The Scripture readings for Sunday, May 3 focus on the image of God as our shepherd. When we listen to stories from the Bible we find that shepherds were rather low on the ladder. After Moses fled Egypt because he committed murder, the job he was able to get as a fugitive was as a shepherd. When the prophet Samuel goes to visit Jesse for an important meeting with his family, Jesse leaves his youngest, and presumably least important, son to tend to the flocks. Just because shepherds played a needed role did not mean they were held in high esteem. Like many workers today they provided a necessary service but were considered best left both unseen and unheard.
So it is interesting that throughout Scripture God identifies with the work of shepherds, with those whose service was invaluable and invisible and who worked on the margins of society. Some of the most powerful shepherd/lamb imagery from the Bible is found in the book of Revelation, where Jesus is pictured as both lamb and shepherd.
How do we understand God as our shepherd? How does God’s work remain hidden from the view of polite society? How is God at work in the margins? At the center? How does the image of God/Jesus as shepherd inform our own ministry and mission?
Monday, 5/4
I Samuel 16:1-13
I Peter 5:1-5
Tuesday 5/5
I Chronicles 11:1-9
Revelation 7:13-17
Wednesday 5/6
Micah 7:8-20
Mark 14:26-31
Read Psalm 95 each of these three days.
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