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July 22, 2018
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Woe to the shepherds
who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture, says the LORD.
Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel,
against the shepherds who shepherd my people:
You have scattered my sheep and driven them away.
You have not cared for them,
but I will take care to punish your evil deeds.
I myself will gather the remnant of my flock
from all the lands to which I have driven them
and bring them back to their meadow;
there they shall increase and multiply.
I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them
so that they need no longer fear and tremble;
and none shall be missing, says the LORD.
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David;
as king he shall reign and govern wisely,
he shall do what is just and right in the land.
In his days Judah shall be saved,
Israel shall dwell in security.
This is the name they give him:
"The LORD our justice."
Psalm 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6
R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
He guides me in right paths
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
with your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Gospel Mk 6:30-34
The apostles gathered together with Jesus
and reported all they had done and taught.
He said to them,
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
People were coming and going in great numbers,
and they had no opportunity even to eat.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.
They hastened there on foot from all the towns
and arrived at the place before them.
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.
The three readings hardly need an introduction, let alone an explanation. The shepherd theme runs through the whole bible as a favoured way of illustrating the values of caring and protecting which are so easily lost sight of by those whose goal is to win, to conquer and to exploit.
Six centuries before Christ powerful societies arose first in Assyria and then Babylon, bringing disaster upon the Hebrew nation. Jeremiah pinned the blame squarely on the shepherds who had scattered the sheep and driven them away and not cared for them. God's response is to raise up in the future a righteous king from David's line who will reign and govern wisely, and the people will again live on their own soil.
It would be worthwhile to read the whole chapter: http://www.usccb.org/bible/jeremiah/23
Not long afterwards, the priest and prophet, Ezechiel, was working among the captive people. His words echo those of Jeremiah but his message is even more rich in promise. The Lord himself would do the shepherding from now on. Read Chapter 34 at http://usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/34
Add to that, chapter 36 where the promise reaches a breathtaking climax: I will sprinkle clean water over you to make you clean; ... I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you...
We are so familiar with the Good Shepherd metaphor that it might come as a surprise to realise that it does not occur in the three earlier gospels, but only in the fourth. It may even be a creation of the evangelist John. The mention in Mark of Jesus being moved with pity for the crowds, seeing them as sheep without a shepherd, is taken up by Matthew but omitted by Luke. It would seem that the shepherding metaphor did not feature prominently in whatever Jesus said about himself. Nevertheless, caring for people and teaching them how to trust in the Father do feature strongly. Mark's narrative goes on to tell of feeding this vast crowd out in a deserted place, a gesture which turned out to be a remarkable sign that God does provide if we have enough trust to do what is within our ability. We will have that to reflect on next Sunday, but not in Mark's narrative. The lectionary switches to John's version as we begin a five weeks' sequence on the famous Chapter 6.
It is generally accepted today that Paul did not write some of the epistles that carry his name. The language and the ideas in Ephesians reflect a more developed thinking than is evident in his own writings. For me this takes nothing away from the inspiration I find, particularly in this excerpt from chapter 2:13-18 which makes up today's second reading:
In Christ Jesus you who once were far off
have become near by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, he who made both one
and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh,
abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims,
that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two,
thus establishing peace,
and might reconcile both with God,
in one body, through the cross,
putting that enmity to death by it.
He came and preached peace to you who were far off
and peace to those who were near,
for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Tony Lawless