The Good Shepherd - Father Dave's Blog

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1)

This coming Sunday is ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’. Every year at this time we revisit the 23^rd Psalm and read excerpts from the tenth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint John which talk about Jesus as the ‘Good Shepherd’.

It’s also ‘Mother’s Day’ this Sunday, and that might seem like a happy coincidence, as the roles of mothering and shepherding seem to have considerable overlap. Even so, there is an important point of distinction between the Ancient Near Eastern shepherd and your mum. Shepherds smelt terrible!

Christian iconography tends to depict shepherds as genteel figures, nurturing baby lambs or carrying lost sheep on their shoulders. Shepherding was actually a very rough job in Biblical times. It meant sleeping in the fields or in the entrances of caves where you’d use your body as a barrier (John 10:9), keeping predators from the flock

By definition, these shepherds were pastoral figures (‘pastor’ being the Latin word for shepherd) but we shouldn’t let the modern concept of pastoring disguise the fact that Biblical shepherds were uniformly men of blood.

You may recall the dialogue between King Saul and the young shepherd-boy, David (1 Samuel 17), where the teenager is volunteering to do battle with Goliath, but the king is expressing doubts about the young man’s ability as a warrior. David responds “Hey! I’m a shepherd. I kill lions and bears for a living”. I’m paraphrasing 1 Samuel 17:34-37, of course, but it’s accurate. Shepherds knew how to fight and kill.

Ancienty Near Eastern shepherds were rough, hairy men who lived on the outskirts of society. Predictably, they were not highly esteemed by the social elite, which perhaps makes it surprising that the shepherd became the dominant Biblical metaphor for political leadership. Yes, a mother or a teacher could be a shepherd, but the metaphor was most commonly applied to the king (Ezekiel 34, Psalm 78).

Biblically speaking, our leaders are our shepherds. Does this mean we should be electing warriors who can withstand the heat of battle? Perhaps, but our Lord Jesus distinguished between good and bad shepherds, and “the good shepherd”, He says, is the one who “lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11).

This is the distinguishing mark of a good shepherd. The good shepherd puts their body on the line. The good shepherd has skin in the game. The good shepherd doesn’t have other people do the fighting for them. The good shepherd leads from the front and, if the fight is lost, the good shepherd will be amongst the first to fall!

In Australia, we’ve just re-elected our Prime Minister, and, in Rome, a new Pope has been elected. Will either of these men prove to be good shepherds?

I saw that the Progressive Jewish Council of Australia called on the Prime Minister to condemn the modern state of Israel’s brutality and to cut ties with their genocidal regime! I suspect that would require our shepherd to lay down his life for the sheep!

In truth, I’m not sure how much we can expect from our current crop of shepherds. I fear many of them are wolves in sheep’s clothing (forgive the mix of metaphors). At any rate, it’s Mother’s Day as well as Good Shepherd Sunday on Sunday, and we may have to be satisfied with seeing in our mums something of the Good Shepherd while praying that our shepherds grow to more closely resemble our mothers.

Our Sunday Eucharist

We enjoyed a very special Sunday Eucharist last weekend as we welcomed Costandi Bastoli to the panel for the first time. Costandi is the Community Director of Palestinian Christians in Australia. He joined Tom Toby and me for what was inevitably going to be a Palestine-heavy session of sharing and Bible study. 😊

I’ve pasted two shorts from last weekend below. See the other shorts on our Sunday Eucharist Instagram page or watch the entire replay via our YouTube channel.

This coming Sunday, as we’ve noted, is Mothers’ Day, so I expect a few of our mums may be off enjoying lunch with their families as we go to air. Even so, Rob Gilland and Rev. John Jegasothy will be on the panel with me, and I’m hoping that all those not tied up in Mothers’ Day celebrations will join us.

Please invite your friends to tune in to the broadcast. Refer them to the Facebook Event Page or encourage them to sign up directly through Streamyard. We still need to grow a little if we are to remain viable, and the best way for us to grow is through recommending the broadcast to our friends.

I’ll hope to see you Sunday at noon (Sydney time) via TheSundayEucharist.com, Facebook , YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia or Streamyard. I do look forward to sharing this Eucharist with you. 😊

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What’s On?

Saturday, May 10^th – Boxing at Legends Gym in Kensington from 3 pm.
Sunday, May 11^th – Our Eucharist from noon @ thesundayeucharist.com, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, FaithiaorStreamyard)
Tuesday, May 13^th– Boxing at the Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm.
Thursday, May 15th – Boxing at the Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm
Saturday, May 17^th – Sparring Day at the Mundine Gym in Redfern from 8 am

The last item on the calendar for next week is the Sparring Day at the Mundine Gym. A Sparring Day is halfway between a friendly dance around the ring and an actual fight. I think all my lads have signed up for it, and I’m hoping to get a bout myself, though finding someone for me is difficult, as they have to match both age and ability. Either way, if you’re in the area, I don’t think there’s any charge for spectators.

Last weekend was our federal election in Oz, and I was very glad to see Anthony Albanese returned. That’s not just because he’s an old friend, but more on account of the dread I felt that his opponent (Peter Dutton) might have been elected.

I remember with pride the time I saw a news report with Mr Dutton scowling when my name was mentioned in Parliament. I found that enormously affirming even though the timing of the scowl may have been coincidental. Mr Dutton is now a spent force and I’m glad about that. Will Anthony now have the confidence to push forward with the above-mentioned request of the Progressive Jewish Council of Australia? Well … I still believe in miracles but I’m not holding my breath.

One person who would have cut ties with the Israeli regime, had he been in power, is my friend, David Bradbury, who ran against Albo in our local electorate just as I had done three years earlier. Sadly, he didn’t do much better than me, but he did stage a great community celebration two days prior to the election where I was asked to speak on the subject of Gaza. I’m adding a couple of shorts from the address below. The full recording and transcript are on www.israelandpalestine.org Click here,

I pray that the coming week brings you hope and new life, as befits the season. I feel optimistic about the new pope. As I said with my graphic, of the two candidates that the media presented us with, I think they definitely made the right choice.

May the Lord bless and strengthen you for the work to which you have been called, and may God bless and strengthen our mothers especially this week, along with all how show motherly love to others.

Your brother in the Good Fight,