Anne's Message

The Lord is my Shepherd

May it be, O God, that the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts will be acceptable to you and useful to your purposes of grace.
Amen.

Today is the fourth Sunday of Easter. It is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday. It has been Good Shepherd Sunday for centuries. For centuries, we have had readings about the Good Shepherd. For centuries, we have listened to the twenty-third psalm read on this day. For centuries we have sung a hymn such as “Lord, Take my Hand and Lead Me.”

Usually on this day, the reading from the Gospel comes from John, chapter ten. We are a lectionary church and so we have designated readings for all Sundays, including Good Shepherd Sunday.

Chances are you were in second or third grade when you first learned it, and then you promptly forgot it, even if you may have recited it in front of the whole Sunday school. Chances are, the second time you learned it was during seventh grade confirmation, and then you forgot it immediately after the test. And, chances are that, as you grew older, you heard it nearly every time that you attended a Christian funeral.

It has become a personal symbol, living deeply in our individual psyches. It also has become a historical symbol, living through the centuries. It speaks deeply within our personal souls and also deeply within the soul of history.

It goes like this: The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will feel no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

The 23rd psalm has become a symbol, woven into the psyches of the centuries, woven into our personal and into our historical subconsciousness.

The 23rd psalm was written by King David, some three thousand years ago. The 23rd psalm is the most famous of his psalms and it is still a classic from the Bible today.

The Lord is my shepherd. Intuitively, all of us know that shepherds are good, kind and gentle. Even in a technological society and having never met a shepherd face to face, we all know that shepherds are gentle and kind. Even the children know that. They have been taught that by Bible stories. They have been taught in Bible pictures. They have seen the picture of Jesus, the good shepherd, caressing a lamb in his arms. By seeing that picture of Jesus holding the sheep, every child knows that Jesus loves children and is a very good shepherd, a person to be trusted.

A symbol of a shepherd is not a whip where God whips us into obedience. Whips don’t work on lambs.

I am sure you have been to a circus with elephants and lions and seen the trainer whip those animals into doing tricks. He snaps the whip. He snaps it again and again and the elephants get their trunks up in the air or the lions stand on their hind legs out of fear for the whip. God does not whip us into fear. God knows we are a sheep and whips don’t work on sheep.

…and how about dog-training acts? Those circus-dogs are well trained. The trainers don’t use whips. They use dog treats and the dogs will jump over a hoop for a treat. Those dogs will do anything for a treat and many people have that concept of God. If you do something good, God will give you a treat. If you do things bad; God won’t give the treat. And so you learn to do the right tricks in order to get more treats. Do you know what? Treats don’t work on sheep. … The symbol of a shepherd is not a whip and not a treat. We are sheep; and fear does not motivate us, and neither do spiritual treats.

There are two symbols of a shepherd. The first symbol of a shepherd is the staff. A shepherd lovingly reaches his staff down into a hole and slips the staff under the sheep’s leg and gently pulls the sheep out of the hole. And we, people, are like sheep. We get into holes during our lives, and God is forever pulling us out of our holes. A Biblical passage from Isaiah asks, “Is my arm too short to reach down and pull you up? No. My arm is not too short to reach down and help you.” It must be clearly said that the shepherd never uses the other end of the staff to hit the sheep in order to get the sheep to obey. The pointed end of the staff is reserved for the enemies like lions or coyotes or scorpions. The shepherd never strikes the sheep with his staff in order to get obedience; the shepherd is the good shepherd.

The second symbol of the shepherd is the shepherd’s voice. The voice is important to the shepherd. Over time, the sheep get to know the shepherd’s voice.

Do any of you know how old sheep can get? If you know as much about sheep as I do, well… you would have to look up how old sheep actually get. Twenty to twenty-five years. The sheep of the Bible were not raised for their meat. They were raised for their wool. The sheep were treated like pets and became part of the family. They had names like Tammy Lammy, Sally Sheepy, etc... The point is, sheep had identities and the shepherd knew them.

