Fifth Sunday after Pentecost 6/27/10 Psalm 23
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
6/27/10
Text: Psalm 23
Title: Jesus is our Good Shepherd
My dear fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, as I was recuperating from my surgery I began to wonder why it is that, as a people of God, Christians have real trouble living Christian lives. They go to church sing hymns, hear the Word of God being read, listen to the pastor, and in those congregation that have a correct understanding of the sacraments partake in the Lord’s Supper and yet those meeting them outside of the church setting would have a hard time knowing that they are Christians.
I have wrestled with that question for many years and it was not until my surgery and recovery time that I came, actually God gave me the answer to the problem. It was sort of like Elijah story of our Old Testament text today. I, in fact I would say most Christians expect God to talk to us in mighty ways like making life better if we only worship him, or pray to him, or give enough money to him. That was Elijah, but God did not act like Elijah thought he should act. God acted in silence.
Our text says, “sound of low whisper, actually the Hebrew translation is a “small bit of silence”. After all that commotion, the wind that was so strong that it broke rocks, the earthquake, and fire, it was the reigning down of fire; silence. Elijah went out covering his face because he knew something was up and that God must be involved. God then speaks to Elijah asking him, “What are you doing here?” In other words, “Why are you not where you are suppose to be doing what you are suppose to be doing; that is speaking to the people the words I give you?”
As the story goes on Elijah starts to whine to God about how he has done so much for God and he had, when God stops him telling him what he is going to do because God has already set things in motion. Just go and trust me says God. I am going to take care of you.
Today we too are put upon. Not by people trying to kill us, although in many parts of the world Christian pastors and the members of the congregations are being murdered because of their faith in Jesus, as their Savior. We are put upon in a different way. Society, as much as they need the good news of Jesus saving act quite often look upon Christians with scorn, as being the religion of the weak. We are laughed at and ridiculed and many times justly, for our behavior many times does not show the faith we proclaim. You know, love God above all things and love your neighbor as yourself. We are put upon with our own sinful thoughts and desires, seemingly unable to control them. We are put upon by the common belief that God helps those who help themselves which is just the opposite of what Jesus taught. God helps those who cannot help themselves. He helps those who throw themselves on his mercy seeking with their whole heart his help because they know that their very existence depends on him.
I know many Christians will disagree with what I just said because they believe that for the most part we know we need to know about life and what we don’t know now we will know in the future. We believe that we can for the most part control our destiny even picking out how and when we die. All of that is completely false thinking, for we know, even though we don’t want to admit to it, that we don’t know the next second of our life. We need help. We need someone who truly loves us, who truly cares for us, who truly has our best interest at heart and that person is Jesus Christ our Good Shepherd.
One of the problems we have in understanding and applying God’s Holy Word to our lives lays in we, as Western thinkers think in the abstract especially in the areas of religion. The Bible especially the Old Testament was written to people who for the most part did not think in the abstract, but in the concrete, just as they still do today.
God to a Jew was literally a rock, a mountain, lightning and thunder, pillars of fire and billowing clouds. God shook the mountains, and stirred up the water. God to us is creator, all powerful, all knowing, all loving, etc which are all abstract ways of thinking. I would say that if I were to ask any of you today to describe God in a concrete way you would be very hard pressed to do so and therein is the problem. That is why we have such a hard time understanding the Word of God, especially the Old Testament
I will show you what I mean by taking an abbreviated look at Psalm 23 which is one of the most beloved psalms ever written. It is a Psalm that brings comfort to those who are dying and their families. It is a Psalm that if I were a betting man I would say that Jesus was thinking about during his trial and crucifixion. To him it was real. God was his shepherd.
If you were to go to Israel or Palestine today you would see that shepherding has not changed much over thousands of years. The shepherd usually a young boy or girl takes the sheep out early in the morning to find grazing for them. The sheep know the voice of the shepherd. When he or she calls they follow. They will not follow the voice of another shepherd.
In Israel today there are these huge stream beds, some a half mile or more across that are virtually dry all year long. I read an article this past week that told of one settlement that had had not had any rain for 25 years. Now up in the mountains an entirely different scene. There comes in the spring and fall what I would call gully washers. Extreme amounts of water pouring off the mountains down into these dry stream beds engulfing anything in their way without warning. Maybe something like the rains a few weeks ago that killed so many campers in Arkansas.
