[Acts 4:5-12; (Ps. 23;) i Jn. 3:16-24; Jn. 10:11-18]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today, the fourth Sunday of the Easter season is often known as Good Shepherd
Sunday because of the assigned Gospel reading: “I am the good shepherd.” said Jesus.
In many churches it’s also known as Vocations Sunday, when prayers are offered for new vocations, for new shepherds in the Church of Christ, for people -men and women- we can trust to guide us on a spiritual level, people we can trust to guide us on our journey of faith.
The Greek word for trust is pistis; it also means ‘reliance’.
It’s this word we find in the New Testament and which is usually translated with ‘faith’.
It has become to mean an agreement to a certain set of faith rules or expressions; while this is important too, it’s not exactly what the authors of the Scriptures were trying to say: it’s far more about letting go and letting someone else be in charge, about relying on them to envision only the best for us and truly act with our best interests at heart.
James Allison, a Catholic theologian describes faith as relaxing, in the way that you relax in the presence of someone you’re certain is fond of you.
Someone we want to spend time with and someone who’s fond of us and wants to spend time with us, who wants to make us lay down in green pastures and lead us besides still waters.
Psalm 23 interestingly reads like a kind of creed, like a kind of affirmation of faith.
It’s a poem, a song about trust and care, about spending time with our heavenly Father, with our Creator, our Good Shepherd.
He leads me in right paths...
God is enough, our Good Shepherd is enough.
God is the source of all existence, God ís all existence, our Alpha and Omega from whom all things flow and to whom all things will return.
This is why we can take a deep breath and let go.
We can be still -not to mean that there’s no volume- but we can be still in our souls, in our lives. We can leave behind all that pressures us, all that makes us feel hunted.
Anxiety, depression, pride, self-pity, and so on... we can leave it all behind.
But that’s so difficult, isn’t it, to surrender everything in to God’s hands, to let God take care of everything, because we human beings so love to be in control...yet, if we’re truly honest with ourselves, when are we really ever in control?! When do we really ever trust?!
Martin Luther, the German Reformer in his Commentary on this Psalm wrote:
“If you wish therefore, to be richly supplied in both body and soul, then above all give careful attention to the voice of this Shepherd, listen to His voice, let Him feed, direct, lead, protect and comfort you. That is: hold fast to His Word, hear and learn it gladly, for then you will be well supplied in both body and soul.” -end quote.
God is greater than our hearts, Saint John writes, we don’t have to be afraid to let go, to take that leap of faith, that leap of pistis.
That’s the message of hope and love Psalm 23 insists on: that darkest valley cannot win, death -be it physical or spiritual death- has lost its sting.
No, life isn’t perfect, life’s hard, but anything which seems closed off to us, any situation which we don’t seem to be able to get out off -even as sealed as a tomb- God will break open to let light and life in, to let new opportunities in, every single day.
He restores my soul...
These are opportunities to make something of our lives, to mean a difference for good in the lives of others.
It’s not always easy, people aren’t always easy to like and often we don’t actually like ourselves very much.
Fortunately, God does like us, else He wouldn’t have commanded us to love our neighbours as ourselves.
Psalm 23 is a literary reminder of a God who cares, who is engaged and concerned.
It reiterates time and time again that God is present, keeping a watchful eye on Creation, like a good shepherd.
God is present, also in Communion which we will be celebrating in a few moments time.
God is abundantly present.
...my cup overflows...
We too are called to be the shepherd in the Psalm.
We too are called to lead others by still waters, to bring peace to their lives when they’re totally overwhelmed.
We too are called to be present in the dark hours and dark places of others, to bring resurrection light and to hopefully bring some kind of healing, some kind of anointing to them.
This isn’t just a suggestion, to be nice to people, even the people we prefer to avoid; it’s God who asks this of us and God’s requests always have purpose -they’re not there to annoy us- they always have meaning.
We’re called not to shame other peoples’ pistis in us!
The Church, Christianity as a whole has a bad reputation for lettings people down in their trust and reliance, and it’s time that we really take the task which Psalm 23 sets before all of us genuinely to heart.
We all must be better shepherds! Isn’t that a good reminder on Good Shepherd Sunday.
A difficult task for sure, but we have the best example there could possibly be: Jesus, our Good Shepherd.
...goodness and mercy shall follow me...
The Easter season is a time for regeneration, for restoration, for all things new.
Psalm 23 can be our daily guide in this, our daily prayer also.
When our trust, our pistis doesn’t seem enough, we can find courage and energy in these words; we can be reminded that God does watch over his flock, that God does walk with us.
...and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Amen.