E-mail: lowell“at”revlowell.com

  Date:      Fourth Sunday of Easter

 Texts:

Acts 4:8-12

Psalm 23

1 John 3:18-24

John 10:11-18

  Theme:     In a world of VCRs, fax machines, and silicon chips, it still makes sense to say

that the Lord is our shepherd.

  Subject:      peace, security

Title: Shepherd of the Silicon Chips?

“The Lord is my shepherd.”  Those words bothered me when I was a child.  A shepherd?   The  only shepherds I ever saw were German shepherds—and  I  avoided  them whenever I could.

I could understand someone addressing God as father or grandfather or Santa  Claus for  that matter.  “The Lord is my president” would have seemed O.K.  Or perhaps  God was  a Hollywood movie star.  Movie stars seemed to live in some far off heaven, to  be all-knowing and all-powerful, to have everything they wanted, and could, from time  to time, reward their worshipers with gifts. 

But  God  is a shepherd?  I asked my friends at the men’s prayer  breakfast  how  they thought David would conceptualize God if he were alive today.  Perhaps  today we  should  think of God as a TV set, one opined.   God  looks at  us while  we look  at  him, makes us to lie down on stuffed sofas,  and  provides  what  we want during commercials.

Another said  that  God is a multinational conglomerate.  (Exxon giveth  and  Exxon taketh away, blessed be the name of Exxon!)

Perhaps, said  one,  David would speak of God as a football coach.   Then  the  psalm would go something like this:

The Lord is my head coach, I shall not want,

He bringeth me to green artificial turf with perfectly drawn yard lines, he leadeth

me beside the Gator-aid and Coke machines,

he  restoreth  my starting position, he leadeth me through the play  book for  the

sake of repeat Super Bowl rings.

Yea  though  I walk  through  the cheap shots of  middle  line  backers and  nose guards, I will fear neither injuries nor quick flags, for Coach is with me.

He  prepareth  a massage  table and pain killers for me in  the  presence  of  nosy

newspaper reporters.  He rubbeth my muscles with liniment; my locker with bonus

money  overfloweth.  Surely no-cut guarantees and commercial  endorsements  will

follow  me  all of my playing days, and I will dwell in the  broadcasting  booth with

John Madden for a very long time.

In  a  world  of VCRs, fax machines, and silicon chips, does it still make  sense  to  say that the  Lord is our shepherd?  Does Psalm 23, David’s beautiful shepherd  song,  have any relevance for us.  Let’s take a look.

1.         A psalm of David.  The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in  want.  

The words “sheep” and “shepherd” appear hundreds of times in the Bible.  While  the vast majority of uses are literal, sheep and shepherds are used metaphorically,  particu-larly   in the  New  Testament to  describe  the relationship  of  God  and   humankind.  “Shepherd” was one of Jesus’ favorite descriptions of himself.  The  original Hebrew  tribes  were nomadic shepherds.   Abraham, Isaac,  Jacob  and their sons were shepherds.  Moses spent time as a shepherd.  King David and Micah the prophet had been shepherds.

Sheep provided the necessities of life: milk, meat, and wool.  Ram horns were used as containers  for  oil or as musical instruments.  From the sheep of skins came  not college degrees but clothing and the inner covering of the tabernacle.  Wool  was a precious good and an important item of trade.  In 2 Kings 3:4,  we  read that Mesha, king of the Moabites, paid to the king of Israel an annual tribute of the wool of a hundred thousand rams.

If  there  had been tabloid newspapers in their day, the stories would  have  provided details of sheep-breeding, sheep-rustling, and the private antics of sheepherders  whose flocks numbered more than a million. 

If  you  spend too  much  time with too  many  sheep, strange  things  are bound  to happen  to you.  You will stop associating with human beings except  for  fellow shep-herds.   This  is because you will have less and less in common with  ordinary folk  and also because ordinary folk will always want to stay upwind of you. You will become highly protective to the point of paranoia.  And you will become  as fond of sheep as of your own children.  You may actually prefer the sheep.  Finally,  you will come  to  think of everything in images drawn from the  relationship  of sheep  to shepherds.

“The  Lord is my shepherd,” said David.  This is a comforting image but not a flatter-ing  one.   It means  that  David thought of himself as a sheep.   And as  he  well  knew, sheep  are convivial, dim-witted, heedless of danger, and totally dependent. David  was  king over all Israel.  He had everything he could possible want  or  need, including limitless  access  to money, power, and sex.  The tabloids  would  have  loved him.  Yet he knew his own heart.  He knew that if he followed his own inclinations,  he would  stray from the path of virtue every time.  He knew that he was easily  influenced by  the  opinions of others.  He knew that his perceptions and thoughts were  easily  dis-torted by his self-interest. He also knew that he was totally dependent on God.   Now there was no social security then, no Medicare, no United Way, no IRAs, no life insurance, and probably very little real estate appreciation.  To live was to be dependent and to know that one was dependent.

And  the only real difference between us and them is that they knew.  And when  we realize  that life  is a gift, that the more we receive from life, the  more  life continues  to give,  rather pronounced  changes  in our  attitude  and behavior  ensue.   We  become generous.   We  give gladly and sacrificially to others.  And life laughs at  us and  keeps giving  -- endlessly,  boundlessly, if we but open our eyes to see,  our  hands to  receive and to give, and our hearts to be grateful.

