4th Sunday of Easter 04/13/08 Text: Psalm 23 Title: Whose Shepherd is He?
4th Sunday of Easter
04/13/08
Text: Psalm 23
Title: Whose Shepherd is He?
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. It is that Sunday when we read all those wonderful texts about Jesus being our Good Shepherd. As I studied the assigned texts for the week. As I studied them with the group that meets on Wednesday evening here at the church. As I meditated and prayed about them during the week I was no closer to what I wanted to talk to you about this morning than I was at the beginning of the week. It was not until I sat down Friday morning and read the 23rd Psalm that it all started coming together.
I have to be honest with you I had decided not to speak to you today about the 23 Psalm, so I did not study the Psalm during the week. What more could I say about it that all of you do not know. If you were raised a Lutheran, and I think probably most any other brand of Christian you were probably memorized it at some time or other pretty early in your life.
How often, especially if you are older, have you, in a moment of crises pulled the Bible down from its shelf, dusted it off and read the 23rd Psalm? That Psalm has provided many a person with comfort. That Psalm has become for us, a frantic cry of our heart when we are desperate, when all else has failed.
Really, what promises this psalm puts forward! It is good for us to return to this morning, savoring, pondering each line, rather than thoughtlessly repeating it. Returning to it when we are not in crises brings much in the way of rewards, for it promises so much.
Join me in saying the first line. “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Stop for a moment and think about what you just said, actually confessed. This is quite a claim, after all! How could you dare make such a bold statement, a claim bordering on spiritual pride, even arrogance; the LORD, God, the Creator of the Universe, the God of the Exodus, is my shepherd; mine! Can we really make such a claim?
Israel surely could, that is for sure. The LORD was indeed Israel’s shepherd, as Israel made its way out of Egypt, out of slavery, and onto the land promised to them forever, with the LORD, yes the LORD, shepherding them with mighty acts of salvation. When Israel was in the wilderness, Israel wanted for nothing; Israel lacked nothing. The LORD provided what Israel needed: manna for food, water out of a rock, leadership from Moses, correction when straying off to golden calves and to political rebellion. The clothes on their backs did not wear out; the sandals on their feet did not rot away. There is no doubt that God provided for Israel as a shepherd provides for sheep. They could call him “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
Even before they left Egypt, that time they spent helplessly in the iron hand of an oppressor requiring them, to not just make bricks, a fulltime 7 day a week job by itself, but to gather the straw for the bricks; even then, as strange as it might sound, God was Israel’s shepherd.
The Israelites, ground down and worn out, could do nothing for themselves. In the middle of that mess, God raised up Moses to lead them out from under Pharaoh’s crushing oppression. God was Moses’ shepherd even before he was born of the marriage of an unnamed Levite man and an unnamed Levite woman. God was his shepherd as he was shielded from Pharaoh’s grip by the resourcefulness of his sister Miriam.
God was the Shepherd of Moses when he fled from Egypt and as he watched his flock in Midian. Moses was even shepherded by God when he was called by God’s voice from the burning bush to go back and rescue the Israelites. Which I might add was not what Moses wanted to do. Moses, himself while being shepherded by God, shepherded Israel out of Egypt. Then, during that time in the wilderness, when the Israelites could do nothing for themselves except complain, God directly took over the shepherding as he provided food from heaven and water from bare rock. God provided. God was Moses’ shepherd; God was Israel’s shepherd.
So who can make this claim? “The Lord is my Shepherd”. Israel and Moses, certainly can. David can too. God was surely David’s shepherd. When no one, absolutely no one outside of his village, took him seriously as the one who would be a powerful king, the LORD raised up Samuel to anoint him king, selecting him over his brothers who were far more likely contenders.
God was David’s Shepherd and David, himself a shepherd, is traditionally given credit for this Psalm. Surely he can make the claim, “The LORD is my shepherd.” Yes, when you think of it, there are many scattered throughout what we call the Old Testament who could pray this psalm and mean it: “The LORD is my shepherd.”
