Contemporary Shepherd Metaphors

[kenhonken]

“Metaphors create a bridge between two specific phenomenal worlds, one that can only be crossed by two parties (speaker/listener) who are similarly socialized. In this sense, metaphors are made for the moment.”

I have been wrestling with this statement from the book because in my judgment it highlights the hermeneutical struggle pastors encounter as they seek to understand shepherding as a metaphor for their own office. Shepherds, as discussed in Holy Scripture, are a distinctly Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) phenomenon. Contemporary Irish or Scottish shepherds have tools (e.g. dogs) and lack of host of dangers (e.g. bears, lions) that ANE shepherds did not. Contemporary America lacks any meaningful experience of shepherds at all. After reading Laniak's book, I am more convinced that the simple images of rod (external protection) and staff (internal ordering) are the basic work of shepherds. To me, all of Scripture's literary complexities and the background data of the ANE bring one back to these two basic motifs. And these two motifs are so important for understanding shepherding because they reveal ANE shepherds consistently confronted reality, the reality of their flocks and of their environments.

Who lives in such a relationship with the world today? Two images come to mind for me: cowboys and tradespeople. To me, cowboys are the American shepherd. They had to know their herds, and they endured many hardships to bring them from their grazing lands across the American Southwest and High Plains to markets in St. Louis, Denver, Ft. Worth, and elsewhere. Of course, the American cowboy himself is now a mere metaphor, but one much closer to American cultural understanding than the ANE shepherd. Additionally, I call to mind contemporary tradespeople in thinking about ANE shepherds because they are the ones who live in the truly real world. As American society debates the merits and demerits of electric vehicles, organic farming, and globalization, tradespeople such as electricians, farmers, and sailors are the ones who must make these visions into reality. In my mind, it is no accident that the arguably four most prominent apostles in the gospels--Peter, Andrew, James, and John--were all fisherman, men who provided lawful protein to their region by regularly doing business with the Sea of Galilee, no small feat considering the squall in which our Lord walked on water toward the apostle Peter.

I believe pastors should consider thinking about their callings as the gritty work of cowboys and tradespeople, commissioned to serve and protect the people of God in a beautiful world created by God that has also become characterized by evil and disaster.
_________________
Ken Honken