If I got you to remember back to an old vinyl record company, RCA, and asked you what the logo of that company was, could you tell me? It is one of the most familiar logos of all times, the figure of a dog sitting beside one of those hand crank record players, staring in wonder at the speaker. The caption told it all: “He hears his master’s voice.”
Obviously, this classic advertisement relied on the common knowledge of dogs and their relationship with owners. Whenever an owner calls a dog, the animal will begin to wag its tail and squirm and jump in eager anticipation of being petted or scratched or fed or taken outside.
You could get the image instantly – and understand the point – the recording sounded just like the master….
That, by the way, is also how Jesus taught. He was always conjuring up an image, engaging the senses, and explaining his philosophy and spirituality by using something familiar.
Today we have a reading in which he is trying to convey to his disciples just how much he loves them, and exactly what their relationship in like. He uses the imagery of a shepherd; and in doing so He characterized who and what he was for them – and who he is for us.
To Jesus and the people of his day, tending sheep was a familiar activity that meant many things. The shepherd led the sheep to good pastures, looked after the strays, exercised responsibility for protecting the sheep (which often meant risking life and limb against wolves), and served as midwife for the birthing of lambs, and paid special attention to the little lambs, the most vulnerable of the flock. The shepherd knew each of his sheep and valued the life of every one. The shepherd was deeply devoted to his flock.
I am not sure we can ever completely get back to feeling it the same way the disciples did – but can you see how powerful and image that is? What if I told you I would get you what you needed, protect you no matter what, act as a midwife for all your dreams, take care of you when you were most vulnerable, remember everything about you, and seek you out no matter how far away you roamed?
Sometimes we balk at the idea of being sheep, of following mindlessly, but that was not the point, the stories are all about the Shepherd… all about God…
Now, Jesus didn’t really make this up; he was playing on an image much more ancient and powerful - We recited it in our psalm today – a hymn of confidence offered by one who knew not only great depth of loss and fear, but also knew within his heart that God would lead him through the other side.
Sometimes I think this is too obvious, too clear to even bother talking about – we all find ourselves in dark valleys, we all find ourselves unable to discern the way forward, we all long for someone to set that table, to help us overcome our enemies, and to lead us out the other side…. We get the 23rd Psalm; we would love it if Jesus was the good shepherd…
In fact, I would argue that the 23rd Psalm is the most loved and beloved passage of the entire Bible, most of us even have it memorized, and memorized in the King James Version to boot:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul;
Now, here is the question…
Is it powerful simply because we have all walked those dark valleys? Or is there something else? Is there a sense that we so need to believe that God cares for us, that God loves us, that the very possibility that this might be true, that God leads us and walks beside us, is enough to move us to tears?
How come? What are we missing that we don’t just KNOW this stuff?
Is it that we don’t recognize God’s presence in our lives because we are not looking? Is it that we are distracted by ‘other’ shepherds, other things that lead us away from the safety of the sheepfold?
Probably it is all of those things and more….
I think one of the great dangers for us is in not recognizing that voice; like sheep not hearing the voice of the shepherd. It is very easy for us to fail to discern God’s will because we can’t separate his voice from the many others clamoring for our attention. That is our reality; everywhere we go, there are voices calling out – voices that say “buy this” or “do this” or “say this” or “go this direction” or “act this way” or “don’t tend to that need.” There are voices competing with one another, vying for our attention, seeking to gain control of our lives in big and little ways.
So, we Christians must keep our ears tuned to the voice of Jesus, our good shepherd, calling out in the midst of those other voices.
I also think that what we think about ourselves gets in the way. We are unlovable, we are evil, we are too dumb, we aren’t pretty enough, and we eat too many brownies…. I don’t know, you might have your own thoughts like this too – I don’t want to make it all about me….
The thing I love about the Psalms is that the people werte aware of their thoughts, they were aware of their limitations… but they knew, KNEW, that God was not subject to those limitations – God loves us completely despite ourselves, God knows the right way even when we wont listen, God can make all things work for the good… there was never any question of that…
Over the weekend I was in meetings all day Friday and Saturday discerning the core values of the United Church as a hierarchal institution…
The moderator of the United Church, Mardis Tindal, said something very, very wise…
She said, “It is not God’s Church in the world looking for a mission… It is God’s mission in the world looking for a church.”
Think about that… God is there – Jesus is the Shepherd…. Are we listening?
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