We have what the letter to the Hebrews calls a great cloud of witnesses, who, when they were reduced to nothing, were led, shepherded, provided for by the LORD. Deborah and Barak, Gideon, laying out his fleece, all guided to take on the mighty Philistine charioteers and prevail. Ruth, clinging to the faith of her mother-in-law leaving her country and her kindred and her parents’ house. The prophets: Isaiah; Jeremiah, no more than a child, yet speaking the truth to power, and being imprisoned in a dry well for his trouble, brought out again by the intervention of those who had ears to hear God speaking through him.
There are a lot of people in the Old Testament who could make that claim. We could keep on listing off names until finally we got to David’s direct descendant, the one we call our Lord; Jesus Christ. Jesus could pray this prayer, as he lived his life, as he suffered, as he died on the cross, for he knew the LORD was his shepherd.
The first apostles surely laid claim to, “The LORD is my shepherd.” They could lay claim to, “The LORD is my shepherd even as they cowered behind lock doors, for it was then that the risen Lord, Jesus; the Good Shepherd was there among them, showing them his hands and his side, sending them forth to proclaim the Good News to a world hungry for it.
Even Saul the enemy of the Christian church, later renamed by Jesus, Paul, who was yanked off his horse by the Good Shepherd’s staff that day as he made his way to Damascus would later proclaim with his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, “The Lord is my shepherd!” as they were arrested, beaten, thrown in jail. They all had as much claim on those words, “the LORD is my shepherd” as any of the great people we read about in the Old Testament.
What about us? Can we be so bold as to make this claim, “The LORD is my shepherd?” Can we move beyond reciting, yet barely daring to believe, these verses as words we were required to memorize as children? How, and when, do these words, “The LORD is my shepherd,” become, not just words in the Bible, not just some words we memorized when we were young, but our words, my words? How do I lay claim to these words and make them mine?
I think it is absolutely critical to our faith life that we too understand that those words, “The LORD is my shepherd” are our words, our statement of faith. Let’s look at what comes after the psalmist makes his claim, “The LORD is my shepherd.” I will, the psalmist says; I am going to paraphrase this, lie down in green pastures. I will surely find myself beside, not troubled waters, but still waters. My soul shall be restored. I will discover right paths, and even in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for the LORD, who is indeed my shepherd, will lead me.
There is no doubt that the writer of this Psalm makes a bold claim in the first verse: “The LORD is my shepherd.” But then the bold claims stop. They have too, for you see from that point forward everything is from God’s perfect holy will.
Those green pastures might not be, in fact they probably will not be, the pastures I sought out or constructed; it is the LORD who will lead me to them.
Those quiet still waters, it is the LORD who will take me there. I myself, in my own wisdom, have not a clue where they are or how to find them. I cannot find my way to them any more than sheep can when they are left on their own.
In making such a bold claim that, “The Lord is my shepherd” we must by necessity understand that we are the sheep, poor, ignorant, and naturally wandering sheep. And, therein lies the proverbial rub for us people of this postmodern world, this self-sufficient, independent culture.
We would rather wander in the wilderness than admit that we even need a shepherd. We hold in contempt the very idea that any God worthy of the name, worthy of us would stoop to be something so lowly as a shepherd. We do not want a “shepherd” anyway; we want a warrior king to turn us into a triumphant army of which we will be co-commanders. At the very least, we want a physical healer and wealth-gather. Jesus as a shepherd just does not fit that picture and so we keep trying to remake our Lord into something he is not. He is a shepherd and according to our Gospel reading, he is the gate too.
If we would lay claim to this claim, “The Lord is my shepherd.” A claim made by so many throughout the centuries, we need also to lay claim to our absolute need for God. If I would pray, The LORD is my shepherd, I have to relinquish my claim that I will find my own way forward. If I would have the LORD as my shepherd, I have to let go of our expectation that I will find pastures for ourselves; that we with our technology and our “can-do” spirit will get water for ourselves from whatever rock dares stand in our way.
Are you ready to let go, so that you can truly claim, “The Lord is my Shepherd”? If you are, just let go. Rest in the presence of the LORD. Seek his guidance in prayer. Let go and let the LORD do what he came to do, forgive, comfort, and lead.
He will lead us forward, to green pastures, still waters. He will take us down our right path, even if our right path takes us into the very Valley of the Shadow of Death. We, in rightly confessing that Jesus is our Shepherd, will in our humility, as poor as it is, will be bold, in that we will fear no evil, for we will know our shepherd, and we will know that the shepherd, our shepherd, will be with us always. Amen.
