Pastoral Pitfalls

Shepherds (Part 2):  Limits of Pastoral Ministry  

This follows on from a post I did a little while ago, on the pastoral heart underpinning all branches of ministry.  It rounds it out, with some counterbalancing issues and risks.

It starts where the other one ended, that passage about God himself being a shepherd.

“He carries his lambs close to his heart.”   (Isaiah  40.12)

So, being carried as a lamb, is not an end in itself. It that should take us somewhere - should be "carried along" - the original context was return from exile; the homecoming. It should also bring us close, to hear his heart. 

Pastoring cultivates prophetic hearing

So to put that together, one can say that a common fruit of true pastoral ministry, should be the knowledge of His heart, or development of greater prophetic insight. Does that perhaps seem a stretch? Well lets look at a couple of examples.  

Think of John, leaning on Jesus at the last supper. That place of intimacy, of being carried close to his heart, means he is enjoying love and care. It also means he can communicate better with Jesus. The others at the table request that he ask Jesus a difficult question – who was the betrayer among them?

Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?” 

And John does get an answer from Jesus, one that triggers events to roll forward. So being carried close to his heart, means the intimacy is deeper; the prophetic question and answer, the dialogue with Jesus, is richer – more is entrusted there. 

And where does that hearing of His heart lead, in John’s case? To a gospel that is quite unique, draws out different aspects of the life of Jesus, son of God, than the 3 "synoptic" ("summary") forms. John's gospel is written last, and seems he has been entrusted with reaching further afield, both deepening and simplifying the cultural terms - he speaks of light and life, more than kingdom. 

For a second example of how pastoral care leads to prophetic heart, consider David's famous revelation of pastoral care: 

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. 
He leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. 

And so being led by a shepherd, indeed Yahweh himself, in green pastures, leads to the still waters, the deep, the place where visions of the heavens form. 

Its notable that he skips straight past any idea of human pastors to Yahweh as Shepherd, and declares His first work is to get us to lie down- the place of surrender, reflection, of interior vision.   

Consider John again from that angle, he is entrusted with more than a unique gospel; he is also given the final vision of revelation. He had been one of the three in the inner circle, had leaned on His chest in intimacy, had written a gospel naming himself as the one that Jesus especially loved ... and yet when he sees Jesus afresh after the resurrection, he falls down as though dead at the fresh revelation: 

The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.  His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.  (Rev 1)

So, pastoral ministry is not an end in itself. It carries us somewhere. It should develop ones who know the voice, who hear it resonating in all sorts of new ways, who know the Voice and the Person. The safe space should lead on to greater vision.

Pastors can cultivate teaching, and practical care 

As well as developing prophetic hearts, pastoral care can underpin other modes of ministry. It commonly leads  to teaching. This is well understood - the famous charge to Peter, "feed my sheep" is often interpreted as "provide teaching".  Similarly Mark 6:34 says Jesus was moved with compassion when he saw the crowds, saw them like "sheep without a shepherd" … and it launched him into teaching.  

And we know Jesus showed practical compassion for those who needed food, after days of teaching, and that leads to the feeding of the 5000. So teaching, and literal food and care, are more obvious pastoral expressions. (I've emphasised prophetic development as it's also a natural fruit of pastoral ministry, but less commonly understood to be so). 

Limits and risks of pastoral ministry

The point is that pastoral ministry is not an end in itself, and should not be left to itself.  The word pastor occurs only once in english translations of the bible, and that in a list with 4 other roles (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastor and Teacher are all identified as ascension ministry gifts to the church).  We're on shaky ground if we major on that gift (or any ministry gift) without the counterbalancing  expression of other roles. 

Many have noticed that a mild version of the pastor/teacher gift is running most churches - and so its bumpy and underpowered, like a car running on only 2 cylinders, but designed for five. In many places the sheep may get warmly welcomed, and may get fed, endlessly learning, but nothing much else will happen.  Those aspects are great if part of an ecosystem that cultivates the full expression, but is a problem otherwise.  Strengths, if left alone, also become limiting weaknesses. Consider how that works here. 

Emotional sensitivity can appear to be prophetic, but  .. 

Pastoral people are sensitive to others emotions. They can be intuitive, and read how people are feeling.  That's often a good thing and the other roles benefit from that foundation.  It means people are emotionally balanced, not unnecessarily treading on people’s toes.

