Sermon Tone Analysis

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| Jesus is Ovine Lingual/John 10:22-30/   |   5~/2~/2004*If you want to translate your dog’s bark into English, you need the new digital device called the Bow-Lingual.

No devices needed, however, as the sheep of God’s pasture, to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd.

And fortunately for us, the Shepherd understands sheep language.*Bow

wow.

\\ \\ That’s dogspeak for “Wassup?” \\ \\ Thanks to a new technology that translates dog barks into English, you can now understand what Rover is telling you whenhe woofs something otherwise unintelligible.

\\ \\ The technology is called Bow-Lingual.

And it works only for dogs.

\\ \\ Not cats.

Not to expect miracles or anything.

\\ \\ Humans have always been fascinated with the possibility of communication with animals.

On screen we’ve been subjected to characters ranging from Eddie Murphy’s Dr. Doolittle, to Mr. Ed, to Tarzan and Rex Harrison crooning, “If we could talk to the animals, learn their languages, think of all the things we could discuss …” \\ \\ Bow-Lingual is a Japanese-designed electronic device that enables you to know (sort of) what your dog is trying to tell you with his incessant yapping.

\\ \\ Here’s how it works: You put an electronic transmitter on your dog’s collar that activates every time he barks, sending a signal to a receiver that you either wear around your neck or keep close by.

The receiver interprets each bark into previously designed text patterns within six different “mood” categories: Happy, Sad, Frustrated, Needy, On Guard and Assertive.

When the delivery person rings your doorbell, you should be able to tell whether your dog is sensing “bad karma,” saying “Careful whom you mess with,” or happily proclaiming “You know what I like.”

Canine cacophony as unintelligible noise is now a thing of the past.

\\ \\ The Bow-Lingual also counts and interprets the number of times your dog barks while you’re out — useful, perhaps, as a way of making sure he’s not making unauthorized long-distance phone calls in your absence.

\\ \\ Users report mixed results with the device.

Often the translation doesn’t match up with the circumstance surrounding the bark and, if you really get down to it, who needs a $120 translator to tell whether your dog is happy, sad or angry?

Some of the text responses also seem to stretch the credibility of the device to its limit.

After all, do dogs really think things like “I’ll be contacting my attorney”?

\\ \\ Cats, maybe — not to belabor a point — but not dogs.

\\ \\ Still, there’s something intriguing about the possibility of human-animal communication — particularly when we consider the fact that human behavior often seems to mimic behavior observed in the animal kingdom.

\\ \\ Notice that when Jesus speaks of his people, one of the metaphors he uses for them is “sheep.”

In his day, sheep were the staple livestock of the culture and were as common around town as dogs are around the family home today.

Shepherds, however, clearly understood the communication style of the sheep in their care without the aid of any Ovine Lingual device.

It was merely a matter of knowing the language and the nature of the herd.

Consider these facts about sheep (and people) that every shepherd knows: \\ \\ Sheep are gregarious.

In other words, sheep will always band together and pretty much stay together when grazing or moving around.

It’s not because they like each other, although they are social animals, but because they find security in numbers.

“Get one to go and they’ll all go” is a principle that all shepherds know and follow.

\\ \\ In the sheep herd, separation from the flock causes extreme stress.

Sheep communicate that through high-pitched bleating.

In humans it’s communicated through the high-pitched cries of loneliness, addiction and depression.

Jesus’ miracles and works of healing were evidence that he was bringing all the lost and hurting sheep — both Jews and Gentiles — under his care.

\\ \\ When Jesus was asked by those around him whether he was the Messiah (10:24), it was a question of belonging and of security.

The Messiah was to be the one who would bring the whole “flock” of Israel together and provide protection and victory against the Roman oppressors.

Jesus reinterprets their tradition, however, and reminds them that theirs is not an exclusive flock, but rather that there are “other sheep that do not belong to this fold” (10:16) who he longs to bring in as well — even the Gentiles, like the Roman soldiers who were currently walking the streets.

It was a call to expand the flock — to bring more and more people under the protection, grace and love of the Good Shepherd.

Jesus’ statement is a cautionary word to /those who think they who know and who do not comprise the “sheep” of the flock of God./ Don’t be thinking that our “brand” is the only brand.

The Shepherd knows the sheep and it sounds like Jesus is saying that we might be surprised to discover just how many variations and breeds there are in the flock we call the church.

\\ \\ In a culture like ours, where rugged individualism is a high value, the idea of “flocking” or being “herded” isn’t too appealing.

We’d prefer to see ourselves as individuals of worth, but not necessarily valued because of our connection to the community.

It is closer to the truth to understand that, like sheep, we are social animals who need each other, need to belong, and we herd instinctively.

