Ruminant Covenant - Freedom

15 September 1999

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were nomadic sheep and goat herders. Jesus or Yeshua (salvation in Hebrew), the lamb of God, takes away the sins of the world. The root of the faith draws heavily from a desert well that serves sheep and goats, a spring, we as western, modern city dwellers, know nothing about.

My knowledge of sheep basically comes from stories told by pastors, preachers and other ministers, drawing upon I assume the "Unabridged facts about Ruminant Animals for Pastors, Preachers and other Christian Teachers" now out of print. My only personal experience with sheep was when I was growing up, every Christmas we used to have Christmas dinner at my uncle Bob's and aunt Joyce's, who raised sheep near Wilbur. At Christmas I could look across the fence as we walked into the house, or more likely, look out the picture window toward the barn and see perhaps a hundred sheep and lambs. I think once I even went out to the barn and got close to them, but I really don't know if I touched one or not. Compared to most of you that probably makes me an expert.

I've been reading lately about sheep and goats, shepherds and goatherds. I'm learning a lot of interesting stuff that should help us as the sheep of God's pasture. This week I want to focus on freedom. Throughout recorded history just raising sheep and goats and traveling with them as they grazed set you free from the village or the city. They gave you the solitude to be alone with God, as King David, the shepherd of Israel. When Jacob and his sons went to Egypt, they were given the fair land of Goshen, and the urban dwelling Egyptians wanted nothing to do with them. They were free to be fruitful and multiply. Over their time in Egypt, God's chosen people began to dwell in permanent dwellings because at the Passover, they were to sprinkle the blood of the Passover lamb on their door posts and lintels. Something not part of the structure of a nomadic tent. In order to lead the Exodus, Moses had the opportunity to spend 40 years learning to be a shepherd, reordering and refining the worldly knowledge and wisdom he learned while being Pharaoh's daughters son.

Me and Bobby learned from the song "that freedom is just another word for nothing left to loose." That can be done by bumming around hitchhiking, but in that case your bumming requires a someone to function as the "bummee" or the whole thing quickly deteriorates into a bummer. Herding sheep and goats on the other hand, provides you with meat, milk and when supplemented with natural herbs and greens provides a well rounded diet, and a way into worldly commerce if required. Nobody may like you and you may be the outcast of high society but, you are truly free to be a pilgrim in this world, not tied to its evolutionary, dying infrastructure. You and your God are one in faith, and you look to him alone for your care, for in a way you are in community and communion with your sheep and your goats. They look to you to lead them to green pastures, but you quickly learn that green pastures and abundant water are gifts from the Lord in the dry desert wilderness. In Biblical terms this is a natural model of God's covenant community. You take care of your sheep, God takes care of you. Simple.

What else have we missed by only looking at sheep and goats at a distance. For one, the parallels between Christian service and being a shepherd should not be overlooked. God chose sheep and goats for his model community, he could have chosen any other animal. Most of us could get more excited about, "Behold the eagle of God that takes away the sins of the world!" Or behold the cougar, or bear, or elephant. But no he chose a lamb, and chose to make his peoples tenders of ruminant flocks. He made man, in his image, an eternal personality, that could ruminate on words. His word, illustrated in creation, written in his Holy Bible, was passed on and ruminated upon from generation to generation of a small nation of outcast herders of stupid animals. It is amazing that we when gazing at pastoral landscapes, convert our vision into words, which are used to store this information in our brains, and it is again recalled through words, as we ruminate upon our life experiences. We are sheep and goats of language.

To missionaries, who are the prime recipients of this letter, as well as other missions, ministries and individuals, these thoughts in some way hopefully give you some ideas to ruminate on. At least that is what some of you have told me. You (we) are the outcast shepherds of today, not wise in the eyes of the world, many times without provision for tomorrow, except as provided by the Great Shepherd. What kind of a life is that. As citizens of, and in this material age, much of you life your really nice stuff, is stored away in a box, somewhere. But God, has given you a ragged band of sheep and goats to care for. It all makes no sense to most people, including many in the church, but in a way it is the truest form of faith, and the closest to Gods own heart. Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. That lamb, is the one who sets you free of the chains of death and sanctifies you through his grace, making you a sheep and a shepherd. It gives a freedom that we separated from the life of the actual tender of real sheep and goats, can only see through rumination.

PRAYER PLANTS

Many years ago I took a class in Ecological Energetics, looking at energy utilization throughout various natural and human communities. While I do not have any data to support this, my feeling is that what is now being promoted as global free trade, is so far from a form of sustainable commerce among peoples. From the energetics budget point of view, the best example I can think of is that bulge that occurred on Mt. St. Helens just before she spewed a cubic mile of volcanic material into the air, devastating that small area of the planet and providing a incredible model to illustrate creationist paradigms.

This, in economic terms, and about on the Mt. St. Helens scale, is precisely what happen to the former Soviet Union. Russia is currently an economic desert, or probably more precisely a jungle (survival of the fittest), in which the only true guidance for the way ahead comes from the Great Shepherd and his Word. Sneakers made for pennies in Asia and sold for a "C-note" in America is a form a colonialism that makes early configurations of imperialism, look quite benign. Promoters of free trade do not seem to recognize that consumers and workers are one and the same. But free trade currently fills corporate coffers, subsidizing their efforts with cheap energy at the expense of just wages around the world. This points to the truth that the shepherds of God's people need to look to tending the sheep on the pastures, deserts and wilderness areas, he gives to us.

This message reaches the uttermost ends of the earth in minutes from the time it is sent, a remarkable gift that would have been unknown even a few years ago. The energetics of short term missions trips however, fits quite well within the free trade model of cheap energy. It works well for now, but I do not think its long term future is bright. The reason I have for this idea about a ship named Diversity fits more within the shepherd model. Missionaries need and should have physical support from home, but that support should be financially and energetically more sound than the present model. The Diversity model's goal, for lack of a better term, is to get the most people to the most places, to do the most work in local creation centered community development, for the least expenditure of operational capital and energy. That is also a promise of the information age, not selling unneeded consumer items to the Russians, Americans or anyone else. It is a goal to reduce human suffering by works of charity (love) and to preach the saving grace that comes alone through faith in Jesus Christ. The free gift that sets free, all of humanity.

Please pray for guidance in this regard as well as the human, sheep and shepherds to make it all work.

Grace, peace and freedom to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, be with you all. Amen.