Butting Lambs are a problem among the Lord’s flock according to the prophet Ezekiel.
“And as for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says to his people: I will judge between one animal of the flock and another, separating the sheep from the goats. Isn’t it enough for you to keep the best of the pastures for yourselves? Must you also trample down the rest? Isn’t it enough for you to drink clear water for yourselves? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? Why must my flock eat what you have trampled down and drink water you have fouled? “Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will surely judge between the fat sheep and the scrawny sheep. For you fat sheep pushed and butted and crowded my sick and hungry flock until you scattered them to distant lands. So I will rescue my flock, and they will no longer be abused. I will judge between one animal of the flock and another.” -Ezekiel 34: 17-22
Recently the Lord has blessed our Church with some great messages from visiting Montanans in our Regions Beyond family of churches (https://regionsbeyond.net). One thread of thought has been around the situation in Sheep husbandry called a ‘Bum lamb’.
A Bum lamb (also called a bummer lamb or bottle lamb) is a young sheep that has been rejected by its mother (ewe) shortly after birth, often because the ewe lacks sufficient milk, has multiple lambs and can’t care for all of them, or simply ignores the lamb due to weakness, birth defects, or exhaustion. In rarer cases, the ewe dies during or after lambing, leaving the lamb as a true orphan. These lambs are called “bums” because they end up “bumming” (scrounging) milk from other ewes or humans, or because they butt (head-butt) others to steal a drink. --@Grok
Part of being a healthy community of Jesus followers is seeking to meaningfully care for one another in the body of Christ. Locally, that means figuring out how to deal with “butting Sheep” and the damage they can do in a Church. Every Church will deal with these Sheep because we gather as wounded and warped people. All of us in some way or another have been irregular shaped and formed by life and all its sufferings, hardship, brokenness and abuse. Sin impacts human relationships and everyone is in a process of spiritual growth through community seeking to be guided by the Spirit and Word.
First we must recognize what’s going on in order to address the situations that are causing problems. Too often we ignore these matters until extensive damage is done and people leave our Churches wounded and further disillusioned by imperfect people.
Not everyone who’s a ‘butting sheep’ is a bad person, they often have been abandoned and abused themselves. They’ve learned to survive by ‘taking’ whatever they think they need, instead of trusting the Lord to provide. Safe, green pastures are found through the good sheepherding of God. He is leading us all into a better experience of the salvation and inheritance He has given us in Christ. This takes time to come to know and it’s often a bumpy ride with lots of opportunities to learn grace and forgiveness as we work it all out together.
Ultimately the Lord takes it upon himself to “…judge between one animal of the flock and another.”. He is actively shepherding His people and the warnings in Ezekiel about this judgment is to be taken seriously. The Lord is jealous for the health of His Church and will bring correction to those who need it. This comes through various means, but the main point is He is actively engaged in shepherding the flock.
As our Churches receive more and more ‘Bum Lambs and Butting Sheep’ we need to be prepared to encounter behaviors that are part of these backgrounds. Don’t be surprised that hurt people, hurt people.
Love is greater and together we can see the Lord transform people from destructive, divisive and disrupting individuals that “trample pastures and muddy waters” into faithful and fruitful people who gather instead of scatter the flock of God.