Sunday, June 25, 2017

Sermon for June 25



The readings


Psalm 23 

 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.
 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I 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; 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 my whole life long.

John 10:1-4

 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by  name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice

The message

Today is our third week with the Psalms.  We hear some of the most familiar verses in scripture.  Psalm 23 is one of the few bible passages I know by heart (I am from that generation where memorizing things has lost a lot of its appeal, I mean I can look up anything on my phone in a few seconds. I can find any passage in my bible app almost instantly).  Over my 9 or so years as a pastor, I have shared the 23rd psalm with many people at the end of their lives and at almost all of the funerals services I have planned and participated in.  I have a good sense of what it can mean for people at the end of their lives and for loved ones in times of mourning.  God’s promise that I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever can bring a reminder to people that since Christ is arisen, we will arise. God’s promise to be with those who are in the valley of the shadow of death, which can be the angry, complicated and anxious space created by the loss of a loved, one can bring great comfort to those who mourn.  

Psalm 23, with its great familiarity and comfort, does fit into its own group of Psalms. Over the past few weeks we have looked at a few categories of psalms including hymns of praise where the songwriter give thanks and praise to God, especially as creator and redeemer. We also looked at Laments or prayers for help, where the song writer calls on the name of God, gives voice to a complaint, seeks help from God and proclaims trust in God’s promises.  Psalm 23 fits into another category called psalms of trust.  Similar to prayers for help, pslams of trust are turned to for help during times of crisis (like being in the valley of the shadow of death).  Psalms for help and psalms of trust really contain the same content, the big difference is that while psalms for help are focused on the struggle, the crisis or the situation that causes fear and anxiety, psalms of trust focus on reassuring people and celebrating that God will help.      

It can also be difficult to get the depth of this psalm when you do not know much about an actual sheep or the actual life and work of a shepherd.  Jen and I have a good sized collection of plush sheep, we have made several visits to petting zoos and saw a lot in Ireland (they really are everywhere) but I can’t say I have any idea what goes into caring for a sheep.  The plush kind only need an occasional dusting. Someone I know lived in and served churches in Montana for several years. She talked about her first sermon there in Montana about the Good Shepherd, which was not a great experience. Afterwards a group of people in the church who worked as actual modern day shepherds went up to her, politely asked “do you know anything about sheep”.  She was invited to visit their sheep, their work and see what they do.  That day, they taught her sheep grow to depend on the shepherd. It’s not just a matter of guarding them from other people or thieves, in many ways a shepherd is needed to care for the sheep, to make sure they survive.  The metaphor of God as shepherd teaches about God’s complete and total care for us.

Many of us know that psalm 23 expresses trust in God with this metaphor about the shepherd being trusted by their sheep.  There is a whole other, different half of psalm 23. The Lord is also the host of a royal banquet. At verse 5, we learn the Lord will  “anoint my head with oil and ensure my cup overflows”.  

Things were very different back then when this song was composed but you did not prepare great feasts for your sheep, anoint or refresh them with oil on their heads or do your best to ensure the flock’s cups of sheep brand wine were always full. No, at verse 5, the psalm changes, it is no longer about God as shepherd, it is now about God as the host of a royal banquet. Of course, most of us know the same amount about Ancient Near East royal banquets as we do about caring for sheep.  The information we have about these events is limited and they have changed from time to time and culture to culture. What is known and shared over time is that these royal banquets were not just big parties.  They were events where a king with sufficient resources took care of your every need, these were events where everything else stopped, sacred so that no one messed with them.  

As we go through the Psalms, we continue to meet after church, to review the psalm of the day and rewrite them for today.  This work is an invitation for us to quit trying to figure out what happened at a royal banquet when psalm 23 was composed and start to wonder what one would look like today, what the world would look like with God as our host.  Ultimately, we are waiting for Jesus promised return when God’s saving work will be completed, these things, or greater things we cannot imagine, will happen and all will be restored. We cannot do this so we wait for God to come as host. As we wait, we work and we try to show people a glimpse of what is to come.  My idea of a royal banquet is silly, impossible, wishful thinking, easily criticized  would be an place where everyone had food and good work, access to healthcare, where there was peace, an absence of violence and the things that lead to violence, where people were not separated, where we all saw each other as Children of God          
We are asked to pursue these things like victory in a war. This section of my sermon is based on  notes from the net bible (I do not know nearly enough Hebrew to do this). It has to do with the last verse, the trust that Goodness and mercy will follow me my whole life.  In Hebrew, the use of radaf, “pursue, chase”  with tov vakhesed, “goodness and faithfulness”  is weird.  This is the only place in the entire OT where either of these nouns appears as the subject of this verb radaf (pursue). This verb is often used to describe the hostile actions of enemies.  The word “pursue” is used way outside of its normal context in a way that creates a unique image of God “chasing down” the one whom he loves.  As God loves us, we are asked to love each other.

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