But there are some traps to watch out for here.

That sensitive reading of the heart, and the flow of compassion, can become a subtle substitute for the true ministry of the Spirit. For those who are called down John’s path, building from pastoral intimacy into prophetic heart, that natural sensitivity can actually overload the heart with too much intel, a flood of unusable discernment.

One of the early books on the prophetic movement, The Elijah Task, by John and Paula Sandford, addresses this – there are those who pick up heart issues so easily, just by being near people, that it overwhelms them. They called it “burden bearing”, and insist that the gift must be surrendered at the Cross, in order to be healthy and useful.

In these cases the heart is so attenuated, so tuned to every passing pain, even to these just walking nearby, that the emotional radar needs to be brought into order. That sense of connection may seem to be abundant, and at first glance may look like prophetic intel. However its just the human spirit picking up issues from people, and compared to what God wants to say, it's still from a lower realm. It can leave the recipient overwhelmed – touched with the feeling of every passing issue, but not able to address most of them. 

Some intercessors also have a similar issue – in their case not just picking up issues in the room, but also remotely. Both modes need to be surrendered to be healthy –the channel  does not always need to be “open”.  Its like trying to listen to a radio station that keeps getting interference from 6 other stations.  It needs to be surrendered and tuned only to the right issues.

And even when its valid to pick something up via this empathetic sensing, the Holy Spirit wants to move us into and past that empathy for others' heart and troubles, to the revelation of what heaven thinks about it. What is His voice saying about it?  

An example may help. I saw this play out once at a conference.  I recognised a  colleague, a chaplain from a school I’d taught in, on the other the of the room. We'd been in a regular prayer group.  I knew she had been through some hard times.  And now from the other side of the room I could feel her pain as I thought about it. My eyes welled with tears of compassion, and I might have reached out in that compassion, if we’d been in proximity. 

But then I thought out the teaching we’d just heard. The speaker had explained how he often prayed for sick people, and often saw healing. He explained his method was counter cultural, because he refused to major on empathy – he could not sit by a hospital bed and empathise in sombre tones. Some may be able to do that, but for him it undermined faith and the dynamic of healing. So instead of that solemn empathy, he would come and release laughter. Joy was the medicine he had to give, and laughter was the container. And indeed many people got healed as he laughed over them. Joy was the higher frequency input they needed, and stepping down into too much empathy was unhelpful for healing. 

Sometimes he’d be asked “can you come and pray, but could you not do the laughing thing?” But for him it was one or other, come with healing laughter, or no point coming at all.   (Notice how Jesus removed the mourners out of the room before raising the girl, and Proverbs affirms that laughter does good like a medicine). In that sense, the new wine can be brash, raw, startling.  Light does not empathize with darkness, and for some that means emotional separation. 

And so I asked Him that day - how do You want me to see that chaplain’s situation? – the one I’d just been in sympathetic tears over. Instantly I saw a field of flowers where she was running and dancing. The sympathetic pain I was feeling gave way to joy. A wave of it went through me, as deep as the tears had been, but in the opposite direction, and I could not help but laughing loudly. 

 (Similarly Paul says, we don’t grieve as the world grieves – we have hope. The emotional cycles need to be genuinely moved through but can happen more quickly - sometimes much more quickly - with this wine in place.) 

Surrender the gift of burden bearing in order to stay effective

So, we sow in tears, reap in joy (Psalm 126). We have to move through the tears, though they be valid, to the joy. 

So … pastoral sensitivity is valuable. Compassion can motivate, and empathy is good. However the sensitivities of the heart are not, in themselves, God’s word on things, and if we’re going to see healing and life and full revelation, we have to keep all that surrendered.  Otherwise empathy can become a gooey substitute, an emotional fly paper that captures all sorts of issues.  

Others don’t start with that pastoral compassion in place, and need it developed. Paul says he learnt compassion some through all of his battles, You can see that in 2 Corinthians 1 – the extreme difficulty leads to revelations of God as “Father of Compassion”. 

Strong leaders often get that added as they mature; the pastoral heart is sometimes carved into place over time, as discussed in part 1. Conversely those gifted with it from the word go, those wired to be pastors, need to realize that while they carry a gift that the body needs, one that can help catalyse other ministries in their early stages  – it's also a gift that can become unbalanced and overloaded, and thus diminished effect, if its not well integrated and laid down.  