There is the shepherd responsible for the sheep. He or she keeps the sheep out of these dry stream beds because they know that even though the stream is dry and there is no rain, it could become a dangerous stream drowning the flock if they were allowed to drink water from any pools of water. The shepherd finds pools of water outside the stream bed that is safe.
In the desert sheep generally have to eat dry grass because there is no rainfall, but the good shepherd will find green grass around the pools of water thus the sheep get to eat and drink in safety.
The shepherd knows the paths to the green grass and water, so he leads the sheep down the paths that are safe for the sheep, if they just follow the voice of the shepherd and stay on the path and no harm comes to them.
In verse 4 of Psalm 23 we are told that “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” While it is true that God is with us even in death, the Hebrew says, “Even though I walk through the deepest of shadows I will fear no evil.” That caught my eye, so I did some research and discovered that as the evening shadows started getting longer the shepherd would move from being out front of the sheep to being in the middle of the sheep where he or she could better watch out for them, for at the time the Psalm was written there were jackals, lions, and bears roaming the area.
The shepherd would use the tools of his trade to protect the sheep who are defenseless without him. Take the shepherd out of the picture and you will have a bunch of sheep wandering off the path going where they are not suppose to be going, as they look for better food and water. Take the shepherd out of the picture and you will have dead sheep torn apart by the wild animals. Take the shepherd out of the picture and you will have no sheep.
That my dear brothers and sisters is what would happen to us without our shepherd Jesus, the one who leads us with his Word, the word that always points us in the right direction. He keeps us out of those dangerous areas of life, if we listen to him, for, as the old saying goes, “You can lead a horse, or you could say in this case a sheep, to water, but you cannot make him drink.” Our shepherd Jesus makes sure that we have the spiritual food and drink that we need to survive, for even though we are eating and drinking spiritual food our bodies, the bodies that we have are nourished by that spiritual food and drink. Our Shepherd Jesus gathers us close in those dark times of our lives when our health is deteriorating, or loved ones are hurting, or relationships are falling apart, or finances that we have staked everything on have crumbled.
Our Shepherd Jesus is not just some abstract thought. He is a real live person who was born, lived, suffered, and died to protect us from the harm that that threatens to kill not only our body, but our soul. Our Shepherd Jesus will come back in that physical body to call all who truly knew him to be with him forever in the new heaven and earth, not just some abstract place, but a real heaven and earth. Amen.
6/27/10
Text: Psalm 23
Title: Jesus is our Good Shepherd
My dear fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, as I was recuperating from my surgery I began to wonder why it is that, as a people of God, Christians have real trouble living Christian lives. They go to church sing hymns, hear the Word of God being read, listen to the pastor, and in those congregation that have a correct understanding of the sacraments partake in the Lord’s Supper and yet those meeting them outside of the church setting would have a hard time knowing that they are Christians.
I have wrestled with that question for many years and it was not until my surgery and recovery time that I came, actually God gave me the answer to the problem. It was sort of like Elijah story of our Old Testament text today. I, in fact I would say most Christians expect God to talk to us in mighty ways like making life better if we only worship him, or pray to him, or give enough money to him. That was Elijah, but God did not act like Elijah thought he should act. God acted in silence.
Our text says, “sound of low whisper, actually the Hebrew translation is a “small bit of silence”. After all that commotion, the wind that was so strong that it broke rocks, the earthquake, and fire, it was the reigning down of fire; silence. Elijah went out covering his face because he knew something was up and that God must be involved. God then speaks to Elijah asking him, “What are you doing here?” In other words, “Why are you not where you are suppose to be doing what you are suppose to be doing; that is speaking to the people the words I give you?”
As the story goes on Elijah starts to whine to God about how he has done so much for God and he had, when God stops him telling him what he is going to do because God has already set things in motion. Just go and trust me says God. I am going to take care of you.
Today we too are put upon. Not by people trying to kill us, although in many parts of the world Christian pastors and the members of the congregations are being murdered because of their faith in Jesus, as their Savior. We are put upon in a different way. Society, as much as they need the good news of Jesus saving act quite often look upon Christians with scorn, as being the religion of the weak. We are laughed at and ridiculed and many times justly, for our behavior many times does not show the faith we proclaim. You know, love God above all things and love your neighbor as yourself. We are put upon with our own sinful thoughts and desires, seemingly unable to control them. We are put upon by the common belief that God helps those who help themselves which is just the opposite of what Jesus taught. God helps those who cannot help themselves. He helps those who throw themselves on his mercy seeking with their whole heart his help because they know that their very existence depends on him.
