The bounds of the flock
The imagery that we heard in our Gospel today must be among the most familiar used in scripture. It is very tempting, particularly for those of us who most commonly meet lamb on a plate rather than in the fields, to imagine today’s reading as one of agricultural harmony, a kind of pretty, and pretty twee, image of beautiful sheep ambling after a smiling shepherd, leaning on his crook, looking off into the sunset. Think Hovis advert meets the Archers. Pastoral bliss. Yet a nyone who has ever worked on a farm will, of course, remind us that sheep are anything but the fluffy bundles of joy so often pictured in saccharine farmyard scenes. Sheep are hard work – they go the wrong way, they show little to no initiative, they occasionally give you a decent nip on the hand when you’re trying to get them in order. Sheep constantly need new pasture to feed on, and to be taken care of when the wolf comes or they get trapped down a ditch. In fact, there was a Yo...