Everybody Needs a Flock
The theological wisdom of "The Sheep Detectives"
If you have not yet seen the wonderful film “The Sheep Detectives,” I urge you to do so. It is a comedy, yes, but it is theologically rich and on point for our times.
It may not at first be apparent, but the key figure is the “winter lamb” who gets rejected by the flock for having not been born in the spring.
Yet, it turns out it is the flock that ultimately matters and saves the day.
The larger plot is that George Hardy, a shepherd in an English village, spends his time reading murder mystery novels to his flock of sheep. The sheep live in blissful ignorance, believing that death only exists in fiction and that they turn into clouds at the end of their lives.
One morning, George is discovered dead outside his trailer. The village’s only constable along with a reporter think he was poisoned and the sheep decide to solve the mystery on their own, led by the ewe Lily, who loves the mystery novels, the ram Mopple who always keeps his memories, and stoic loner Sebastian whom George rescued from a carnival.
The sheep have to learn that if they keep deliberately forgetting they are going to get slaughtered.
How’s that for a modern parable?
But there’s more. The role of suffering and the redemptive character of having a flock is crucial.
Sebastian was used as a carnival sideshow repeatedly getting attacked by dogs for the audience.
He has suffered tremendously before George saved him. The little winter lamb has also suffered as he does not get the warmth and safety of sleeping with the flock.
One lesson I took away from this film is that we as a nation are in danger of losing our flocks.
You know how technology is separating us, fooling us into hating each other, eliminating good jobs and separating us into riding around in our own silent Waymos.
In Luke 15:3-5, Jesus tells the Parable of the Lost Sheep. Parables should be seen as street theater where there is a dramatic crisis, action to resolve the crisis and resolution.
To remind you, a shepherd has 100 sheep but loses one. He searches for it and there is rejoicing when he finds it.
There are reasons why so many drawings like this circulate and not just during Pride month. Every sheep matters.
Our national flock is kicking people out right and left and it has to stop. Without the flock we are all in danger.
Hands down, unironically, the loveliest movie I have seen in a while. Showed it to my youth group who were eye-rolly at first but were absolutely locked in within about 10 minutes.
I saw it and loved it as well. I'm trans; transitioned at 53, now 78. However, I've kept my WA state birth certificate as F since I don't deny that, despite my face fur and sort of male appearance, I do have XX chromosomes. It's also in solidarity with the experiences of women. Solidarity is no mere slogan to me--I'm an old labor leftist, trained in the late '60s by people who'd been CIO labor organizers in the 1930s. Like my logger grandfather the Wobbly, (I.W.W.) I'm a fan of Eugene V. Debs, the labor activist sent to prison during WWI for opposing the war. He said "I would not lead you into the Promised Land even if I could because if someone could lead you in, someone else would lead you out. Learn to use your heads as well as your hands."
That's it. Some of us workers can read, write, and think. We're not stupid, we're not sheep; two epithets used on us repeatedly so well-meaning nice liberals could explain away the last election. The same who never noticed decades of suffering in the Rust Belt and Appalachia. Or the well-documented deaths of despair. Besides, check the research on sheep intelligence. They're not stupid, either. Given all of this, the forgetting theme and sheep's decision to solve the mystery themselves really resonated with me. Yes, it's cute too. Can be and should be enjoyed for the {ahem} shear joy of it.