May 12th,
2019 “Trusting the Shepherd” Rev. Heather Jepsen
Psalm 23 with John
10:22-30
This morning the lectionary readings
offer us our most favorite Psalm, Psalm 23.
This is one of our best loved passages of scripture and for good reason
as it is so beautifully written. Many
folks of a certain age can recite this Psalm by heart, usually in the King
James Version where our “cup runneth over.”
Folks my age are a more unchurched generation, and while we might not be
able to recite the whole thing by heart we are certainly familiar with its
words and phrases.
We always read this Psalm on the 4th
Sunday of Easter and it seems fitting to me to read it in the springtime. Its imagery of green pastures and still
waters is so in tune with our season that it just feels right. The Psalm doesn’t mention flowers but I
always seem to imagine them as part of its picture and that too is so fitting
today.
Of course, we love this Psalm at
funerals because it offers us comfort in our times of grief. The unfortunate thing is that it has become
the habit of many to only think of this Psalm at the time of death. This Psalm is all about how we live our life
now, rather than a vision of some faraway heaven, and so I think there is great
value in pulling it away from the maudlin funeral and placing it here, smack in
the middle of a joyous Sunday morning.
When I was reading and studying the
Psalm again this week I was struck by how much this Psalm is all about
trust. I believe the overarching message
of these familiar words is the call to trust in God. If God is the shepherd and we are the sheep
then we are called to follow where we are being led, no questions asked. God promises to lead us to good spaces: still
waters and green pastures, and also to places of suffering: valleys of darkness
and shadow. This isn’t a “nothing bad
will ever happen” message. I think
people forget that. Folks assume if they
let God lead than the path will only lead to good things and good times. A simple perusal of the life of Jesus, the
disciples, and the earlier followers of the divine will tell us that’s not
true. Every life’s journey involves
hardship. The message of the Psalmist is
that God will provide in the midst of that hardship.
It is within the valley of darkness
that the character of the Psalmist transforms from a following sheep to a
person of faith. A sheep is led by green
pastures and still waters; a sheep is corrected by rod and staff. But a person is fed at a table. A person is anointed with oil for healing and
blessing. And a person drinks from an
overflowing cup. Through the valley of darkness we are transformed from simple
sheep into people of faith. God still
provides, but now we are the ones too who bring goodness into the world.
The Psalmist writes that “goodness and
mercy will follow me all the days of my life.”
And we can read this two ways.
One is that these things pursue the Psalmist, blessings on the
chase. The other way, the way I prefer
to interpret this, is that the Psalmist leaves goodness in their own wake. Personally, this is how I strive to live my
own life. Like flowers blooming in the
path I walk, I hope that I leave goodness and mercy wherever I go. If love is a sign that I have been somewhere,
then I am doing the will of my God.
The last phrase as well, is one of
varied interpretation. We love this at
funerals as we understand “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever”
(that’s the King James) to mean we will dwell with God forever in heaven. But a more proper translation is the NRSV “I
will dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long” or even “the length of
my days”. That changes this from a
promise of God to me into a promise of me to God. If we read the whole of the Psalm to be about
God’s providence of good things to us, then this phrase is our response to
those promises of God. I will worship
God, I will live faith, and I will be true in my praise of this one God for all
my days. I will dwell in God’s house,
the temple, the church, for my whole life.
It is a call to right and faithful living and it is a call to worship.
The lectionary always pairs this Psalm
with other readings about shepherding and sheep, and as I mentioned last week,
we are in the gospel of John this whole month.
Here in chapter 10 we have Jesus visiting the temple during the festival
of the Dedication, which we have come to know as Hanukkah. The religious leaders are confused and asking
Jesus to plainly state whether or not he is the Messiah. Well, Jesus doesn’t say anything plainly in
the gospel of John, and these few verses are no exception.
As we work to tease meaning out of
John’s convoluted writing style we can see that Jesus is comparing the things
he does to the things that God does.
Like Paul’s words about our fruit revealing our faith, Jesus tells his
followers that his actions show that he is the Messiah. Furthermore, he compares himself to God,
declaring that he and the Father are one.
We have gotten used to this theological language but at the time this
gospel was written these words would be considered blasphemy. It’s no wonder Jesus was so good at making
people angry.
Jesus says that people who don’t
understand who he is are not part of his special group or his flock. This is where these verses connect with Psalm
23. “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” Jesus compares himself to a shepherd and his
followers to sheep. Those that don’t
understand who he is simply are not part of his flock.
