Jeremiah 23:1-6
Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people: It is you who have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. So I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord. The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be called: “The Lord is our righteousness.”
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
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.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
It’s been… a week. On Monday when I didn’t know where I’d go with this sermon, Jean suggested I go with, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says the Lord.” And as that day developed and then moved on into the rest of the week, it seemed like she had been just as prophetic with that suggestion as Jeremiah had been when he first passed on those words from the Lord! It has been QUITE the week.
It’s been a VERY challenging week for many people I think. For me, who grew up during the Cold War with a dad who was a career Air Force officer it was a very challenging week. My dad spent his entire career going places and working on projects we still know virtually nothing about. Working to counter Cold War threats, he spent quite a bit of time away from home. I have always felt that, in a way, I had proudly given up a part of my childhood for our country’s safety. Because of that, I felt this week in a personal way.
But as I stormed and stewed and went out to build another birdhouse to get away from the computer screen and the news… News about political shepherds destroying their sheep, a song came into my head. It started very quietly. Way back in the deep recesses of my continually graying, gray matter… The song just kept tapping, like a little bird, gentle tapping at a distant single-pane of window glass. It seemed to be saying, “You’re in quite a lather today Erik." It seemed to be asking, "Are you having trouble remembering the name of your Shepherd today?” And slowly the song grew so I could just begin to hear it…
In the morning when I rise, In the morning when I rise,
In the morning when I rise, give me Jesus
Give me Jesus, give me Jesus
You may have all the rest, give me Jesus.
It seems that the Lord had compassion on me because I was acting like a sheep without a Shepherd. I had a Shepherd. A Good Shepherd for that matter, but I was acting like I had forgotten that… mostly because I had. So with a song, begun faintly, far back, in the deepest recesses of my mind, God slowly turned my attention away from the news on the screens, Facebook and Twitter feeds… and like a loving mother gently turns their screaming toddler’s head so she can look into their eyes and reassure them after a bad dream, I slowly came back from the dark-as-midnight place I had been.
Dark midnight was my cry, Dark midnight was my cry,
Dark midnight was my cry, Give me Jesus.
Give me Jesus, give me Jesus
You may have all the rest, give me Jesus.
It turns out that the LORD is my Shepherd and no one else. The LORD is our righteousness and no one else. It is the LORD that leads me beside still waters. It is the LORD that protects me with rod and staff. It’s the LORD who is the true giver of justice and righteousness. And so the disappointing actions of other would-be-shepherds were put back into perspective. Jesus is Lord. Caesar is not.
As that song grew in my head, the darkness of the day and of this week began to break a little. The song became louder… more insistent in my head, and then eventually it got to the point where the song, which began as an almost imperceptible tapping at the window glass, then drew my attention to that pre-dawn sort of light… that light that is always covered a bit with morning fog… and then the song just broke through like the dawn!
Just about the break of dawn, Just about the break of dawn,
Just about the break of dawn, Give me Jesus!
Give me Jesus, give me Jesus
You may have all the rest, give me Jesus.
So what now? To be honest, I have no idea where the paths that lie ahead of us as individuals, as a nation and a world might go. I’ve not lived as long as many but I think I’ve lived long enough to know that there is no permanent, magic solution on the horizon. There are always dark valleys and unknown sorts of evil ahead. We seem to be a species that learns lessons the hard way and forgets those lessons all too quickly. What will next week bring? There is no way to know. What will happen with special councils, prosecutors, defendants and spies? I don’t know. What will happen with future elections, fear-filled followers, and the worst that we have yet to imagine, even while we’ve been forced to witness one “worst” we never thought we would see? I have no idea what will happen next. But I know now, what I hope I will remember to say then… even when the thing I face is death itself…
Oh when I come to die, Oh, when I come to die,
Oh, when I come to die, Give me Jesus.
Give me Jesus, give me Jesus
You may have all the rest, give me Jesus.
So my prayer for us as the world rages around us. My prayer as we speak out against hatred, betrayal and injustice, as we must. As we write our representatives and tell them of our Christian desire for a world of compassion, mercy, justice and peace, as we must. As we vote for candidates that we believe will guide our world into a hope filled future, where everyone has enough, as we must… My prayer is that EVERY SINGLE WEEK, regardless of what is happening in the world, we will come to THAT TABLE… to the place where we are given Jesus! Given Jesus as a free and gracious gift! My prayer is that we will come to be fed and healed, simply by the touch of it! And that we will be reminded that the LORD is our Shepherd… that the LORD is our righteousness and that fed with that spiritual food we will be able to return to that world outside… to that world that has seemingly gone stark-raving, loony-tunes mad and NOT despair! My prayer is that returning from the Table we will instead be compelled to sing!
And when I want to sing, and when I want to sing,
And, when I want to sing, give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus, give me Jesus
You may have all the rest, give me Jesus.
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