Shepherds

Psalm 125

4 Do good, O Lord, to those who are good,
and to those who are upright in their hearts!
5 But those who turn aside to their crooked ways
the Lord will lead away with evildoers!
Peace be upon Israel!

Is it possible that we have misunderstood what “good” is? If I believe that God rewards ‘goodness’ with health, material wealth, and happiness, then I’m left with only two conclusions: 1) God lies, or 2) I’m not good. Well, I reject both of those notions! Therefore, “good” must mean something different. I’m not sure, but I suspect that “goodness” is a quality, not a quantity. If goodness is a characteristic or a quality, then the psalm is saying something like,

“Add more goodness, O Lord, to the ones who choose goodness, and to those who are steadfast and honest in their hearts! But the ones who turn away down dark and crooked ways— leave them alone to enjoy each other’s nasty company!”

Zechariah 11:4-17 (Verses 1 through 3 comprise a poem about a forest fire, in which Lebanon is urged to ‘open your doors’ so that fire can burn up the cedars, and the forest be destroyed.)

4 Thus said the Lord my God: “Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.”

Ain’t that the truth! That’s a hard assignment!

Zechariah couldn’t do it. He threw a tantrum and broke faith. He abandoned the poor abused sheep; he told them to die if they were going to die, and the ones who survived could all prey on each other, because he wasn’t going to have anything more to do with them.

Then God told Zechariah that the only tools left to him after he’d broken his promise were the ones that belonged to the bad shepherds; God told him to take up those same tools— the implements of the ones who despised him and counted him as worthless; and become like the bad shepherds that control the land— the kind of shepherd “who won’t bother about the ones who have been destroyed, won’t seek out the young, won’t heal the broken and won’t feed those standing still; on the contrary, he will eat the meat of the fat ones and break their hoofs in pieces.”  

Then God makes a poem about what will become of Zechariah now:

¹⁷ “Woe to the worthless shepherd
who abandons the sheep!
May a sword strike his arm
and his right eye.
May his arm be completely withered
and his right eye totally blinded.”

1 Corinthians 3:10-23

¹⁴ If the work someone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward; ¹⁵ if it is burned up, he will have to bear the loss: he will still escape with his life, but it will be like escaping through a fire.

Temples and foundations; fire and loss. My work has been burned up more than once, and I have burn scars from my daring escapes.

Thanks, Paul, for reminding me that loss is nothing more than something to be suffered.

I have a mug with the saying, “Just Me and The Dukkha.” It still makes me laugh. Hang on a minute, I’m going to go make myself a cup of tea. —Okay, I’m back.

Luke 18:31-43

³⁴ However, they understood none of this; its meaning had been hidden from them, and they had no idea what he was talking about.

Jesus tells the disciples he’s going to die, and they just don’t understand. The passage ends with a blind man asking for his sight back, and Jesus says, “Your trust has healed you. See again!”

So, the story starts with being blind through lack of understanding, and ends with blindness cured through trust. 

The Bible is full of neat little segues like that.

So here’s my path through the readings:

Ask God to expand goodness with Good.

Stick with my people,

even when they are going down to be slaughtered.

Bear with loss; escape with my life

even when all my work is destroyed.

Even though I’m blind because I don’t understand,

my trust will make me see again.

I have to tell you, today the readings spoke exactly and uncannily to my personal situation.

That doesn’t happen all that often.

To those people who share this same situation with me:

walk the path with me—

In goodness—

be steadfast.

In loss—

escape alive.

In blind trust,

see again.