Good Shepherd: Living the Faith

Good Shepherds: Living the Faith

By Dana Yost

Copyright © 2013 by Dana Yost

Cover Design by Jesse S. Greever

Cover Photo by Dana Yost

The author is hereby established as the sole holder of the copyright. Either the publisher (eLectio Publishing) or author may enforce copyrights to the fullest extent.

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eLectio Publishing wishes to thank the following people who helped make these publications possible through their generous contributions:

Chuck & Connie Greever

Jay Hartman

Darrel & Kimberly Hathcock

Tamera Jahnke

Amanda Lynch

Pamela Minnick

James & Andrea Norby

Gwendolyn Pitts

Margie Quillen

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www.eLectioPublishing.com

In memory of Cheryl Lund and Brad Stensrud

A Prayer of Intercession

Written for and read at worship December 11, 2011, at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Forest City, Iowa

Dear Lord: We pray that your light will fill us with goodness, and that we may learn to live according to your words: To love one another, to care for the poor; to care for your planet; to seek peace, not vengeance; to be honorable, not deceitful.

Give our leaders wisdom and patience, give their followers the same—and let that be a forceful step toward a better world, where there is room for all, all needs are met, the oppressed find freedom, and mistrust is set aside in the name of genuine resolution to conflict.

Amen

GOOD SHEPHERDS

Good Shepherds

As any good fund-raiser must, Joe Nolte ended his speech with a request for donations to the organization for which he works. But the request was brief, and it is possible that no matter how he phrased it, it would not have lived up to what had come before it in his speech.

On Sunday, April 29, 2012, Nolte, an advancement officer (another term for fund-raiser) for Lutheran Services in Iowa spoke during the morning worship services at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Forest City, Iowa.

That Sunday was also designated as Good Shepherd Sunday in the church calendar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. On that Sunday each year, worship services in many ELCA churches are often built around the Gospel story of John 10:11-18.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, Christ says as that passage opens.

It could not have been a better Sunday for Nolte to be at the front of Immanuel Lutheran, a guest, but taking charge of the pulpit and microphone as if he’d used them many times before.

In a clear, comfortable voice, Nolte told three stories, made a reference to that day’s Gospel reading and made a simple analogy: Christ is the Good Shepherd, but anyone who follows him, anyone who sees a suffering or struggling person, can be a good shepherd, too. Not only can they be, but they probably should be—our fellow human beings are depending on us.

And there are ways, without actually having to go staff to fang with a wolf, for us to do so.

Some of those ways are available on the streets where we walk, in the homes where we live, in the churches where we pray. Others, Nolte said, are available through programs and services of organizations like Lutheran Services in Iowa, a nonprofit human-services agency that relies on more than $5 million a year in charitable contributions to keep operating. The donations help LSI work closely with troubled youth, the mentally ill, and people with substance-abuse and family problems.

After making mention of the passage from John, Nolte told three Good Shepherd stories of his own, stories he had experienced first-hand. They showed, he said, how we can protect those who, like scattered and frightened sheep, are on the verge of being lost to the world.

Nolte’s first story was a farm story. The other two were about young people—an eight-year-old boy and a teen-age girl—whose lives were made better when the arms of LSI’s two residential treatment centers opened to them.

Nolte grew up on a farm. At some point during his childhood, his parents bought a goat, figuring it might be good for the lawn, possibly produce some milk, and that milk possibly made into cheese.

There is a reason, however, why some ornery people get compared to goats—the age-old expressions of a man who is a mean old goat, or a child who is as stubborn as a goat. The goat on the Nolte farm made ornery an understatement, Nolte said.

Nolte’s father was named Bill, so in a joke that struck the son as much funnier than it did the father, Nolte named the goat Billy.

But Billy was hardly a delight to be around. He was often tied to a stake in the farm yard, and when Nolte and his brother played in the yard and got too close to the goat, Billy would kick and head-butt them, and make strange noises with his mouth. He was tough, cranky, didn’t like the company—not even of Nolte’s dog, it seemed. Feelings were mutual. Nolte did not like the goat. Even his father, after first embracing the idea of a goat on the farm, had lost his fondness for Billy.

The family could not get rid of Billy soon enough, Nolte started to think.

One night, after a day of chores on the farm, his tired father fell asleep in his chair in the living room. Soon, Nolte began to hear loud noises in the farm yard: the dog barking, Billy making goat noises, and then something much wilder—an animal that did not belong on a farm, growling. Billy’s grunts and squeals got louder and more urgent, and Nolte and his brother started to think the worst: There was a wolf on their farm, threatening both the goat and their dog. They woke their dad; he cussed, and then flung himself into the farmyard.

With the commotion his father raised by lunging outside, whatever had been growling fled, leaving just the goat and dog in the yard.

It was a wolf, the boys told their dad, describing the deep growling and fear it had seemed to cause among the dog and goat.

Their father said he wasn’t sure it was a wolf, but whatever it was give thanks to God for Billy. He saved the dog [with his loud noises].

His dad’s response confused Nolte. Didn’t his dad save the dog and the goat by charging so forcefully out the door? Yes, Billy had made loud noises, but why on earth would his father heap such generous praise on an animal that had become a detestable presence in the farmyard?

Dad, I thought you didn’t like Billy, he said.

His father paused, and then answered his son.

We have to remember that Billy is still one of God’s creatures, he said. Even when we don’t understand what someone else does or says—even when we don’t like what they say—we have to remember that they still belong to God, and we still have to be the shepherds for them.

In the case of Billy the Goat, being a shepherd was nearly a literal act for Nolte’s father. As he told the story, Nolte was, of course, preparing the congregation for his deeper message:

Nolte paused, and, like his father years before, firmed up his voice. Good Shepherds don’t just look out for goats, and neither should Christians. There may be people in the world we disagree with, who anger us, or whose cultures or interests, or behaviors caused by illness, we do not understand. Just like Billy, however, God puts them in our care. As Pastor Rod Hopp of Immanuel put it in a sermon a few months later, every one of us is sacred in God’s eyes; every one of us has something sacred to offer.We owe it to our fellow humans and we owe it to God to see the sacred in one another.

Nolte’s next story was about an eight-year-old boy named Mason, who, for reasons Nolte did not explain, had withdrawn from and shut out much of the world. He never smiled, and was unable to express his emotions in ways most of us are taught or would recognize. Mason’s only means of communicating his emotion, no matter what it was, was to hit another person.

When he was happy, he hit, Nolte said.

When he was sad, he hit.

When he was angry, he hit.

When he was scared, he hit.

This led to problems at home and at school. His mother, who cared deeply for Mason, turned to Lutheran Services of Iowa, hoping a program or a person would restore happiness and an ability to communicate to her son.

Mason moved into LSI’s Beloit Residential Treatment Center in Ames, Iowa, which serves