"The Good Shepherd"

For most people, Psalm Twenty-Three is what peanut butter is to jelly - you can't have religion - at least the Christian kind - without it. It's there any time comfort is needed, with the assurance of God's concern and care. And, I suppose that's as it should be. When we travel down that Valley of the Shadow, we need all the help we can get.

But every time Pastor Shulz thinks of the Twenty-Third Psalm, he remembers his summer at the Knauf farm. His folks had a little cottage across from the farm, with a creek running by it, and used to take the kids there for their vacations. The cottage was a kind of "legacy gift," the cement blocks and land bought with money his dad had gotten from his mother's estate when she died. The family could have afforded vacations otherwise, so this was it. And it was plenty for them: They would play in the creek, or go up on the hill across the road and swing on "monkey vines," or pick blackberries in fields that had been left fallow, or go over to the Knauf's, where they might play in the barn, or watch Mr. Knauf milk cows, surrounded by a fleet of meowing cats, all standing in line to get their little squirt of fresh milk, straight from the cow.

Mr.Knauf had sheep, too - not a lot. He didn't have a lot of anything. A few acres of corn, some of wheat, a few dozen cows, a few dozen sheep. It was only a farm of a few hundred acres - just enough to feed a man and his family. He had a sheep dog, which he would send out to bring in the sheep and cows in turn, when it was time for milking, or at the end of the day, when it was time to put everyone in the barn.

The year he turned twelve, the family spent most of the summer out at the cabin, and his dad decided to commute from out there to work every morning, although it was a long trip in those days - over an hour to get into town. but he thought it worth the trip to come back to such a lovely place, put his feet up, perhaps take a dip in the creek before supper, or just lay in the hammock, tied between the elm and the oak, and take a little snooze.

One morning, George's mother sent them over to get some milk, and Mr. Knauf was a bit upset. It seemed that his sheep dog had gotten a bit too close to one of the cows, who didn't appreciate him nipping at her heals all the way back to the barn the night before, and finally gave him a good, swift kick. Now, if it had been just another cow, no one would have thought much of it, but for the dog, it was trouble. Actually, he was lucky - just a couple of broken ribs and a broken leg. but he wouldn't be bringing in the cows and sheep for a while, and Mr. Knauf couldn't afford the time to be going out and bringing them in every morning and evening - it was late summer, and there was a lot to do. So he asked George if he'd like a job.

The cows weren't bad - you just opened the gate, and they knew the rest. They seemed proud of it, and when he came to get them, they were already lined up, like kindergarteners waiting for recess. The sheep were a different matter. Every day was as if they had never done it before. You had to round them up, get them to the gate, open the gate, round up the ones that had gone astray while you opened the gate - it was tough work, they weren't at all cooperative, and they smelled bad - really bad - like they had rolled in something that died all day long.

Pastor Shulz never ate mutton or lamb or anything that had any relationship to those things after that. He could hardly put on things made of wool. It left that smell in his nostrils, that brought it all back to him. You could never pay him enough to tend sheep and, later, as he read how David was a shepherd, his first thought was, "Well, I guess it prepared him for Israel." And it gave him an appreciation for God's humor and his humility, letting shepherds be the first to worship his Son. It's a wonder Mary let them in the cave!

You have to have a great deal of patience to work with sheep, and some humility as well. When Jesus said he was the "Good Shepherd," it wasn't a compliment to us, but to God, who continues to be patient with us, even though we don't deserve it, and even though we surely must be exasperating to God at times.

Tending sheep was a good experience for Pastor Shulz as well - maybe it is for God, too - who knows? But it certainly has taught him a lot about being the Shepherd of his little flock.

And that's what Pastor Shulz is - the shepherd of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, a little church over near Middleton, a congregation that isn't much in the eyes of the world, but is God's own little flock, and certainly precious in his eyes.