11 May 2014

It’s not easy being a good shepherd
and it’s hardly a good career move

The Good Shepherd ... a stained glass window in Saint Mark’s Church, Armagh (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Sunday 11 May 2014,

The Fourth Sunday of Easter,

10.30 a.m., The Parish Eucharist,

Zion Parish Church, Rathgar, Dublin.

Readings:
Acts 2: 42-47; Psalm 23; I Peter 2: 19-25; John 10: 1-10.

May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

When I was a child on my grandmother’s farm, all the summer days, it now seems, were filled with sunshine, and there was endless time to go fishing in the brooks, and walking through the meadows.

But there were two tasks I hated.

One was trying to milk the cows: the adults seemed to think it was funny in some way that only adults understood to send us out to herd the cattle in at evening time for milking.

Inevitably, I ended up covered in something more odious than milk – and never even liked the smell of milk anyway.

The other task was one that came around, it seemed, every time I was around – the great sheep dip.

My city friends and cousins joked at the time about television ads about liver fluke and sheep dipping. But I knew all about it – and it was no joking matter.

Oh sheep are easy to call together, that was not the problem. And no, I did not have to milk them.

But, oh, the smell of the sheep dip! – now that smell was only surpassed by the smells I associate with milking the cows.

It was pungent … and there was always some fresh-faced younger uncle who thought it funny, seeing my face, to ensure that I ended up in the dipping area too.

So, to get to the point, when Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd and the Gate for the sheep, let me assure you he has no romantic city delusions.

I imagine that the Good Shepherd is one of the most popular images for stained glass windows in the parish churches throughout the Church of Ireland. But look at how we portray him!

He’s dressed in dry-cleaned or laundered and pressed red and white clothes, when everyone knows that it is impractical for any shepherd to dress like this.

He has cuddly, white lamb draped around his shoulders, when any shepherd knows that a lamb that needs to be rescued is only that is likely to be covered in briars and brambles, cut and dirty, lost and bewildered and frightened.

We are just back after a long weekend on Achill Island. At this time of the year, we have moved beyond lambing time, and the little ones are beginning to grow although still suckling.

Many years ago, I remember hearing about a man who died when he climbed down a cliff face in search of sheep that had strayed. He lost his footing and fell to the sea below.

It was a risky undertaking, and he paid the price. And someone commented on the low price sheep were fetching marts at the time. The lost sheep worked their way back up the cliff face, in any case, but they were not worth it.

Shepherding has seldom been a good career move. It’s not on the list of most guidance teachers or careers advisers.

That’s why the Christmas story is so shocking to those who first heard about it.

Saint Luke tells us the Good News of Christ’s birth is first brought to poor shepherds on the hillside, in the middle of the night, in the middle of winter (Luke 2: 8-20). Sheep were cheap meat, and the shepherds were easy prey – to wolves, to hyenas, to thieves and to sheep rustlers.

Sheep provided wool, meat, milk, cheese and yoghurt. Yet, shepherds were cheap to hire, and they did a lowly job. They were exposed to unprotected heat in the day, and to the bitter cold at night.

Christ is humbling himself when he calls himself the Good Shepherd.

One of the Bible studies prepared for the Church of Ireland for Lent this year reminded us of Saint Matthew’s comment on Christ’s shepherd-like compassion for the people:

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:35 ff).

It was an image that recalled the vision of the Old Testament prophets Ezekiel, who compared the well-off politicians and rulers of the day with negligent, impoverished shepherds: “My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them” (Ezekiel 34: 6).

And Ezekiel, of course, is reminding the people that they too were once like lost sheep. They had wandered like lost sheep in the wilderness.

Everyone expected the Messiah to be a king, but kings were not good role models.

No-one expected the Messiah to be a shepherd, and so it is shocking when the shepherd boy David is chosen to be king, and shocking when Jesus compares himself not with kings but with shepherds.

This is costly leadership. This is leadership that allows itself to be vulnerable, to be a potentially victimised.

