“A Sheep Dog Mentality”

23rd Psalm and John 10:1-10
April 20, 2008

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John A. Fleming

It is not hard to imagine the scene that is our scripture lesson for this morning. Young David is out there with a flock in front of him. He is wearing a flowing robe. There is a crook in one of his hands and there is a covering over his head. David is out there tending the sheep that belong to his father. He is out there in the cold, battling things that threaten the sheep. While he is out there, he writes down the thoughts that become the greatest hymn in the greatest hymn book of all time, the book of Psalms.

I must have been in the first or second grade when my Sunday school teacher asked her class to memorize these six verses. I did that and I have not forgotten the words since that day.

Some have said that these words are personal and take their placed down deep in a special place in our soul. Some have said that along with the words from John 3:16, these words are the most beloved in all of scripture. Not everyone would agree. Some do not like these words at all, because they remind them of a time when death was near or when the pastor was preaching at the memorial service.

I would like to pull this psalm out of that context this morning. I would like for you to know that this psalm isn’t a psalm for the dying. The twenty-third psalm is about living. Her words certainly paint a picture any of us would love to be a part of. I wouldn’t mind some green pastures and some still waters. I would not mind a cup that is filled to the brim. These words are reassuring, and yet none of us have ever tended a flock of sheep. I don’t personally know a shepherd, do you? And green pastures? Well if you find one of those here in Little Rock, most likely it is on the outskirts of town and cows are grazing on it, not sheep! And yet these words paint a picture and give us a vision of a place where there is peace and where fear has no place.

And now I’m wondering. If I asked you to, could you say the first couple of lines of this beloved psalm with me? Most of us know the King James Version by heart. “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul.” I also like Eugene Peterson’s paraphrased version of the Psalm, too. He writes these words, “True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction. I’m not afraid when you walk by my side. Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life.” I like that.

These words are powerful and so I will have to tell you that when it comes time to preach them, I feel a little overwhelmed and more than a little inadequate. As one commentator put it, “It’s almost pretentious to comment on this psalm. It’s such a simple statement. It can bear its own witness without a word.”

But still I will try to comment. This psalm is one that we call a psalm of confidence. It says, among other things, that everything will be all right. It says that God is with us and that because He is, that changes the situations we are in. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be death valleys. There will be. And it doesn’t mean that we won’t have enemies. It does mean that these enemies cannot hurt us. This psalm knows there is evil in the world, but it also says that we are not to fear it. We are to have confidence in this God who meets our needs, who leads us beside still waters, into green meadows, and who fills our cups. We can trust this God. That is how we get joy in our lives.

Look back at the first lesson we read this morning and you will see how Jesus meant for our lives to be. He said, “I came so that you could have life, and have it abundantly.” That is what these two lessons are really about. They are about God’s leading and God’s guiding. That is how you get joy and peace.

As I was studying for our sermon this week, I couldn’t help but to think about another passage about sheep and shepherds. Jesus told three stories, you will remember, when he was accused of associating with tax collectors and sinners. One story was about two lost boys. A second was about a lost coin. And the third was about a sheep who wandered away from the fold. You do remember the details of that story, don’t you? A shepherd has a hundred sheep and leaves the ninety-nine in search of the one, which makes no sense to me. It is bad business. Cut your losses. It is just one sheep. This sheep could sing the song, “Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”

I have heard more than one preacher say that sheep have the tendency to nibble themselves lost. They have the tendency to keep their heads down and then before long not knowing where they are. There is something in the story of this lost sheep that I had somehow missed before. Jesus tells us that this flock of sheep was in the wilderness. The wilderness is never a safe place. If the shepherd left, the ninety-nine would not be safely in the fold. This fact makes this story even more incredible.

The shepherd leaving the ninety-nine for the one made no sense to me until I heard a story a preacher tells about the time that he went camping with his family in the Rocky Mountains. One day they got in their car and drove around when suddenly they came across a lush, green, flat pasture and there in the field was a flock of sheep. The preacher hit the brakes. His family nearly hit the windshield. He pulled over on the side of the road, near that meadow, got out his digital camera, and headed for the flock. It was a photo opportunity he could not pass up. He snapped pictures of those white sheep against the awesome green grass.