This is where the rubber meets the road
for these readings, because the truth is, we don’t want to be sheep. Sure, we want to be part of the flock, we
want to be those that understand, we want to be “in” with the chosen group, but
we don’t want to be sheep. Being a sheep
is filled with negative connotations. It
brings to mind mindless following, not thinking, just going along, and not
being critical. At its worst, being a
sheep means being stupid. And we don’t
want to be stupid followers, we want to be leaders. We want to be in charge. The truth is we want to be shepherds; we
don’t want to be sheep.
I remember struggling a lot with this
when I was new to the faith. I have said
before that I didn’t accept Christianity until I was in my 20s. And prior to that acceptance I referred to
Christians as sheep in a negative connotation.
I thought followers of the church were stupid unthinking masses, and it
was the last place I wanted to be. I had
been told that being a Christian meant not asking questions, I had been told
that faith meant not asking questions, and I had been told that if I had
questions in my heart I was a sinner.
Now I know none of that is true.
Those are not the kind of sheep God is looking for.
Now I think that being a sheep, being a
follower of our shepherd Lord is about something more. It isn’t about blindly following. It is about trusting God. When we look back at Psalm 23 we see that God
is a God who will provide for us. Trusting
in that providence, trusting in God to make a way in the world for us; is the
foundation of our faith. And it is one
of the most difficult things to do.
Often we don’t trust God and so we try to make our own way in the
world. I believe that this is the root
of our sinful behavior. We try to
provide for ourselves, we try to force the world to bend to our own will, and we
try to secure our own future. We don’t
trust God to hand us blessings, we try to reach and grab them for
ourselves. We don’t trust God to lead us
to green pastures, so we wander off to find them for ourselves. That is when we get in trouble.
All people, from pastors to people in
the pews, struggle to have as much faith as this Psalmist does. We struggle to let God lead us and provide
for us. A few weeks ago a famous young
Christian author, Rachel Held Evans died from a bad combination of the flu,
infection, and a reaction to antibiotics.
In the circles I roll, namely young female pastors, there was
panic. If that could happen to her it
could happen to me. I knew I was on the
cusp of becoming old female clergy because my reaction to the panic was
“duh!”
You can’t live the life of a pastor
without coming face to face with all sorts of awfulness and sadness. And
anything that happens to anyone could also happen to you. It’s hard to look at life this way but it is
the root of compassion. If we can trust
God like the Psalmist we know that bad things can happen, and we might even die,
but God still provides. If I die, God
will make a way for those I love. I am
not the be all, end all of the world.
Being a sheep of the good shepherd is about trusting God to provide for
me while I am alive, and trusting God to provide for those I love after I am
gone. It’s not easy, but it’s the root
of our faith.
I would be remiss if I didn’t bring in
motherhood somehow on this Mother’s Day. We often hear fatherly language for God but
those who are familiar with me know that I am just as likely to bring in
mothering imagery as well. They are both
present in the scriptures. One of my favorite
moments in ministry was when I was leading a bible study at a nursing
home. I was discussing variations on the
Lord’s Prayer with a group of elderly ladies and I encouraged them to consider
the words, “Our Mother who art in heaven” instead. Suddenly a 90 year old woman perked up. She had never considered such a notion and
she found it shocking. I asked what felt
differently about a heavenly mother and she said “a mother is always
there”. It was a profound moment for
both her and me.
Of course, one of the reasons we always
read this Psalm in the season after Easter is that this is when we remember
that our Lord Jesus is always there.
This season of the church year we remember that Jesus suffered and that
Jesus died. The one who felt forsaken on
the cross is able to accompany us into the godforsaken parts of our lives. The death and resurrection of our Lord shows
us the presence of God in the valley and shadow of death. Our God goes with us into suffering, because
our God is familiar with suffering and death.
Our God is always there because there is nowhere we can go, nothing we
can go through, that our God hasn’t already been through. Our God leads us through adversity, as our
God continues to provide for us. Again,
our challenge is to trust.
This week as we consider the comforting
and familiar words of Psalm 23, I would invite you to reconsider your role as a
sheep. Being a follower of the good
shepherd does not mean blindly following along without asking questions. Being a follower of God, does mean trusting
in God to provide for us. How can taking
this Psalm back from the funereal clutches of death reignite our vigor for
life? How can trusting in God to make a
way for us help us to let go of the struggle to force our own way in the
world? How can listening for the voice
of the good shepherd help us ignore the siren song of so much temptation? This week I encourage you to once again
consider the words of the 23rd Psalm and to look for the providence
of the Lord in your life. May God
continue to bless us as we continue to follow.
And may we dwell in the house of the Lord all of our days. Amen.
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