The Rev. Kathi Johnson
Easter 4 – Good Shepherd Sunday – 7 May 2017
Text: Psalm 23
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas
+ INJ +
Let us begin by reading together Psalm 23:
The
Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want.
The
Lord makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters.
You
restore my soul, O Lord,
and
guide me along right pathways for your name’s sake.
Though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil;
for
you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You
prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you
anoint my head with oil, and my cup is running over.
Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I
will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
How many of you have been to a wedding where one of the readings
was 1 Corinthians 13?
How many of you have been to a funeral where Psalm 23 was
used in some way?
So this is a familiar passage to many of us.
When I was on internship, the pastor and I would
periodically lead Bible studies at one of the local funeral homes. Many of the
residents didn’t remember much. But somewhere along the way, I began including
Psalm 23. This psalm is so familiar to so many, that even in the residents with
the strongest cases of memory loss, they could recite part or all of this
psalm. It was remarkable.
As I hinted at the outset, these familiar words of comfort
are often used at funerals. But this psalm is a prayer not for the dead, but
for the living. And it’s a prayer not only for us to give comfort to those who
are grieving in their time of deepest mourning, it’s a prayer we would do well
to rehearse again and again throughout our lives. This psalm is a prayer for
life, not only for death.
Have you ever thought of this familiar psalm as a prayer
before? Rather than simply reading the words, have you ever expressed them to
God as a prayer?
Let’s pray it together…
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want.
The Lord makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters.
You restore my soul, O Lord,
and guide me along right pathways for your name’s sake.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil;
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil, and my cup is running over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Taken as a prayer, and not simply as a description of who
God is and what God does for us, the tone changes. If we pray these words,
suddenly, there is a hope to them, and a faith behind them. If we rehearse
these words again and again as a prayer, they become a part of us – and a part
of our hope and faith and trust in God.
I think I’ve shared with you before about an experience I
had in the summer between sixth and seventh grades when our Minister of Music
asked me to play a duet on my flute with a church friend who played clarinet.
She mailed me the music – it was a setting of the hymn “Now the Green Blade
Riseth” – a setting which included – I kid you not – a run of 32nd
notes that I found impossible to play. I tried and tried, rehearsing those
stupid notes over and over. I’d get partway in to that run of notes and quit
because it sounded awful and my fingers couldn’t keep up.
When it came time for my friend and I to rehearse the duet
together, I was so embarrassed. Wendy could tell that I’d practiced – she could
tell that I’d tried – she could also tell it was beyond my abilities at the
time. So she gracefully took that section out of my part and encouraged me to
play the rest of the piece. And I did, and it sounded beautiful.
Even though I struggled with that one part, the rehearsing
made a difference, and that’s why musicians rehearse.
So, when I suggest rehearsing Psalm 23 as a prayer, this is
the spirit in which I intend that to occur. Rehearsal helps us learn. In this
case, rehearsal helps us learn the words on the page, but the more these words
become a part of us, the more we can live in faith, rather than fear.
This psalm is counter-cultural. We live in a world that
tells us that we lack everything – that we are always in want. Think about something
as simple as advertising. Advertising’s very purpose is to point out where we
are deficient and helpfully provide us with the answers to our deficiencies. And
the advertising is everywhere.
This psalm, though, helps us realize that with God as our
Shepherd, we don’t have to focus on what we don’t have in order to be content
and fulfilled. With God as our Shepherd, we realize that we have what we need.
We have God, who loves us, and will never let us go.
This psalm is counter-cultural also because we live in a
world that tells us that we can find our own right paths. Recently, a survey of
ELCA Lutherans showed that fifty percent of those surveyed believe that in
order to be saved, we must do good works.
Now, I’m as big a believer in the power of good works as
anyone. Good works help make the world a better place to live. But we don’t do
good works to gain salvation of our souls anymore than we can find our own
right paths. It’s God our Savior’s work to save us, just as it is God our
Shepherd’s work to lead us along right pathways.
This psalm also helps us remember that God is with us each
day of our lives. Like I said at the beginning – this is a psalm for our daily
lives, not only for our deaths. So wherever it is that God has placed us for
this season – whatever our work is, wherever we are in school, whatever it is
we do in retirement, God is with us. God leads us, restores us, comforts us,
and provides us. All out of mercy and love for us.
This past week, I was reading what writer, teacher, and
seminary president David Lose has to say about vocation. Vocation is whatever
it is that God calls you to do with your time, energy, and gifts. So think
about that for a second…
Some of you might’ve come up with more than one thing, and
that’s OK. God calls us to multiple vocations: I am a pastor, but I am also a
wife, a stepmom, a dog owner, a family member, a friend. Each of these takes
time, energy, and gifts, so each of these can in some way be considered a
vocation.
Many of you, I hope, consider the volunteer work you do here
at church to be vocational work, and maybe you even from time to time have a
sense of God meeting you in the work you do here, whether that’s caring for the
property, folding the bulletins, or assisting in worship in some way.
But Dr. Lose asks us to consider this question: Are we
prepared to encounter God and be used by God in our everyday lives?
And to apply the filter of the 23rd Psalm to this
question: Are we prepared to encounter God as our Shepherd in our everyday
lives? Are we prepared for God to lead us and care for us in our daily lives?
Are we prepared to fear no evil – even though we may walk in the valley of the
shadow of death? Are we prepared for God’s goodness and mercy to follow us all
the days of our lives? Not just on Sundays or whenever we are at church – but
all the days of our lives?
Let us pray together once more…
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not be in want.
The Lord makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters.
You restore my soul, O Lord,
and guide me along right pathways for your name’s sake.
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil;
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil, and my cup is running over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
+ SDG +
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