And so it is with us. The Bible guarantees us that we have a name and that God knows our name. God is the good shepherd, who knows our very name. … Over time, the deeper the relationship, the sheep and the shepherd know the voice of one another. We understand this because we talk on the telephone and recognize certain voices. The closer we are to people, the more we know the sound of their voice. They don’t have to tell their name on the telephone; we know their name because we know the tone of their voice. And so it is with God; God knows our voice because we have called on God often. He hears our voice and knows our voice by its very sound. And we know the sound of God’s voice, the voice of God in the Bible, the voice of God in prayer. By experience, we learn to know the sound of our Lord’s voice.

In the Old Testament, “the Lord is my shepherd” referred to God. In the New Testament, “the Lord is my shepherd” referred to Jesus. Who is our shepherd? God? Jesus? Both are referred to as Lord. We know that both the Lord God and the Lord Jesus are good and that our Lord is the good shepherd. The phrase, “good shepherd” helps us to understand God and how God works with our lives. The Lord Jesus, the Lord God is my shepherd.

Let’s go onto the next phrase. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I shall not be “in want.” An Old Testament scholar said that this proved that King David was an old man when he wrote this psalm; that he was old man; that he was no longer wanting for anything. As a young man, King David would have wanted our equivalent to cars, boats, houses, computers; he would have wanted all the latest junk of his time in history. That’s the way it is, isn’t it? You get a house and you fill it up with junk and then more junk. How many of us have enough room in our storage area ? How many of us have enough room in the cupboards? Enough space in the closets? In our garages? We spend a large portion of our life stuffing our house, our closets, and our cupboards with things. Then we reach a certain time of our life and move to another house, a smaller house and we sell half of our junk. They call them garage sales but they are really junk sales and you are glad to unload your junk to get rid of your stuff. You make another move into a smaller apartment. And perhaps another move into one room. Your kids then perhaps sell off your stuff when you are no longer around to watch the garage sale; they sell your stuff and then give all the rest away or take the leftovers to the garbage dump. By the end of your life, you don’t have very much stuff at all. The only thing that you have left is the hospital gown that you have on, and then you die. And the wealth that you have around you is not material things but the wealth of love from your husband or wife, kids, grandkids, friends, loved ones who are standing gathered around your death bed. You have finally learned that God’s wealth is the wealth of love of people around you … This is what you eventually learn from life: the happiness of life does not come from material things but from human relationships. Happiness does not come from the accumulation of a pile of things but happiness comes from the depth of relationships. The psalmist says it well: the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want … more material things. We all learn that lesson, eventually.

The next phrase is: He makes me. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters and thereby restores my soul. The first thing the shepherd does for us is that he makes us to be quiet. He makes us to be quiet and thereby our spirits and souls can be restored. … I ask you: how many of you rushed to get to church today? You get up and rush to church; rush home to eat; rush out to a soccer game; rush home to meet someone. You rush to this and you rush to that. You rush all weekend and fall into bed exhausted tonight at 10pm, trying to get it all in. Thank heavens for Monday so you can go back to work and get a little rest. It is the frenetic rat race that goes round and round and found in a fast paced flurry. Now, the antidote for a frenetic, fast paced life is this: God make you to lie down in green pastures; God leads you beside still, still waters. And God restores your soul in the stillness of water and the stillness of life. There is something incredibly wonderful to stillness. With bodies not moving. With minds not moving. With energy not moving. Stillness.

Stillness doesn’t have many “takers” today.

What is wrong with you if you are being still? Stillness is a waste of time. Can’t do anything when you are still. … A philosopher once said: we are so busy dusty plastic flowers that we don’t have time to smell the roses. We don’t have time to cultivate the roses and watch them grow. Especially the younger generation. Therefore God, and this is the first thing that the good shepherd does, will make you to lie down and be quiet. God will lead you beside the still waters. God said, “Be still and know that I am God.” That is why God wants us to be still: so that we know that God is God. Thereby, God restores our inner soul. … In this stillness, we feed in the green pastures; we eat and absorb the food for the soul, the Scriptures, the holy words of God. In this stillness, we drink the water, the water of God’s Spirit.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness, for his name’s sake. God leads me in the paths, in the ways of right relationships, of right values, of right choices. God always leads us down a right path, a narrow path. The word, path, implies narrow, like one person can walk on it and God needs to keep me, his sheep, on that narrow path of right relationships. …

