Easter 4
Psalm 23: Shepherd Sunday
Hymn Suggestions
703: As the deer pants for the water
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBppKZ0eJlQ
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5pZkLWZv-E
(the first one is sung by Robin Mark, the second has gorgeous photography!)
107: Sing praise and thanksgiving, let all creatures living
10: The Lord’s my shepherd
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN4tPkX0MG0 (Stuart Townend)
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1HGlNcpdV4 (more traditional)
145: The king of love my shepherd is
233: I will sing the wondrous story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDPCFbAysBc
588: In heavenly love abiding
624: Christ be my leader by night as by day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H79Z2EVGS98 (in this one there are masks against covid 19 virus!)
Bible Readings:
Acts 2: 42-47
Psalm 23
1 Peter 2: 19-25
John 10: 1-10
Prayer
You come to us as Shepherd.
Give us protection.
You come to us as Shepherd.
Give us our daily food.
You come to us as Shepherd.
Give us a safe place to rest.
You come to us as Shepherd.
Shepherd, we are glad to be your sheep!
Amen
Sermon: Psalm 23
The book ‘I Heard the Owl Call My Name’ is about a young Anglican vicar, sent by his bishop to minister to the Native American Indians of the parish of Kingcome, on the wild coast of British Columbia, Canada. He is unaware the he has, at best, three years to live. The bishop, knowing of the illness, sends him to this parish, so that Mark, in the short time available to him, may learn how to live DEEPLY, how to experience life in all its splendour, in all its pain. As a man of faith Mark knows the meaning of life
-he KNOWS it, in his head, but within this Indian community, his new parish, he learns to EXPERIENCE it, to FEEL it, within the depths of his being.
“It has always been easier here, where only the fundamentals count, to learn what every man must learn in this world.” said the Bishop.
“And that is?”
“Enough of the meaning of life to be ready to die”, said the Bishop.
Enough of the meaning of life to be ready to die.’
The fourth Sunday of Easter is known as ‘Shepherd Sunday.’
Today we greet our old, treasured, much-loved friend, Psalm 23.
It is a psalm which comforts, reassures us.
It is a psalm which expresses great confidence in the ability of God to protect, to guide, to feed, and to lead.
We experience God as shepherd.
We trust our Shepherd-hard image perhaps for suburban dwellers!
Scholars do not know if David wrote this psalm but in a sense that doesn’t matter. We have this psalm as part of our religious heritage, and even if David did not write it, we associate him with sheep.
David, a son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, spent his early life as a shepherd in the Bethlehem area.
He is chosen to be the next king. When he wishes to be sent out to battle Goliath, and Saul protests that he is ‘just a boy’ David replies:
‘The Lord, who saved me from the paw of the lion, and from the paw of the bear, will save me from the hand of the Philistine.’
He trusts God-and has guts! This verse also alerts us to the real dangers of being a shepherd in those days. To be a good shepherd meant to put your life in jeopardy. There were always dangers.
You had to protect yourself and protect and guard the lives of your sheep. This was not a quiet stress free occupation-we are not talking about the images we may associate with the book or film of Heidi, or travel brochures promoting Switzerland and the peace and quiet of the Swiss Alps.
Shepherds would carry a rod or club-to defend himself against wild beasts or robbers. He would carry a staff, which is like a crook. This was used to catch and pull back straying sheep. Bishops carry a crozier or crook, to remind them of their calling to shepherd their flock, to guide, to lead, to comfort them.
The shepherd would also carry a sling. When a shepherd needed to call back a straying sheep, he would sling a stone. They were so skilled in this that it was possible for them to land a stone or pebble right in front of the sheep’s nose, warning it back. There were no sheep dogs in Israel!
But the sling shot was also useful when needing to defend the sheep from attack.
David a good shepherd, a brave shepherd, a shepherd who trusted God. Even if he did not write Psalm 23, we associate the life and dedication of a shepherd with David. Such perseverance and hard work helped equip him for the duties of king. Many of the qualities were the same: trust, hard work, thinking of others, courage, guiding, protecting.
It is a psalm many of us link back to our childhood.
I remember my Sunday School had a picture of Jesus as the good shepherd, and this psalm was written beneath it. I do not remember ever NOT knowing it.
It is often the first portion of Scripture memorized.
As I said earlier, for, me, Psalm 23 is an old friend. I am sure many of you would be able to say this also.
It is a psalm for children: it expresses a child-like trust in God’s ability to protect us, like a shepherd.
So it is a psalm that may have been at, or near, the beginning of life.
God has the qualities needed to be a good shepherd.
Sheep are usually docile-the shepherd is not.
The shepherd is actively guiding, seeking, leading, protecting.
‘He makes me lie down in green pastures.’ The shepherd finds the right spot for the sheep to rest, to be restored.
We are led by God, we are restored by God.
Our religious heritage shows us how God acts as shepherd. During the Exodus-the wilderness wanderings.
Psalm 100 :3: ‘Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.’
In the reading from John 10: 11: Í am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’
In Í heard the owl call my name’ Mark, the dying minister, has been led by God to a green pasture, to be restored, refreshed, renewed. He has been led there by his bishop, the shepherd of his flock, who has been guided by another shepherd, God.
Mark rests-and learns to trust others
-and learns to trust himself.
His soul has been restored.
The Hebrew word for soul is NEPESH, ‘spark of life.’ It is the strength by which we live. It is the spark necessary for our well being.
Mark has found strength in God.
Psalm 23 is a psalm for the beginning of our lives
-and a psalm for the end of our lives
-as well as for in between these two.
‘Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for you are with me.’
Psalm 23 dares to speak about death, dares to speak about the end, that dark valley- AND NAMES IT AS A PLACE WHERE THE GOOD SHEPHERD CONFRONTS US.
