"Another Metaphor for Sheep?"

Another Metaphor for Sheep?

David Tryggestad

February 3, 2014

It was another incident of “Locker Room Theology.” Today at the Y I was in the shower room with a father and son who often work out together, whom I’ve known for several years. All of a sudden they broke unashamedly into full- throated song, a kind of call and response, sometimes singing together in unison and sometimes in tight harmony. I’d be hard-pressed to categorize the genre, but I’d venture something like bluegrass. I was astonished, in part because men at the Y don’t sing in the shower, partly because I didn’t know they could sing, and partly because it was beautiful, astonishingly beautiful.

As we were getting dressed, the father said to me, “Preacher, are we good enough for your church choir?”

“I’d love to have you in our choir, but that would be stealing sheep. I know your pastor and she’d be upset. There’s an unwritten rule that we don’t steal each other’s sheep. There are enough sheep outside the church that we don’t need to steal from other churches.”

The man next to me, whom I did not know, had been listening to all of this (how could he not?!), and said, “Sheep are stupid!”

I looked at him and said, “You’re right! It’s insulting. Maybe those of us inside the church need to find other ways to talk about those outside the church.”

I went on to catalog other biblical metaphors for those on the outside and those on the inside: “lost/found,” “blind/those who see,” “deaf/those who hear.” I didn’t go into “wicked/righteous” or “cursed/blessed.” Then there are the “rich/poor” and the “mighty/lowly.” There are plenty more!

Perhaps all of these metaphors and descriptors are helpful some of the time. But only some of the time, sparingly, with careful attention to those on the “outside” listening in.

If we’re taking bets on where we might find Jesus, I would bet in the midst of those on the “outside.”

Can we find new language?