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Sermon - The Fourth Sunday in Easter (B) - 3rd May 2009
St Alban's Anglican Church Epping 7, 8 and 10am
Readings: Acts 4:5-12, Psalm 23, 1 John 3:16-24, John 10:11-18
In a consumer-oriented society such as ours, it is extremely difficult to hear the simple but radical message of Psalm 23: God is the only necessity of life! Driven by greed rather than need, we can hardly imagine having only the necessities of life, food, drink, shelter and protection. Clever advertisers have succeeded in convincing us that what former generations considered incredible luxuries are now basic necessities. To say in our prosperous context that God is the only necessity of life sounds hopelessly quaint and naive. Then again, the words of Jesus also strike us as naive:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear ... But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt 6:25, 33)
In effect, to make Psalm 23 our words is to affirm that we do not need to worry about our lives or our deaths. God will provide and God's provision is grounded in the reality of God's reign. The proper response to the simple good news of Psalm 23 and Jesus Christ is to trust God however this is precisely the problem. In a secular society, we are encouraged to trust first ourselves and to work first to secure our own lives and futures. Psalm 23 thus challenges us to affirm:
"The lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."
To say that means to live humbly and gratefully as a child of God.
The beautiful version of Psalm 23 that we have just sung “The King of love my Shepherd is,” expresses eloquently the simple trust that Psalm 23 communicates and commends to us:
“Perverse and foolish oft I strayed,
But yet in love he sought me,
And on his shoulder gently laid,
And home rejoicing brought me.”
This paraphrase captures the childlike trust articulated by Psalm 23, recalling Jesus' words recorded in Mark about entering the reign of God "as a little child", but also it calls to our attention the communal dimension of Psalm 23.
To be a child at home means inevitably to be part of a family, to share community around a table. Thus we are led to reflect on what it means to be a part of God's household dwelling in God’s house for ever. The implications are profound and radical: We are not our own! We belong to God and to one another. Verse six of the hymn speaks beautifully of the domestic nature of our faith in Jesus the Good Shepherd.
“And so through all the length of days
Thy goodness faileth never;
Good shepherd, may I sing thy praise
Within thy house forever.”
This suggests that Psalm 23 to be an articulation of the same message ultimately embodied in the Lord's Supper, which also has to do with God's gracious provision of food, drink and security within God's household. In his book “God the Economist” M D Meeks suggests,
“The celebration of the Lord's Supper is under orders from God the Economist and is a concrete instance of God's providential oikonomia with implications for all eating and drinking everywhere. Oikonomia is the Greek word from which our word economy is derived and it means literally "law of the household". For this reason, the disciples of Jesus should pray boldly for daily bread (Luke 11:3). They should keep the command to eat and drink, recognizing that it includes the command that they should share daily bread with all of God's people.
... Psalm 23 depicts the work of God's economy overcoming scarcity in God's household.”
Because, as Psalm 23 affirms, God is the source of all food and drink and security, because we belong first and forever to God's household, our lives are transformed. Daily realities are not to be taken for granted and certainly not to be treated as rewards we have earned. Psalm 23, like the Lord's Supper, becomes finally an invitation to live under God's rule and in solidarity with all God's children. Thus to make Psalm 23 our own is a profoundly radical affirmation of faith that transforms our lives and our world. To be sure, Psalm 23 is regularly heard at funerals in the midst of death and dying, but it is also to be heard amid the ordinary daily activities of living. It gives our daily activities an extraordinary significance, for it invites us to share daily bread with all of God's people.
In the context of today’s readings and Christian tradition it is inevitable that Christians hear in Psalm 23 reference to Jesus Christ. Jesus became the one who cares for the sheep and the gracious host who prepares a table that reconciles enemies and offers life. In a story in Mark’s gospel with obvious eucharistic overtones, Jesus feeds 5000 people. The crowd sits down on the green grass, a detail that recalls Ps 23:2. That the allusion is not coincidental is suggested by John’s reporting in today’s gospel of Jesus' declaring,
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Jesus serves as both host and shepherd, acting out the two metaphors of Psalm 23. In the reading, as in Psalm 23, the shepherd leads the sheep, providing food and protection for the purpose of sustaining life itself.
Interesting too is the mention of "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold". To whom could this refer? Does this refer to Christians beyond the community for whom John was writing? Does this refer more broadly to adherents of other world religions? The solution is unclear, but in the light of the communal conclusion to Psalm 23, when read in conjunction with Psalm 22’s conclusion, where "all the ends of the earth" and "all the families of the nations" are to "turn to the lord" and "worship before him". It is worthy of note that John sees God's household in very open terms, with room perhaps for "enemies” and even for "all the families of the nations".
This leaning toward universality is present too in the relationship between Jesus and Ps 23:4, "… for you are with me". According to Matthew, Jesus is to be named "Emmanuel ... 'God is with us' " (Matt 1:23). This statement provides one side of the frame for the Gospel, the final words of which are "I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matt 28:20). This final statement of Emmanuel is in the context of Jesus' commission to "make disciples of all nations". God intends for God's household to include the ends of the earth.
In short, Jesus is shepherd, host, Emmanuel. When Psalm 23 is heard in the association with Psalm 22 and of Jesus Christ, its profoundly radical implications are even clearer: God is with us, but God is not ours to own; the God who shepherds us to life also gives life to the world; the table at which we are hosted is one to which the whole world is invited.
Every time we gather we claim to be the body of Christ, therefore we too should be a living out the example which the Good Shepherd, Jesus the Christ, has left us. We must seek out the lost, feed and care for them, and celebrate together in breaking of the bread and in prayers to be fed ourselves and to offer hospitality to all whom +*we meet regardless of our inclination.
“Surely goodness and loving-kindness will follow (us) all the days of (our) lives and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
This sermon produced using the New Interpreter’s Bible, VolIV, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1996.