Dylan: Shepherding Justice

I wish that congregations were going to read both Acts 4 and Ezekiel 34 this Sunday. Acts 4 makes the causal connection between caring for the poor and experiencing the Spirit's presence and power that we need to hear, but Ezekiel 34 is a scathing indictment of the extent to which we who claim to follow "the good shepherd" have been doing the opposite of what a good shepherd does:

Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not
shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool,
you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not
strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the
injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost,
but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered,
because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild
animals.

...Jesus, the good shepherd, calls me out of that comfortable home, away from living off of the fat available to me right here and out to the margins, so all might eat good food, drink clean water, and enjoy the privileges I have that give me access to markets and schools and the power that comes with them. He doesn't promise that it will be easy, but he promises that the journey is the way to abundant life. And I know that I will hear the good shepherd's voice and see his face most clearly when I'm living world that lives out the connection all of God's prophets proclaim, and all of God's beloved children can sing with the psalmist, not in hopeful expectation but in celebration of a present reality:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want.