Easter 3 April 26, 2020 Good Shepherd Sunday

Easter 3
Psalm 23 & John 10:11-16
April 26, 2020

“Pastures, Waters, Paths, Valley, Table, House”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Psalm 23:1, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Now two things to start off here about Psalm 23. First of all, obviously this is a metaphor that David is using. You’re not literally a sheep. You’re a person, a human. We’re not going to literally lay down in these green pastures here in the yard and start grazing. Jesus isn’t going to lead us to a pond outside of town where there’s some still water to drink. He doesn’t literally use a rod and staff to prod and guide you in the right direction. Right? I don’t hear any bleating coming out of the cars this morning. So it’s a metaphor—a figure of speech.

BUT, second of all, just because it’s a metaphor doesn’t mean it’s only a spiritual metaphor. It doesn’t mean Psalm 23 should drift you off into some fantasy world where you’re floating on the clouds and Jesus is petting you and telling you what a good little sheep you are. “Here, little sheep, have some grass and water.” No. Just because it’s a pretty picture doesn’t mean that you should completely spiritualize this psalm so that it becomes totally empty of any real meaning and just vanishes into thin air like a dreamy afternoon in the green pasture.

See, we Christians have a problem with this when we heard the Word of God. We so often immediately spiritualize it like Jesus is talking about some fantasy world for our souls. Our souls are in some other realm by green pastures and still waters. No! That’s not what Jesus means. It’s like we’ve got one of those train yard switches on the railroad track where you can switch the tracks so the train can go one way or the other way. And when we hear any talk about God then we switch the track and off we float into spiritual lala land. But if it’s about money or health care or politics or sports—well, then, that’s real life we say and we switch the track that way. But the minute the Word of God speaks or the minute we sit down to listen to a sermon we hit the switch and head the train into some other pretend world where sheep are sitting in green pastures.

We have to stop spiritualizing everything. Psalm 23 is about your life. Your whole life. All of it. When Jesus says He’s your Shepherd, He doesn’t mean up in the clouds. He means everywhere and anywhere you are—He’s is. He’s your Shepherd right now sitting in that car. He’s your Shepherd on Monday morning when you get up and go to work. He’s your Shepherd on Tuesday afternoon when you get bills in the mail. He’s your Shepherd on Wednesday morning when you go to the doctor for that shortness of breath. He’s your Shepherd on Thursday evening when you can’t sleep because the week’s been rough and you pour out your heart in prayer. He’s your Shepherd on Friday afternoon when you’re full of joy and planning your weekend. And He’s your Shepherd on Sunday morning when you come to Church and receive His Word and Sacrament. This is an all-encompassing, all-of-life, body and spirit Shepherd. Though pastures, waters, paths, valleys, tables, and house. He’s all of it.

So don’t wander into lala pastureland right now. This Psalm 23 is your life. I could say, “So what’s your story? What’s the story of your life?” And you could answer, “The Lord’s my Shepherd.” That’s your story. Listen to it. It’s a bold confession of faith. “The Lord’s my Shepherd! I’ll not want!” What a bold confession! “Hey, world, I’ll admit it. I’m a stupid sheep and I don’t really know where I’m going half the time! And if it weren’t for the fact that Jesus is my Shepherd and guides and guards me with His holy Word then I would be lost and would’ve been eaten by wolves a long time ago.” What a bold confession! “Hey, world, I’m not ashamed to say that I can’t take care of myself. It’s true. I’m not in control of my own destiny. I’m not invincible. I need a shepherd.”

Being a sheep isn’t some fantasy world where everything is green and still. Sheep get eaten. All the time. They get fleeced all the time. They’re often dirty and left to bear all kinds of weather by themselves. And that’s truly the way this life is for us. We have a great enemy who wants to eat us real bad and is always seeking any opportunity to sink his teeth into us. He loves to tempt us, guilt us, shame us, stir up all kinds of strife amongst us, send evil and disaster and disease and virus amongst us. He’s a terrible wolf, the Devil.

But we have a Shepherd who behaves in a rather peculiar way. He’s not a very good Shepherd from an economical standpoint. He dies to protect His sheep. That’s not a very good business model. One sheep gets into trouble and you say, “I’ll die for that sheep?” Or when one sheep is missing, He’s known to leave 99 just to go find that one sheep. It’s a bizarre thing but it actually seems that this Shepherd loves His sheep more than He even loves Himself.

And He’s your Shepherd. You didn’t miss that one little word my, right? The Lord is my Shepherd. He’s mine.

