"Life with the Good Shepherd"
Pastor Randy Butler
Our Psalm from the Old Testament this morning is one of the most well-known and beloved passages of scripture. We find it written in the bulletins of memorial services and funerals, and it has given comfort and strength to people enduring various adversities for something like three thousand years.
Preacher Will Willimon points out (and I owe a lot of my thoughts to him this morning) that perhaps because of its familiarity Psalm 23 sometimes loses its punch, and in addition, all the action is on God’s part, and we are left as the recipients of God’s shepherd like care. The Lord is my shepherd, he makes me lie down, he leads me, he restores me, he prepares a table for me. It’s all on God. As one of the other Psalms says, “Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” That is Psalm 100, which gets the roles right – the Lord is God and we are not. The Lord is the shepherd, and we are the sheep of the Lord’s pasture.
This all leaves us activist minded modern American Christians feeling a little lost and without much to do to stay busy with the Lord’s work, to do our part. I remember a member of my congregation in Seattle who once said to me after a sermon, “Your sermons are nice, but you don’t ever tell us what to do.” It has been popular for some preachers to provide an outline of the sermon in the bulletin, even provide a one-two-three fill in the blank piece for us to write down and take notes with us for the week, so that we will know what to do as followers of Jesus. The man who made comments to me about the sermons eventually left us for a church that could be more specific and concrete for him. But I have never been comfortable with such a direct and specific approach. I would rather tell you what God does than tell you what to do.
Now there is no doubt that the scriptures tell us what to do in places. Faith without works is dead says the epistle of James. “He has shown you,” proclaims the prophet Micah, “What does the Lord require of you? Act justly, love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Although Micah too is not very specific. I confess that I sort of admire Islam and its emphasis on the five pillars – the profession of faith, prayers, alms, fasting and pilgrimage to Mecca. That is specific – do those things and you are a good Muslim.
In our New Testament text, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd, and I lay down my life for the sheep.” There it is again – Jesus is the good shepherd, he is the one who lays down his life, not us. He does the heavy lifting. We are left to follow. He is the shepherd, we are the sheep. He leads, we trust and follow.
We are invited to abide. Jesus says that in chapter fifteen. “Like the branch abides in the vine, abide in me as I abide in you.” Our action, if you can call it that, is to abide. Here Jesus says “I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” So our activity is to know and abide. The emphasis is more on being than on doing; on abiding and dwelling with and in God. I’ve always loved Psalm 90 – “Lord you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Psalm 90 invites us to dwell in the eternal presence of God. Psalm 23 promises that we dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That is our starting point – “Not that we loved God, but that God loved us, and gave his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins,” as the letter of I John puts it. “We love because God first loved us.”
Twentieth century monk Thomas Merton once wrote that the root of Christian love is not the will to love, but the faith that one is loved. The faith that one is loved by God, the faith that one is loved by God, irrespective of one’s worth.
Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd.” Note that he does not say “I am the good teacher, and you are my students. Here are your assignments for the week. When you complete these, come back on Sunday and we will tackle the next subject.” Nor does he say, “I am the good manager, and you are my staff. Each of us has a job to do. Let’s meet on Thursday at nine a.m. to see what kind of progress we are making toward our goal.” He doesn’t even say, “I am the good social services director. Please check on the following cases for the week, and report back to me.” He says none of that, does none of that, but simply says, “I am the good shepherd, and I lay down my life for the sheep.” He is pretty much doing all that really needs to be done.
Many observers have suggested that the American church lives by what they call moral, therapeutic deism. What is that? Well it is about morality – doing good things, being good people. It emphasizes techniques, ways to fix ourselves, improve ourselves. And it settles for deism, the idea that God sets everything up and then leaves us to fend for ourselves. Moral, therapeutic, deism. We want to know that we can control our destiny, do something about it. Fix what is wrong.
Like most of us perhaps, I have had to learn that I was not in control of my destiny or anyone else’s destiny the hard way. About fifteen years ago our family was rocked by the experience of mental illness. It led to behaviors and incidents that shook us. And as that was happening, I began to realize that my perfect family was not so perfect. That I was not a perfect father and husband, and that it was not in my control to fix everything that was wrong. Things were not going well. We were out of control. They are better now, better than they have been in years, but it took being out of control to give up control. I simply had no choice. That is why I have come to love and appreciate the Twelve Steps. The first step says, I admitted that my life had become unmanageable, the second says, I came to believe that a power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.
I put my life in the hands of my higher power, who I understand to be God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To the best of my ability, and every day, I turn over the heavy lifting to God. My life is in God’s hands. The Lord is my shepherd, I am one of the sheep.
Maybe that is why Psalm 23 is read so often at funerals or memorials services. Because at the time of death, when all human effort and striving are done we have no choice but to surrender to the care of the good shepherd who lays down his life for us. I am not an overly activist Christian by nature. I am probably inclined more toward the contemplative and mystical side. And I don’t want to impose my spiritual personality upon you. But this morning I do encourage us to rest in the presence of God, and in his son Jesus Christ, our good shepherd. Amen.
