Sheepdogs and Pigs: Embracing a Vocation of Love in a World of Power
Rex is in charge of all the animals on Farmer Hoggett’s farm.
He knows the rules of the farm and makes sure all the animals follow those rules. That’s the best way for everything to go smoothly and to keep the Boss (Hoggett) happy.
Rex is a sheepdog.
When he is not lording it over the ducks, the cows, and the mice, Rex is working with Fly, the other sheepdog, to herd the sheep.
Together, they hear the farmer’s whistle or call and they browbeat the sheep into submission. Rex and Fly are talented sheepdogs; the sheep cower as they are herded in and out of the gates.
However, life at the farm is upended with the arrival of a young pig named Babe.
Babe the pig
Fly misses her litter of puppies who have all just been given to new homes, so she accepts Babe as part of her family. Rex doesn’t like it. Not at all. There’s no room for a pig at the farm, especially a pig that acts like a dog.
Babe wants to join the dogs and sheep in the field, but Rex will have none of it. Unfortunately, Rex is so attached to the rules, that he lets his need for control get the best of him. In a fit of pique, he ends up injuring Fly so he’s put in “doggie time out.”
But that means there are no dogs available to herd the sheep.
Babe saves the day by stepping into the void! He discovers that he can invite the sheep to do what he wants simply by being pleasant and respectful… and by asking nicely.
We watched “Babe” with our four-year-old granddaughter this past weekend, so it’s fresh in my mind. Without getting too carried away by this analogy, I thought of this movie as I read NT Wright’s and Michael Bird’s book, Jesus and the Powers.
Wright and Bird describe the “powers” that work against the goodness of God and pull humans away from our longing to serve and please God. Some of those powers include autocratic governments, idolatry of all kinds, abuse of power, and evil itself.
Poor Rex the sheepdog, is the appointed farm animal authority. He stands in for all those powers when all he wants to do is make sure everyone does the “right” thing! But that kind of self-righteousness, followed by vindictiveness, is also power working against Jesus.
Wright and Bird write, “Saying that the authorities are appointed and authorised by God does not mean that God endorses whatever they then do… The biblical view is that God holds his appointed authorities to account for their actions” (1).
I also thought of the book when I considered how the sheepdogs know exactly what their call to work sounds like. They do their jobs efficiently, effectively… and aggressively.
In contrast, when Babe learns Hoggett’s call, not only does he respond with quick obedience, but also with gentle persuasion.
Perhaps it’s not too unlike the idea of our own “call” or, as Tom Wright explains, our “vocation.”
At this point, we completely leave behind the “Babe” analogies. Our call, or vocation, while joyful, is very serious. There are too many people who ignore it, which not only imperils them, it also imperils our earth, for which we are supposed to be stewards.
In The Day the Revolution Began, Wright explains very clearly what he means by our vocation:
What the Bible offers is not a ‘works contract,’ but a covenant of vocation. The vocation in question is that of being a genuine human being, with genuinely human tasks to perform as part of the creator’s purpose for his world. The main task of this vocation is ‘image-bearing,’ reflecting the Creator’s wise stewardship into the world and reflecting the praises of all creation back to its maker. Those who do so are the ‘royal priesthood,’ the ‘kingdom of priests,’ the people who are called to stand at the dangerous but exhilarating point where heaven and earth meet. (2)
That point of meeting is how the kingdom of God is brought down to earth. God created this world to need cooperating, obedient human beings to lead others and steward creation. But to lead and steward out of joy, humility, and love, not coercion.
Wright and Bird provide several examples of where that “exhilarating point” of meeting seems elusive. They describe,
…the long story of humankind’s failure, of Israel’s failure. These multiple disasters have led to the point where the ‘principalities’ and ‘powers’, though created in, through and for the one we now know as Jesus, had accrued terrible power to themselves through human idolatry and were now on the rampage through creation, wreaking havoc with people’s lives and with God’s world. They needed to be brought into line; to be ‘reconciled’. But how? (3)
Thank the good Lord that Jesus provided a way to redeem the powers by defeating them. “By taking the people’s sins, Jesus has robbed the ‘powers’ of the regular means of usurping human authority, freeing up humans of all sorts to become at last what they were made to be: worshippers of the one God, exercising royal priesthood in his world.” (4). The powers were created for good, then defeated in their twisted goals, then reconciled by love.
We are invited to participate with Jesus in this Kingdom work: “among individuals in need, challenging self-assured religious types, offering mercy to the downtrodden and forgotten, warning of judgment, exhorting faith in God’s generous forgiveness, and speaking words of truth in the halls of political power.” (5)
But these Kingdom-building activities often face tremendous obstacles by people in power. And I see no greater threat to building the Kingdom right now than so-called “Christian Nationalism.” Wright and Bird detail the definitions and myriad problems with this political agenda, including the lack of tolerance for diversity, which is critically necessary for liberal democracy to be successful.