Of Signs and Symbols (part 2) . (Langley Hall)

( This is part 2 of a discussion of divine signs and symbols.  Part 1 is here) 

2017  - OD17

In January 2017, we were coming home after a family holiday at the beach. It was late at night , end of a long day, and we came into town on a familiar road. A few kilometres from home we passed a sign I must have seen hundreds of times– and, tired as I was,  It also jumped out in a way it never had previously. 

I knew these OD routes literally mean “Over Dimensional”, and refer to large truck routes. The ‘17’ was the label for this OD route,  but that night it also seemed to resonate with ‘2017’.

I’d been in many prayer meetings the previous year or two and sometimes sensed heavy duty traffic moving over the town- like glimpsing movements of large troop transports.   

So the sense of “Over Dimensional” traffic in the heavens in 2017,  also made sense –big things coming into town.

I sensed another meaning of OD17, that further startled and resonated.

OD17  =  Open Doors 2017  … also akin to the exit signs and the open door passages (from part 1 ). 

And so it startled me a bit as we drove into town in January of 2017.

In the following months, 2017 turned out to have any number of prophetic markers – more than 10 distinct and independent words in the end – that pointed to September as a season of revival.   And indeed a fire was lit then which is still burning.           

 (When we got close to that time, He took me through a deep reboot into deeper repentance and new things. Also did many other things in other lives. A range of physical healings was the tip of the iceberg of how other lives were touched. Also felt like a foretaste of what is still to come and be poured out). 

As I retold parts of this story recently, in 2018, I said, a little wistfully,  “but we need it (the prophetic promise of revival and open doors) updated to OD18 for 2018”.  I guess I wondered if we’d missed the full alignment and promise of 0D17– but then driving around town the next day, on another familiar road,  I noticed  another OD sign.  I'd never noticed this one either before: this time it was OD19.  And when I looked around town, I also noticed an OD16 route. And then a couple of weeks later I found OD18 on the northern edge of town.  

So one night a few weeks ago I traced all these through.  The way it panned out was interesting. 

I had gone to visit a church and felt led to step outside. That familiar verse, stretch out your tentpegs (Isaiah 54) came to me  …and it seemed to mean, we need to drop some guide ropes and pegs into the community.  Maybe for stability, maybe for outreach.   

So i walked a bit, then drove, to try to sort out what to do with that sense. I noticed an OD16 sign and started to trace out the route. I didn’t actually know where all of the OD routes went, just some parts.  Had a sense to invite a friend, who was intrigued by the random suggestion of prophetically mapping truck routes,  and we drove around town together and traced all 4 of them out.  

He was particularly struck by OD18.  I’d only driven one end of it and had felt to call him before following all of it. Unbeknown to me it went close to their place, and as we drove along,  other locations on its route also seemed meaningful, confirming some 2018 agendas for him.

He also pulled the routes up on a map that I hadn’t been able to find.

it shows the place where they all join (or will all join, when the OD19 one is adjusted to its planned location).

The meeting point is in WhteHills, at the intersection the main road  through town (Napier St)  and Lyons. 

(the red roofed property on the north east corner of that intersection is Langley Hall, originally built as a home for the Anglican bishop and his children. (Google Street view  )

Not yet sure what to make of all these routes.  But something is afoot about it. 

No doubt more to be gleaned on meanings.

The routes are like gateways into the city. My friend felt a sense that we’re in the middle of a bigger picture than we know; drawing in other players, other parts, and stories of previous years.  (We all know there has been  deep legacy of faithful prayer and witness here).  Also interesting that OD18 has that long northern border, and OD19,  with its pending adjustment of start location, on the eastern side).

And we're still called to go through the open doors, to go higher, together.  The promises of 2017, and prior, are still being developed and unfolded in our town. 

