2617AFC042426 – Shepherd Me, O Lord ← PODCAST LINK 😀
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John 10:9-11 – 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Psalm 23:1 – 1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
1 Peter 2:24-25 – 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were going astray like sheep, (↔ Music Link) but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. (See Isaiah 53:6)
Acts 2:38-39 – 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.”
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. This weekend we are already at the Fourth Sunday in Easter. Yeppers, Easter isn’t over yet – although the discounted marshmallow PEEPS are pretty much gone. Sunday will be Good Shepherd Sunday because of the content of the Gospel reading from the 10th Chapter of John. It is set during the winter, and in this chapter, Jesus is telling the crowds that he is the Sheep-Gate, and the Good Shepherd, the shepherd who willingly gives his life for his sheep.
“Tending flocks” was usually a lonely job. One solitary shepherd might tend to a dozen sheep or several hundred sheep. Sheep are fairly obedient – although we tend to think of them as stupid – but they are easily spooked, too. When they are frightened, their tendency to bolt makes it difficult to keep them under control. That is why the familiarity between the shepherd and the flock was so important. The shepherd definitely needed the sheep, but most certainly the sheep needed the shepherd even more. They depended on each other. So must we. Our Good Shepherd leads us safely to good pastures and peaceful waters. That is IF we go where the shepherd goes.
Like us, sheep are curious about their surroundings, and they love to eat – to graze (like some people do at Costco, eh?), and so they usually walk along moving from bite to bite, item to item, fully focused on the ground in front of them. They can go astray because they lose sight of the flock. If they notice some plant, or bush, or patch of greener grass over there¸ then over there is next on the menu. We do something similar when we get so wrapped up in what we’re doing that we forget where we’re going and who we’re going with – our Shepherd.
At times another sheep will be treated as more dominant in the herd, and if that sheep takes off after “greener pastures,” other sheep are prone to follow the Big Sheep on Pasture (sort of like the BMOC). There are also sheep in the herd that are just contrarians. If the flock is headed one direction, they will deliberately “escape” and do their own thing. I’ll bet all of us know a person who acts like that – or maybe we are that person? We also tend to withdraw when we are not feeling well, or are injured. Sheep do the same thing when they are unwell, and they go off to be alone so they don’t have to keep up with the flock.
Being part of the herd is a very strong instinct. Be it the herd of sheep or cattle, the flock of birds, the pack of wolves, or a school of fish, traveling in a tight social group is a powerful instinct across nature – humans are not exempt. We, too, require unity, familiarity, and leadership. Oftentimes we don’t like what leaders do, nonetheless we pretty much have to go where leaders go or we get lost from the throng. Sometimes that turns out OK, sometimes not so much. Depending on our situation, we may be fortunate enough to have someone caring about where we are while we’re off looking for who we are. Whether we know it or not, whether we believe it or not, that Someone is The Good Shepherd.
Sometimes when sheep get really lost, they realize they’ve lost sight of the herd, cannot hear the shepherd, and they freak out. In their panic to satisfy the powerful pull of the herd instinct, they can “jump up and run off in every direction.” If one of us has been through a situation like that, we know it is very stressful and often even more dangerous because we are not thinking clearly. Sheep have a reputation for not thinking clearly, in fact, most people think they are dim-witted and easily deceived. It’s really more like they are self-centered – more concerned about getting their share. Sheep always know who the shepherd is, though, and if he calls them, and he calls them by name because he knows them, they go toward him. In that regard, sheep are brighter than us because we’ll often switch shepherds, leaders, friends, teams, or herds, or flocks, at the drop of a feather. That is precisely why we are most in need of a Good Shepherd leading us.
We tend to think of sheep being driven, like other domesticated herd animals. But sheep are better led than driven. The shepherd is at the head of his flock. He knows what they need, goes where they are going and gets there before them. If they are going to the sheepfold, he enters first. If they are leaving, he exits first. If they are going to pastures for grazing, he finds those pastures. The sheep follow only the shepherd; they run from strangers; they panic when attacked by carnivores like wolves or lions. If you remember the stories about David dealing with such predators, you know how important it is to have a leader who will neutralize the threat before losses are too great and panic scatters the flock disastrously.
In this drawing you can get an idea of how a shepherd might protect his sheep by being the door or gate to the sheepfold. Most sheep folds were constructed of low stone walls, unroofed (although sheepcotes were sometimes sheds with roofs), and quite often circular. The shepherd could lay across the threshold or entrance of the holding pen, and that way anything (or anyone) coming or going would literally have to pass over him. It was quite a security system! The shepherd was that gate.
