Many thought that Herman Cain was the second coming of Reagan, and are really ticked that unsubstantiated allegations compelled him to suspend his campaign.  And now, conservatives seem pretty divided on who ought to be the "not Romney" candidate, because he sure shouldn't be the nominee.  Yes, the goal is clearly to secure the nomination for the candidate best capable of unseating the incumbent, but how do we define "best capable" and who should that nominee be?  And all this hand-wringing is going on before the early-voting states have even cast their ballots, before the field has even begun to thin out, before we actually have an idea of who actually has a credible shot at the nomination.

And if you thought that the presidential primary was producing some angst, man, have you seen the wailing and gnashing of teeth developing around this state's republican senate primary?  To hear some people talk about it, the whole campaign sounds like Pete Hoekstra and the six wannabes.  Others are so dead set that the nominee should be "not Hoekstra" that they're falling all over themselves to set up what seems to be an alternate coronation campaign.  Yes, the goal is clearly to secure the nomination for the candidate best capable of unseating the incumbent, but how do we define "best capable" and who should that nominee be?  All of this fuss and fluff is going on well in advance of the mid-May filing deadline, before we even know for sure who'll actually be on the primary ballot, before we know who our options will actually be come the August primary election.

And if you're already starting to draft a comment in support of or opposing a particular candidate, then I'll encourage you to put your pens down.  I really need you to pay attention so you don't miss the point.

Leaders and leadership is what this Scripture passage is all about.  At first it looks like it's about shepherds, but in ancient times people called their kings shepherds.  In the minds of the ancients, the ultimate king would be one who possessed all the same qualities and attitudes that would make someone a good shepherd.  (When you think about it, that explains much of the Old Testament shepherd-language.)

For us that may seem a bit of a stretch.  I mean, how many shepherds handle multi-trillion dollar budgets or 300 million sheep at once?  On the other hand, we might think that calling the head of state a shepherd is a bit much.  Sheep are dumb, right?  The shepherd's the only smart one in the whole lot.  The sheep just eat the food, drink the water, and grow the wool.

Nevertheless, the ancients considered the shepherd to be an excellent ideal for a king, and the Lord wholeheartedly agreed.  The job of a king or president may be more complicated than the job of a shepherd, but the two jobs really are more similar than not.  Ultimately, both heads of state and shepherds are there to protect the sheep as they go about their daily lives so that they can be well fed, productive, and safe.  And while we might resent being called sheep (most of the regulars here rightly prefer being compared to sheepdogs), what we're really admitting by choosing a leader in the first place is that life is too complicated for us to handle all by ourselves.  We're not saying that the leader is the only smart person among us.  We're just saying that life has enough trouble without having to constantly worry about things like law and order, domestic economy, foreign affairs, or border security.  We'd never stay on top of it all if we didn't elect people specifically to, "give their full time to governing" (Romans 13:6, NIV).

While that makes sense, this is also where things start to get messy.  This is where we have to acknowledge that people suffer even under the best of earthly rulers, because here's the truth:  Even the best of earthly rulers are also sheep.  Do you understand what I'm saying?  We'd like to think that some guy would come along and see all the things that are truly wrong and do all the things that truly need to be done and truly fix things, but guess what.  Even the best of earthly rulers still faces the same critical problem that you and I face, and even the best of them doesn't have a solution that has any hope of working.

What's the problem?  Sin.  Sin means that even the best of human leaders is going to mess up.  And I don't just mean innocent, simple mistakes.  They're going to be selfish enough to miss key things that the sheep (and sheepdogs) need them to understand.  Their opinions will be skewed by selfish, personal concerns.  It also means that there is the very distinct possibility that, even if we can find a leader who is fairly wise and selfless, that's no guarantee that the next one won't be our worst nightmare.  Finally, that's not even a guarantee that the fairly wise and selfless leader won't still do something so stupid that the rest of the people will suffer for it for generations to come.

There is but one hope for sheep who have suffered under sinful human leaders, and the Lord here lays it before us.  "I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out."  That is his promise to us; the Lord loves us too much simply to accept all the things that cause people to suffer as a result of sinners in leadership positions.  They anger him.  They anger him because he loves us so much.  But even when he deposes rulers, there are only more sinners to take their place, so the suffering continues.

In the time of Ezekiel, the prophet through whom God penned this Scripture passage, the kings of Israel and Judah had done such a bad job of protecting the people that they had been overrun by foreign armies and scattered throughout the known world.  That's why God says that he's going to search for them after he takes charge:

"... and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.  And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land.  And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country.  I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land.  There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.  I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD.  I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak ..."

Isn't that beautiful?  That's life under the One who really can make things better.  It's what he promises all who follow him.  The day will come when he will put the time of sinful rulers behind us:

"And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.  And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them.  I am the LORD; I have spoken."

And you know that he isn't talking about King David here.  Ezekiel's ministry was more than 400 years past David's time, so he's not talking about him.  He's talking about the Son of David.  He said he himself would search for the sheep and look after them, so he's talking about the Son of God, made flesh to be our Savior, our brother, and our Good Shepherd.  This is the One who laid down his life for the sheep:  Jesus, the Christ, who demonstrated for us how perfectly selfless and amazingly powerful this leader God promised truly is, for in one stunning three-day period he both laid his life down in order to remove the eternal death sentence from over our heads and then took his own life up again to show that even physical death is not a threat to those who are under his care!

Now, that doesn't mean that we take on a "what, me worry?" attitude and get sloppy in our vigilance, by no means.  The Lord guided our Founding Fathers to provide us with a republic, and preserving that republic absolutely requires an informed electorate holding elected officials at every level accountable to their constituency.  So of course while we still draw a conscious breath we realize that we have work to do, and we do it with the necessary diligence and vigor.  But we also realize that Christ, our King, is fully aware of every signature gathered and every ballot cast.  He is in full control of the outcome, and has already promised that the results will be for the greater benefit of those who remain faithful to him, even if it doesn't seem that way to our limited human perception.

What we need to do is consider the full weight of that astonishing but unbreakable campaign promise in the Scripture passage and stop pinning our hopes for a happy ending on this life and the leaders in it.  It's amazing how liberating and fulfilling that truly is!  I mean, with eternal life as the end goal, what's the worst that could happen?  Our investments could fail, our houses be lost, and our government fall like the mighty Roman Empire of old.

And yes, I'm trying to cheer you up.  Believe me, I don't want you to suffer through that, I don't want to suffer through that, and I don't want my children and granddaughter to, either.  But do you know who would hate to see it even worse than I would?  Christ, our King, and even now he's in charge of when and where he allows it to happen, if it happens at all.  So imagine what he must have in store for us both as blessed outcomes here and in eternal benefits to come!

There are many these days who claim that Americas have gotten fat and lazy as a people.  I know American Christianity fights that danger.  We are tempted to think that happiness will come from American leaders who can put a chicken in every pot, two cars in every garage, and an iPod in every pocket.  We can go to church and yet live lives focused on comfy retirements and amusing our kids.  Remember, brothers and sisters, who your King is, the One who laid down his life for you and calls you to a blessed life of selflessness by the power of his cleansing sacrifice.  Then you will not worry about this life, but you will live in contentedness and peace as you await the coronation of the one Leader who truly makes it better.