This Sunday has us thinking about sheep and shepherds. I love this time of year, not least because you don’t have to go far to see little new born lambs excitedly exploring new surroundings. I was at a meeting last week with Mark from Ellington chapel. I noticed he was looking at his phone under the table. He had a live stream from his farm and was watching lambs being born one by one. It was maybe more interesting than the meeting!
Sheep can be stubborn and they do what they like. I sometimes am late when I go to the service up at Dallowgill. They sit on the road. They say when I get to the chapel “were it sheep?” Also sheep are not easy to train. They are simple, gentle spirits who scare easily. They love to rub their bodies against the sides of fences when they are shedding, leaving clumps of wool behind. There are often a few internal leaders in a herd – but the majority of sheep are happy to follow. They often have to rely on someone showing them the way through a gate. Most of the time they’re quiet, with a few contented bleats – but if you’ve caught them, and they don’t want to be caught, they scream. Maybe you’ve heard that once or twice in your life. If you haven’t, rest assured that the volume is surprising! Thank God we have a Good Shepherd in Jesus who cares for us his sheep so much he lays down his life for us, to protect us and nurture us. Thank God we have a God who leads us into green pastures. Mark told me when I led worship at Ellington last Sunday that he soon gets the lambs out of the barn and into the field. That might be an adventure but it might be a bit scary. I was at Christ the Consoler church at Newby Hall on Thursday interring some ashes in a torrential downpour. There were two little lambs and their mother on the path by the church. I noticed wherever the little lambs went the mother followed, they weren’t ever out of her sight, and mother looked very protective if I got too near to her offspring.
This reminds me of the importance of pastoral care. We offer to people a Jesus who cares and finds people when they get lost in the maze of a complicated world or they can’t find their way home in the wet. I have a card at home which has a sheep in the middle of a storm and it says above the picture “Lost? I’m not lost. I know where I am, I’m right here!”
Psalm 23 is the most popular and probably the most read Psalm of all. It brings comfort and encouragement to all who read it.
A Psalm written by David, who from days spent looking after the family's flocks, became, as king, the shepherd of his people. As David sought to guide the nation he looked to God to be his guide.
“Right here” isn’t easy for many in our community at the moment. Ministers have a reputation nowadays we don’t visit people. I do visit and I’d love to do more. It’s a privilege to meet people where they are, in homes and in care homes and in hospital or at coffee morning. I try and give direction when people are lost.
In a society that is bemusing, we need to lead people to safety and new life. That’s what our churches are for. We need to lead people through dark valleys. We need to let them know there is a God who meets us and is my shepherd. The old evangelist D L Moody of Moody and Sankey hymnody used to say “ you may talk about the shepherd but when you get into the dark valley you will talk to him.”
John Wesley said “go to those who need you most” thinking about the priorities of Methodist outreach. One of the ordination charges is “seek the lost.” We can, and must, all do that. So we mustn’t spend all our time in church buildings. There are conversations to be had. I was at a meeting the other Saturday addressed by Matt Finch from the Connexional Evangelism and Growth Team. He had been at a meeting with the Head of Music at Radio 1. He was told surely the churches are on a roll at the moment as young people are full of questions about spirituality and the nature of God or his absence or irrelevance to them. He encouraged pastoral engagement. I suggest this also needs to happen with older people. Start conversations, they often begin at coffee mornings. They can happen when you least expect. Like when your shopping is going along the conveyor belt in Asda. “Are you a vicar?” said the girl on the till. “I’m an agnostic. I can’t believe a God would allow so much suffering in the world. It isn’t fair.” We went to have a theological discussion on God in the darkness and uncertainty. The shepherd doesn’t in the end let us stay in the valley of the shadow of death - he leads us to a banquet of eternal loveliness. And before that? And God is into good shepherding.
Phillip Keller is a man who studied agriculture. He was a lay pastor and for a time he owned and cared for his own flock of sheep. And he wrote down several devotional books based on his experiences as a shepherd – A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23.
