Sermons for the Month
"Our Busy Shepherd"
DATE: April 21, 2002
TEXT: Psalm 23“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
Today, the Fourth Sunday of our ongoing celebration of Easter, has been observed by the Church for a long, long time as "Good Shepherd Sunday." Some of the earliest surviving Christian artwork from tombs of believers in Roman times, includes the image of Christ as the Good Shepherd of His people; but the concept is a much older one. The depiction of the Lord God as Israel's shepherd is found in the familiar 23rd Psalm; also in the 95th Psalm, and many other places in the Hebrew Scripture. To the people of the ancient Mediterranean world and what we now call the Middle East, the common, everyday figure of the shepherd keeping watch over his flock seemed a clear picture of the relationship between God and His chosen and beloved people. How interesting that for us, standing two and three millennia removed and thousands of miles distant from them, with precious few sheep and/or shepherds to be found in Fairlawn, Copley, Richfield, or Cuyahoga Falls, these are still some of the most well-known and loved passages of Scripture. My older son received a picture of the Good Shepherd as a gift when he was born. Perhaps you have one like it in your home -- it shows Jesus standing in the midst of peacefully grazing sheep, with a lamb in his arms. It's a lovely picture, but it has occurred to me many times over my career as a mother that that picture must be about as representative of shepherding as those lovely pictures of a mother rocking a peacefully sleeping baby are accurate depictions of motherhood. There ARE those lovely, quiet moments, but they come in the midst of many difficult hours of responsibility, countless self-sacrifices, and an awful lot of sheer hard work. The outstanding characteristic of the Good Shepherd, to me, is that He is so very, very ACTIVE on behalf of His sheep, like a mother or father hard at work, on duty and on alert 24 hours/day. That led me to ask, What exactly did a shepherd do, besides standing around hugging a lamb? Well, according to my research, the 23rd Psalm describes it quite accurately. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters." In the dry and rocky hills of Palestine, which are so very different from the lush green and gently-rolling pastures of Ohio, the shepherd searched until he found some green area recently watered by rain; and then he led his flock to that place, keeping watch while they grazed. The shepherd hunted out pools of water that were clean and safe, keeping the flock away from polluted ponds, and from the gullies that are subject to flash floods which carry off and drown the sheep of an inexperienced or careless sheep-herder. "He revives my soul and guides me along right pathways for His name's sake." The shepherd had to be concerned about the paths over which the sheep travel; the way must not be too steep, or so rocky that the sheep could injure themselves. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Sometimes it might be necessary temporarily to travel down a dangerous bit of path, but with a GOOD shepherd the sheep don't need to be afraid; because the shepherd carries his rod, a sturdy club with which he could fight off wild animals that could threaten them, and he carried his long staff with a crook on the end, with which he could reach back to hold onto the path a sheep straying too close to a drop-off, or could pull up one which had fallen. And the shepherd's day did not end at 5 p.m., or even at sunset. The shepherd would guide the sheep back to the fenced-in corral where they would spend the night; and he would stand in the doorway, calling his sheep by name, one by one, counting to make sure they are all there, inspecting each one to see if it might be limping, or have a cut or a sore that needed to be rubbed with oil and medicine. Finally, when the sheep were bedded down, the shepherd would stretch out across the opening of the corral, becoming the door with his own body, guarding his flock through the dangerous hours of darkness. The role of the shepherd is to 1st) provide for the sheep; 2nd) protect the sheep; and 3rd, to KNOW his sheep, each one of them -- knowing which ones tend to be stragglers, which ones are curious to the point of recklessness, which ones need an especially nutritious diet, or a healing dab of ointment; which ones need to go slowly, or even at times be carried because they are old, or ailing, or very young, or are WITH young. So, when we think of the Lord as OUR Shepherd -- wow, what an active role that is! God provides for us -- He knows our needs, and is actively looking for ways to meet them. God protects us -- He reaches out again and again to pull us back onto the path, to pick us up when we fall, to beat off evils and troubles that are too much for us to bear; standing by us day and night to keep us safely within the flock. And, God knows us thru and thru -- every wish, every longing, every hurt, every joy, every struggle, every triumph, every disappointment, every prayer; and is prepared to lay out before us, not necessarily always what we WANT, but always what we need, day by day by day. "You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me; You have anointed my head with oil, and my cup is running over. The last two verses of the Psalm shift from the image of the shepherd, but carry the same message. They depict for us the sacred tradition of Middle Eastern hospitality, according to which the host is responsible not only for providing food and shelter for his guests, but also by having them seated at his table, the host accepts the responsibility of defending them from all harm. So with the Lord as our host, the Psalm says, we are SO well-provided-for that we have MORE in our cup and on our plate than we need; AND, the bountiful table is set for us right in the face of our enemies, flaunting our status as God's special guests, confident that our foes can only glare at us helplessly, unable to lay a finger on us to harm us. "Surely Your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." No, that does not mean that good things are always just a little bit behind me, a day late and a dollar short; the Psalm's wording, in the original Hebrew, carries the image of God's rich gifts CHASING AFTER US as we go through life, of God running after us calling "Wait! Stop! I have all these wonderful blessings to give you!" We so often get it backwards, looking for God out there ahead of us, straining forward, praying desperately, looking for that grass that's greener -- and all the while, God is chasing after us, so that all we have to do is be still and listen for the Shepherd's call, and follow where He leads, and all will be well. No wonder that we, the people of God, so love this passage of Scripture. It is for us the assurance that God is ACTIVE on our behalf; that He knows our needs, even better than we do ourselves; that He knows our fears and is standing by us and leading us on in spite of them; that RIGHT NOW, He is discerning our needs and laying out plans to meet them, if we only listen for His voice and step out in faith where He leads. We can step out confidently to follow, knowing that God's good gifts and His powerful love are chasing after us, and will catch up with us, and bless us with courage, with hope, with joy, with rich and abundant life, in these present days, and in a future that will unfold within the Lord's shepherding care. AMEN