Ventures in Hope, Fear, Faith and Courage

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. Verse One, O Little Town of Bethlehem From a Poem by Rev. Phillip Brooks, 1867

Come winter, several themes weave their way in, out and through my soul. In the scriptures and songs of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, the prayers of the people and the searching of my soul, these themes resonate.

Hope. Fear. Faith. Courage.

Like the double-thump of a heart beating, two of these themes, Hope and Fear, continue to pulse, just as they have done for others throughout time. For example, I can't sing "O Little Town of Bethlehem" -- especially the last stanza of the first verse -- without these two themes coming to mind.

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light.

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

What did it mean for all of humanity’s hopes and fears to meet in a little Middle-Eastern town some two millenia ago? After all, Hope and Fear had been meeting for a long, long time, in many places and under a variety of circumstances. And, God had not been silent or absent from his people in their hopes and fears.

But, at a particular point in human history, in that little town of Bethlehem, God came to meet Hope and Fear in-person, as a vulnerable baby we know as Jesus the Christ, the One who would suffer and die on the cross for us and for our eternal salvation. This Jesus came not just to meet Hope and Fear, but also to know them in every way that you and I would. And in Jesus Christ, Hope conquered Fear once and for all.

That said, Fear is real. Fear does not give up easily. Fear waits for an opportune time. Fear waits for the moment when we are most vulnerable, when we think we can overcome it on our own. Fear comes when we forget, ignore or try to remake the One who can cast out all fear. This One is Jesus Christ, the Living Word, Perfect Love. Jesus Christ is at the intersection where your hopes and fears come crashing together. He’s been there all the time.

Just as shepherds and wise men were led to meet the newborn Jesus in a manger, we are called to meet Jesus in what Martin Luther called the cradle in which the Christ is found – in the Holy Bible. Just as Jesus Christ commanded, we are baptized for the forgiveness of sin and sent into a world filled with Hope and Fear, to point others to Him and to be little Christs to one another. Just as Jesus’ followers of old were called to receive Him in person, Christians are called to receive Christ – in the body and blood, bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. Just as the Lord has provided all that is needed for life, we are called to share all that we have been given for life.

Where do your hopes and fears meet these days? What do those hopes and fears look, sound, taste or feel like? Can you name them, or are they too deep to put into human words? Whatever they might be, take them to the manger, to the cross, to the One who has already met Hope and Fear head-on, for you and for all people.

Open your hands as though to hold a baby; see and cradle the Christ child there.

Open your Bible, and see it as the manger, the cradle where Christ is found.

See the Christ Child lifting little hands to take your hopes and fears into the cradle with Him.

Gaze up at your Christ on the cross with outstretched arms, Hope overcoming all fears, once for all.

Go forth into the days and months that stretch ahead.

Go with faith and good courage, knowing that the one who leads and guides is none other than Jesus Christ.

A blessed Christmas to you,
Pastor Sheepherder

On Guard Dogs

It's been a difficult few weeks at sheep camp since Thanksgiving time. Our two Great Pyrenees guard dogs, Turk and Stinker, trained to guard livestock from coyotes and other predators, went missing the weekend before Thanksgiving. They were found shot dead, within a short distance of each other, on the southeast corner of the ranch. All evidence points to shooters just taking shots at sounds, or perhaps at anything they could hit.

We've had livestock guarding dogs since the early 1980's, to guard our flock in Idaho, Eastern Washington, Illinois and now Nebraska. In all that time, we've never lost any sheep to predators -- or, for that matter, we've never lost any guard dogs under these circumstances.

The dogs that were killed -- Turk, going on 7 years old, and Stinker, just about a year old -- were raised on our ranch from the time of weaning. That's the normal practice -- the pups come to think of their sheep as their littermates, live with them and protect them accordingly. These livestock guard dogs also mark a territory with their scent, which helps keep predators at a distance when the dogs are out of sight. As they work their territory and watch their flock, they shy away from human contact.

