Lambing Season, Jesus, and Metapors

I wonder how folks raised in cities and suburbs relate to Jesus’s agrarian parables, analogies, and metaphors.  Without living in the referenced settings, the map and the territory do not fully coincide.  Sowing, reaping, shepherding, harvesting, etc. are only words in a dictionary unless their full meaning has been earned through the sweat of the brow.

For instance, one lectionary reading has Jesus telling Peter, a fisherman, to tend his lambs.  That is like telling a stockbroker to set a gillnet line in the ocean.  Successful completion of the assignment requires a steep learning curve.  The skills and knowledge from one profession are not easily transferred to an unrelated profession.

Around here we just finished lambing season.  The ewes are all shorn in preparation for our 100 degree summer days.  Hooves are trimmed, Ivermectin, anti-lice and other medications administered, and the bottle lambs are weaned.  The squeeze chute is torn down, the clippers sharpened and put away, and the holes in the fence are repaired.  All this and more accomplished while similar tasks are completed with the cattle herd.  We need to get ready for the calf branding in May.

Like many of you, we have stayed up all night during the lambing season.  In my experience, many lambs like to be born between 3:00 AM and 6:00 AM.  Triplets, particularly, come during those hours.  Often a third lamb is rejected by the mother.  After all, she has only two feeding stations.  So we try to imprint the rejected baby on a mother that has only one lamb.  Deception is the primary strategy.  We rub the scent of the natural baby all over the body of the hopefully adopted baby.  Sometimes the mother is fooled--usually the not very smart ones. 

If imprinting fails, we sometimes end up with the sickly ones on the kitchen floor.  These lambs become imprinted on the human caretaker as their mother.  I don’t know if identity problems result from this practice.  We try to have them join the other bottle lambs as quickly as possible. 

I do know that every single small rancher in my acquaintance is sad sometimes to the point of tears when a lamb dies.  Likewise, they are joyful to the point of bragging when a sickly lamb makes it.  It is not about economic loss or gain.  It is about the sanctity of life.

During a few of those all night vigils, I would remember the stories Jesus told about the shepherd looking for the lost lamb or sleeping across the entrance to the fold during the night.  The stories are much more real to me during those times.  In his teaching, Jesus assumed that his audience knew the details, that they experienced them.  He did not need to describe the meaning of his metaphor. 

What is comparable to tending sheep in an urban setting?  What metaphors could we use that would not need explanation in the 21st century?  Such is the challenge of carrying the gospel message into the world. 

How do we frame it in language that does not require translation?