the future God has in mind in hand. A courageous group and formidable undertaking. We must pray for them and for their work. That will be important. 

And this comes as we approach the fourth Sunday in Lent and a focus on the  text in John 10:1-18, in which we are invited to reflect on accountable leadership. (Isn’t it wonderful when these ancient texts somehow know exactly where we are and what’s going on right here, right now? I love it, but it’s also kinda spooky.)

The invitation in this passage is to consider “the kind of leader Jesus is and what it means to follow someone who stays and protects,” as the good folk at Illustrated Ministry put it. Of course, we’re not searching for Jesus–well we are, of course, always, but that’s not the Search Committee’s job–but we are looking carefully at pastoral leadership. So, why not look here?

This (long) reading puts the shepherd in contrast with the hired hand. Clearly, while they both tend the sheep, they are not the same thing. The relationship is different. The commitments are different. 

The good shepherd is prepared to lay her own life on the line. It’s not about duties and responsibilities, the tasks of the job. The shepherd and the sheep have given themselves to one another, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, through many dangers, toils and snares, going along together, in season and out of season.

I always say, metaphors are a way of looking at one thing to gain new insight into something completely different. When Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd,” the hearers get to think of him, their new leader, in terms of something they already know well. They know about sheep and shepherds, everybody does.

We, on other hand, may have trouble relating to sheep. And to following…like sheep? Americans don’t do sheep. Highly educated, privileged, well resourced, justice-loving, progressive Christians–can we relate to sheep? Hmm?

What is your metaphor for good, pastoral leadership? What’s the image or story that comes to you in your own experience of–your appreciation of--leaders in ministry? 

Yes, I believe I did ask us to reflect on these things and, while I’ve not heard much yet, I hope we are going back through our memories. And we will gather next Sunday, on March 22, after morning worship, to share. We’re all getting ready. Right? Hint: sometimes the best way to see what you appreciate is to recognize what you don’t, then flip that experience to reveal what you longed for and found missing. 

You know my metaphor for leadership already: Creating and holding space for a long conversation among friends, going along together, making sense of life as it happens, acting for good, between meals (Sacraments). Yes, it’s very low tech and slow (like gardening), with lots of inputs and outputs, and short on deliverables and outcomes that are quickly and easily seen. But it is the relationship to which the shepherd and the sheep are called, the social field we are part of. 

Well, expect me to be finding a way to make these musings a Sermon for All Ages on Sunday. In the meantime, I trust you are making plans to join us for worship, online or in person (live, not a moving picture), if you can. It’s always good to see you among the far-flung flock. (Beg pardon. I know we don’t do sheep.)

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz