Out Our Way: Gather the herd

Galatians 3:28 - "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, you are all one in Christ Jesus."

Out our way, many ranchers prefer one breed of cattle over the other. Some run Herefords, some red Angus, others like black Angus while others prefer Charolai. Although these days most cattle graze in fenced in pastures so they don't usually get mixed up, now and then it happens.

I have shared before how Charlie and I were checking Big Mike's herd up on the Tiger Ridge when we came across a lone black angus. While his breed raised doubts about his belonging here - the ear tag was a dead give away. The stray had a red tag while Mike's cattle wear yellow. So we found the break in the barbed wire fence, shooed him back out and repaired the fence and went on our way. But it got me thinking.  

Mike had recently introduced a number of white charolais into his herd, and I wondered how the red angus reacted to it. Turns out, unlike humans, they don't care about color or breed - and the white cattle mixed with red cattle without issue. And all wore the yellow tag - for all were part of the same herd. 

I wonder if we Christians are a smart as those cows - for while we may love and support "our" church (small "c" ) and proudly proclaim we are Presbyterian, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal etc - how often do we proclaim we are part of The Church (capital "C"), The Body of Christ? 

Now Jesus referred to the Prince of Darkness as "The ruler of this world" (John 12:31), which is pretty obvious as we follow the news and watch the division of our nation and the world. It is clear that the serpent's message in the Garden is still being whispered in the ear of the gullible that you can replace God with self - and let power, prestige and greed govern your life. We have been here before - for back in ancient times even Israel bowed the knee to Baal. But not all (1 Kings 19:18). There was a remnant who stood firm and eventually restored Israel. You are that remnant today. You are the Lord's herd.

Baptist, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist and so on ... we all wear the tag of Christ and together we are His Body - the Church - the Lord's Herd. The time is at hand for the herd to be gathered together.

Be blessed and be a blessing.

Brother John

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The Rev. John Bruington is the retired pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Havre. He now lives in Colorado, but continues to write "Out Our Way." He can be reached for comment or dialogue at [email protected].