[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Proper 23A

[Joe Parrish]

This Sunday’s sermon is entitled “The Lord Is My Shepherd” and deals with the Psalm (Psalm 23).  Here it is:
 We have one of my very favorite Psalms- the 23rd Psalm, in our Bible readings today, and I’d like to look at it.  This one passage of scripture has brought comfort and strength to countless Christians through-out the centuries.  It’s a good one to memorize, so you can repeat it to yourself in stressful times.  My mother had a picture of Jesus, the Good Shepherd in a frame in our kitchen.  Over the years, it got stained with grease from cooking and dust from the Detroit factories, but I can still remember that picture.  Since we’re city folk, it’s easy to miss subtleties of Jesus, the Good Shepherd image, but that shepherd carrying the lost lamb over his shoulders made an impressive statement about God’s love and care for us.  Let’s examine the Psalm, verse by verse.
 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”  We can count on God to supply all our needs (not wants or desires- needs).  This does not mean that God will take away the consequences of our sins.  In other words, if we gamble away our food money, we can’t expect God to provide us with more money.
 “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.”  Sheep usually graze from early morning (around sunrise) until late morning.  After that, they need to lie down and rest while they digest their food.  Our Good Shepherd also provides rest time for us by commanding us to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
 “He leadeth me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul”.  Sheep will not drink from fast-moving streams.  Perhaps the water going up their nostrils frightens them, since sheep frighten very easily.  Fast-flowing streams also pose a threat to sheep because if they lose their footing and fall in, their heavy coats usually become saturated with water and they drown.  Often the shepherd will make a cup with his hands so the sheep can drink from it.  Our Good Shepherd provides holy food and drink (his Body and Blood) to give us the strength to continue.
 “He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his Name’s sake.”  Sheep know the voice of their shepherd and they follow when he or she calls.  One of my Internet friends visited the Holy Land and told of her experience while in Israel regarding sheep and shepherds.  Passing by a field with many sheep while touring, she noticed that many of the sheep had different colored paint marks on their sides.  She asked the tour guide what the colors meant.  “Oh, those sheep don't belong to the shepherd.  He's just a hired hand,” responded the guide.  “How can you tell?” asked the tourist.  “What do the colors painted on have to do with that?” “A real shepherd (one who owns the sheep) knows his sheep and they know him,” said the guide.  “These sheep have paint markings because a hired hand is watching several different flocks for the shepherds and the hired hand never gets to know any of them.  He has to have the paint to tell them apart.  A real shepherd just knows and calls.”  In John (10:27-28), Jesus says: “My sheep know my voice, and I know them. They follow me, and I give them eternal life, so that they will never be lost.” Sheep don’t get in trouble or danger because they know the voice of their shepherd and follow him.  What about us?  Do we know the voice of the Good Shepherd because we pray and listen daily or do we just go with whoever speaks the loudest or most convincingly?
 “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.”  There is an actual valley of the shadow of death in the Holy Land.  It has an extremely narrow path for the sheep to use.  In fact, in one spot the shepherd makes the sheep jump across a gully that is about 18 inches wide.  Wild dogs and other wild predators often wait for a sheep or lamb to fall into the gully.  When this happens, the shepherd uses his rod to beat back the attack while he uses his staff to hook the sheep or lamb and bring it up to safety.  God does the same for us.  In those difficult times in our lives, in the time of our death- we can count on God to protect us and reach out to bring us safely to him.
 “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”  Each morning before the shepherd lets the sheep out to graze, he inspects the pasture.  He clears it of poisonous weeds and snakes. He also fills in all the holes that might catch a sheep’s leg and cause injury.  In the same way, our heavenly Shepherd looks over our coming day to be sure there is nothing that we can’t handle in his Name.
 “Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”  When the sheep come into the pen for the night, the shepherd inspects each one carefully for cuts and insects.  He applies healing oil to cleanse and begin the healing process for wounds.  In the same way- when we say our bedtime prayers, our Heavenly Shepherd cleanses our souls and heals the wounds of the day.
 “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”  This promise is a gift from the Lamb of God who redeemed us on Calvary.  I’m going to repeat a story I’ve told numerous times of how the blood of one lamb saves another, and how the Blood of our Passover Lamb saves us.  This true story offers the best example I’ve ever heard of how Jesus, the Lamb of God, saves us from our sins.  Remember how- just before we receive Holy Communion- I bread the Holy Bread and say, “Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.”  Jesus has become the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”  Have you ever heard of Jeff Smith, also known as the Frugal Gourmet?  (He used to be on TV years ago.)  Anyway, in his book called The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast, he tells about a conversation he had with a shepherd from the Middle East.  He learned that very often during lambing season, the shepherd would awaken to find a dead mother sheep with a live baby lamb and another live mother sheep with a dead baby lamb.  The mother sheep whose lamb has died has milk ready to feed a hungry lamb, but no babies.  The lamb whose mother sheep has died is starving for lack of milk.  Easily solved, you think.  Just let the orphan lamb suckle from the childless mother sheep.  Great idea, but it won’t work; because the mother sheep knows the orphan lamb doesn’t smell like her baby.  Do you know how the shepherd solves the problem?  He drains the blood from the body of the dead lamb and washes the live orphan lamb with that blood.  Now the orphan lamb smells like one of her own, and the mother sheep will adopt the orphan and feed it.  That’s what God did with us- washed us in the Blood of his Lamb- Jesus, the Christ, so we could be adopted as sons and daughters of God and freed from our sins.
So, where are you in all of this?  Have you accepted Jesus as your Good Shepherd?  If not, just invite him into your life right now and then seal it at the altar as you come up for Communion?  Do you follow him daily, or do you just expect him to rescue you every time you get yourself in trouble?  Do you spend enough quiet time with our Lord so you recognize his voice, or do you keep busy, busy, busy with the radio blaring, the TV on, or the stereo blasting away?  Finally, is Jesus not only your Good Shepherd, but your MODEL Shepherd?  Do you just happily accept God’s blessings, keeping them to yourself; or do you reach out and touch?  May God bless us as we follow our Good Shepherd.
 For anyone who is interested, this sermon and updated African-American wisdom statements are posted on our parish’s NEW WEB SITE under “Sermons & Stuff”. The address is: http://www.stpaulsepisag.org.
Blessed preaching,
Judy Boli
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Saginaw, Michigan



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