\\ \\ We can’t make it on our own — or at least not as well as we can make it when we’re aligned with a flock of others to provide comfort and security and a Shepherd to watch over our well-being.

We need others and we need Christ.

That’s the whole reason for the church — a real expression of what it means to be connected and protected in Christ.

\\ \\ Still having trouble with the whole sheep~/human connection?

Well, consider this important second fact that shepherds know: \\ \\ Sheep are intelligent.

This flies in the face of everything we’ve been taught about sheep.

And, in some respects, they are ovine idiots.

They eat too much, right down to the root.

They’ll drink contaminated water.

When they fall, they often can’t get up without some shepherd assistance.

And the herding thing — they tend to follow aimlessly and blindly and with no apparent destination in mind.

\\ \\ But this is only part of the story.

Contrary to conventional wisdom that sheep are stupid animals, sheep rank just below the pig and on par with cattle in the IQ milieu of farm animals.

A study at the Babraham (Baaa-braham?)

Institute in Cambridge, England, showed that sheep have remarkable memories, being able to pick out a particular face in a line of pictures, if that face is associated with a food reward.

Some of the sheep in the study could remember up to 50 images for as long as two years.

This is a sign of higher intelligence, according to Dr. Keith Kendrick, one of the authors of the study.

\\ \\ Sheep also have keen hearing, which makes it possible for them /to discern the voice of their shepherd/ from among many others, and they will always move toward the person they perceive to be a friend, particularly if that friend feeds the sheep.

\\ \\ Sheep aren’t as dumb as we think.

Unless.

Unless — they’re scared.

\\ \\ Dr. Kendrick believes that the sheep’s reputation for stupidity comes from the fact that sheep are afraid of just about everything.

He says, “Any animal, including humans, once they are scared, they don’t tend to show signs of intelligent behavior.”

Fear causes a flock to disintegrate, and when sheep are driven apart they are most vulnerable to predators.

\\ \\ Jesus’ call for others to follow him was a literal way of leading people out of danger.

Jesus understood that it was his voice — God’s voice, God’s authority — to which his “sheep” would come running, no matter how far they had strayed.

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me” (10:27 NIV).

\\ \\ Thus it is the Shepherd who is ovine lingual — he understands the language of the flock.

It is the sheep who need to be “Shepherd-lingual,” knowing the voice of the Shepherd.

The people who responded to his message and witnessed his miracles of healing, love and grace knew that it was only through Jesus that they would be spiritually fed and their lives be made at peace, both in the present age and in the one to come.

It was his voice that promised, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.

No one will snatch them out of my hand” (10:28).

\\ \\ Yet, sometimes the problem is not that we, the sheep of his pasture, do not recognize the voice of the Shepherd.

Rather, we recognize it and refuse to listen.

Or we listen selectively.

\\ \\ We have no problem listening when the voice of the Shepherd is offering comfort and reassurance.

F. Dean Leuking reminds of this when he says, “When it comes to speaking one sentence to someone hanging onto life by a thread in a hospital emergency room at 3 a.m., ‘I am the good shepherd ... who lays down his life for the sheep’ is unsurpassed.

The Good Shepherd himself makes that word work.

He did indeed lay down his life for the world, of his own accord, and has received power from his Father to take it again.”

\\ \\ That, we can listen to.

\\ \\ But when the Shepherd calls us to follow him, sometimes through the valley of the shadow of death, or self-denial, or obedience, or self-sacrifice, or unconditional love — then the sheep don’t hear so well.

We’re scared, and when we’re scared, like sheep, we do stupid things.

We take a wrong turn, we make ill-advised decisions, we become self-destructive.

\\ \\ And sometimes, we’ll even forsake the Shepherd and turn instead to a bogus Beastmaster, who — surprise — turns out to be a wolf in shepherd’s clothing.

\\ \\ In a world that’s increasingly more scattered and scared, our task as Christ’s Church is to be truly “ovine lingual” — to constantly and compassionately translate and transmit the voice of the Good Shepherd to all those who are lost, hurting, and alone.

\\ \\ It’s also about following Jesus’ example and welcoming everyone into the fold.

\\ \\ Even we sheep should be able to understand that.

\\ \\ Participation Pointers: \\ \\ • For background, revisit W. Phillip Keller’s classic work, A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm.

\\ \\ • Find a clip from any one of numerous movie sources, Beastmaster, Dr. Doolittle, Tarzan, et al., and use as an introduction to the sermonic material.

\\ \\ \\ \\ Sources: \\ \\ “Animal communication: Bioacoustics researcher finds sheep may vocalize stress by altering timbre.”

CollegeNews.org,

October 21, 2003.

\\ \\ Cobb, Richard.

“An introduction to sheep behavior.”

Illini SheepNet, Traill.uiuc.edu~/sheepnet.

Retrieved December 1, 2003.