Verse 2, “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.” Now I’ve started out saying, “Don’t spiritualize this song and make it all about some fantasy world.” Well, when you start hearing green pastures and still waters don’t think this is some dreamland. What David is talking about is the Word of God. He uses many different names in this psalm to describe it but every time it’s the Word of God—green pastures, still waters, paths of righteousness, your rod and your staff, you prepare a table, my cup overflows. Those are all references to the very real Word of God. The way your Shepherd cares for you is through your ears. Just like a real shepherd. “My sheep hear My voice,” Jesus says. If you want green pastures and still waters then you need the Word of God.

Maybe I should say it this way. The green pastures aren’t green bills. We’re not talking about money here. The still waters aren’t still days where you never have to work or sweat. The paths of righteousness aren’t paths of glory where everybody loves you and thinks you’re the greatest. These aren’t worldly pleasures and glories that Jesus is promising. King David, who wrote this psalm, had all of those worldly pleasures and he found out just how empty and meaningless they were.

No, the treasure here that David’s describing is the Word of God. When you have the Word of God which tells you the entire story of the world and how you are created in the image of God, you truly are lying in a green pasture. When you have the Word of God which tells you about Jesus Christ who was baptized into your sin and how you’ve been baptized into His life and righteousness, then truly you’re beside still waters. When you have the Word of God which declares your sin forgiven and gives you the Holy Spirit to live a new life—then truly your soul is restored. When you have the Word of God which prepares a table of Christ’s body and blood for you, then truly your cup overflows. We have a treasure in this world and wherever we have the Word of God we can expect green pastures and still waters.

Verse 3, “He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Now this is another one of the reasons you’re here every Sunday morning and why we want to be reading the Scriptures every day. Because for sheep like us it’s so easy to start walking down the wrong path. We do it all the time. We must be kept on the path of righteousness by the Word of God. We need our Shepherd’s voice guiding us.

We love to wander down the path of individualism where we think the whole world is about us and we get lost in our own desires. Jesus calls us back with His Word to deny ourselves and love others as He has loved us. We wander down the path of bitterness and resentment where we’re never happy, never thankful, never hopeful, and always expecting the worst. Jesus calls us back with His Word of joy and hope to see His forgiveness and grace. We wander down the path of naturalism and materialism where we think we’re too smart for God and religion and of course we know that nothing exists outside of the material world. But Jesus calls us back with His Word to see the total reality of the world—to see the mystery of the supernatural and believe there’s something greater than us.

But most of all, we love to wander down the path of self-righteousness where we think we will solve all our own problems and we will make God happy by how great we are. But Jesus calls us to confession with His Word. He calls us back the path of righteousness to confess, “The Lord is my Shepherd, not me.”

Verse 4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Now this is the other very real side of being a sheep. We will suffer. Jesus doesn’t try to hide it from us. He says that we must take up our cross and follow Him. We will go through valleys. All of us will go through the valley of the shadow of death. But Jesus never leaves our side. Just think of the last very hard valley you’ve walked through. Jesus never left your side. He was there with His Word, His rod and staff. Comforting you. Guiding you. Protecting you.

And then we come to the final two verses of the psalm which are truly quite surprising. He changes the picture from sheep and pastures and waters and valleys to a table and a house. This is where I’d like to bring you back to where I started by saying this psalm isn’t about some spiritual track of your life. We didn’t wander off into spiritual fantasy land this morning. This psalm is about your very real and very whole life. It covers the whole spectrum from food to drink to road to valley to righteousness—and, finally, to the best part of life—to table and house.

Truly there’s nothing much better in this life than table and house. Yesterday was a rainy day. Kinda dreary. And, of course, this last week we all got the frustrating and sad news that IL would be in a whole ‘nother month of shut down. So yesterday was a bit bitter. But thankfully Valerie’s Mom and her brother and his son called up and asked if they could come over for the day. And it was a beautiful reminder for me of the joy of table and house. We sat around a table full of delicious food that God had provided for us and goodness and mercy filled our house. Just think of the highlights of our year—don’t they very often involved table and house?

God has prepared for you a table and a house. At His table our cup overflows. He feeds us with the very body and blood of His Son Jesus Christ. He anoints our heads with the oil of gladness. And He brings us all together into His house—the house of the Lord—where God’s family dwells together in the goodness and mercy of the Lord. And one day we will all sit together at the heavenly table in the Father’s house.

As you all go home today you have many things on your minds and many things going in your lives. Don’t leave Psalm 23 back here in the parking lot of Church. Jesus isn’t for the parking lot of Church. There’s no train yard railroad switch to your life where part of it is real and part of it is spiritual. You are one person—one track—one life. And all of you is under one Good Shepherd Jesus Christ. Listen to His voice and find your green pastures, your still waters, your paths of righteousness, your companion in the valley of the shadow of death, your table prepared, and your home forever.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.