The gatekeeper opens the sheepfold for the shepherd. In much the same way, the Holy Spirit opens the Church (the sheep and sheepfold) for the Shepherd (The Word) to lead and protect. The sheep obey the Shepherd who has conditioned them to know his voice. They know when that voice speaks, there is safety, for it is the Shepherd’s leading that takes them to graze on verdant slopes and rest by running waters which are always fresh and clean rather than stagnant puddles and ponds. The Shepherd values his sheep, so much in fact that he names them and calls them by their names. But for shepherds in Biblical times – and most likely even today in herds not run by agribusiness – Sheep were not considered pets, and yet were more than just livestock. The sheep provided wool, leather, meat, and a sacrificial victim for important feasts and rites. Shepherds invested time and effort in caring for the sheep because they were a major component of their lives. They took care of the sheep because they needed the sheep; to fail to take care of them would be to abandon them. Scripture uses the imagery of sheep and shepherd to describe the relationship between Israel and Jehovah. Sheep are the most-mentioned animals in the Bible – at least 200 times – and the shepherds are often mentioned with them.
Our Good Shepherd is our leader and protector – who calls us by name – makes himself known by inhabiting the praise of his people who hear his voice through his Word and then travel together with him to the Mansions of Rest he has provided for them. He has prepared a Way for us and the Light to see it, the leadership to find it, and the deep spiritual yearning to desire it above everything else. All of this he has done, for each and all of us, despite our brokenness and sin. As The Apostle Peter stated, “He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross, so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you had gone astray like sheep, but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” OUR Good Shepherd transformed our lives by laying down HIS life as the Perfect Sacrificial Offering for that brokenness and sin. Hallelujah! What a Savior! (↔ Music Link)
Here’s what some folks find hard to understand: Our Good Shepherd is also The Lamb that is slain, and the One who offers up the sacrifice, thus at the altar as alter Christi we have “Priest, Victim, and Sacrifice.” That might seem confusing, but it is one of those mysteries that God intends to show us because it has no worldly explanation. It is entirely supernatural. If we believe it happens, we don’t need to know how. If we don’t believe it, we can’t know how. To me, it’s so cool that it’s amazing, and so amazing that it’s totally cool. Just thinking about it makes me happy because when I think about it, I’m in sync with the Good Shepherd, hearing his voice, and seeing him up in front of all of us saying, ”Come on, little ones, home is just around that bend in this Long Road.”
Today, I return to one of my favorite stories about kids and God.
THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD
A Sunday School teacher decided to have her young class memorize one of the most quoted passages in the Bible; Psalm 23 (↔ Click Link). She gave the youngsters a month to learn the verses. Little Rickey was excited about the task but, he just couldn’t remember the Psalm. After much practice, he could barely get past the first line.
On the day that the kids were scheduled to recite Psalm 23 in front of the congregation, Rickey was so nervous! When it was his turn, he stepped up to the microphone and said proudly, “The Lord is my Shepherd, and that’s all I need to know.” Rickey was a living example of what happens when we ask, “Will you Shepherd me Oh God?” (↔ Music Link)
Because why? Why does God make us his flock so that when he calls us by name, it is to have us come to him? The Apostle Peter has a good part of the answer: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” We hear his voice, a friendly, consoling voice of My Good Shepherd (↔ Music Link) He names us and calls us because he Loves us. He is the Shepherd Of My Heart (↔ Music Link), and we trust in him because he calls us by name, and that brings us to our closing passage
Isaiah 43:1-3 (GNT) [1]– 1
Israel, the Lord who created you says,
“Do not be afraid—I will save you.
I have called you by name—you are mine. (↔ Music Link)
2 When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you;
your troubles will not overwhelm you.
When you pass through fire, you will not be burned;
the hard trials that come will not hurt you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
the holy God of Israel, who saves you.
I will give up Egypt to set you free;
I will give up Ethiopia and Seba.
We have been redeemed at a Price (See 1 Corinthians 7:22-23) and that price was The Blood of the Lamb of God, our Good Shepherd – Jesus. (See 1 Peter 1:18-19) Let us be like Samuel. When the Lord calls us by our name, let us respond, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. Shepherd me, O Lord.” What is the Good Shepherd saying to you, to me, to us today?
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