Of signs and symbols

Of Signs and Symbols

Christians believe that God speaks, and his word, the text of the bible, has a key and central role, as a primary reference and source of accurate doctrine.  Sometimes we exalt that so much that we forget that Jesus is the Living Word at the centre, and that the written word itself points to many other dynamic ways of hearing God. It says, for example, ‘my sheep hear his voice’, and the image is not of scholarly sheep, reading up by candlelight - the sense is the voice rings out over them. They know it by tone and timbre, by experience, and won’t follow otherwise. The same gospel reminds us that diligent study of the word is not, in itself, the same thing a coming to Him. (John 10:27, 5:39) 

Reading the text of the covenant law, knowing the history and poetry and prophecy,  knowing the teaching of Jesus, and teaching about Him, all matters. I've done a lot of it. It informs and builds and trains, gives key context and boundaries. Jesus himself refuted the devil’s wiles with “it is written” – including a subtle temptation to misuse the promises of protection of Psalm 91. Among all this study of the word, the sense of a  “quickened word”,  perhaps out of original context, but weighted in the Holy Spirit with a current meaning and application, is a devotional form that many know.

But the text itself points beyond both this disciplined study and devotional quickening of the text  - hearing and seeing Him directly matters – even in the old covenant. How would we know a good father, or feel satisfied in marriage communication, if only via writing? Notice how many Old Testament characters receive revelation that is reported as “and God said”. How did He say? Not, to them, by a word jumping off the page.  Abraham, for example, the father of faith, must have been having a distinctly experiential revelation as he leaves Ur, and believes God for generational inheritance as he looks at a starry sky, or any of the other key moments he walks through.

The written word shows how some other modes of communication can be established. Some of the prophets, like Zechariah, interact with angels among the visions that cultivate the word of the Lord to them.  Others, like Jeremiah, seem to not have that awareness of angels, but do have other modes. The diversity is all just part of the biblical background that flows straight into the New Testament … how much of this experiential mode (angels, dreams, visions) do we have  the opening pages of Matthew alone?  Or in Acts?  The answer is, a lot.  We need move beyond the inoculating vision of Christmas cards, angels in fields, shepherds overseeing sheep who hear their voice, and start to see and know the host of heaven at work.

Sometimes He uses visual object lessons. “What do you see?” God questioned Jeremiah, who reports he sees an almond branch (Jer 1:11). We don’t’ know if his eye was lighting on a  tree in the yard, like the one above, or an inner picture.   Either can be valid – we can be trained to see his word in either place, or both.  Whatever it was, God says he has “seen correctly”. Then He says, in the next stage in the conversation: “I’m watching over my word to perform it” (Jer 1:12) .The words for ‘almond’  and ‘watch’ are similar in Jeremiah’s  language -  so we see that word play, like  prophetic puns, can be part of what he says: Other examples of those puns could be cited, but that will do for now.

In Jeremiah 1, the next image he mentions is a boiling pot,  tilting from the north. Again there is a dialogue, a question and response. What do you see?  All Jeremiah sees, initially, is the image of the pot. God again adds the interpretation. Revelation and Interpretation are a two stage process, sometimes closely tied, but which may leave us pondering meaning for some time, and which may involve other people.  He tells Jeremiah it means an outpouring of judgment from the north is coming – and indeed it did.  This is a disclosure of some of the early words, and also the ways, that God spoke to him. Images, questions, riddles, nature, pots and armies.

So its biblical to believe we can be guided by God, in various ways.  And that symbols of the natural world, or common items, pots and trees, can be highlighted as strategic.  The moderate, more conservative side of me needs to go over that groundwork. If we believe the word, we should be in for all this.

So today, are up for that listening? He may be speaking through any thing we see, in the minds eye, or physical view, and maybe a word play in English, or he drop an unknown word to intrigue us to seek the meaning.  Can this go astray? Perhaps. Is it biblical? Yes.  How do we discern?  By being willing to step into the unknown, and by training, to discern, to weigh. This should be basic - his sheep hear his voice. 

I have an example that has an outworking for Bendigo and this time.

A personal example - exit signs. 

So, for quite a long time, i‘ve known a particular symbol as part of the personal language of guidance, the humble green Exit sign.  The older ones were just text, now there is an image as well. 

Normally I don’t notice them, they stay in the background, as exit signs should, waiting for some unlikely emergency use. However sometimes they seem to stand out, to be highlighted to me, at strategic moments. 

