4th Sunday of Easter, First Congregational UCC, WY

Jesus as the Good Shepherd
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 4/23/10
Based on Psalm 23; John 10:1-10

Every once in a while there are scriptures that come up in the Common Lectionary cycle that I can actually relate to from my own life experiences. This week happens to be one of those times, and it comes from firsthand experience of sheep herding.
The first reading that we have heard today is one of the most read and recited readings within the Christian Church. The other would be what we have come to call the Lord’s Prayer. The 23rd Psalm is used most widely today as a reading to console us in times of deep grief, particularly as part of a memorial service. To many of us, this Psalm is so familiar that when we hear of some horrific event happening, such as the day the World Trade Center was attacked by terrorist, somewhere within the flood of emotions, this Psalm automatically comes to our consciousness.
Several summers ago, when a small Kansas community named Greensburg was blown off the face of the map, this was one of the Bible passages that came immediately to my mind as a way to give me comfort in dealing with that disaster, as well as a way of prayerfully supporting those people who were directly affected by that F-5 tornado. I would suspect that many of you, as long-term residents of a mining community, in hearing the tragic news of those who lost their lives in the April 5th mining accident in Montcoal, W. Virginia, in lifting up many varying prayers might have found yourselves instinctively saying the 23rd Psalm.
I suspect one of the reasons that the 23rd Psalm is so popular with Christians and non-Christians alike comes from the content dealing both with good times and with hard times. Phrases like: He makes me to lie down in green pastures, You prepare a table before me…, My cup runs over are all images of comfort, safety, and well being. The very first line, “The Lord is my shepherd”, provides that image of someone who is our protector, who is our provider. I also think this Psalm evokes memories that we have of a simpler time in our life.
Over this past year, many of us have been touched either by a serious illness or the death of a loved one. It was just a couple of years ago that I found myself walking through some very difficult waters with the loss of a very dear person in my life. {Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death} and at that same time I also meet Paul, who has become one of the greatest joys in my life.
One of the joys that I experience with Paul comes in our conversations about our childhoods. Even though Paul grew up in the Pacific Northwest and I grew up on the plains of Kansas, we seem to have experienced many of the same things in our formative years. One would not think that Klamath Falls, OR and Kingman, KS would have much in common in terms of weather patterns, temperatures and landscapes, but it does hold similarities allowing the two of us to reminisce like two old men sitting in front of Floyd’s barber shop – you remember, from the T.V. program called “Andy of Mayberry, RFD “.
Often times during a meal, we find ourselves sharing with one another memories about our childhood. In one such walk down memory lane, I shared with Paul about what it was like to walk down the sidewalks in Kingman as a child. How in the heat of the day, I would go and play in the local city swimming pool or go to the river and play in the warm running water {He leads me beside the still waters}. Of almost not being able to breathe at the height of the day, because the humidity almost matched that of the temperature; and how I loved walking down the street that my grandmother lived on as a way to escape the damaging ultra-violet sunrays because the whole street was enclosed with a canopy of trees that also seemed to cool the air at the hottest point of the day {He makes me to lie down in green pastures}. Of how at early evening one could hear the rustling sounds made by the cicadas and by dark the sounds of the crickets chirping and the frogs croaking and the sight of the lightening bugs as they went about doing whatever lightening bugs do {He restores my soul}. In the remembering and telling of those memories, I could almost smell and taste those early experiences in growing up in that small mid-western town {Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life}.
This is how the 23rd Psalm affects those who hear it. It can bring back memories that provide the sense of security, of comfort, of joy, of a day gone by.
At the beginning of this lesson, I joked about my having experience in herding sheep. But it’s true! A part of my childhood was spent, living on farms. When I was in the 5th grade my family moved out of town to a small farm and part of my first venture in the world of business was in raising sheep. This is one reason why I really enjoy today’s scripture text. I have had firsthand experience of the nature of a sheep. Both the Psalm and the New Testament reading out of the Gospel of John are dealing with sheep and their shepherd.
In the 23rd Psalm the language uses lots of “He’s” in it, “He makes me..; He leads me..; He restores..; for His names sake.” These seem to present God in a very masculine, male type image, yet if you examine more closely what is being said, you will see that the actions of the shepherd abound in the type of nurturing that we tend to attribute to that of mothers. That is one reason for the composition by Bobby McFerrin in his version of the 23rd Psalm where the reference to the shepherd is that of “She”. I would like to share this revision that Bobbie did just to let you hear it in the feminine pronoun: The 23rd Psalm [lyrics]
The Lord is my Shepherd, I have all I need, She makes me lie down in green meadows, Beside the still waters, She will lead. She restores my soul, She rights my wrongs, She leads me in a path of good things, And fills my heart with songs.