2.         He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside  quiet waters. . . ,   

If you had been a shepherd during biblical times, you would have been constantly  in search  of  greener pastures and adequate shelter for your flock.  And you  would  have been spent much of your life looking for water—not just any source of water. If you led your  stupid  flock to  a  stream with a fast current, they would  wade  right in  and  be swept away.

How well David remembered those rare occasions in which the pasture was lush and the water clean and still.  How he longed for the times when his own heart would be  at peace with God and humankind.

In the midst of even the busiest, most stress-filled, most exasperating lives there is  an oasis.   No matter how fast the current of our existence flows, there is time  for  stillness. There is no day so choked with cares and responsibilities that there is not room for God, for  joy,  for love, for being human.  For all of us, the oasis is there.  But for too many  of us, the intention is lacking.  You can have season tickets to the 49ers, the As, the  Giants, the opera, the theater, and the symphony. But if you fail to get yourself there, you  have wasted  your money.  And likewise God has given us everything we need to prosper  as intellectual, aesthetic, and spiritual beings, but getting there requires our cooperation.

3.         he restores my soul.  He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.  

And,  of  course, sheep were a major sacrificial animal. Shepherds  like  David knew about  death.  Their sheep died for them again and again.  They died to provide  mutton flesh and hides.  They died in the tabernacle and later in the temple in the place of  their owners.  They died to settle the account. 

How deeply  ingrained  in Christianity is the image of  the  sacrificial sheep.   When John  the Baptist saw Jesus approach, he cried out: “Behold the lamb of God  who takes away the sin of the world.” But this lamb is no helpless victim, no innocent incapable of finding  his  own  way  or fending himself.  He is at one and  the  same  time sheep  and shepherd.   He leads the flock yet he is a member of the flock.  He lays down his  life  so that we might have life and have it abundantly.

Christianity is  not  some  prosperity cult that promises  health,  wealth, and  success through the recitation of magic formulae or belief in arcane doctrines.  Being a Christian is  entering a world full of suffering, contradiction, and pain with one’s eyes wide open.  God  does not  guarantee  instant eternal bliss.  He promises us  that  we  will never  be alone or forsaken whether our lives are as placid as a calm sea or as rough as a squall.

4.         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.    The  shepherd  was responsible  for  the protection of his flock.   His was  the  job of defending  them  against predators and thieves.  His shepherd’s  crook  was a  weapon with which he defended the flock.  It was also a rod of correction which could be turned against a recalcitrant sheep.

God,  the  Good Shepherd, does not coerce us.  He gives us  the  freedom  to  wander wherever we choose to wander.  But he is not an infinitely permissive father.  No matter how  lost we become or how far from our own true nature we stray, there  is within  us an  inborn compass, pointing and pulling us back toward home.  And God sets limits  to our freedom, limits which we transgress at our peril.  Reality can be a harsh  taskmaster.  Sometimes the shepherd’s crook gently taps us on the shoulder and sometimes it  grabs us by the throat.

5.         You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.   You anoint my  head  with

oil; my cup overflows.   

In  this  verse, images  of  human hospitality seem  to run  together  with metaphors drawn  from  the shepherd’s  way of life.  Among ancient  near  eastern shepherds  “to prepare  the table” was an expression meaning to groom the pasture for the sheep.   This involved removing harmful weeds, killing snakes, and removing scorpions.   Moreover, the  shepherd  was  the only  veterinarian his flocks  knew.  Many  an  hour was  spent applying oils externally as salves and internally as medication.  And a particularly winsome and personable lamb could become a family pet,  practi-cally  a member  of the family.  Such a favored lamb would share  the shepherd’s  food, drink from his cup, and even sleep in his arms (see 2 Samuel 12: 1-10).  We try  so  hard to do what is right, to do what will make us acceptable  in our  own eyes  and in  the  eyes of our employers (or employees),  our  parents,  our spouse,  our children,  our neighbors,  etc.,  etc. And God just nuzzles up with us,  wears  us like  a comfortable old pair of slippers, and loves us for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

6.         Surely goodness  and  love will follow me all the days of my life,  and I  will  dwell  in the

house of the LORD forever.

When David  dreamed  of his youthful days and nights with his  father’s  flocks, he remembered  with  affection his constant companions and guardians,  his  sheep dogs.  They  were his eyes and ears.  They gathered the flock, nipped at the heels of  stragglers, warned at the approach of strangers, kept wolves and lions at bay. He  didn’t  have to  call  their names or whistle for  them.  They  were  always there, always  following  him.  What  were  the names of  those  wonderful  dogs?  I’d  like  to hazard a guess.  They were named “Goodness” and “Mercy.” I  am not a perfect human being and yet God unconditionally loves me  and  showers me with  his gifts.  I do not have everything I want, but I have everything I  need.   I sin and  I  fall short of what God expects of me and of what I truly can be  again  and again.  But  God never forsakes me.  Through his love and through the fellowship of my  fellow Christians,  I am forgiven and restored.  Day by day, I am born from above and  given a fresh start.

In  the midst of a hectic life filled with demands and responsibilities, there is an  oasis for me within me and between me and others in the church.  And  when I  look back, I discover that all the things I  thought  I  had  accomplished were  gifts of grace.  And scampering after me like two faithful dogs are goodness  and mercy.

This is one deal I can’t resist.  I plan to enjoy it for a long, long time.  Maybe  I  don’t know a shepherd from a shoemaker or a sheep from a shirttail, but  I know  an oasis  when I find one.  May God give this dumb sheep—and  all of  us  poor little lambs—the sense to stay with him forever.

Amen.

·       LDS [2100 words] [21 minutes]