Out Our Way: We pointed them north

Out our way, many ranches have both a summer and a winter pasture. You graze the herd on the one for a season while allowing the other to replenish itself an be ready when the season changes. Twice a year, the owner of the brand, Big Mike, sent Charlie and me out to move his herd from one pasture to the other. The south pasture was the summer pasture, high on the Tiger Ridge. But come late fall, they needed to go north to the winter pasture, which was lower and more protected from the storms. There, they would find grazing and good water when the snow fell, and it was also easier to get feed to them when the Alberta Clippers came and covered the area with snow and ice. So Big Mike sent Charlie and me each autumn to point them north where the feed and water would be abundant.

Of course, most of the cattle didn’t know this and had to be guided on the trail that would get them to the winter feeding grounds. By and large, most of the cow/calf units gave us no trouble and even the “good old boys club” of bulls went along with minimal grumbling. But there were always a few who insisted on going the wrong way. And so Charlie or I, depending who was riding drag and who was on point or flank, would have to chase after the miscreants and herd them back so they wouldn’t starve, die of thirst or freeze.

Over 2,000 years ago, there was a man called John the Baptist who had a similar job, only instead of cattle, his task was to round up Israel and push them “north” as well.

Two words that everyone knows about but few really understand are “sin” and “repentance.” I know I did not really get the full import of those two words until I was forced to take Greek in seminary and discover what the words really meant. The word “sin” in the Biblical Greek literally means “to miss the target,” or we might translate it simply as “to go the wrong way.” The word “repentance” means “to turn around.” Or, as Doc would put it, turn the strays heading south around to their destruction and point them north to the good pasture. That was John the Baptist’s mission.

Baptism was not unknown to Israel, but was usually used as part of the conversion process for gentiles who became Jews. Yet John’s focus was not on the pagans, but the believers! He called for Israel — not the Greeks or Romans — to repent. And that shocked and offended the Pharisees and Sadducees — the religious elite of the day who ran the synagogues and the Temple. They thought they were already sinless and had no need of repentance. But John preached the baptism of repentance to them, as would Christ soon afterward, for they, as much as the gentiles, had “missed the target” and were heading the wrong way. Rules and ritual are not the same thing as faith, and while they may indeed help the faith, they cannot replace or be a substitute for it.

Another great Greek word is “hypocrite,” which comes from a word referring to actors who simply play a part. I remember a man I met who wrangled for John Wayne when the film “True Grit” was made. He spoke of John Wayne being the real deal, but of some of his co-stars being mere actors. Same is true in religion. There are those who are the real deal, and there were those who only play the part. Many of the Pharisees and Sadducees loved to show off their religious piety, but proved it was only an act. Inside, they were still as worldly and self-centered as the pagans. C.S. Lewis wrote that if only 10 percent of the folks who claimed to be Christian were actually living as Christians, the whole world would be converted. Even in the best churches, there are those “heading south.”

We have all known “hypocrites” in the Church and most of us, if we are honest, admit that we are often among them. I certainly do. Repentance for me is a daily activity — or ought to be — for far too often I find myself heading “south” while Christ is pointing me “north.” When one stray breaks away and heads the wrong way, others often tend to follow. Indeed, most agnostics and atheists I know point to the “hypocrites” as the main reason they reject the Gospel. If we don’t believe it and order our lives according to it, why should they? My late cousin often told me she had no use for Christ or the church when all she saw were the “dog and pony show” of some TV evangelists, and the corruption so often exposed when their phony masks of religion were ripped away. Recall the numbers who rejected Billy Graham because of the scandals of Jim and Tammy Baker, Jimmy Swaggart and others.

That is why John — wearing the camel skin and leather belt associated with the prophet Elijah, whom other prophets declared would prepare the way of Christ — preached repentance to the “good” and “religious” folk. He challenged them. “Are you the real deal as you claim? Or merely actors playing a role?” Some accepted the challenge and saw they were indeed “heading south” despite their professions of faith. They were turned around and Christ then came and “pointed them north.” Others rejected and ignored the challenge and kept “heading south.”

So which direction are you heading? Which direction am I heading? The Gospel message need to be considered daily for God has sent us the Word and the Spirit, just as Big Mike sent Charlie and me, to turn us around when we are drifting “south” and “point us north.” I am always amazed and embarrassed when I find I have again strayed “south” and grateful when God comes after me and points me “north” again.

Blessings!

Brother John

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John Bruington is a former pastor and amateur — read “lousy” — cowboy from Havre and can be contacted at [email protected].