A Royal Priesthood

1 Peter 2:25 For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

I love the two definitions sheep farming definitions of church. The English sheep farming method describes church as a walled fold with distinct parameters and a single entrance by which sheep must pass. The Australian method is to build a well and allow the sheep to go where they will but know where to come back for refreshment.

What was the popular Religion of the first Christians? It was, in one word, the Religion of the Good Shepherd. The kindness, the courage, the grace, the love, the beauty of the Good Shepherd to them, They looked on that figure, and it conveyed to them all that they wanted. 

As ages passed on, the Good Shepherd faded away from the mind of the Christian world, and other emblems of the Christian faith have taken his place. Instead of the gracious and gentle Pastor there came the Omnipotent Judge or the Crucified Sufferer, or the Infant in His Mother’s arms, or the Master in His Parting Supper, or the figures of innumerable saints and angels, or the elaborate expositions of the various forms of theological controversy.

Peter talks about returning to the care of the Good Shepherd. 

While visiting Greece in the late 1990s, a preacher was privileged to have an informative chat with a Greek taxi driver who had worked as a shepherd in his youth. He told the preacher of how on one occasion he fell asleep in the field with his sheep during the afternoon siesta and awoke some time later only to discover that the flock was gone.

Terrified, he rushed back to the village and to his delight discovered that the flock had, on their own, wandered home. The homeward path from the “still waters” was familiar to them, and when the time came they followed it, much to the relief of the shepherd.

In all our wandering may we too be mindful of the pathway that leads to the Guardian of our souls.

Christ the good shepherd,

Who laid down his life for the sheep,

Draw you and all who hear this voice,

To be one flock within one your guardian care. Amen