The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
September 16, 2007
Vol. 10 no. 33

Everything But...
           We are back to sheep. That iconic animal of the Biblical realm always seems to pop up in the least suspecting places. All sorts of sheep, some white, some black, a few pastors and the rest of us are always the flock. “We’re poor little lambs who have lost our way, Baa, Baa, Baa,” begins the Whippenpoof song.
           Lost sheep keeps appearing as a theological problem, but I wonder who really is lost. My family was driving in County Mayo, Ireland, heading from Louisburgh to the bed and breakfast in the small village of Thallabawn about 8 miles away. The sign said, “Thallabawn - Scenic Route,” and we should have known better. The road narrowed down further and further until it was the width of a small bike path. We were ascending an impossibly steep hill and pretty soon we were surrounded by sheep - who were apparently not lost, by the way. Fortunately, at the crest of the hill were a farmhouse and a farmer who directed us to the unlost way, and probably had enough laughs to last an evening. The sheep cuddling up to our car were signs that we had lost our way and were on somebody else’s road.
           The direction Jesus takes in this famous parable of the one in ninety-nine sheep is going after the sheep. A foolish move like ours, but for different and better reasons. What is lost is more important.