Musical Prelude and Service.

Psalm 23 & John 10:1-10
The Lord is my Shepherd.
I try to be very careful in my assumptions about what you in the pews know or are familiar with, but
I feel reasonably confident that if not everybody, the vast majority of people today know some or all
of this Psalm. Its familiarity goes beyond Christianity and Judaism. It is part of our general culture.
I read this during a chapel service at the hospital last week and people recited it along with me, by
memory. It has been part of our understanding of God and our relationship to God for so many
people and for so many generations.
Psalm 23 reminds us of God’s constant presence, of God’s care, guidance and god’s offer of strength
and courage, even in times of darkness and of death. It is comforting; often at times when we most
need that sense of comfort.
Are you sitting there listening to me and concerned I am about to offer a “but” or “however” and
force you to rethink what Psalm 23 is about? No. I’m not. Psalm 23 is remarkably comforting. It
points us to a God who is constantly guiding us, nourishing us and accompanying us through the
most painful parts of our lives. It is a reminder that we journey through valleys. We do not reside in
those dark valleys. They are a part of our journey, but not the place we dwell, and if we continue to
walk with our shepherd we will come, eventually to the other side.
All that said, I want to explore an aspect of this psalm that perhaps we don’t consider. As well as a
comforting reminder of God’s constant loving presence, Psalm 23 is also a declaration. We declare
God as our shepherd. It is God our creator who we choose to follow. It is God who guides us,
comforts us nourishes us.
We live in a world where we are offered options, shall we say. We can look in many different places
for guidance – for promises of strength and comfort. We can find offers of care and nourishment that
can seem appealing. They may play on a part of us looking for convenient solutions or justify our
fears and our resentments. They may seek to enflame our anger and urge us to hatred if we are not
careful.
Is that the shepherd we desire? The one we are in danger of listening to and following?
As we discussed the reading from the Gospel of John this past week in our scripture study, I found
myself struck by Jesus’s warnings of false shepherds who were in fact thieves or bandits. An
interesting note to that is some scholarship which indicates Jesus is not talking about the pharisees
and priests whom he is speaking with. In this passage, Jesus is still talking with his followers and
pharisees who were asking him questions following his healing of the blind man. The ones who were
insisting they too were not blind.
At this point in the Jewish world, there were a number of people; often rebels calling for an uprising
against the Roman empire, who named themselves Messiah. Jesus is offering caution about following
them. That they were thieves, tempting people away from the God of life and abundance. Now,
Jesus is certainly not preaching compliance or complicity with the empire. I don’t see that. Jesus is
certainly resistant to an empire built upon fear and violence. But I am suspicious that Jesus is critical
of replacing one message of fear and violence with a different call for fear and violence.
Jesus preaches resisting the violence and fear, and the oppression of the Roman empire and its client
kings, with love and compassion. With empathy and service. Feeding one another, caring for one
another and recognizing the way we are all connected to one another through growing bonds of love.
And while Jesus goes on in this story to call himself the Good Shepherd, here he describes himself as
the gate to the fold; that place where the sheep are protected before going out into the world to
feed.
It’s a curious and – at least for me, a confusing analogy. Jesus is the gate through which the
shepherd must enter to call their sheep. But the sheep know their voice. We know what Jesus has
taught us. We know when a voice rings true and when it is telling us something different.
God desires life for us. God leads us through dark valleys. God feeds us with abundance.
In the psalm we declare that God prepares a feast before our enemies. We can struggle with that
word enemy. We don’t want to think we have enemies but depending upon our context; where we
live and when, many who read this psalm are very familiar with those who wish them harm, or simply
view them as a hinderance to what they desire. Perhaps for many, the word enemy still holds truth.
And Jesus warns his listeners about those who come to steal and to promote death and destruction.
Those who are more than willing to use the flock for their own profit. The gate wishes to bar entry to
those self-styled shepherds. How is Jesus in our time and place protecting us?
If we are not paying attention – if we are open to a different voice offering us something else that
seems appealing, we can be open to theft, death and destruction. There is a real concern that a false
messiah; someone with a very different agenda from that of Jesus, could lure people into a different
movement. John tells us Jesus is urging his followers to consider what the voice of Jesus is telling us.
Is that what other so-called Shepherds are preaching? Jesus offers and encourages life and
abundance. Are we being sold something else and wrapping it in the clothes of the Good Shepherd?
Are we being told threats of retribution and encouragement to exclude those who aren’t just like us is
what God desires?
Are we being told Jesus’ words to love and serve your neighbour comes with exceptions? Are we
then actually hearing the voice of the shepherd?
Or is it the thief who comes to steal, kill and bring destruction?
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He leads me beside still waters and makes me lie down in green pastures.
We still have choices to make. We get to choose who we are listening to. We get to choose who we
will follow. We get to choose who is nourishing us. What offers us life and abundance. And is that life
and abundance only for me? Is it only for me and my friends? Or is it life and abundance for all the
world? Are the promises of Jesus only for those who look like me and talk like me? Or does God’s
love through Jesus expand to encompass all of the world?
This is actually becoming a conversation that is getting some attention now. There is a real concern,
and it needs to be talked about. Religion has often been used to push a particular agenda. It has
been used to maintain a status quo that favours those who hold power and wealth. Those with
neither wealth nor power are told to wait or feel guilty; that their reward is to come, or they did
something wrong. If we are not careful, religion becomes a tool of the thief.
But religion can also be a means to support and care for one another. It can offer comfort and
strength. It can ask questions of those in power and hold them accountable.
So never stop asking, whose voice do you hear?
Whose voice are you following?
Is it one of life and abundance or is it one leading to destruction?
Our destruction or the destruction of others?
May we follow the risen Christ to green pastures and still waters, journeying through the darkest
valley to the other side where all may feast at a table of abundance. Amen
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789