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When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were weary and worn out, like sheep without a shepherd. - Matthew 9:36 HCSB

Religious words that were used in common speech have now lost significance. One of the favorite biblical images, the shepherd and his sheep, no longer fires the imagination of urban people.

The word “pastoral” still lingers on in professional speech, but less and less does a modern, Western shepherd illustrate the qualities that a Palestinian shepherd of the biblical era showed. Modern shepherds have some of the ancient qualities of patience and care for animals, but by necessity also have veterinary, nutritional and economic skills appropriate to a technological and commercial society. We can get at the original meaning of the Bible by sympathetic study, but without kindling a fire in our hearts, our studies lead to a sentimental notion rather than a motivating concept.

Similarly, the word “health” in common speech means something very different to the meaning found in the Book of Common Prayer (“and there is no health in us”). “Sin” no longer describes an experience, or an observed behavior, in most people’s lives.

More often today we describe people as sick rather than as sinful, and psychology has become more important as a way of explaining people’s behavior. The battered wife or abused child becomes a problem for the social worker rather than a minister; the alcoholic, a medical problem, the delinquent, a child-guidance problem. We have, unfortunately, allowed knowledge of the social factors involved to modify our ideas of responsibility and remedy.

The myths, models, nursery rhymes, images, stories and patterns, through which a whole community grasps and makes sense of its experience, have changed. The stories of science have taken over from religion the task of building our image of the world.

We tend to forget that what we call “scientific facts” are also stories, and are only one way of “seeing” the way the world is. The stories of science constantly change (can facts change?) as research disproves the old myths, models, and stories. Who today has ever head of the “ether,” or “phlogiston”? Scientific myths, which constantly change, cannot be considered absolute. Christians who live in a society whose way of understanding life is scientific need to be open to light from the Biblical stories so that our own cultural assumptions are challenged.

Religious ideas lie at the foundation of the way a people thinks and lives. They are the cement of a culture and form its values. It is a constant struggle for Christians to hold their faith and life together while trying to think and act in a society where there is a division between theory and practice. It is difficult to live a common life with others whose values conflict with those of Christianity.

That is where the role of the “pastor” lies. His role should be to heal, sustain, guide and reconcile the troubled. He should be an under-shepherd.

"Voice of Inspiration" from Andy Castro

A Lot Of Salt