Eastertide

April 25, 2021

Scripture Reading:
John 10:11-18
‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’

We are breaking Christ’s heart as we practice the art of divide and concur. Oneness is a common theme throughout his ministry but particularly highlighted in John’s gospel. The more I observe the earth and the challenges it and its people face, the more I think God created the world to be interdependent. When we extract ourselves from that relationship, we start running into ruin.

I just finished reading Four Winds, a novel by Kristin Hannah based on the depression and the impact of the Dust Bowl. I am well acquainted with the stories straight from relatives’ mouths, but I do not think I understood the challenges they faced until I read this book. My Dad was a young teenager during that time whose father had recently died. I remember Dad talking about the “feds” stopping by his family’s farm, reporting they would be killing cattle in a nearby pasture. “Feds” bought the animals at a low market value and then shot them. My Dad talked about him and his brother following the “Feds.” After the cattle were shot, the boys would butcher the cattle on the spot and bring the flesh back to the house where their mother and sisters canned or smoked the meat. There was no refrigeration available. My Dad was a great storyteller, and I heard what he had to say as a great adventure. It was not. It was survival.

As it turns out, we learned the Dust Bowl resulted from plowing the ground in flat, straight rows. With plenty of rain and no bad windstorms, straight-row planting resulted in more crop production in good years. Strategies that worked well in areas where the land was not flat. High winds sweeping across the Great Plains stripped the land of its topsoil, ruining crops. The recovery from the Dust Bowl marked the beginning of the use of contour plowing and the planting of trees at regular intervals to act as windbreaks. Today we comfort new challenges in climate change. Those decisions are rarely driven by what is best for God’s people across the whole earth. They more often involve fights on who makes or loses the most money and who has the power to move decisions to their advantage. We replace the wisdom of oneness among all God’s children with greed and lust for power to our peril.

Prayer: Lord, you care for us like a Good Shepherd protecting us and showing us the way to thrive based on your desires for us. Help us to work together to find the righteous way to care for the earth and all your people. Amen.

 All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.