"Like A Shepherd"

The 4^th Sunday of Easter is referred to as Shepherd’s Sunday.  The Gospel reading refers to Jesus Christ as our Good Shepherd, and it’s a comforting and appealing image for many people, an image of peacefulness and presence.

When we read the 23^rd Psalm from the Hebrew Scriptures, however, we need to remember that we’re stepping into Jewish territory.  It’s a Psalm that comes out of the experience of Israel.  Perhaps you’ll remember that Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord, and afterward was named Israel.  The very name Israel refers to “those who have struggled with God.”   The history of the Jews is a story of struggle – a churning, disruptive experience of being lost and found, judged and forgiven, sent away and brought back.  It’s a high drama of how God, like a good shepherd, never stops searching for and restoring the lost sheep.  [Craig Barnes, “Sheep On The Run”]

The term shepherd originally referred to any ruler of Israel, the priests, the prophets, and the politicians.  In Ezekiel, chapter 34, we read how God chastises the shepherds of Israel for their selfish, corrupt ways.  They have not comforted their people.  They have not fed them or led them in the way that leads to peace.  God condemns the false shepherds and promises that he will raise up another shepherd, a servant after God’s own heart of love.  That’s a prayer for righteous leadership that I find myself offering up for our own time, a promise I pray will be fulfilled not only in Israel, but also in all the nations of the earth.  We need Good Shepherds; leaders who will help us find our way out of the valley of the darkest shadows into the green pastures of peace.  It is a universal prayer that is offered up not for Israel or Palestine, not for America or Iraq or Afghanistan, not for the Sudan or any of a dozen other warring nations we could name. It is a prayer for the world, for the human family of God.

We are drawn to imagery and the promises of the 23^rd Psalm not because they remind us that everything is OK.  We are drawn to images of green pastures and still waters because we live in churning, tumultuous, terrifying times.  We desperately need the presence of the Good Shepherd.

God has given us a spiritual home, a place of refuge and peace.  The Psalmist calls it the House of the Lord, but it’s not a house.  It’s not a temple or a piece of real estate that we have to fight for and defend. The House of the Lord is not a place; it’s an awareness of presence through prayer. God is our home, and heart is where the home is.  But, as Henri Nouwen once observed, too often it’s as though we’ve forgotten our address and are living in the wrong place – living in the house of fear instead of the house of the Lord. [Patricia Harris, “God Is Our Grateful Center”]

God’s alternative to this house of fear is the house of love.  Nouwen refers to this house of love as “the place where we can think, speak, and act in the ways of God, not in the ways of the fear-filled world.”  As Christians, we believe that “dwelling in Christ” [John 6:56] fulfills the promise of the 23^rd Psalm, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”  We believe that the living, spiritual presence of Christ invites us home.  In John 15:4 he says:  “Make your home in me, as I make my home in you.” 

The key to the House of the Lord, the key to discovering peace, presence and shalom is the realization of the psalmist's words, “Thou art with me.”  [Craig Barnes, op.cit.]  Once we come to realize that, recognizing that heart is where the home is, we recognize the truth that “God prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  God anoints my head with oil and my cup overflows.  Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” 

The Shepherd beckons.  The table is spread.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.