My son’s opening ceremonies for Rookie baseball is this Saturday at 8am. He’s learning all the important things about baseball, like where the bases are located. Of course this rookie baseball is but a feeder program for the high school teams and eventually the minor and major leagues. Not too many will probably reach that level, but we are all learning along the way.
In the Christian faith, we are all in feeder system as sheep. We are hungry in many and various ways and the Shepherd of the world feeds us. We are all sheep being fed and learning in the journey. Psalm 23 is a great reminder that we are sheep and God is the great Shepherd. The Psalms are all great songs that feed us in our lives. I haven’t taught you how to find the Psalms in the new Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnals we’ve recently purchased. So please take one out from under your chairs. A quick overview is warranted. The small numbers on the bottom outside of the page is in the front section of the hymnal and it is where the prayers and various orders of worship. If you go to the back, the large hymnal numbers are on the top of the page. Please go to hymn #151 in this section. If you turn back just a few pages, you will find psalm 150, reminding us that our hymns continue in a line of songs we have sung starting with the psalms. The psalms are after the front section with small numbers at the bottom and the hymn section with large numbers on the top. I wish they would have made it easier to find pages with one numbering system, but here we are learning. So, go to Psalm 23. There are little red marks in the psalms for canting and I know you can cant. So let’s try this back and forth with this tone. I will sing odd verses and you will sing even verses acappella.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. There is a program on television that is a feeder system for musicians. This show is watched religiously, it’s American Idol. This was the week for "Idol Gives Back", where they have raised over $60 million this week for social service programs. Well on Wednesday, the eight finalists sang the worship song, “Shout to the Lord” and they sang all the original lyrics, except they left "Jesus" out of the picture and sang, “My Shepherd, my savior, Lord there is none like you”. When the contestants sang the song again near the end of Thursday's results show, many were pleasantly surprised to hear them sing, after much feedback, “My Jesus, my savior, Lord there is none like you." For those who got upset about this, the question became whether it should by Jesus or Shepherd. The answer is both! Jesus is the Shepherd.
Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The image of God as shepherd is throughout the Bible and the characteristics described of the shepherd is that they have a distinct voice that the sheep can understand. When the sheep get all mixed up with other sheep during the week, the sheep hear the voice of the shepherd calling they back, by name. The shepherd is also a gate keeper, lying between the open areas of rock that were used to make the wall. Jesus is the Gate, for the shepherd guards the sheep.
We are the sheep and for the most part, sheep are dumb. They would follow other sheep into water and drown or off a cliff or they would eat too much. We are the sheep. We are all like sheep that have gone astray. We don’t want to learn about following. In the movie
Sometime the pastor is called the shepherd. Pastors are sheep also. I am not the shepherd. I am just a sheep. When I was in seminary, Professor David Rhoads helped me to understand this when I was concerned about becoming THE shepherd. He suggested that I try to become a smart sheep. So in my own hunger, I’m just trying to help show you and tell you as a smart sheep who is the shepherd. The word pastor comes from the Latin word, “to feed”, like the word pasture. Jesus said there will be one flock, one shepherd. He was not asking for applications. The position is filled. With that realization an extraordinary freedom is created regarding “the work of ministry without needing to be in control.”[i]
The shepherd is responsible for the sheep; not the sheep for the shepherd. The worst of it is that we sometimes think we are both the shepherd and the sheep, and that we have to both guide and follow. Happy are we when we realize that he is responsible, that the goodness and mercy of God shall follow as we continue in this feeder system of being disciples of Christ.
I’ve been teaching my son in the feeder baseball system about throwing. John Francis showed me that you want to teach kids how to throw correctly early on so they don’t’ put too much strain on the elbow. The kids turn sideways to where they are going to throw; point forward with their glove and point the ball backwards and then throw. This is the “T” position and it makes the sign of the cross. We are all learning to point to the shepherd and make the sign of the cross in this “T” position as we celebrate the shepherd who was willing to lay down his life for the sheep. Christ has risen! Christ has risen indeed!
Let us pray! God our shepherd, you know your sheep by name and lead us to safety through the valleys of death. Guide us by your voice that we may walk in certainty and security to the joyous feast prepared in your house, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
[i] http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1960
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