In one of those books, he tells a story about one of his sheep in particular that would always be out by the fence looking, searching always for a hole, trying to get on the other side of the fence. And this one sheep would go outside and it would graze on this narrow plot of land that was, it really did not have much grass. And it was right on the cliffs overlooking the sea. It was a very dangerous place for that sheep to graze while there was plenty of grass inside the fence. The biggest problem came in that the other sheep would see that sheep wandering off and they would follow and the whole flock was in danger. The point is, sheep need a shepherd. We know that, don’t we? We know that sheep need a shepherd. And as we think about that, doesn’t it conjure up in our minds a sort of sentimental association of the shepherd and the sheep?
But you see, in Jesus' day, the job of a shepherd was not a noble or a prestigious occupation. Shepherds were lonely. They were dirty. It was exhausting work. And by the time of Jesus shepherds had required a very bad reputation in 1st century Palestine. They were among the lowest classes of society. They were despised and considered untrustworthy. Their testimony was not admitted in court. There was one rabbi who said, he said this, that “parents should not teach their son to be a donkey driver, a camel driver, a pot maker, a sailor, a storekeeper, or a shepherd.” Shepherds were not a prestigious or a noteworthy occupation. The reason the rabbi didn’t want the children to become shepherds was because these were the trades of robbers. They would oftentimes let their sheep graze in other people’s pastures and so they were considered to be thieves. Sometimes we think of shepherds as innocent and quaint – these figures that were living in peace and quiet pastures. That’s not at all what Jesus is up against in His day. In reality, the shepherds were lowly and unimpressive figures. That’s why it was so surprising that when Jesus was born, who were the first people that His birth was announced to? It was to shepherds. These misfits. They were overlooked. Who would believe their account of Jesus’ birth and of what the angels announced to them? God therefore has confidence in us. He comes to us to find him in unexpected places.
We are guided through hard times to find peace. And we shall lack nothing.
I shall not want - In this verse “want” is a synonym for “lack.” God’s people do not lack any good thing. Whatever is good, whatever is beneficial, He will provide it for us.
Psalm 34:10 – The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.
Our God in heaven is the Creator of the entire universe. Everything belongs to Him. The world came into existence by the force of His spoken word. Nothing is too difficult for Him to give to you. If He has not given it to you, it is because you do not need it.
A vicar wrote this: I sometimes have the opportunity to share with new believers about prayer. And I ask them a question, “If you pray for a new car, will God give it to you?” Many of them immediately answer, “No.” Perhaps they think that such a prayer is selfish or unrealistic. Perhaps they think that God cannot move in tangible ways like giving a car, but instead only acts to give us peace or comfort.
What do you think, if you pray for a new car will God give you one?
The answer is: If it is good for you, if you need it, God will give it to you. Probably all of us have been around wanters, people who always want more and more things no matter how much they have. Most cultures in the world are like this today. Materialism breeds greed and discontent. Companies constantly market the need to upgrade perfectly usable products or electronics to the latest and greatest “must have.” Once someone asked Rockefeller, the richest person in the world at that time, “How much money is enough?” He said, “A little more.” And he lived that way.
Some people go through their life being discontent. They wish away their present while dreaming of the greener grass on the other side of wherever they are now. God in this Psalm gives us enough to get through and then a great party in heaven.
Walter Brueggemann writes, “It is almost pretentious to comment on this psalm. The grip it has on biblical spirituality is deep and genuine.
It is such a simple statement that it can bear its own witness without comment.”
So let me end like this. From the Feasting on the Word series, in his advice for how to preach this passage, pastor David Burns writes,
“One way to approach preaching Psalm 23 is not to preach it. Just read it slowly—preferably in the King James Version—and then sit down.”
Over the next few days, why not find a quiet place and do that. What does this ancient prayer do to you?
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for thou art with me:
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
May God who is present in sunrise and nightfall and in the crossing of the sea guide our feet as we go. May God who is with us when we sit and when we stand encompass us with love and lead us by the hand. May God who knows our path and the places where we rest, be with us in our waiting, be our good news for sharing and lead us in the way that is everlasting."
(Shane Claiborne from "Common Prayer”)
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