Willing to Lay Down, Not to Lie, OR How Deep in Sheep Lie the Wells of Our Souls?

"Willing to Lay Down, Not to Lie," OR,
"How Deep in Sheep Lie the Wells of Our Souls?!"

Idealism passed on as can be to us: "good shepherds" living in sheep, roaming through risky, rocky terrain, predators, robbers, flashfloods, landslides; a sling, a club. a rod, a staff, a flask of oil; gap in stonewall just wide enough to enter, each counted, inspected, treated, thanked; shepherd filling the gap through the night: harm coming only "over this dead body!" Rising again, calling forth by first name.

Faith people stand deep in sheep! Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rachel, Moses, David -- close-up, conversant with sheep! Herdable economics, nomadic way of life: staples of food, raw material, clothing, shelter; around sheep circling daily tasks, annual patterns; without whom communal survival far-fetched at best.

Jesus' compassion for sheep without shepherd: deserving best leadership, crook to scepter; but mired in agriculture, fixed settlement, cities; shepherding stained by culture and class: minimal, marginal, manual, migrant; romanticized remnant of "good old days;" awaiting arising of heart to be pastored again.

Good shepherds lead from behind and below.

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Once students fill jars with small rocks, teacher brings out the pebbles; once students fill jars with pebbles, teacher brings out the sand; once students fill jars with sand, teacher brings out the water . . .

Beside the still waters, our cup overflows. How deep lie the wells of our souls.

"One Underground River, many wells in: African wells, Taoist wells, Buddhist wells, Jewish wells, Goddess wells, Christian wells, Muslim wells, Aboriginal wells. Many wells but one river." "To go down a well is to practice tradition, but we would make grave mistake (idolatrous one) if we confused well itself with flowing waters . . . . Necessary to travel deeper . . . to go to the center, the cave." (Matthew Fox)

How deep lie the wells of our souls: "All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." (Julia of Norwich)

"We drink from our own wells. Spirituality is a community enterprise . . . passage of people through solitude, dangers of desert, carving out own way in . . . . From it we draw promise of resurrection." (Gustavo Gutierrez)

We drink from our own wells. We drink at our own risks. How deep lie the wells of our souls. And of our soul together.

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Tom Joad with mother, end of The Grapes of Wrath, resurrecting Preacher Jim Casy -- "Lookie, Ma. I been all day an' all night hidin' alone. Guess who I been thinkin' about? Casy! . . . Says one time he went out in the wilderness to find his own soul, an' he foun' he didn' have no soul that was his'n. Says he foun' he jus' got a little piece of a great big soul . . . His little piece of a soul wasn' no good 'less it was with the rest, an' was whole. Funny how I remember. Didn' think I was even listenin.' But I know now a fella ain' got a soul of his own, but on'y a piece of a big one . . ." (John Steinbeck)

How deep lies the well of our soul together! Good shepherds proceed from the sheep, and dare not forget where we've come from; laying our own bodies down for night's rest in gaps of sheepfold, gate between sheep and world, steeped in sheep life and language; when several flocks mingle at hole, each separates, readily, hearing the voice of its shepherd.

Takes one to know one, we say -- let nothing human be alien to us! Never cutting selves off from any lost other; nor scape-sheeping many to greed of a few.