SERMON TITLE: The Lord Is My Shepherd
Preached by the Rev.
John Lee on April 29, 2007 at DPUC
SCRIPTURE READINGS
23:1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
23:3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.
23:4 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.
23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
23:6 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 10:22-30
10:22 At that time
the festival of the Dedication took place in
10:23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon.
10:24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."
10:25 Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me;
10:26 but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.
10:27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
10:28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.
10:29 What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand.
10:30 The Father
and I are one."
The Lord Is My Shepherd
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want… "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." As this 23rd Psalm puts it, there is no doubt that we all want Jesus to be our shepherd – all that Jesus promises to be true for us.
As I look back on my faith journey, Jesus has been my shepherd. I believe that many of us want Jesus to be our shepherd, too. As we come to church every Sunday morning,
with remembrance of Jesus, the shepherd, we sing hymns, we pray, read the Bible, hear the sermon, we offer our gifts of thanksgiving and commit ourselves for God's will to be done. We, as the church, are committed to the work of justice, healing and reconciliation for world's peace. However before we do our commitment, we come to church for ourselves.
We want God to watch over us to protect, and to bless us. We want God to comfort us when we hurt to heal us when we are ill, to reconcile us with people and nature
to walk with us when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And we want God to bring us to the eternal life. This is what we all want.
It is easy to understand God's healing and reconciliation. But what does it mean to say that we want God to bring us to eternal life? We remember that Jesus has taught the disciples about eternal life so many times. It is through love of God that brings us to be with the pains of the world and to be with the people who are poor, sick, lonely, and those who are in rejected and marginalized from their mainstream society.
Here we have two things that puzzles us, which comes first: God's grace and our commitment. This is the issue of Christians throughout the history, the issue of salvation.
Now all Christians believe that we are saved by God's grace. This issue can be said in an easy phrase, we experience God's grace and, in thanks and praise, this brings us to commit ourselves, and some people even risk their lives.
To live this life, the life of salvation, the life of healing and reconciliation, and the life for shalom, the life of peace and justice, we are grateful that Jesus Christ comes to us, guides and empowers us through his Spirit. But in this world, there are so many who claim that they are the messiah, they are the saviour, and through them people can be saved through them. These crooks use the bible and know about the bible better than us. They frequently say, "Jesus said…"
How can we discern Jesus' saying?
In today's gospel lesson, Jesus identifies himself as a shepherd, and he says, " I am the good shepherd. I am the one who looks after my sheep." Jesus is saying to us that he is the one who loves his sheep with a love that is stronger than death. And Jesus says,
"My Sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me." What we do from our side is that hear Jesus' voice and follow him. This is where the difficulty lies.
Do we really know Jesus' voice?
Do we discern Jesus' voice out of many seemingly similar voices?
How do we do that?
When we receive telephone calls, we can tell our family members and close friends' voices from that of strangers. When I hear my mother calling me by name, I can tell what she has in her mind, at least good or bad, trifle or serious matter. Do we know Jesus' voice when he speaks to us? How can we tell Jesus' voice when he speaks to us? Can we tell what Jesus speaks to us? And how can we tell it?
Jesus speaks to us through the Bible. As we read the bible, when we have Jesus in our heart, it echoes to our soul and we can have deeper understanding. Jesus also speaks to us through people. Jesus said, "What you did to the least of least, that is what you did to me." This means that we have to listen to the cries of the poor, sick and marginalized seriously as Jesus calling us. This means that Jesus speaks to us through friends, family members, co-workers and through the marginalized and powerless lonely and sick people around us.
We confirm Jesus' voice by reading the Bible. For this we need to read the Bible to do the Bible study, and to pray for God's inspiration. So without the Bible, we cannot say that we are Christians, the sheep led and cared for by Jesus Christ. To discern Jesus' voice and to understand what Jesus is saying to us, we should read the Bible with Jesus Christ in our hearts and pray to God for inspiration. Do we know the voice of the shepherd? Think about it some more. And do we confess that Jesus is the good shepherd. I know I believe that. But until I experience God's grace through Jesus Christ, it was a knowledge to me.
It is true to all of us when we think of Psalm 23. "The Lord is my shepherd..." This is a well-known and well-loved scripture passage, the twenty-third psalm. Generations have memorized it. In Sunday School or at the knee of parents or grandparents this psalm was heard. By the way, I am wondering if our young kids or grandchildren are familiar to this Psalm. It is one of the first Bible passages I have learned. So often, we hear it at funerals and death beds in the hospital. It is among the last words said over us when we die. "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want..." It is a wonderful affirmation of our faith in God's protection in our time of despair.
This is a psalm of faith that covers present, past, and future. My destiny is sure. My present, my past, my future...secure. And all because "The LORD IS MY SHEPHERD." Until we know the situation of David who wrote this, we cannot understand the deep meaning of this. This is sung after experiencing life and death situation. Chased by Saul's soldiers, David was running away to save his life. He couldn't eat food, drink water, and couldn't sleep well. He slept in caves many nights, and came out to a field with green pasture, and sang this song of thanksgiving.
When we look back our lives, we had passed through many difficult days. There is not a single occasion that was without the hands if Jesus Christ, the good shepherd. But there are many temptations. There are believers who are so unused to listening to God, so unaware of the presence of the living word in their lives, and they consult the Ouija board for messages and call up the psychics who advertise on television for advice rather than seeking the wisdom of the saints who live among us in this church. The real problem we have in our daily life is that there are believers who do not listen to the voice of the good shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord, who do not follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit who reconciles us.
And people hurt each other, and listen to the voice of their ego and pride, rather than the voice of Jesus Christ God calls us. God is searching for us. God is asking us to come to God, to listen to God, and to enter his shelter and be made safe with the rest of sheep, safe from violence who only kill and destroy, safe from the evil one who would have us live in darkness and despair all our days.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie own in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. It is God's grace. We journey together following God's calling, and it is a journey of experiencing God's grace. We simply live with this thanksgiving hearts, it is the life of Jesus Christ in our hearts. And then we will know what God's blessing for us is. The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. Thanks be to God.
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Updated April 29, 2007