04/13/08
Text: Psalm 23
Title: Whose Shepherd is He?
Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. It is that Sunday when we read all those wonderful texts about Jesus being our Good Shepherd. As I studied the assigned texts for the week. As I studied them with the group that meets on Wednesday evening here at the church. As I meditated and prayed about them during the week I was no closer to what I wanted to talk to you about this morning than I was at the beginning of the week. It was not until I sat down Friday morning and read the 23rd Psalm that it all started coming together.
I have to be honest with you I had decided not to speak to you today about the 23 Psalm, so I did not study the Psalm during the week. What more could I say about it that all of you do not know. If you were raised a Lutheran, and I think probably most any other brand of Christian you were probably memorized it at some time or other pretty early in your life.
How often, especially if you are older, have you, in a moment of crises pulled the Bible down from its shelf, dusted it off and read the 23rd Psalm? That Psalm has provided many a person with comfort. That Psalm has become for us, a frantic cry of our heart when we are desperate, when all else has failed.
Really, what promises this psalm puts forward! It is good for us to return to this morning, savoring, pondering each line, rather than thoughtlessly repeating it. Returning to it when we are not in crises brings much in the way of rewards, for it promises so much.
Join me in saying the first line. “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Stop for a moment and think about what you just said, actually confessed. This is quite a claim, after all! How could you dare make such a bold statement, a claim bordering on spiritual pride, even arrogance; the LORD, God, the Creator of the Universe, the God of the Exodus, is my shepherd; mine! Can we really make such a claim?
Israel surely could, that is for sure. The LORD was indeed Israel’s shepherd, as Israel made its way out of Egypt, out of slavery, and onto the land promised to them forever, with the LORD, yes the LORD, shepherding them with mighty acts of salvation. When Israel was in the wilderness, Israel wanted for nothing; Israel lacked nothing. The LORD provided what Israel needed: manna for food, water out of a rock, leadership from Moses, correction when straying off to golden calves and to political rebellion. The clothes on their backs did not wear out; the sandals on their feet did not rot away. There is no doubt that God provided for Israel as a shepherd provides for sheep. They could call him “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
Even before they left Egypt, that time they spent helplessly in the iron hand of an oppressor requiring them, to not just make bricks, a fulltime 7 day a week job by itself, but to gather the straw for the bricks; even then, as strange as it might sound, God was Israel’s shepherd.
The Israelites, ground down and worn out, could do nothing for themselves. In the middle of that mess, God raised up Moses to lead them out from under Pharaoh’s crushing oppression. God was Moses’ shepherd even before he was born of the marriage of an unnamed Levite man and an unnamed Levite woman. God was his shepherd as he was shielded from Pharaoh’s grip by the resourcefulness of his sister Miriam.
God was the Shepherd of Moses when he fled from Egypt and as he watched his flock in Midian. Moses was even shepherded by God when he was called by God’s voice from the burning bush to go back and rescue the Israelites. Which I might add was not what Moses wanted to do. Moses, himself while being shepherded by God, shepherded Israel out of Egypt. Then, during that time in the wilderness, when the Israelites could do nothing for themselves except complain, God directly took over the shepherding as he provided food from heaven and water from bare rock. God provided. God was Moses’ shepherd; God was Israel’s shepherd.
So who can make this claim? “The Lord is my Shepherd”. Israel and Moses, certainly can. David can too. God was surely David’s shepherd. When no one, absolutely no one outside of his village, took him seriously as the one who would be a powerful king, the LORD raised up Samuel to anoint him king, selecting him over his brothers who were far more likely contenders.
God was David’s Shepherd and David, himself a shepherd, is traditionally given credit for this Psalm. Surely he can make the claim, “The LORD is my shepherd.” Yes, when you think of it, there are many scattered throughout what we call the Old Testament who could pray this psalm and mean it: “The LORD is my shepherd.”
We have what the letter to the Hebrews calls a great cloud of witnesses, who, when they were reduced to nothing, were led, shepherded, provided for by the LORD. Deborah and Barak, Gideon, laying out his fleece, all guided to take on the mighty Philistine charioteers and prevail. Ruth, clinging to the faith of her mother-in-law leaving her country and her kindred and her parents’ house. The prophets: Isaiah; Jeremiah, no more than a child, yet speaking the truth to power, and being imprisoned in a dry well for his trouble, brought out again by the intervention of those who had ears to hear God speaking through him.
