John 10:11-18 Jesus said, “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.”
Reflection How are we to respond to Jesus’ willingness to lay down his life so that we all may be one? How are we to respond to a leader who does not run away or toss us under the bus when all hell breaks loose and life erupts out of control? I believe the answer is simple (not easy). We must do everything we possibly can to affirm our unity with all people.
Doing everything we possibly can begins with remembering who and whose we are. We understand that all people “are made in the image of God,” and that “we are free to make choices: to love, to create, to reason, and to live in harmony with creation and with God.” (BCP 845) Like the Good Shepherd we “have the power to lay our lives down… by our own accord.” In other words, we are free to care for one another.
Doing everything we possibly can means we respond to Jesus’ call “that we all may be one” by respecting the dignity of every human being and loving our neighbor as ourself. It means we erase the redlines and remove the fences that falsely separate us. It means doing whatever it takes to insure the assumptions and actions that deny the shared humanity of George Floyd and Dereck Chauvin are dismantled.
Here I must confess I did not celebrate when I heard the news of Mr. Chauvin’s conviction because one man is dead and another man’s life is destroyed, two families are devastated and our country is divided over who is the trespasser and who the trespassed.
Yes. Holding a man to account for his actions is imperative and it is not enough to allay the fear of fathers giving their black sons ‘the talk’ about how to protect themselves when confronted by white authority. It is not enough to quiet the fear of mothers teaching their white daughters how to walk through parking lots and certain places and not be seen as vulnerable. Holding a man to account for his behavior is necessary and not sufficient to transform the consciousness of people who experience one another as threats.
Secular law holds us accountable for wrongful social behavior. It judges our up close, personal, blow by blow actions and their consequence. Secular law responds with equivalent retaliation, tit for tat, an eye for an eye. By contrast, God’s law assumes a hundred thousand feet above the ground perspective. It disarms every appearance of division to declare our shared humanity. In the words of the parable of the Good Shepherd, “so there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
God’s law demands a reckoning for Mr. Floyd’s killing and Mr. Chauvin’s conviction. This has nothing to do with counting coup or political advantage. God’s law requires nothing less than the transformation of our individual and collective consciousness.
When we set aside our pride, politics and opinions we are free to rise to the God’s eye point of view. From the hundred thousand feet above the ground perspective we see that we are “one flock, one shepherd.” With our minds risen to the heights of our hearts we naturally choose to use our freedom to love and live in harmony. This is the transformation of consciousness God’s law demands as a reckoning for Mr. Floyd’s killing and Mr. Chauvin’s conviction. We must do everything we possibly can to affirm our unity with all people.
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