The bad news (aside from the senseless shooting of the two dogs): Finding mature, trained replacements for livestock guard dogs is almost impossible, since the norm is to keep these guard dogs and their flocks together.It's getting closer to the time when baby lambs are born and the flock is even more vulnerable to predators. The scent of blood and amniotic fluids, and the bleating of newborns, carries on the wind and attracts coyotes, the main predators in our area. And, since we live five miles away at the parsonage, we can't be on-site to listen or watch for night-visits by coyotes.

The good news: Through our network of friends in the sheep industry, we've actually found a replacement dog. Her name will be Alpha (Alph for short) because she was the alpha-pup in her litter of nine. She's nine months old and already working guarding well. I tried to talk Red into just buying Alpha's mom, an excellent guarding dog in her own right, and having her bred to raise some pups. That didn't work. Maybe that will be my retirement project in a few years. (Or maybe I'll be surprised on Christmas morning.)

Senseless things happen, and the shooting of two valued, four-legged partners gives new meaning to the term senseless. Just one dog shot that way could be written off as an accident, but two seems like more than an accident or even coincidence.

And, yes, it could have been worse ... After all, it could be a person out there making the sound at which the shooter shoots so blindly.

We just pray that whoever takes sport in doing such things will somehow have a change of heart and habit, learn to shoot responsibly, and not do this again.

It's about ... TIME

OKAY, so I've spent a bit of time away from blogging. However, I have been writing. It's good to be back -physically, with health improving - and to take the luxury of a little time apart for getting the writing onto the blog.

For a time last Spring, I team-taught an on-line class on Best Practices in Rural Ministry for Wartburg Seminary. Here's an excerpt from a reflection paper that I shared with our students, on the topic of Christian spirituality and servant leadership. The paper was titled "Hope for the Future, Power in the Present: A Letter For Leaders In Small Town And Rural Ministry," and one of the topics dealt with, of all things, TIME.
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"TIMELY Leadership – Sustaining, transforming ministry leaders make decisions and take action (or refrain from acting) with appreciation for both chronos and kairos. •

Chronos (chronological time) is measured by clocks, calendars, schedules and so forth.

Kairos refers to seasons of life, God’s own good time, the fullness of time.

At all stages of ministry visioning, planning, action and evaluation, leaders need to ask: What time is it? Timely leadership considers and applies texts such as Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. As shepherd of a congregation (not to mention a shepherd of sheep for the last 48 years), I also appreciate the pastoral wisdom of this poem by the late Rev. Gerhard Frost. My copy is packed away, but the poem goes something like this:

Lost
“And how do the sheep get lost?”
the city dweller asked.
“Oh, it’s easy,” the farmer replied.
“They just put their heads down
And nibble themselves lost.”

O Lord, it’s almost noon.
I’ve nibbled my way from one trivia to another.
Have mercy on me.
Redeem this head-down day
and put me back on the path again.
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Recognizing the difference between trivia and truly important matters isn't always easy. Hindsight sometimes makes vision clearer, as what once seemed truly important fades into (forgive the redundancy) the most trivial of trivia. This last year, packed with sheepherding and studying, moments filled a jumble of awesome divine presece in the midst of desperation, has been anything but trivial. In fact, its blessing has been to remind me of what's really important and what's not, what's of the utmost importance and what's really to be left up for grabs.

It's about ... TIME ... and it's almost noon. What time is it for you?

In Christ and glad to be back in this part of the sheep camp,

Pastor Sheepherder

Pastor Sheepherder is BAAAHck

No, Pastor Sheepherder is not lost.
She just hasn't been back to this part of the camp in ...
OH MY (she exclaimed), close to 11 months?!?!?!?!

During that time ...
She has been tending the sheep assigned to her (that would be the flock of her congregation) plus occasionally helping with the four-legged sheep that she and Good Husband steward. She has also just about finished Year One in studies toward a Doctor of Ministry degree and certification as a spiritual director. Also, a few scary health issues over the last year intervened, but she is feeling better and better day by day as the root causes of the symptoms have been diagnosed and addressed.

Watch for resumption of blogs in weeks to come and do respond as you are led.