Homily Last Sunday of Epiphany Download PDF
Psalm 23 is a familiar psalm to most Christians. For some it is heard on some Sundays and the occasional funeral. For me it is a memory invoking experience. I can see myself sitting at the bedside of a dying person reciting those words. I can see the comfort it brings to families in those times and have always been struck with its ability to comfort and alleviate fears.
Are there any other psalms that we know by heart? I do but that is showing off. Typically this is the only psalm that Christians know off by heart, or at least well enough to say along with a congregation at a funeral or in a Sunday liturgy.
I love the psalm for many reasons. The language is powerful think of some of the key phrases
"The Lord’s my shepherd”
"He leads me beside still waters”
"Yea though I walk thru the valley of the shadow of death
" Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
I also love the psalm for the theology it contains. We live in a world that likes to say "Where is God.”? This psalm says God is right here with you now, walking with you, guiding you, through the troubles and trials of life.
God’s promise was never that life would be fair or that life would be one roller coaster after another. God’s promise has been to be with us no matter what.
Not only that there are other messages in here that speak of good theology. It suggests that God helps us in our relationships with those who don’t like us, and those we don’t like ourselves. It gives us an opportunity to see the world as less frightening and also images that speak of taking good care of ourselves.
It shows us above all things how to discern God’s presence among us even at times that we are distracted by other concerns.
Albert Einstein once said that science can tell us a lot about the universe- how old it is, how vast it is, how the laws of physics control it, but he went on to say that science is powerless to answer the most important question of all:
Is the universe a friendly place , supportive of human hopes and aspirations?
This psalm is a response to that. It suggests the universe is imprinted with the hand of God, that God leads his people like a shepherd leads the sheep, and that God is ultimately concerned with our well being and our suffering. It is the ultimate message of presence, that God is here.
The psalm conveys a certain honesty about living here that is helpful. It says the world is at least at times a dangerous place. We know this to be true and the empirical evidence around us supports that. The world may be dangerous but God is there to care for us and thus makes it a bit less frightening.
You might say that sometimes with God the storms rage in our lives God calms us like a parent calms the frightened child. When Joy wakes up in the middle of the night with terrors, daddy goes in to comfort here and essentially say "I am here.” Other times God calms the storm itself in ways we often cannot imagine or understand.
The Psalm has captured the emotions of the people who live In this universe. It does not pretend that bad things don’t exist but rather embraces the concept of grief and pain. It speaks of the "valley of the shadow of death.” It does not pretend that death is a ho-hum experience. It understands that death is a blow, sometimes a knock out punch in the hearts of the people. Death can leave us reeling, but this psalm says "I will never leave you.” In a world where people commonly experience rejection at some point from spouse, boss, children, friend, this psalm says "God does not reject you ever.”
I love the fact that this psalm does not suggest that life is easy. The author of this psalm has experience life as a journey, one that has been difficult at times. As such the psalm has language that we can relate to. It speaks of enemies, real life enemies this suggests that life can be a struggle emotionally and spiritually. The psalm does not end there, the author is a stronger person for the journey, he is wiser, more compassionate, and better able to deal with the world and its realities.
Harold Kushner says of the psalm
"The author teaches us to look at the world as God would have us see it. If we are anxious, the psalm gives us courage and we overcome our fears. If we are grieving, it offers comfort and we find our way through the valley of the shadow. If our lives are embittered by unpleasant people, it teaches us how to deal with them. If the world threatens to wear us down, the psalm guides us to replenish our souls. If we are obsessed with what we lack it gives us gratitude for what we have. And most of all, if we feel alone and adrift in a friendless world, it offers us the priceless reassurance that "Thou art with me.”
It Is an incredible spiritual contribution to the life and witness of both Judaism and Christianity, so where did it come from?
Many hold to the tradition that King David wrote all 150 Psalms, and indeed the Psalm begins "a psalm of David.” Scholarship has shown though that some of the events that occur in the Psalms(like the Babylonian Exile happened hundreds of years after his death. Certainly the psalm itself uses images that would have been familiar to the shepherd king.
The power of the Psalm can be lost without a sense of the kind of society existed. The earliest ancestors of the Hebrew people were nomads. They owned no property but traveled with their flocks and herds from place to place. In some cases it just meant a few miles, while in others it involved hostile environments to reach their destination. The shepherds life was a hard life filled with many hazards and dangers. Long after being shepherds they maintained a sense of what it meant to be shepherds as part of their society. In particular the images of a shepherd lovingly caring for his sheep was a comforting image. Their vision of good leadership involved a shepherd lovingly caring for every lamb in the flock protecting them from danger and leading them to lush green space.
It is into this society that God came in Jesus Christ. Jesus born in a manger near sheep and goats and other animals learned early on the importance of the shepherd image for God. In his ministry Jesus used the language often.
In the Gospel of John Jesus says " I am the good shepherd, I know my own and my own know me and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
He speaks in parable often imaging the shepherd/sheep. Remember the parable of the lost sheep where one runs away and the shepherd leaves the other ninety-nine behind to find the lost one.