When Christ becomes the good shepherd, he becomes vulnerable and compassionate, and he expresses his compassion for the lost sheep in going to meet them where they are, in their towns and villages, teaching them, bringing them the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.

Yes, the one who is hailed by Saint John the Baptist as the Lamb of God (John 1: 35), becomes the Good Shepherd. And the God Shepherd becomes the Lamb of God.

Christ calls us to turn our values upside down, not for the fun of it, but out of compassion for the vulnerable and the lost, those who have fallen by the wayside, those everyone else thinks are not worth the risk of going after.

Who are the lost sheep for you this morning?

Who do you think Christ is foolhardy in going after?

Will we follow him to find them?

Will they be welcome back in through the gate?

And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός

Collect:

Almighty God,
whose Son Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life:
Raise us, who trust in him,
from the death of sin to the life of righteousness,
that we may seek those things which are above,
where he reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

Merciful Father, you gave your Son Jesus Christ to be the good shepherd,
and in his love for us to lay down his life and rise again.
Keep us always under his protection,
and give us grace to follow in his steps;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Inside Zion Parish Church, Rathgar ... a photograph on the parish Facebook page

Canon Patrick Comerford is Lecturer in Anglicanism, Liturgy and Church History, the Church of Ireland Theological Institute, and an Adjunct Assistant Professor, Trinity College Dublin. This sermon was preached at the Parish Eucharist in Zion Parish Church, Rathgar, Dublin, on Sunday 11 May 2014.

Does Winnie the Pooh also suffer
from Vitamin B12 deficiency?

Winnie the Pooh ... suffering from the symptoms of Vitamin B12 deficiency?

Patrick Comerford

One of my favourite television programmes is the BBC’s Have I Got News For You? It makes a cutting connection between humour and current affairs and each week provides some of the sharpest observations of political life in Britain.

Flaking out last night in front of the television after a long and demanding day at the General Synod of the Church of Ireland, humour and reality came to the fore when the panellists’ attention was brought to a recent news story about students who are asking questions like:

● Does Winnie the Pooh have a B12 deficiency?

● How many lies could Pinocchio tell before it became lethal?

● Is it really possible to enter a room on a wrecking ball, Miley Cyrus-style?

Third-year natural science undergraduates at the University of Leicester have wrestled with these bizarre dilemmas and more as part of a project on submitting research to peer-reviewed science journals.

For example, one question asked: How many lies could Pinocchio tell before it became lethal?

The answer was that Pinocchio could only sustain 13 lies in a row before the maximum upward force his neck could exert could no longer sustain his head and nose. The head’s overall centre of mass shifts over 85 metres after 13 lies, and the overall length of the nose is 208 metres.

The researchers concluded: “Lengthy, extensive lies are advised against, for the health and well-being of Pinocchio.”

But personally I was more interested in the work of the students who observed characteristics in Winnie the Pooh that appear to correlate with a B12 deficiency. They point out: “Such a condition is common in those with restricted diets, such as vegetarians and vegans, coinciding with anaemia where the patient is often tried, easily fatigued and shows a paling of the skin.”

I was particularly interested in this topic, which sounds humorous but is a serious one for me as I suffer from Vitamin B12 deficiency and require monthly B12 injections.

I was diagnosed with this condition almost six years ago, brought about by being a vegetarian for over 40 years, since my late teens. The combination of the symptoms of Vitamin B12 deficiency and the symptoms of sarcoidosis can be particularly debilitating at times, and I love with constant lower joint pains and persistent, painful tingling under my feet and at the tips of my fingers.

Winnie the Pooh ... students at the University of Leicester are asking whether he has a B12 Deficiency

In their submission to the Journal of Interdisciplinary Science Topics, Steffan Llewellyn and David McDonagh of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Science, University of Leicester, asked: “Does Winnie the Pooh have a B12 Deficiency?”

With great humour but some sharp insight, they say decades of research studying the unique behaviour of Winnie the Pooh has provided a strong indication that a honey-specific diet could be causing a vitamin deficiency.