There are a lot of people in the Old Testament who could make that claim. We could keep on listing off names until finally we got to David’s direct descendant, the one we call our Lord; Jesus Christ. Jesus could pray this prayer, as he lived his life, as he suffered, as he died on the cross, for he knew the LORD was his shepherd.
The first apostles surely laid claim to, “The LORD is my shepherd.” They could lay claim to, “The LORD is my shepherd even as they cowered behind lock doors, for it was then that the risen Lord, Jesus; the Good Shepherd was there among them, showing them his hands and his side, sending them forth to proclaim the Good News to a world hungry for it.
Even Saul the enemy of the Christian church, later renamed by Jesus, Paul, who was yanked off his horse by the Good Shepherd’s staff that day as he made his way to Damascus would later proclaim with his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, “The Lord is my shepherd!” as they were arrested, beaten, thrown in jail. They all had as much claim on those words, “the LORD is my shepherd” as any of the great people we read about in the Old Testament.
What about us? Can we be so bold as to make this claim, “The LORD is my shepherd?” Can we move beyond reciting, yet barely daring to believe, these verses as words we were required to memorize as children? How, and when, do these words, “The LORD is my shepherd,” become, not just words in the Bible, not just some words we memorized when we were young, but our words, my words? How do I lay claim to these words and make them mine?
I think it is absolutely critical to our faith life that we too understand that those words, “The LORD is my shepherd” are our words, our statement of faith. Let’s look at what comes after the psalmist makes his claim, “The LORD is my shepherd.” I will, the psalmist says; I am going to paraphrase this, lie down in green pastures. I will surely find myself beside, not troubled waters, but still waters. My soul shall be restored. I will discover right paths, and even in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for the LORD, who is indeed my shepherd, will lead me.
There is no doubt that the writer of this Psalm makes a bold claim in the first verse: “The LORD is my shepherd.” But then the bold claims stop. They have too, for you see from that point forward everything is from God’s perfect holy will.
Those green pastures might not be, in fact they probably will not be, the pastures I sought out or constructed; it is the LORD who will lead me to them.
Those quiet still waters, it is the LORD who will take me there. I myself, in my own wisdom, have not a clue where they are or how to find them. I cannot find my way to them any more than sheep can when they are left on their own.
In making such a bold claim that, “The Lord is my shepherd” we must by necessity understand that we are the sheep, poor, ignorant, and naturally wandering sheep. And, therein lies the proverbial rub for us people of this postmodern world, this self-sufficient, independent culture.
We would rather wander in the wilderness than admit that we even need a shepherd. We hold in contempt the very idea that any God worthy of the name, worthy of us would stoop to be something so lowly as a shepherd. We do not want a “shepherd” anyway; we want a warrior king to turn us into a triumphant army of which we will be co-commanders. At the very least, we want a physical healer and wealth-gather. Jesus as a shepherd just does not fit that picture and so we keep trying to remake our Lord into something he is not. He is a shepherd and according to our Gospel reading, he is the gate too.
If we would lay claim to this claim, “The Lord is my shepherd.” A claim made by so many throughout the centuries, we need also to lay claim to our absolute need for God. If I would pray, The LORD is my shepherd, I have to relinquish my claim that I will find my own way forward. If I would have the LORD as my shepherd, I have to let go of our expectation that I will find pastures for ourselves; that we with our technology and our “can-do” spirit will get water for ourselves from whatever rock dares stand in our way.
Are you ready to let go, so that you can truly claim, “The Lord is my Shepherd”? If you are, just let go. Rest in the presence of the LORD. Seek his guidance in prayer. Let go and let the LORD do what he came to do, forgive, comfort, and lead.
He will lead us forward, to green pastures, still waters. He will take us down our right path, even if our right path takes us into the very Valley of the Shadow of Death. We, in rightly confessing that Jesus is our Shepherd, will in our humility, as poor as it is, will be bold, in that we will fear no evil, for we will know our shepherd, and we will know that the shepherd, our shepherd, will be with us always. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 5:15 PM
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