In his article, “What is Christian Nationalism?” Paul D. Miller warns,
When nationalists go about constructing their nation, they have to define who is, and who is not, part of the nation. But there are always dissidents and minorities who do not or cannot conform to the nationalists’ preferred template. In the absence of moral authority, nationalists can only establish themselves by force. Scholars are almost unanimous that nationalist governments tend to become authoritarian and oppressive in practice. (6)
Miller goes on to say, “Christian nationalists want to define America as a Christian nation and they want the government to promote a specific cultural template as the official culture of the country.”
What is the antidote to this existential threat?
That is the stuff of shelves of books, but let’s conclude with a key takeaway: First and foremost, love.
Returning briefly to “Babe”: Rex illustrates intolerance and moral authority run amok.
Babe, however, is gentle but convicted about his vocation (herding sheep). He is respectful but cooperative. He also exudes love for every creature in his world. Eventually, as Babe reflects his creator and uses perseverance and creativity, Rex is redeemed!
True, Babe is a pig that acts like a dog… and we are called to be as genuinely human as we were created to be, reflecting our Creator in the world, acting as a kingdom of worshiping priests.
But as we reflect our Creator, we begin to act as Paul describes: Love is patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, and not proud. Love is not self-seeking nor easily angered. It keeps no record of wrong. It does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres, and never fails (paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13).
Jesus’s love showed up in his human life in many ways, especially on the cross. May we live cruciform lives that give the “powers” no room in our hearts or minds.
(1) N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Reflective, 2024), 43.
(2) N. T. Wright, The Day the Revolution Began; Reconsidering the Menaing of Jesus’s Crucifixion (New York, NY: Harper One, 1989), 76.
(3) Wright and Bird, 57
(4) Wright and Bird, 59
(5) Wright and Bird, 83
(6) Paul D. Miller, “What is Christian Nationalism?”, Christianity Today, Feb. 3, 2021, accessed Sept. 4, 2024.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/2021/02/what-is-christian-nationalism/
About the Author
Debbie Owen
Deborah C. Owen is an experienced spiritual director, Neuro-based Enneagram executive and life coach, disciple maker, professional writer, senior librarian, and long-time church Music Director and lay leader. She has earned the award of National Board Certification for teaching excellence, and a podcasting award, and is pursuing a Doctor of Leadership degree through Portland Seminary at George Fox University. She lives in the backwoods of Maine with her husband and flat-coated retriever. She spends as much time as she can with their 3 grown children, daughter-in-law, and 2 small grandchildren. Find her online at InsideOutMinistries.info.4 responses to “Sheepdogs and Pigs: Embracing a Vocation of Love in a World of Power”
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Hi Debbie,
Based on the passage, …the long story of humankind’s failure, of Israel’s failure,
the passage implies that Jesus’s work involves not only personal transformation but also addressing and transforming societal and political structures through His kingdom’s principles and our active participation.
What does the passage imply about the relationship between Jesus’s work and the transformation of our current societal and political structures?
Shela, looking specifically at the passage I quoted, Wright and Bird imply that it is only through Jesus that the powers could and can be reconciled to God.
The authors answer their “But how?” question a little further down p. 57: “God’s plan was… to sum up the whole cosmos in the Messiah, things in heaven and things on earth. And the coming together of Jew and Gentile in the gospel, breaking down the walls of ethnic and national identity in the process, through the forgiveness of the ‘sins’ that kep sinners enslaved to the ‘power’, was a key gospel-driven sign of that eventual purpose.”
The authors then add on the next page the true irony: the Torah had been intended to set Israel apart as God’s chosen people. They were supposed to share the message of God’s love to everyone else and illustrate what it looks like to belong to God. It was supposed to be winsome and appealing.
But because they used it to make themselves feel superior, instead, the coming of Jesus meant setting aside the Torah so that all people – all people – can be drawn to Jesus through the Spirit.
So I think that’s the hard work of transformation to which we have been called: The ‘powers’ continue to create division and separation between all of God’s children. We are meant to care for each other and embrace each other, regardless of our differences.
Yes, that’s appropriate for this season in the US, isn’t it?
Hi Debbie,
It’s been a long time since I watched “Babe.” I enjoyed that refresher. What is something you are hoping to change or implement in your own personal life since reading “Jesus and the Powers?”
Kari, what I would LIKE to do is get everyone on the same page in terms of how we are intended to care for each other and embrace each other. I don’t have a big megaphone to do that, only a little one.
So I have to do that in my own little sphere.
When I was working with a directee this week, she was struggling with some relationships. I am amazed how, time after time, the words that come out of my mouth when I am listening to and walking with a directee are also appropriate to me. “So God…” right?
Anyway, I suggested to her this phrase: “Show up and just love them.”
It sounds simple – and in one sense it is – but too often it’s not simple to do.
I certainly have my issues with people from time to time. So I’m taking the advice the Spirit poured into me: “Show up and just love them.”