Then he looked up and in the distance, he saw the shepherd. This guy did not look like one of the fellows out there keeping watch over their flock by night the night Jesus was born. He had no robe and no shepherd’s crook. He had a pick-up truck and a cowboy hat. He had a guitar to pass the time.

The preacher saw the pastoral scene and then noticed that one of the sheep was in danger. She was nibbling her way lost. She was headed straight towards a ravine. The preacher knew she wouldn’t survive the fall and so he yelled out, “Hey! Over here! Pay attention! Look here! You’re about to lose one!” That is when it happened. Out of nowhere came a dog. He circled the flock, sending the message not to move a muscle. Then he headed off towards the wayward sheep. He nipped at her heels. He barked in her face. He forced her back into the fold. The preacher who tells this story says, “Now I understand how the shepherd could leave the ninety-nine in search of the one. He had a good sheep dog!”

Now I know that God can be trusted in everything. I know God guides me and leads me and helps me. I can trust God with my life. I know that God has put me here for a time to be your pastor and your shepherd. And I think what we need around here are a few good sheepdogs. I think the real question for us to ask today is this one, can God trust us with the flock?

I hope you will remember that after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples by the seashore. He redeemed Peter’s denial of Him that day by asking Peter if he loved Him. When Peter said yes, Jesus said, “Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.”

Would you all be willing to be sheepdogs for this flock of ours and help this shepherd? I know many of you have the ability to look around and notice some who aren’t here this morning. Where are they? Maybe they’ve nibbled themselves towards a dangerous situation. Bark at them. Nip at their heels. Bring them back to the fold. I believe we must all keep watch over the fold. Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.

Sometimes people aren’t headed towards the ravine. Sometimes people just head off in another direction when we weren’t paying attention. Maybe we didn’t call when they were sick. We may not have known they were. We didn’t go by the funeral home. We didn’t send the card or make the call when congratulations were in order and they wondered, “Does anyone at the church really care about me?”

Several of us from the church went to St. James last Saturday for a training event whose name is Vital Signs. Each year there is a keynote speaker and workshops. This year the speaker was Bishop Robert Schnase from Missouri. He mentioned how we sometimes drift from the church. One week there is family in town and so we miss. Then there was the weekend get away that was planned. Then the kids were sick and you stayed home with them. Then there was the game up in Fayetteville. One Sunday becomes another Sunday and before long you’ve missed, as they say, a month of Sundays.

The experts tell us that if you miss two months of Sundays, eight weeks, most likely you are gone from that church forever. Unless. Unless someone from the church reaches out to them.

I have Bob Bidewell’s permission to tell you that that happened to his mom and dad. They live across the street from their church’s parsonage up in Missouri. When a new preacher was appointed, he came by for a short visit. He wanted to know if there was something that happened that led to their departure from weekly worship services. This preacher asked them to come back to church. They did and they have been there every Sunday since. The only thing that would have made the story better is if someone from the church, not the preacher, came by and said, “We miss you. Please come back.” That is what I’m hoping you will do when the time comes.

The Lord is my shepherd. He leads me beside still waters and to green grasses. He restores my soul. He can be trusted to guide us and to give us rest and peace. The real question today is this one. It should sound familiar. It is the one Jesus asked Peter. Imagine Jesus asking you this, “Will you feed my sheep? Will you tend my lambs? Will you feed my sheep?” Now a question from me, “Do you have a sheepdog mentality?” I hope so. Let us pray.

(I have many to thank in the composition of this sermon. Thanks to Walter Bruggeman for his quote about this Psalm. Thanks to the preacher who gave me several good ideas for the sermon and the story about the Rocky Mountain trip. Thanks to Bishop Robert Schnase for his comments about taking care of the fold. And thanks to this church, whom I love to shepherd).