In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Please be seated.
A woman who used to volunteer in a nursing home once told me that even people who were in the depths of dementia would remember Psalm 23 and could recite it with her.
There are 150 psalms in the NIV. Why that one?
It’s especially interesting that Psalm 23 follows Psalm 22, one of the most miserable laments in the Book of Psalms, starting with “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”.
Maybe we love Psalm 23 because it describes what most of us who are feeling like the writer of Psalm 22 really want.
Green pastures. Still waters. Goodness and mercy. A shepherd.
Interesting choice of words- a shepherd.
If you were born in the 20th century (or later), you may have had little interaction with sheep outside of a petting zoo- but here’s what a farmer in Texas told Vernon McGee, a Presbyterian minister, after a sermon McGee preached that mentioned sheep. The farmer said, “A sheep is not only the most helpless creature in the world, but a sheep is the most stupid creature that God ever created. If two little sheep were to wander away from the flock, over the hill just two hundred yards, they couldn’t find their way back. They’re lost and you’d have to go get them. If a wolf comes along, he’ll kill one of the sheep. You’d think the other little sheep would be smart and say, ‘While he’s eating my brother I’m going to get back to the flock,’ but he doesn’t do that. He just waits to become dessert for the wolf. A sheep is a helpless and very stupid little creature.”
In biblical times, just about everyone was familiar with sheep. If you count all references to sheep, lambs and rams, they’re the animal most mentioned in the Bible. David the psalmist started out as a shepherd. Comparing us to sheep in need of a shepherd was deliberate.
Even those of us who think we have it all together are in need of a shepherd, too.
Jeremiah 23 takes up a theme Jesus discusses in today’s reading from John: that there have been false shepherds, the leaders who served only themselves and not their flocks. Jeremiah was speaking to the dispersed Jews who had been scattered by the violence and oppression of secular leaders who were supposed to be taking care of them. He tells them, “Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: ‘It is you who have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them’”.
Jeremiah now promises them that the Lord will appoint a new shepherd from the line of David.
Similarly, Psalm 22 leads us into Psalm 23 with a message of hope:
“For the Lord has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.
God’s word is fulfilled in Jesus, the good Shepherd. In the reading from John, Jesus himself explains his relationship with us, his flock. Unlike the thief, he enters by the gate, calls his sheep by name and goes out ahead of them. He will gather the ones who have scattered, seek out the scared and the lost and lay down his life for his flock.
In 2024 I heard a memorable sermon on the text, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”. It started with a description of kindergarteners on their first day at the church school- excited, nervous, not knowing which way to turn and needing direction. In comparing us to the wandering kindergarteners and the sheep gone astray, the priest reminded us that in saying, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”, Jesus was making it very clear that we didn’t need to wonder which way was the right way, which truth was the real truth and how to attain eternal life.
Jesus IS the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for His flock, who knows us, and we know him. We may be sheep but we don’t need to wander.
Amen.