When Jesus refers to himself as the good shepherd he is saying to them I am the one for whom the Psalm speaks. I will always be with you. Indeed in the Gospel of Matthew the Lord says
I will be with you to the end of the age.
There is a real sense that Jesus is telling them I am He, the great I am, and I will always be with you. I will lead you to green pastures and still waters, I will be with you in the valley of the shadow of death, and despite the world being a scary place it is less scary because I am there.
It is one thing to speak theologically about the presence of God, but I have always sensed in congregational ministry that people are craving signs of that presence. There is not so much an interest in a lecture but rather in an experience of God.
At our very basic we crave a God who will make us feel safe and secure in the world. We are constantly reminded of our vulnerability and fragility speaking about our health and safety in the world as so many things are beyond our control.
Psychologists suggest that children have a "morality of security.” Simply put anything that makes them feel safe is good while anything that makes the, afraid is bad.
This morality of security is not a bad thing and at some level we never outgrow it. Just as prayers help children to know God is always with them, prayers help adults with that same manner. Scriptures like this one remind us of the same thing and tap into the "morality of security” we still want and need.
So how does this security come to us? It comes from the grace of God as a free gift, just for being we are loved and the words of the psalm apply to us.
Now to grow into this trust and love Christians look to grow into the stature of Christ, becoming more like him day by day. Indeed Christian means "little Christ.” We dwell in the scriptures, especially the Gospels that provide a mirror for us of Christ’s life and teachings. We need to learn and inwardly digest these stories so that they become a part of our story and they are a familiar as knowing where we were born.
There once was a Shakespearean actor who was known everywhere for his one-man shows of readings and recitations from the classics. He would always end his performance with a reading of Psalm 23.
Each night, without exception, as the actor began his recitation--"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want" ... the crowd would listen attentively. And then, at the conclusion of the psalm, they would rise in thunderous applause in appreciation of the actor's incredible ability to bring the verse to life.
But one night, just before the actor was to offer his customary recital of Psalm 23, a young man from the audience spoke up. "Sir, do you mind if tonight I recite Psalm 23"?
The actor was quite taken aback by this unusual request, but he allowed the young man to come forward and stand front and center on the stage to recite the Psalm, knowing that the ability of this unskilled youth would be no match for his own talent.
With a soft voice, the young man began to recite the words of the Psalm. When he was finished, there was no applause. There was no standing ovation as on other nights. All that could be heard was the sound of weeping. The audience had been so moved by the young man's recitation that every eye was full of tears.
Amazed by what he had heard, the actor said to the youth, "I don't understand. I have been performing Psalm 23 for years. I have a lifetime of experience and training-but I have never been able to move an audience as you have tonight. Tell me, what is your secret?"
The young man quietly replied, "Well sir, you know the Psalm....I know the Shepherd."
What if we made the Psalm more personal? Certainly we all know it and can rattle it off but what if…..
Join with me in an exercise and then I will tell you a story.
Count the first four words of the psalm but when you hit the fourth word "My” grab your finger. The… Lord… is…. MY(grab hold on) shepherd.
A priest visited a young family in an isolated community. It was the prarie’s in the fifties and he only made it to this part of his parish once every two months. Upon arriving he was told that the youngest Timmy was sick in bed. Timmy had Dipheria and was afraid. The priest went into the room and sat down and asked Timmy if he knew the 23rd Psalm. "Sure I do, Timmy said. "The Lord’s my shepherd.” Just wait said the priest count the words and at the fourth word grab your finger and hold on. So Timmy did and he did it again and again.
When the priest arrived the next time he walked up the path to the house and saw a little mound of dirt with a cross on it and he knew Timmy must have died. When he knocked on the door Timmy’s parents answered. Timmy’s death has been such a traumatic experience, they said. One thing remains a mystery. When we found him in the morning his entire left hand was clutching the fourth finger of his right.
My sense is that when the Good shepherd of us all becomes MY shepherd to us our commitment to Jesus Christ and his church increases, our capacity for love and compassion increases, and our trust and faith that we are not alone in this universe magnifies itself.
To grow as little Christ’s we must know the shepherd. The story we tell of our lives, if we know the shepherd will be compelling to others. It will be something they will want for themselves.
Over the next few weeks as we journey through Lent we are going to walk into the wilderness with Jesus. There we will be invited through scripture and sacrament and hearing God’s word in sermons to know the shepherd more deeply and fully. We are going to be invited to increase our compassion and our commitment to him through the season of Lent. We will explore questions we have that get in the way of this closeness. "Why do bad things happen to good people.”? What do we do about the stress and anxiety we have in our lives? "Who is God? What do we do to become closer to God? What are the clues that we are not alone?
Ultimately this journey is taken in community where we will look to know the Good shepherd who knows us.
Shepherds in Jesus time were always taking their staff and pulling the lambs out of little holes. They would reach in under the legs and gently scoop them up to safety. The good shepherd never hit the animals for conformity or obedience.
I think God does the same with us. In God’s still small voice we are scooped out of holes in the ground and dusted off. We are encouraged to go on our way, and we are invited to know the good shepherd deeply in our hearts.
"Thou art with me.” Amen.