Now, everybody that raises sheep or has raised sheep always says that sheep are dumb animals. God compares us to sheep. What does that mean? Human beings are by far the most intelligent creatures that God ever made; we are the crowns of God’s intelligent creation; so why are we referred to as sheep? Not because we are intellectual idiots but because we make dumb choices. God puts out for us a narrow path and God says that he will lead us on this narrow path of right relationships. I will lead you on this narrow path, and you, like a dumb fool, will make these dumb choices whereby you hurt yourself and other people. We make dumb choices in the way we use our body, how we use time, how we treat family and friends, how we don’t have time for God in our busy lives. We are very, very intelligent creatures, but we make such incredibly dumb choices with our lives. God says: I will lead you on the paths of right relationships, right values, and right choices. I will lead you on the paths of right goodness, and because you are so dumb about these things, you need my help.

For his name’s sake. I never really did understand what this verse meant but now I do. In the book of Acts, the reference to Jesus’ name is synonymous with his powerful presence. Acts 4:7 says, “By what power do you do this? By what name do you do this?” Name is synonymous with powerful presence. In the twenty-third psalm, it sounds like this: You lead me in the paths of right relationships that please your Power Presence. That is true. When you have right relationships with people - that pleases God’s Powerful Presence.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Your rod and your staff will comfort and strengthen me. Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The word, death, is too narrow of a translation. From Hebrew that should really be translated as “deep darkness”. We all walk through valleys of deep darkness so very often during our lives. We all walk through times of great pain and tragedy. Every person here will have, or have had, pain and tragedy in life. That’s just the way it is. … But the key to this verse is the preposition, through. Even though I walk through the valley of deep darkness, I will be with you. God will not leave you in the midst of the valley. There is always sorrow and pain in your life, but there is an end to it. Of this you can be sure, the pain that you are experiencing, no matter how enormous, that pain will pass. … And God says, when you are in that valley of deep darkness, I will be there to strengthen and to comfort you. Now, to comfort you, this does not mean that God is going to go into a “pity party” and say, “Now, now there. Don’t feel so badly.” The word, comfort, does not mean “pity party,” but com in Latin means with; fort means strength – with strength. God is there to be with you to strengthen you. God has made you stronger and the people around you stronger than you ever imagined that you could be…because God’s strength is in you.

Then, in the psalm, come four lines that are all connected. “You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Sure goodness and mercy shall live with me all the days of my life.” David had an overwhelming positive spirit within him through out his life, and that spirit is revealed here in these words. David always had enemies like King Saul and others who were trying to kill him. And it was a divine joke that God always gave him food, right in front of his enemies, preparing a meal for David. David felt like a pitcher of olive oil was poured over his head; he felt glorious. He said that his cup was overflowing; that goodness and mercy would follow him all the days of his life. You see, there is an overflowing optimism in David.

In North America, we discuss whether the cup is half empty or half full, and the choice you make reveals whether you are essentially a pessimist or an optimist. The Bible doesn’t talk about cups that are half full or half empty; the Bible talks about cups that are full and overflowing with blessings.

Did you notice the crocuses, the daffodils, the green leaves on the trees on your way to church today? When you look in the mirror, you are alive today. When you look at the sprouting happening in the garden, you are alive today. When you look at your family, you are reminded that you are alive today. . … “Fill to the brim my cup of blessing” is what David declares elsewhere. God wants us to feel joyful; that is the way that God wired us; that we should be full of joy and that our cup of life will overflow with love for one another and for God.

The last line: I shall live in the house of the Lord….forever. That last word is a good one, forever. The word, forever, is a favorite word of King David. He uses it often. God will love you forever. You will live forever in God’s house. When you die, nothing can snatch you from the Father’s hand. In the gospel for today, you could see that there was nothing that could snap the sheep from the shepherd’s hand. And when you die, there is nothing that can snatch you from the Father’s hands.

The Lord is MY Shepherd!

Amen.