This happened (and happens) infrequently but enough that I noticed.  As a teacher, I might be in a staff room, for example, which I’d often worked in, and as a conversation reached a particular point, an exit sign in the corner would seem to stand out, as I’d feel a quickened sense that we were on a key moment.  Up to that moment I barely would have known if the room had an exit sign, and such highlighting always seemed to correspond to a key moment or confirmation of God’s path. Someone might suggest an idea, and the sign, unnoticed till then, would seem to stand out over their head as a mode of endorsement. It happened rarely  -  don’t think ever twice in same location, yet enough that I noticed it recurring over the years.

So usually a subtle highlighting, but sometimes a little more dramatic.  For example, one morning I flew to Sydney for work, and got there mid morning, Then, 5 team members from my workplace, myself included, happened to converge on level 5, a new floor for the company, under an Exit sign.  We all just seemed to come from different directions at the same time.  “Woah!!”  I said, “convergence! Hold hands … lets do a parachute jump” …  and somehow it didn’t seem too odd to stand together  holding hands and pretend to jump out of a plane as a group, on the new office floor. We’d just been through a difficult season, so it was a statement of solidarity through the difficulty. (They probably saw it as bit of fun, but I was feeling more like prophetic activity). My email beeped and I checked the subject on my phone:  It said “level 5 is now open for business”. The sign had helped me seize the moment.
 
At other times a corridor would seem to light up with the signs and their reflections, usually at night as I was about to leave a work role, seemingly a confirmation that this was or had been a valid domain of work.

Generally speaking, the occasional accent on these literal signs seemed some signpost of his presence, a sense of being on the right path.

Still, I thought it was just a type of personal symbolism He was developing with me, like almond branches and pots might have been continued to be for Jeremiah. (Perhaps Jeremiah might have later noticed the almond tree stirring, as a private confirmation of God’s previous word, as he was rejected by the king and or officials).

 I didn’t always know why these exit signs were a mode for me, but it always seemed good. Other recurring symbols were sometimes quickened with different meanings.

 
Layers of meaning can unfold

In 2016 I started to connect it with a scriptural sense.  I had been given Rev 3:7-8  some time previously 

These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.  I know that you have little strength...

And I was fast becoming aware of the key significance of another ‘door’ scripture, in Revelation 4,

after this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.

That last passage really started to resonate. I listened to it over and over. All of the newer exit signs had an image of a person going through a door-  and this now felt as if called into higher places. I started to experience what that verse was talking about, and felt like He had always been leading me to this place, as though the signs had also been a trail of sorts. The upward call. I discussed it with a prophetic friend, as we flew home from NZ. They’d placed us in the emergency row, so we had exit signs on both sides, over doors in the skies, which seemed fitting.  

A favourite verse of mine is John 10:10, about abundant life. The lead up to that (John 10:7), also discloses that Jesus is the door, or gate.

part 2

Shepherds (part 1)

I‘ve been thinking about how two primary examples of leadership, apostles and kings, actually contain a shepherds heart, and how that might apply to us.

David and Peter are foundational paradigms of King and Apostle. One starts as a shepherd, the other is commissioned to behave as one. So the big hitting roles in the Kingdom, are underpinned with a pastoral role and function.  There are things we can learn from these two individuals, and leadership roles more generally.

When their own faith and devotion breaks, when they are in need of pastoral care, the  terms of God's restoration to them forge the pastoral role more deeply.  Peter is commissioned to replicate that role, and David is humbled in these terms, and retains his heart in God.

Lets start with David.  The greatest of Israel’s Old Testament kings, David is the pre-eminent example of royal lineage, who even appends a title to the King of Kings.  Thus Jesus is known as son of David, not son of Solomon or son of Josiah. More tragically, he’s not ‘son of Saul’ (tragic since Saul is told, as he loses the kingdom, that he had potential to be granted an everlasting name, and lost it).

So it's David who is the great king after God’s heart, the king who knows God is really King, better than the failed king before him and most of the ones that follow.  It seems God has gone to a lot of trouble to build all of this on the heart of a worshipful shepherd before kingship was added. More on him in a moment.

Fast forward to one of the great leaders of the New Testament – Peter.  At first glance he doesn’t look overly pastoral. If anyone might seem prone to missing it, impatiently overshooting the mark like Saul had, then Peter would seem to be the man.

He is certainly on the brash side. He sometimes nails it in one sentence, and overshoots in the next.  His ardour is intense, and yet he swings from one edge to the other.