I know many Christians will disagree with what I just said because they believe that for the most part we know we need to know about life and what we don’t know now we will know in the future. We believe that we can for the most part control our destiny even picking out how and when we die. All of that is completely false thinking, for we know, even though we don’t want to admit to it, that we don’t know the next second of our life. We need help. We need someone who truly loves us, who truly cares for us, who truly has our best interest at heart and that person is Jesus Christ our Good Shepherd.
One of the problems we have in understanding and applying God’s Holy Word to our lives lays in we, as Western thinkers think in the abstract especially in the areas of religion. The Bible especially the Old Testament was written to people who for the most part did not think in the abstract, but in the concrete, just as they still do today.
God to a Jew was literally a rock, a mountain, lightning and thunder, pillars of fire and billowing clouds. God shook the mountains, and stirred up the water. God to us is creator, all powerful, all knowing, all loving, etc which are all abstract ways of thinking. I would say that if I were to ask any of you today to describe God in a concrete way you would be very hard pressed to do so and therein is the problem. That is why we have such a hard time understanding the Word of God, especially the Old Testament
I will show you what I mean by taking an abbreviated look at Psalm 23 which is one of the most beloved psalms ever written. It is a Psalm that brings comfort to those who are dying and their families. It is a Psalm that if I were a betting man I would say that Jesus was thinking about during his trial and crucifixion. To him it was real. God was his shepherd.
If you were to go to Israel or Palestine today you would see that shepherding has not changed much over thousands of years. The shepherd usually a young boy or girl takes the sheep out early in the morning to find grazing for them. The sheep know the voice of the shepherd. When he or she calls they follow. They will not follow the voice of another shepherd.
In Israel today there are these huge stream beds, some a half mile or more across that are virtually dry all year long. I read an article this past week that told of one settlement that had had not had any rain for 25 years. Now up in the mountains an entirely different scene. There comes in the spring and fall what I would call gully washers. Extreme amounts of water pouring off the mountains down into these dry stream beds engulfing anything in their way without warning. Maybe something like the rains a few weeks ago that killed so many campers in Arkansas.
There is the shepherd responsible for the sheep. He or she keeps the sheep out of these dry stream beds because they know that even though the stream is dry and there is no rain, it could become a dangerous stream drowning the flock if they were allowed to drink water from any pools of water. The shepherd finds pools of water outside the stream bed that is safe.
In the desert sheep generally have to eat dry grass because there is no rainfall, but the good shepherd will find green grass around the pools of water thus the sheep get to eat and drink in safety.
The shepherd knows the paths to the green grass and water, so he leads the sheep down the paths that are safe for the sheep, if they just follow the voice of the shepherd and stay on the path and no harm comes to them.
In verse 4 of Psalm 23 we are told that “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” While it is true that God is with us even in death, the Hebrew says, “Even though I walk through the deepest of shadows I will fear no evil.” That caught my eye, so I did some research and discovered that as the evening shadows started getting longer the shepherd would move from being out front of the sheep to being in the middle of the sheep where he or she could better watch out for them, for at the time the Psalm was written there were jackals, lions, and bears roaming the area.
The shepherd would use the tools of his trade to protect the sheep who are defenseless without him. Take the shepherd out of the picture and you will have a bunch of sheep wandering off the path going where they are not suppose to be going, as they look for better food and water. Take the shepherd out of the picture and you will have dead sheep torn apart by the wild animals. Take the shepherd out of the picture and you will have no sheep.
That my dear brothers and sisters is what would happen to us without our shepherd Jesus, the one who leads us with his Word, the word that always points us in the right direction. He keeps us out of those dangerous areas of life, if we listen to him, for, as the old saying goes, “You can lead a horse, or you could say in this case a sheep, to water, but you cannot make him drink.” Our shepherd Jesus makes sure that we have the spiritual food and drink that we need to survive, for even though we are eating and drinking spiritual food our bodies, the bodies that we have are nourished by that spiritual food and drink. Our Shepherd Jesus gathers us close in those dark times of our lives when our health is deteriorating, or loved ones are hurting, or relationships are falling apart, or finances that we have staked everything on have crumbled.
Our Shepherd Jesus is not just some abstract thought. He is a real live person who was born, lived, suffered, and died to protect us from the harm that that threatens to kill not only our body, but our soul. Our Shepherd Jesus will come back in that physical body to call all who truly knew him to be with him forever in the new heaven and earth, not just some abstract place, but a real heaven and earth. Amen.
posted by Pastor Rhoads | 12:37 PM
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