-and names it as a place where the good shepherd confronts us.
It is scripture for the beginning of life and for the end of life.
Think of the number of funerals you have attended, and the number of times this psalm is read or quoted.
Many, nearing the end of their earthly lives, turn to this psalm. I was chaplain in aged care facilities for nearly 9 years. I would call this a well-used psalm. Worn at the edges, fading pages psalm. You know what I mean-used a lot!
Embraced.
Early Christians, who died as martyrs, went to their deaths with this psalm on their lips…as will many of us as we approach our end.
It speaks of life, and dares to speak of death.
Mark, who is learning how to live…and is also learning how to die. Some of the myths of the Indian tribe spoke about death as a time when you went to the land of the owl. Indeed, when you heard your name called by an owl, you were nearing death-hence the title ‘I heard the owl call my name.’
If a child died, the mother would say ‘Do not look back. Do not turn your head. Walk straight on. You are going to the land of the owl.”
-he leads me in the right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil for you are with me.’
‘Under a green spruce old Marta stood by herself, her eyes on the young vicar. How thin and white he was! How long had it been there-that look on his face she had seen many times in her long life and knew well? It was not the hard winter that had placed it there, it was death reaching out his hand, touching the face gently, even before the owl had called the name.
Later
‘Mark trudged up the black sands to the path and stopped. From the dark spruce he heard an owl call-once, and again- and the questions that had been rising all day long reached the door of his mind and opened it.
“Marta, something strange happened tonight. On the banks of the river I heard the owl call my name,” and it was a question he asked, an answer he sought.
She did not say, “Nonsense, it was my name the owl called, and I am old and with me it does not matter.” She did not say, “It’s true you’re thin and white, but who is not?”
She turned, lifted her sweet, kind face with its network of wrinkles, and she answered his question as she would have answered any other.
She said, “Yes, my son.”
Psalm 23 dares to speak about death-yet comforts us by saying we will not be alone, that the shepherd will be there.
God’s presence transforms every situation. God is present. But this relationship does not exclude deathly valleys; we are born, we learn that death is part of life, and will one day be part of our life experience BUT we can trust in the loyalty and strength of our shepherd-we will be guided and met, at the end of the valley.
We as Easter people need not fear death for Jesus has gone before us and will greet us when it is our turn.
‘I am the good shepherd and I know my own and my own know me”
The Hebrew word for follow is RADAP which can mean ‘follow’ or ‘pursue’. Does this add a different meaning? Instead of being ‘followed’ we are ‘pursued’ by God-more like a shepherd who guides, seeks, leads, protects.
God pursues us, wants us as his own.
Reminds me a little of Francis Thompson’s 182 line poem ‘Hound of heaven’. As a hound pursues a hare, relentlessly…so does God pursue us. John Stott, an evangelical Christian, in his book Why I am a Christian confesses that he is a Christian not because of the influence of his parents and teachers, nor to his own personal decision, but to being relentlessly pursued by ‘the Hound of Heaven’, Jesus Christ himself.
Remember how Jesus pursued his disciples after Easter; they thought they were ‘safe’ behind locked doors-but they were sheep, without a shepherd.
Jesus pursued his disciples after his resurrection, and continues to do so-because we are loved.
‘And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my while life long.’
Mark dies, and is buried.
‘In her house old Marta lay awake in the dark, and she said softly, “Walk straight on, my son. Do not look back. Do not turn your head. You are going to the land of our Lord.”
Psalm 23: a psalm for the beginning of life, and for the completion of life. The bishop told Mark that everyone must learn enough of the meaning of life to be ready to die.
Go out into the richness of life, as people of the resurrection.
There will be difficult times, storms ahead, but remember the good shepherd is there, pursuing you with his blessings, his faithfulness, his steadfast love.
The Psalmist-maybe David-maybe not-wrote about how he kept his hope alive and found that at journey’s end, it was a coming home.
‘Past the village flowed the river, like time, like life itself, waiting for the swimmer to come again on his way to the climax of his adventurous life, and to the end for which he had been made.’
There have been many translations of the 23rd Psalm. Most of them add something to our understanding , a new way to approach an old friend.
I will conclude a version, a translation from a native American Indian (or First Nations):
‘The Great Spirit above is a shepherd Chief, I am His and with Him I want not.
He throws to me a rope, and the name of the rope is Love; and He draws me very tenderly to where the grass is green, and the water not dangerous, and I eat and lie down satisfied.
Sometimes my heart is very weak and falls down; but He lifts it up again, and draws me into a good road, for His name is Wonderful.
Sometime, it may be very soon, it may be longer, it may be a long, long, time, He will draw me into a narrow place between mountains. It is dark there but I’ll not turn back, and I’ll not be afraid, for it is in there between those mountains that the Shepherd Chief will meet me, and the hunger I have felt in my heart all through this life will be satisfied.
Sometimes He makes the love rope into a whip, but afterwards He gives me a staff to lean on.
He spreads a table before me with all kinds of food, He puts his hand upon my head, and all the tiredness is gone.
He fills my cup till it runs over. What I tell you is true, it is no lie.
These roads that are away ahead will stay with me through this life, and afterwards I shall go to live in the big camp, and sit down with the Shepherd Chief forever.
Amen.
Prayer
Shepherding God,
We know you look after us during our lives, staying by our side, strengthening us as we face ordeals. We know and believe that you will guide each one of us when it is our final journey.
Gift each one of us a sliver of your courage, a pinch of your compassion, a dusting of your love…it will be more than enough to satisfy us, and the wider world.
Amen.
Barbara Allen
May 3rd, 2020 Leighmoor UC