So it's Peter refusing to let Jesus wash his feet – seemingly offended by the humility of the idea -  then wanting a full bath when he gets it.  Confessing Jesus as Messiah and Son of God, then being rebuked the next minute for letting Satan speak into the inner counsel.  Jumping out of the boat to walk on water, and then falling in, seems almost like his standard mode of operation.

He’s a fisherman, so it seems he has not had the temperament or academic edge for religious studies. Later in life he admits he finds some of Paul’s writings confusing.  But he knows what he knows.  He’s a chosen eyewitness who reads the signs and is a leader.  He saw the prophetic sign in the mighty haul of fish and reckoned his own sinfulness without any sermon.  He saw Moses and Elijah appear in glory with Jesus, discussing the pending exodus. 

 Jesus obviously knows him through and through.  Indeed knows Peter will finally confirm his shortcomings, will be on the wrong side of the line in spectacular fashion, and tells him so in advance - that his faith will fail as the dawn breaks on his darkest day.  

So after promising so much, he does deny Jesus on that crucial day. Takes the others back  fishing after the  crucifixion, the final terrifying end to the strange adventure.   But then there he is again, leaping into the sea as a new haul of fish, the same sign that had originally reached him, is issued again. He dares to hear a new call, a resurrection call, from the Stranger on the beach, and he is literally all in.

It's at that low point God hammers home the need for pastoral heart into this bold and natural leader. At his lowest, face to face with the one he had promised so fervently to serve, to never deny, comes a pastoral charge.  

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”Jesus said, “Feed my sheep"

John 21.

The exquisite wounding of the Son of God; relentlessly hewing into his disciple’s heart a new call, tracking deeper then even his deepest devotional assertions.   Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep.  At this low point of restoration, it sinks in.  In the masters hand the vulnerable place, the place of restoration, drives a new call.  Like Jacob wrestling with the angel and his old ways, here comes forth a new way.

And Peter gets it. Later, when he writes his letters, he holds fast to that same teaching.   Addressing church leaders, specifically elders, he re-iterates this one point: be shepherds, as Jesus is the Chief Shepherd.  

to the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: ² Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; ³ not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. ⁴ And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
⁵ In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
“God opposes the proud     but shows favor to the humble.”^[a]6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

(Not, be evangelists with my boldness, or seek first hand prophetic voice and encounter like the one I had on the mountain, or pioneer new domains of outreach, or teach into spiritual experience as clearly as I did at Pentecost or with Cornelius … in the end, he has one main charge to elders: be shepherds. 

So, back to David.

 He had started as a shepherd – and sees deep truth in the heart of God.  he wrote the most famous of all Psalms, on the theme.

“The Lord is my shepherd…

He makes me lie down in green pastures, by still waters

He restores my soul.. 

 And from that point on, it’s a recurring theme in the scriptural revelation of God, and his own life.

But after all this, David, too, had a similar break of faith to Peter. He didn’t only deny his Lord by committing adultery with Bathsheba. He’ hammered home his rebellion by arranging the murder of her husband, with a treacherous use of the armed forces. It's a king going astray, wickedness in high places.

A prophet gets sent to him, and tells a pastoral parallel in intimate, almost sugary, brushstrokes. The story of a poor man who treasured his only lamb as a daughter, and yet is forced to give her up to the slaughter. It's designed to provoke the heart of a sullen king, one who had been a shepherd, to an elementary recourse to justice. After provoking the judgment of the king against this hypothetical transgression, Nathan turns it back onto him.  “you are that man … ..you have killed the lamb of the poor man …   and now the sword will never depart from your house.”

 The image reaches him, stops his abuse of power and privilege, sparks the touch of  justice that is needed for David to not ignore or kill the prophet, as other kings would later do. It pierces him to repentance.  The consequences do never leave, the prophet had been right about the sword in the house; the whole episode releases dynamics of rebellion, violence and adultery among some of his sons, but at least he has found a way back in God.  And in the end, he is still, partly because of his contrite ways, the man after God’s heart.

God works deeply within both leaders. David and Peter, to restore and save them, as the Shepherd; and to reinforce that heart in them. Isaiah says of Israel’s Mighty One;  “He carries his lambs close to his heart”,  and it must be so in the hearts of his kings and apostles.  Even those who do not start with this grace or heart, can find it being worked in, even via the low points of the journey.

Part 2  rounds this out with some of the counterbalancing risks.