You don’t want to be a sheep.
Regardless of Matthew 25:33 where the sheep get to be on the
right hand and the goats on the left, you don’t want to be a sheep in Niamey
today. To be more specific, you
don’t want to be a male sheep or ram.
Today is Tabaski.
Tabaski is a major holiday where the Muslims celebrate Abraham”s decision to sacrifice a
sheep rather than Ishmael.
(Note: They believe Abraham
was going to sacrifice Ishmael while we think it was Isaac.)
To celebrate Tabaski almost every family will kill (or buy)
a ram, roast it over an open fire along the street, and then give the meat to their neighbors, friends, and the
poor. (We are hoping to be given some but I’m not sure which category we fit
in.) We have seen truckloads of
sheep in the city and one guy had a dead one on his motorbike. Try that on these roads. To roast the ram, they gut it, build a
big fire, and then place anywhere from 1-8 rams in teepee style over the fire.
My friend Steve sent me an email about a man he is working
with that wanted to borrow money for a ram. It would take him until June 2012 to pay it back. Seems the man has no money and his family is on the edge of
starvation but by Gosh, he was going to have a ram. After much talk and advice the man still wanted the
ram. Tabaski tradition is just
that important. In fact,
sacrificing a ram at Tabaski is one of the steps to salvation, comparable to
going to Mecca.
Anyway, it is supposed to be fun to drive around the
neighborhood and see the fires.
The people are all supposed to be in a giving and fun loving mood. Kind of like our Christmas only the
presents aren’t for us, they are given to others. And over here, food is more important than things so they
are giving very important presents.
Since driving doesn’t put me in a giving and fun mood Sally and I went with Barb. We were driving up and down streets looking at all of the roasting and this young man called us over and asked us to stop. He told us all about Tabaski, welcomed pictures, and asked us to come back tomorrow at 8:00am and share the meat with his family.
When we first got here, I thought all of the animals were
goats because they looked like goats.
I didn’t think there were any sheep because the sheep here look like
goats. I’ve seen sheep before and
these are the scrawniest looking sheep I’ve ever seen, hence, they look like
goats. In fact, the sheep are
mixed in with the goats and the primary way to tell them apart is by their
tails. I am sure the men/kids that
herd them know other differences but a goat’s tail goes up and a sheep’s tail
goes down. (If I were a sheep, I
would be doing tail up exercises prior to Tabaski.)
The goats are also the more independent of the two and lead the
sheep. Together, they are two of
the most beneficial animals to mankind.
Tabaski got me thinking about Matthew 25:31-46 so I looked
it up. In verses 31 & 32 the
separation of sheep and goats is an analogy not of separating people like you
and me it is about separating nations.
He will put the nations on his right and left, depending on whether or
not they feed the hungry, give drink, clothe, etc. So it seems we will be judged not just on our caring for the
vulnerable but whether our nation cares.
It is so wonderful to read your posts and I love your humor especially about their tails!! Diane
ReplyDeleteElgin...I have always been fascinated by the Matt 25 passage about the sheep and the goats..I have always thought about it in terms of the question asked of Jesus..It is the same for both the "sheep" and the "goats"...except for the "did we"/"did we not"..So, for one the fact that the sheep and goats are hard to distinguish is very curious...
ReplyDeleteThe other piece that is helpful is to think about this passage more broadly than the individualistic way we read it...thinking about the application to nations! By the way, it is the Gospel text for this coming Sunday...so I am eager to hear our pastor's message! I'll let you know!