Brief synopsis of the readings: The first reading continues the Acts of the Apostles where Peter tells the gathered that the miracles the apostles perform are the result of Jesus, whom they had killed. Peter tells them that the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. In John’s Gospel Jesus proclaims himself the good shepherd and explains that a good shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep, unlike one hired to care for the sheep. Jesus continues this imagery by saying that “as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for my sheep.” Finally he talks about sheep of other folds that he will lead, until there will be only one flock and one shepherd.

When Jesus used the imagery of a shepherd and sheep, nearly two thousand years ago, he spoke to a group that understood sheep and shepherds and much could have been left unsaid. I wonder what he thinks about how we are reading this now.

Maybe I speak only for myself, but I have never met a shepherd, I don’t remember the last time I saw a live lamb, and when I think of lamb I think of the meat department at Costco. I know next to nothing about sheep, shepherds, and the relationship between them. My research made this reading pretty puzzling to me.

Shepherds, in the time of Jesus, lived a difficult life. They were constantly on the move, finding pastures and water for their flocks. Part of their movement was guided by the calendar but at least some of it was guided by unpredictable forces like rainfall and other flocks. Their lives were a far cry from the city dwellers at that time, let alone us modern city dwellers.

This may be a little unsettling but a good shepherd does not lay down his life for his flock. Their flocks were certainly their livelihood and they could take difficult and dangerous chances to preserve their flock. But in the end no shepherd would willingly lay down his life so that his sheep may live. The best image I could find was this: a shepherd sees his sheep in much the same way a carpenter sees his tools. His life depends on them and he takes pride in how they do, but in the end sheep are used for wool, milk/cheese, and yes, dinner.

The line “my own know me” may well give us the key to this passage. It is true that the flock, much like our own pets today, recognize us and our voice. I read that while all the sheep of the flock may recognize the shepherd’s voice, they may have had different reactions. Some of the sheep recognize the shepherd’s voice and stay close to the shepherd for safety. But others, outliers, recognize the shepherd’s voice but find the desire to wander irresistible, seemingly oblivious to the dangers of their wandering. It’s as if they “think” themselves invincible and see no harm in wandering.

Of course the shepherd is shepherd to them all, even the most reckless of the wanderers. Shepherds tend to spend most of their time and energy on these wanderers, but what did the shepherds think of them? Most probably spent most of their time grumbling and wondering if they could trade these sheep to other shepherds in return for more obedient ones. But perhaps some shepherds looked on these “disobedient” sheep with a wry affection. The fact that they could keep these sheep in line probably made these shepherds better at their craft and made them better shepherds.

In my work with hospice my teammates and I often find that the most irascible patients are the ones who steal our hearts; it’s the “grumpy old men” that we talk about long after they’re gone. It’s almost as if their very grumpiness brought out the best of our compassion.

I like to think these shepherds looked at the obedient and disobedient sheep much like the father in the Prodigal Son parable in Luke. The father loved both of his sons, for different reasons, and his family would never be a family without both of them.

And so given this, how does Jesus see the outliers in his flock? We, who strive for and do not achieve unconditional love, can easily find ourselves so weary of the outliers in our life that sometimes walk away from the outliers in our lives and write them off as a loss. No shepherd can keep all of his sheep and some wander off despite the shepherd’s best efforts. But Jesus, the good shepherd, does not cut his losses. His unconditional love is stronger than our ability to wander off, and stronger than the ability to write off the people we want him to abandon.

If the Gospel calls us to understand sheep, the first reading calls us to architecture. A cornerstone is the first stone laid in the construction of a building. The building will only rise straight and true if the cornerstone is perfect; a stonecutter makes certain the stone is without blemish or imperfection. I wonder how many stones he rejects before finding the one he thinks is perfect.

Jesus was the perfect cornerstone but was rejected. How could this happen? Well, if the stonecutter isn’t good at his job he can make a mistake. Or, if he’s dishonest he can take a bribe to use an inferior stone, hoping he’ll be far away before anyone notices. And so he rejects the good stone to use the inferior stone.

OK, so Jesus is the perfect cornerstone. Where does that get us? I hope it gets us to see that at times we are the cornerstone who has been rejected. How many of us lost out a job opportunity or a promotion in favor of an inferior candidate who had an unfair leg up? And while we may find some smug satisfaction in watching this person flame out, it’s hard to get beyond the anger of knowing we could have done it better.

But we are also called to see when those around us are the rejected cornerstone. The separation between Jesus and others who claimed to be the Messiah is that Jesus was right. He was, in a sense, the right man for the job. But it took a true heart with no agenda other than love to see that it was Jesus. It calls us to use that same heart of love when we see others. This is a lifelong quest, but we find the rejected cornerstone when, and only when, we eliminate greed, jealousy, and competition from our heart.

It also makes us closer to a good shepherd.

And by the way, my apologies if I got any of the sheep and shepherd stuff wrong. I did my best.