"The Lord is My Shepherd": Sermon for the 4th Sunday of Easter, 17 April 2016
"The Lord is my shepherd"
Sermon for Sunday 17 April 2016
Sermon for Sunday 17 April 2016
4th Sunday of Easter
Lutheran Church of the Redeemer,
Jerusalem
The Rev. Carrie Ballenger Smith
***
Grace and peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Before and
after school, in the rain, snow, sleet, hail, and occasional Chicago sunshine,
Tina was there to help me and my small boys across the street. Always in
uniform.
Always professional.
She took her
job as school crossing guard very seriously. If Tina stepped in front of your
car to allow some children to cross, believe me, you stopped your car.
But on
Valentine’s Day, her pockets were also full of paper valentine cards.
On Halloween
she wore crazy glasses with her uniform, and handed out candy to the little
superheroes, princesses, and Ninja warriors walking to school.
She knew the
birthdays of many of the kids.
She asked
about them when she didn’t see them for a few days.
She scolded
them if they walked to school without a proper hat or coat or mittens.
Because her
crosswalk was located near the Lutheran seminary, many of us who crossed the street
with our children were student pastors. Tina was fascinated by this – especially
by those of us who were mothers. She was a church member, but from a tradition
which did not ordain women. For this reason, Tina and I had some theological
discussions which took place in 90 second increments, spaced out over those twice-a-day
crossings, and lasting several weeks.
Tina often
asked for prayer for herself and her family. And she prayed for us. She prayed
for our children. Her children, as
she called them.
After
school, at bedtime, we often read one of my boys’ favorite picture books: an illustrated
version of the 23rd Psalm. It was just a straight-forward translation
of this familiar psalm – no surprise ending, no choose-your-own-adventure
options, no video-game tie-in or movie cover to make it sell.
This picture
book was the 23rd Psalm, but illustrated for city kids—kids like mine, who knew
more about concrete sidewalks than green pastures. The illustrations featured
brown kids, black kids. Apartment-dwelling kids. Kids who had never seen a
sheep in their lives, much less a shepherd. It was for kids like mine, who
thankfully had not yet experienced many dark valleys in life, but who lived in
a school district where 38 schoolchildren had died from gun violence in one
year alone.
On the first
page of the book, which said “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want”,
the illustration was of two small children, a boy and a girl, having breakfast
before school in their grandparents’ city apartment.
On the next
page, where it said, “He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me
beside still waters; he restores my soul”, the same kids were rolling in a
patch of grass in a park on the way to school, escaping the concrete hardness of
the city to enjoy a few moments of nature.
And on the
page which said,
“Even though
I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your
rod and your staff— they comfort me” …
…there was a
drawing of a school crossing guard. Arms up, stopping traffic. A whistle in her
mouth. On her face, a look that was both firm and loving. Leading the children
safely across the busy street. Shepherding the sheep in her care.
Just like
Tina.
Just like Jesus.
In a world –
and a city, and a street—which can be incredibly unsafe for children, Tina our
school crossing guard represented safety and security. In the middle of chaos
and uncertainty, she brought order and stability. For so many children in our neighborhood,
she was a real-life embodiment of the God we know through Jesus Christ:
Steadfast. Faithful.
Loving. Personal. Trustworthy.
A good shepherd.
“The Lord is my shepherd.”
We most
often think of these as words of comfort. But actually, the 23rd Psalm is also a
psalm of resistance. It is a psalm of protest against the powers and principalities
of the world. In a world where sin, despair, and death claim to lead the way,
the Word of God proclaims this is God’s
world, this is God’s city, this is
God’s street—and we are the Lord’s sheep.
And
actually, this is the reason Psalm 23 is so popular at funerals. It’s not just
that these words are familiar. It’s that when we are walking through the valley
of the shadow of death—or addiction, or depression, or cancer, or injustice—these
familiar words give us the voice to say to anything that tries to come between
us and abundant life, “No! You are not my shepherd—because the Lord God
Almighty, the King of Love, the Prince of Peace, the great shepherd of the
sheep, is leading me through this.”
For the Lord
is our shepherd – but there are others.
There are
other shepherds who want to take us along their paths, who promise us stiller
waters and greener pastures.
In the city
of Chicago, where Tina faithfully shepherded children across the street, there
are those who promise vulnerable young people a life of luxury, and a place to
call home—but all too soon they find themselves walking in the valley of the shadow
of gangs, and guns, and death.
In cities
all across the world today, shepherds of the media and politics (and even
religion) try to convince us that actually, we
are in want. They tell us we are in want of more than our share of the
world’s resources; we are in want of more guns to feel safe; or we are in want
of high walls to keep wolves out.
Today in the
city of Jerusalem, the same false shepherds seek to gather a flock. Here, there
are those who would lead us on the path of violent revenge for past injustices.
They make us to lie down in fields of hatred for those who are different. They
promise us still and peaceful waters—if only we will accept inequality,
division, and power over others as necessary and reasonable.
And in the
presence of all such false shepherds, our faith teaches us to proclaim: “The
Lord is my shepherd.”
The Lord is
our shepherd, and we shall want for nothing! For we proclaim that God’s goodness
and mercy has become flesh in Jesus Christ. We proclaim that the cross reveals the
vastness of God’s love for us. We proclaim that because the tomb was empty on
that Easter morning, nothing, not even death, can separate the sheep from the
shepherd.
Thanks be to
God, the Lord is our shepherd, and we shall want for nothing. Like Tina,
standing guard in her uniform between the Chicago traffic and her schoolchildren,
the Crucified and Risen Christ has declared to every power and principality
claiming ownership of his flock: “Oh no…These are my sheep!”
The King of
Love has said: “These are my sheep…and surely goodness and mercy shall follow
them all the days of their lives.”
Surely
goodness and mercy shall sit with us in the hospital waiting room.
Surely
goodness and mercy will accompany us through chemo treatment.
Surely
goodness and mercy will walk into the courtroom with us.
Surely
goodness and mercy will fight our addictions with us.
Surely
goodness and mercy will cross the checkpoint with us.
Surely
goodness and mercy will give us renewed strength to stand for justice, to hope
for peace, to speak truth to power.
Because our
Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, is risen from the dead,
surely
goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives,
And we shall
dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment