What if the Lord actually is my shepherd?
Sermon by Andy Wurm, Easter 4, April 12th 2019
Our psalm for today can challenge us to think about what sort of God we believe in. For many, God is nothing more than a background figure, who created the world and lets it run by itself, but Psalm 23 speaks of God as very personal: the Lord is my shepherd.
It’s extraordinary, because it comes from a time when religion was a communal thing, not so much considered an individual’s business. The ancient Jews referred to Yahweh as their shepherd. Their neighbours, who worshipped Shamash, a sun god, considered him their shepherd too. But God was always the god of a people. We tend to forget that perspective. It’s not that God belongs to us in the old tribal sense, but that our church, our community, our nation, has a relationship with God too. So how does God’s love play out in a community, or in the action of a nation? When religion is purely a private matter, we ignore the communal aspect. I don’t mean that everyone in our nation should be Christian, but that as far as our relationship with God goes, justice and care for the vulnerable are far more important than matters such as an individual’s sexual orientation, for instance.
It’s interesting too, that this psalm is given a subscript in the bible – as ‘a psalm of David’. If we read the psalm from the perspective of a king – that the Lord is his shepherd, it means that as the leader of a nation, he recognises his dependence upon God. He acknowledges his fallibility and that to do his job requires God’s help. So how about us, in our leadership roles, as parents, grandparents, or as we act as someone’s carer: in what way do we need to rely upon God? In what way might God refresh our souls, as we fulfil our role? How might we lead others beside still waters?
The Lord is my shepherd : therefore can I lack nothing. How different is that to the message we usually hear, which focuses on what we lack, or what we supposedly lack? – money, security, certainty, status. We’re constantly encouraged to pursue and then protect what we are told we lack and ‘should’ have. It encourages a mentality of scarcity. But what if we do have enough? What if there is enough in the present for us? What if we are doing just what we should be doing at present in our lives? Very young children stop to observe insects on the ground, as busy parents attempt to rush them to the next thing. What if this moment, this day, or season, is one of fullness, a gift from God, containing all we need to thrive and contribute to the world? Someone composed this alternate version of Psalm 23:
The clock is my dictator, I shall not rest.
It makes me lie down only when exhausted.
It leads me into deep depression.
It hounds my soul.
It leads me in circles of frenzy, for activities sake.
Even though I run frantically from task to task,
I will never get it all done,
For my ideal is with me
Deadlines and my need for approval, they drive me.
They demand performance from me, beyond the limits of my schedule.
They anoint my head with migraines
My in-basket overflows.
Surely fatigue and time pressures shall follow me
All the days of my life.
And I will dwell in the bonds of frustration forever.
How different would our lives be, if we lived as if we lack nothing – that God provided all we need?
The shepherd will make me lie down in green pastures. Imagine a sheep doing that. Apparently sheep living where there are no predators don’t flock together. They’re secure enough to stand alone. The image of lying down in a green field suggests relaxing back, allowing yourself to just be. Do you allow God’s peace and love to wash over you? It means that nothing is required of you, other than to just be yourself. Do you accept what your life is at present? Do you allow yourself to do nothing at times?
The shepherd leads, refreshes and guides for his name’s sake. In other words, God acts only according to God’s nature. Only always, as love, for love. There is no other way for God to be, therefore we are always loved and never need to earn God’s favour.
Once, during a stressful time in my life, my soul needed refreshing. After six weeks of trying to buy a phone from Telstra, I was directed to a Telstra shop, where the wrongly-titled ‘assistant’ told me it was not possible. It’s an understatement to say I was angry. De (my wife) helped me calm down a little, but my soul was still deeply disturbed. Later on, I was in the car, waiting at traffic lights, when I noticed the driver behind me maneuvering his car strangely. Then I realized he was trying to make room so a woman behind him could turn left at the lights. Somehow, his action, mystically, transformed me. I felt less bothered. It was love that did it – a gesture of help by that man for a stranger. That’s the Lord refreshing my soul – through acts of love. It wasn’t total refreshment though. After shopping at the market, there was still some residual anger, however, I found the Lord shepherding me towards the ice-cream stall. Wrongly thinking that ice-cream would refresh my soul, I was joyfully surprised by the man who served the ice-cream, having a guitar slung over his shoulder and strumming little tunes for customers as he served ice-cream. Then was my soul refreshed.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me. God does not take way our suffering, nor is God waiting at the end of it to welcome us into his arms, rather, God is with us in our darkest times. It’s not always obvious though, partly because we’re looking for something that is not the true God, who is so with us to not be noticeable as God. The crucified Christ is the ultimate image of God with us in the darkest valley.
Surely your goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life. The Hebrew actually says your goodness and loving kindness will pursue me all the days of my life. Elsewhere the phrase is used in biblical stories where one’s enemies pursue them. Do we see our blessings as just good luck, or as somehow having the hand of God behind them? How might that be? How different might it be to live as if God’s goodness and loving kindness were pursuing us?
I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Dwelling in the Lord’s house can refer to intimate communion with God, or being in the temple, which is also the community of faith. The present and eternal are brought together here, as is always the case in ancient Hebrew, which has no terms to differentiate between past, present or future. Closeness to God, experienced within the community of faith or physical temple (church), continues on with us through our lives. Also our faith can be nurtured, but also partly reside, in the community of faith. We don’t have to be all-believing or all-trusting, for the community of faith carries our faith. You can pick up faith when you’re ready. Our faith is communal. We remember God is with us, because we participate in the community of faith.