{"id":103833,"date":"2024-02-15T03:17:50","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T10:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=103833"},"modified":"2024-02-21T16:22:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T23:22:03","slug":"of-sheep-shearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/02\/of-sheep-shearing.html","title":{"rendered":"Of Sheep Shearing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A park in Picton, in the Marlborough district of the South Island of New Zealand
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We entered Queen Charlotte Sound this morning and sailed until we reached the town of Picton. \u00a0Today marked the very first time that I have set foot on New Zealand\u2019s South Island. \u00a0I\u2019ve seen<\/em> the South Island once before, from Wellington across the Cook Strait on a clear day. \u00a0But I\u2019ve waited a long time to actually reach it.<\/p>\n

We disembarked from our boat and eventually boarded a tour bus with guide\/driver who took us down Highway 1, New Zealand\u2019s main north-south road, more or less along the eastern coast of the South Island. \u00a0(We also passed through some beautiful inland areas, as well as the town of Blenheim.) \u00a0Our destination was a sheep ranch near the town of Kekerengu. \u00a0Along the way, we had a good lunch at a place called The Store, but we also heard about \u2014 and saw a few of the results of \u2014 the massive magnitude 7.8 Kaik\u014dura earthquake that occurred slightly after midnight on 14 November 2016. \u00a0(Kaik\u014dura is just a bit further down the coast from Kekerengu.) \u00a0So many ruptures occurred on so many faults (twenty-five of them, by most reckonings) that the Kaik\u014dura event, which lasted about two minutes, has been described as the \u201cmost complex earthquake ever studied.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we reached the sheep ranch, we were given a demonstration of the remarkable ability of two sheep dogs to control a group of about twenty Merino sheep. \u00a0Pretty impressive. \u00a0We were also able to watch a sheep being sheared, which was done with striking speed. \u00a0(I\u2019ll return to sheep shearing in just a moment.) \u00a0Afterward, we visited the beautiful Winterhome Garden<\/a>, which is owned by the same family that owns the adjacent sheep farm, as well, as apparently, The Store. \u00a0(The current head of the Macfarlane family, who met us at both the farm and the garden, was involved for roughly twenty years with the very successful Team New Zealand in America\u2019s Cup sailing competitions. \u00a0I think he was Winston Macfarlane<\/a> \u2014 whose given name seems to continue the recurring Churchill echoes here in the Marlborough region of the South Island [e.g., the town of Blenheim, named after Blenheim Palace, the seat of the Duke of Marlborough and the birthplace of Sir Winston, who was a descendant of the first Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill]. \u00a0He looked every bit the yachtsman rather than a sheep farmer.)<\/p>\n

On our way back to our ship, we stopped at another beautiful place, in Blenheim. \u00a0It\u2019s called Woodend Gardens<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"oiuoyuvgla\"<\/a>
Another view in Picton
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But back to the shearing of a sheep:<\/p>\n

The official, formal announcement of the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith was written by Elder John Taylor, a British member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who was with them in Carthage Jail and was grievously wounded when the mob attacked. \u00a0Elder Taylor would, of course, live on to succeed Brigham Young as the (third) president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a>, though he carried some of the mob\u2019s lead in his body for the rest of his life. The announcement that he wrote was included at the end of the 1844 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, which was nearly ready for publication when Joseph and Hyrum Smith were murdered, and is now considered part of the Latter-day Saint scriptural canon. \u00a0It includes this passage:<\/p>\n

When Joseph went to Carthage to deliver himself up to the pretended requirements of the law, two or three days previous to his assassination, he said: \u201cI am going like a lamb\u00a0to the slaughter; but I am calm as a summer\u2019s morning; I have a conscience void\u00a0of offense towards God, and towards all men. I shall die innocent, and it shall yet be said of me\u2014he was murdered in cold blood<\/span>.\u201d \u00a0(Doctrine and Covenants 135:4)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The reference to a lamb going to slaughter is, of course, an allusion to the \u201csuffering servant\u201d verses in Isaiah 53, which have generally been viewed by nearly two thousand years of Christian biblical interpreters as a messianic prophecy pertaining to the life and atoning sacrifice of Jesus:<\/p>\n

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.<\/span><\/p>\n

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.<\/span><\/p>\n

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.<\/span><\/p>\n

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord<\/span> hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. \u00a0(Isaiah 53:3-7)<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Both Isaiah and Jesus lived in a world, in a place, where sheep were common and pastoral imagery came readily to mind. \u00a0(Think, even, of that word pastoral<\/em> itself, and of pastors, and \u201cgood shepherds,\u201d and the like.)<\/p>\n

\n

The Lord<\/span> is my shepherd; I shall not want. <\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. \u00a0(Psalm 23:1-2)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I was powerfully reminded of Isaiah 53, and particularly of Isaiah 53:7, in watching the sheep being sheared today. \u00a0Now, I doubt that a sheep\u2019s facial features have much ability to indicate emotion. \u00a0But I was struck by the silence, the calm, and the resignation of that sheep today. \u00a0(The shearer and his boss both assured us that sheep feel no pain at the hands of a competent and experienced worker, and it certainly looked that way to me.) \u00a0In any case, the words of Isaiah came immediately to my mind as we watched:<\/p>\n

As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that I understand those words a little bit better today than I did yesterday.<\/p>\n

Posted from the Cook Strait<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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