What is a Shepherd? (Part Two)\r
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If we line up the members of the flock by affluence, at which end would we find the shepherd? Would he be following the example of the Founder of his faith and have naught to his name but his clothes?\r
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Or would he be at the other end? Driving his (and her) Cadillacs? To their upscale home? With in-ground pool? When they’re not at their secret Lake House? With a boat? Circumstances all in effect at the time this charge of “hireling” was levied.\r
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And then, growing weary of his toil, does a shepherd, after maintaining for years that there is no retirement in the Kingdom of God, then retire at God’s special instruction, to a place of his choosing?\r
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Is that person still the shepherd? Or can the role of shepherd be bequeathed? Is his son now the shepherd? Or is he?\r
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Is the shepherd the one sending his messages to his “flock” from his remote Maine estate? Or is it the son, in charge of maintaining discipline at home?\r
Perhaps the role of shepherd is being split according to individual talents? Then surely we would find the “at-home” shepherd, the younger, more energetic son specializing in in-person ministry--first in line at the hospital when a member of the flock lies near death. Or possibly not? Possibly in the confusion of who actually IS the shepherd, no one ever visits the ailing sheep. \r
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Maybe then, there is no shepherd. It can’t be N, the Senior pastor “emeritus.” He’s too far away and must mail in his sermons (while living off the love offerings so gently “suggested” upon his retirement.) \r
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It can’t be N Jr, the son--after all, his own family flock is in severe disarray. Perhaps another member of the family? No indeed: their own flocks are scattered. \r
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Who then is a shepherd? And what might that look like. All we see are men, barely worthy of the name living to be enriched as the people around them suffer illness without visit, financial worry without mercy, as the pastors keep their Bibles brandished (the 3 verses about tithes highlighted), and their hands firmly held out. Family anguish without end, as loved ones leave, never to be contacted again on pain of excommunication.\r
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These are “pastors,” no doubt: just look at the titles they carry. On the signs on their reserved parking lots. In the reverence accorded to them by those who hold these men higher than their own blood.\r
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But they are not shepherds. No. These are hirelings through and through. \r
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My friend ""C"" from all those years ago, may you rest in peace. You were slandered.\r
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