Monday, August 14, 2006

Are Sheep Spiritual?

I have nothing against sheep, I think counting sheep is cool. But are they inherently spiritual? Last night at Xalt we spent an hour for about an hour talking about bikes and the spiritual life. Afterwards one woman remarked that she was surprised by how much of the spiritual life could be described in terms of bikes. I'm guessing if I'd spent the time on shepherds and sheep no one would be surprised. Are sheep inherently spiritual or have we lost the habit of understanding the spiritual in everyday terms?

- Peace

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

While I think we have lost the habit of understanding the spiritual in everyday terms, I also think sheep make a good metaphor for the Christian experience. Not because they are inherently spiritual, but because they tend to epitomize sinfulness.

Drive through Jasper National Park and see Bighorn sheep licking salt off the middle of the Yellowhead, oblivious to the 18-wheel danger bearing down at 90 kph. Sheep will put themselves in harms way, to the point of death, for the sake of something that tastes good. Sheep are susceptible to being carried off by a predator and if left to their own devices, will generally get lost.

Sheep need a shepherd to guide them and to protect them, often from themselves. They bear a remarkable similarity to my spiritual life.

And if they don't work for you as a metaphor, they are pretty tasty with mint jelly. ;)

Dave King said...

Just to be clear I love the stories of Jesus, sheep, coins and all. And yes Ian has captured some of the main points.

But sheep are not everyday items for us, unless you live in Jasper, Banff or on a ranch.

The scriptures teach us to understand the spiritual in everyday terms and at some point we stoped doing that. Why?

- Peace

Michael said...

I think one reason we stopped (or hesitate) to use our own metaphors is a fear of misrepresenting the truth. The scriptures are under heavy attack at this time and for those who have been touched by Jesus we don't want to make the mistake of paraphrasing a spiritual truth in a way which may be misunderstood or heretical. Also, many churches I have been in are quite explicit about teaching from scripture alone (not a bad thing but it prohibits the possibility of using new metaphors).
If the Lord lives in us then we are seeing everything through new eyes but we don't always share our personal experience of it.
I’m not saying any of this is a good thing it’s just less complicated to quote teachings that are there and “approved” than to create new ones.

Dave King said...

Richard - JB Philips did this back in the day, and he had CS Lewis as a backer. The KJV only folks were outraged, the same group that didn't like the NIV and doesn't like Peterson. He was well received in the wider church. He was a major influence on Peterson. You make many assumptions about the larger Church body with little knowledge. This annoys you to no end when Protestants do this with the Roman Church.

Protestants have fellow Christians to look up to, this morning I read a Catholic writer who used Mother Teresa and Tony Campolo in the same line as examples. I doubt if I had presented my Sermon in the Language of biking at a Catholic Church that it would be received with any less surprise. If you'd like to test the theory talk to you priest.

- Peace

Dave King said...

I think church culture has lost the habit of understanding the spiritual in everyday terms. That doesn't mean that there haven't been those who keep trying to get us back to it.

We've been over the fact that Sola Scriptura doesn't mean what you seem to think it means. Translation is not at odds with Sola Scriptura or the reformation. Indeed it was William Tyndale, the father of the English reformation who first translated the Bible into everyday English. King James took his transalation and cleaned it up, making it respectable giving us the KJV.

I brought up JB Philips reference to point out that you have no real basis for this comment:

Eugene Petersen alleviates much of that tension by offering dynamic translations over literal ones. Though I'm convinced if he had tried this any earlier he would have been reviled by most of the Protestant community rather than just a significant minority.

- Peace