Even though I walk, through a dark and dreary land, There is nothing that can shake me, She has said She won't forsake me, I'm in her hand. She sets a table before me, in the presence of my foes, She anoints my head with oil, And my cup overflows. Surely, surely goodness and kindness will follow me, All the days of my life, And I will live in her house, Forever, and ever.
Glory be to our Mother, and Daughter, And to the Holy of Holies,
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, World, without end. Amen
by B. McFerrin
Let’s shift gears just a little and look to the Tenth Chapter of the Gospel of John. Here we see Jesus declaring himself as the shepherd. In the 23rd Psalm, there is no doubt that the shepherd was God. So in this reading we see Jesus declaring himself at the very least God’s ambassador and calling the religious establishment, specifically the Pharisees, nothing less than thieves. The Rev. Peter Gomes, a professor at Harvard University and also minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard, in his book, “The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus”, reminds the reader of how conditioned we in the church have become, to think of the teachings of Jesus as typical and something that most people would be willing to listen to with ease and comfort. This comes from 2,000 years of the church teaching these lessons. But in reality, what Jesus had to say was not only revolutionary and raw to those who first heard him speak, but his teachings were scandalous to those who thought they had the answers of how to live a prosperous and rewarding life in the site of God.
I have a confession to make: often I struggle with what title I should give to each sermon that I write. Today is no different. The sermon title that you did not get this morning was titled, “Jesus as Your Auntie Mame”. I had good advice that it may be too much a stretch for some people to think of Jesus in that light, so the title was altered to “Jesus as the Good Shepherd.” One of the reasons why I had thought of Auntie Mame didn’t come from the famous line in the movie, “the world is a banquet and most people are starving to death”, rather it came from my thinking about just who is a shepherd and what does both the 23rd Psalm and John 10 have to say about what the shepherd provides? Conversely the question also needs to be asked, who is the thief and what does the thief take?
In the 23rd Psalm, I have already indicated that God is referred to as the shepherd. In John 10, Jesus states that he is the shepherd. Since we think of Jesus as both God and human there doesn’t seem to be much of a conflict. But is Jesus the only one who is a shepherd? A shepherd is one who leads, one who nurtures, and one who protects. This is the lesson from the 23rd Psalm. Jesus expanded this to also include the one who gives life and gives it more abundantly.
Outside of God and Jesus as being shepherds, we often assign to ministers these same attributes. The word Pastor carries with it that idea of shepherding his or her flock; those who are under the Pastor’s care. I would suggest that there are many other people who are shepherds. Those of you who are parents are shepherds. Those who work in health care or in the school system are shepherds. Those who volunteer their time in the choir, or at the organ and piano, or as Sunday school teachers or youth leadership are all shepherds to this congregation just as I am considered your shepherd. You as members and friends of this church are shepherds to the larger community of Rock Springs. You are likewise shepherds to me.
When we as disciples of Christ work at living out his teachings of love, mercy and grace, we are shepherds. It is when we live in the consciousness that life is a gift of God and that this gift is to be shared with others, that we are the good shepherd. Jesus states,”I have come, that you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly.” He wasn’t speaking about financial prosperity. He was speaking about “personal growth”. A few decades ago the buzz word was “self-actualization’; today I would call it “holistic living’. When we think about ourselves in relationship to the stewardship of our planet, we may even refer to it as “living green.”
Jesus tells us to beware of the thief, for the thief comes to steal. What does he steal? He steals your life. How does that happen? The thief will restrain your growth; the thief will enslave, usually achieved by rules – you must do this, you must not do that; the thief will kill, by attacking your self-image which is a piece of your inner person, your soul.
If you listen to programs like FOX news, for example, you hear a lot of commentaries that seem to be filled with fear and language that oozes with “hate filled” nature. These are the Thieves that Jesus is speaking about. This type of fear and hatefulness is the opposite of the message of the Gospel, which brings hopefulness and courage, respect and good will, justice and mercy. The message that comes from the empty tomb says, “Jesus is our good shepherd” and that through the resurrection of Christ, God is Still Speaking; providing a path to the gate that Jesus calls his sheep to come through; one of grace, hope, and of life-giving, not life-taking. When we put into practice these teachings of Jesus, we too are the shepherds of his world! Let us live as Christ and be the good shepherd’s of God’s creation. Amen