They say that in 1958 a bear was first observed in the Hundred Acre Wood displaying anthropomorphic characteristics, including a preferred attire of a red T-shirt and “significant bipedalism,” which, over a number decades, has grown as a household name as Winnie the Pooh, or simply Pooh Bear, both for its ambiguous evolutionary origin and charming personality.

Despite his joyous demeanour, they say, physiological changes have been noted throughout its lifetime, likely linked to a honey-specific diet. “This has given rise to concern that vitamin deficiencies, particularly in B12, are now putting his health at risk.”

They say that his symptoms have been identified throughout an extensive period of observation from 1988 to 2002. They acknowledge data from “Walt Disney and his research group” and “Alan Alexander Milne for his pioneering work in first discovering this unique species of Ursidae.”

AA Milne tells the stories about the adventures of Christopher Robin and the toy animals Pooh, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Tigger, Rabbit, Owl, and Eeyore in his enduringly popular Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). They were illustrated by Ernest Howard Shepard, who also illustrated The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.

The symptoms the students have identified in Pooh Bear that infer potential health problems include a characteristic yellowing of the skin. They found this by comparing initial photographs of the animal and those taken at a later date. They also observed a “restricted gait” which “can be seen to show limited lower joint movement.”

Frequent memory loss and fatigue are also present, so that Winnie Pooh frequently forgets levels of honey reserves.

They say the symptoms they have observed in Winnie the Pooh appear to correlate with a B12 deficiency and that this condition “is common in those with restricted diets, such as vegetarians and vegans, coinciding with anaemia where the patient is often tried, easily fatigued and shows a paling of the skin.”

But, despite the obvious good humour these undergraduates show, Vitamin B12 deficiency is no laughing matter. Typically, the first sign is anaemia, which can lead to a host of symptoms, such as diarrhoea, fatigue, loss of appetite, pale skin, problems in concentrating, shortness of breath, and a swollen or red tongue or bleeding gums.

Over time, should vitamin B12 levels get really bad, other cells are interfered with, such as nerves and white blood cells – a key part of the human immunity system. Signs of this are dementia, depression, loss of balance, numbness and tingling of the hands and feet.

Research has shown vitamin B12 deficiency can lead to anaemia and hypotension. Some studies have even shown that those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease have been found to have severely low levels of vitamin B12.

B12, or Cobalamin, is the largest and most complex vitamin we know currently. It plays a key role in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system. B12 can only be manufactured by bacteria and can only be found naturally in animal products.

The human body needs B12 to make red blood cells, nerves, and DNA. According to a study at the Harvard Medical School, the average adult should get 2.4 micrograms of B12 each day. In the US, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey recently estimated that 3.2% of adults over the age of 50 have a seriously low vitamin B12 level, and up to 20% may have a borderline deficiency.

Like most vitamins, B12 cannot be made by the body. It must be obtained from food or supplements. The foods highest in vitamin B12 include shellfish, liver, fish, crustaceans, beef, low fat dairy, cheese, and eggs. People who have eliminated these sources from their diets need to take professional advice from their GPs and nutritionists.

As for Miley Cyrus, the students decided the singer would be unable to “come in like a wrecking ball” without sustaining “significant injury.”

Their study at the University of Leicester focussed on the lyrics of the singer’s hit single Wrecking Ball on her album Bangerz. David McDonagh, a 24-year-old student from Brighton found that she would be unable to gather sufficient momentum to have “impacted” on either “love, or the walls of someone’s house,” as her lyrics suggest.

He concludes that she would need to be travelling at around 316 mph to demolish a wall – meaning she would need to be propelled by an outside force. “Based on these findings, it is clear that a human being cannot possess the characteristics of a wrecking ball without sustaining significant injury, and other objects should be sought as an analogy,” he concluded.

And as for me, I like this quote from Winnie the Pooh: “If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together, there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart, I’ll always be with you.”

If, like me, you suffer from the symptoms of either Vitamin B12 deficiency or the symptoms of sarcoidosis, then I hope you can take courage. I have these symptoms, but they will never have me.