Today, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday.” Our Collect of the Day began, “O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people...” and the Lectionary assigns readings from Scripture that hone in on this theme. So what better way to start our celebration than with a couple of jokes!
Q: What do you
get when you cross an angry sheep and a moody cow?
A: A creature
that is in a baaaad mooood.
Q: What do you
call a sheep with no legs?
A: A cloud.
Q: What happened
to the sheep that went to church?
A: It became a baaaaptist.
A few years ago, Charles Jaeckle
and William Clebsch (two researchers) set out to write a book about the history
of pastoral care. They concluded that
pastoral care, which at its heart is a shepherding ministry, has four basic
functions: healing, sustaining, guiding, and reconciling. The authors noted that while these four
elements of pastoral care are always present throughout the history of the
Church, at different times, when facing different needs, one form of care has
been emphasized over the other three.
For example, during the first
two centuries of the Church’s existence, when it proclaimed the Gospel to a
hostile culture and endured numerous forms of persecution, the sustaining focus
of pastoral care was especially important.
Once Christianity became the sanctioned religion of the Roman Empire,
reconciliation of lapsed souls seemed to be the greatest pastoral need. During the medieval period the focus shifted
to healing and it was around this time the priest’s appointment to a parish
first began to be referred to as a “cure.”
Throughout these periods the
priest expressed pastoral care largely by administering sacramental rites. The Eucharist sustained. Holy Oil and prayers healed. Confession and penance brought
reconciliation. As the medical
profession developed and advanced it became the place people went for
healing. The priest’s pastoral work shifted
from administering the sacraments to the preaching of the Word. It moved toward guidance grounded in the moral
and ethical authority of the Bible. This
was a huge change, but one thing remained constant; both practices of care were
done in a communal setting. The priest
carried out his shepherding work largely in the context of public worship.
For some time now western
culture has emphasized the importance of the individual’s religious experience
over and against what happens in a community.
This new focus on personal experience (where one’s thoughts and feelings
about God and religion are more important than belonging to a community of
faith) has had a profound affect on the nature of pastoral care. The pastoral functions of sustaining,
guiding, reconciling, and healing have shifted from being acts and signs done
by the priest for and with the community to thoughts, words, and feelings
conveyed by the priest to individuals.
In our time the pastoral work of
the priest is not so much to connect us to the Good Shepherd through the
sacraments and holy mysteries as it is to embody caring. When the faithful look at their priest they
want to know if he or she is a shepherd or a hireling. They know that God cares about them, but what
about the priest? In Jesus Christ we
have a Good Shepherd who heals us, sustains us, guides us, and forgives
us. But in our time the focus has
shifted from the care that God extends to the whole Church to how the priest
makes us feel.
Several years ago when I was
serving at another parish, a woman happened to pull in the church’s parking lot
just as I was walking to my car to head home.
She was interested in the church.
I talked with her, showed her around, and told her a little bit about the
church’s life. She told me that her
health had not been good, that her parish priest had not shown interest in her,
and that she was looking for a new parish.
The pastoral care I was able to extend to her that afternoon convinced
her to attend to the church I was serving.
For several weeks the parish fit
her fine. Then we received a call from a
relative. The woman had been in the
hospital for a few days. Could I go by
to visit? I managed to squeeze a short
visit into what at the time was a very hectic schedule. She told me she would be going home in a few
days. We prayed. I left and she did in fact go home. Within a week another call came to the
office. The woman was back in the
hospital. I visited. We talked.
She thought she would be going home in a few days. I prayed and left. It was Holy Week and after Easter I took a vacation. By the time I got back I lost track of the
woman.
A few weeks later I received a
letter from her. She reminded me that
she had spent a total of 22 days in the hospital and received just two short
visits from me. Because her illness was
life threatening, and because she received so little care from me, she wrote to
tell me she would no longer be attending our church.
Now, over the years I have received
stacks of cards and letters from people who have been gracious enough to thank
me for a visit and who wanted to express how much my care and concern meant to
them. I have even had my pastoral
kindness mentioned in a book written by a parishioner whose husband suffered a
traumatic brain injury. But I also have
a handful of letters like the one from this lady where a person did not receive
the kind of care or the level of care he or she needed.
My observation about pastoral
care at St. Paul’s is that it is a ministry you and I share together. Our healing ministers who stand at the prayer
station during communion are signs that God’s care comes to us not just through
the priest, but also through one another.
Our Lay Eucharistic Ministers, serving both here at the Altar Rail, but
also in taking communion to people at home or in the hospital also drive home
this point. God’s shepherd-like care of
healing and sustaining in administered by all of us.
St. Paul’s is blessed to be able
to offer several bible studies and gatherings that feature small group
discussion. My sense is that God’s
shepherding guidance is present in these conversations. Yes, people make appointments to talk with my
in my office in order to think though a difficult situation, but the majority
of these conversations happen in small groups or one-on-one encounters one
parishioner seeking the input of others.
In pre-colonial times parish
priests in Virginia were charged with settling arguments in the community. One priest went to visit to two neighbors who
were embattled in a nasty property dispute.
After much work, the priest went home and recorded in his journal that
he was not able to affect much change.
There have been occasions here where one parishioner says or does something
that upsets or offends another. I have
been impressed with the careful, loving way both parties have sought
forgiveness and worked toward reconciliation.
It is another sign of God’s shepherding care in our midst.
When I think back to that woman
who was dissatisfied with the level of care she received from me I recognize
that I can only do what I can do. For
some that is more than enough, while for others it will never be good enough. In retrospect what I recognize now is how
that parish, like this one, was a community that manifested God’s pastoral care
to one another. Perhaps she was too new
to the church to experience it in its fullness.
Perhaps she was interested only in how the priest made her feel.
The Good News on this Good
Shepherd Sunday is that God loves us and cares for us. Historically this care has been expressed as
healing, sustaining, guiding, and reconciling.
It has come to God’s people both through the administration of the
sacraments and the proclamation of the Word in settings both public and
private. God’s care has been incarnated
through the diligent, faithful work of priests and lay people. Today we celebrate the way we have brought
God’s care to one another in our parish family.
My challenge is not somehow to rise above my limitations, but to encourage,
equip, and mobilize each one of you so that you can do what God calls you to
do… what in fact you want to do… to care for one another as Christ Jesus cares
for you.
