Out Our Way: The Gospel According to Goliath: It's what cow ponies do

Jesus told the disciples another parable, "No one brings a light into a room and then hides it under a bushel, but sets it out where it can give light to the whole house." - Mark 4:21

Out our way, open range cattle are not very common - except in Beaver Creek Park. Every fall after Labor Day, local ranchers are allowed to lease grazing rights in the park and turn their herds loose. The cattle wander freely throughout the area and I am sure I am not the only camper who has found a few head in his campsite in the morning.

 While the herds tend to stick together, when it is time to round them up for shipping, there are always a few who have managed to wander off and riders have to spread out looking for those strays. So it happened one day when I was riding Goliath near a friend's homestead in the Bear Paws, that a local rancher asked me to be on the look out for a few strays he thought might be in the neighborhood. If I ran into any, could I try to drive them back to the main road where he and his crew were operating. Sure enough I ran into three pair not too far from my campsite and headed Goliath over to see if we could pick them up.

Now, as some of you know, I am not exactly an experienced cowboy - but fortunately Goliath was an experienced cow horse. He had been raised in the Bear Paws and worked cattle for the folks who had sold him to me. And when he spotted the cow-calf pairs he knew exactly what to do. With very little direction on my part he slowly circled behind them so they didn't spook, and then began a slow but solid pace toward them, "pushing" them toward the road.

They were a bit snuffly and anxious, but Goliath was patient and after running in panic a few yards, they slowed to a trot and then to a walk, going right where we wanted them to go. A bit later some of the crew came and picked them up, thanking me or the help. I said, "I didn't do much - ole Doc here knew what to do and I just let him do it."

One rider grinned and said, "Well that's what cow ponies do. That's what they're for."

Just like a good cow horse is critical to the job of working cattle, so a good disciple is critical to the job of building the Kingdom of God. But where a cow pony "pushes" cows from behind, a disciple leads from the front. That is why Christ has called us ... not to bully or haze reluctant souls toward God - but to show them the way. Our task is not to force people into the Kingdom of God - but to show them both the why and the way of following Christ.

The prophet Isaiah spoke of "the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Isaiah 9:2). Christ is that light, but now through the Spirit, so are we. Christ did not give us the light to keep it to ourselves - to hide it from the world like some special secret that only the choen few may know. We have been set aflame to let in shine. Some people prefer the darkness, but most would rather move to the light - provided there is any. That's why Christ called us to be His disciples and "the light of the world."

Goliath does what cow horses do - because he is a cow horse. I try to do what disciples do, because I accept the call to be a disciple. It's what Christians do.

(The Rev. John Bruington is pastor of 1st Presbyterian Church of Havre. Copies of this article as well as the weekly sermon and children's message are available at http://www.havrepres.org)