The Shepherd's Word

[This sermon was shared during closing worship for today's gathering of congregations from the Scioto Conference, Southern Ohio Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, held at Faith Lutheran Church in Jackson, Ohio.]

Psalm 23
The author Flannery O’Connor once told a story which I first read in a retelling by the late Lutheran theologian, Joseph Sittler. Sittler loved it and after retelling it, reflected on its meaning.

It’s the story of an elderly couple who lived in the Appalachians, surrounded by breathtaking views. They were accustomed to sitting in rocking chairs on the front porch of their home for as long as the weather allowed, simply taking in the same sights they’d seen hundreds of days before in their long married life.

One spring day, they were doing the same thing, silently rocking and looking. “Well, Sarah,” the husband said to his wife. “I see there’s still some snow up there on the mountain.”

Sittler then reflects: “Now they both knew that there would still be some snow on that mountain at this time of the year; there always was. So why did he say so? Because just to know that at times there’s snow, while at other times there isn’t, was to be able to embrace the shifting but eternal rhythms of life that had made them so content with each other’s company. In any marriage or intimate relationship you may say the same things, just like that, time after time; you may share a profound and compassionate interest in the same people. And while, on the one hand, this might seem...boring; on the other hand it is simply breathtaking in its way of affirming the joy of life, and of living with someone that you love.”

They say that familarity breeds contempt. It can also breed indifference. But if we let it, as was true of this old couple, familiarity can also breed things that are wonderful--”breathtaking,” as Sittler puts it—things like comfort, confidence, and assurance.

One of the most familiar chapters in the entire Bible is Psalm 23. To prove it, I’ll recite the first clause of a phrase from the psalm and out loud, you finish it. “The Lord is my shepherd....” “He makes me lie down in...” “Even though I walk through the valley of...” “Surely goodness and mercy shall...” You see, you are familiar with Psalm 23!

And yet, I wonder if our familiarity with Psalm 23 and with the entire Bible from which it comes has bred in us not comfort, confidence, and assurance, as it should do, but indifference?

In fact, I wonder if the same thing couldn’t be said of our attitude toward the whole Bible. Almost everybody owns a Bible. But not many of us read it, digest it, study it, absorb it, or give it a central place in our lives. I struggle to do this myself. We don’t, I suspect, allow the Bible the time it needs to help us know the God Who wants to be our good shepherd or to teach us what difference that makes.

If we did, more churches would be more vibrant centers of mission. More of we Christians would be making sounder decisions about our lives. More of us would be loving and serving our neighbors. More of us would be engaged in ministries, serving Christ through our churches. And more of us would be inviting others to worship and to know and follow Jesus Christ. Authentic faith, faith that helps us face everyday living and gives us hope forever, is strengthened when we live under the power of God's Word.

Another familiar passage from the Psalms confesses to God, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path.”

And in the New Testament, the apostle Paul reminds a young pastor named Timothy [I’m using Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase in The Message], “There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of the Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another--showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.”

Folks, I don’t mean to be flippant, but to be quite honest with you, I don’t know if God much cares who the next bishop of the Southern Ohio Synod, who we are to elect next month, will be. Speaking personally, all I expect from a bishop and bishop’s staff is that they assist congregations, which are on the frontlines of Christ’s mission for the Church, through their transition times and that they work to ensure that the ELCA neither embarrasses congregations or gets in the way of their primary mission, making disciples.

Those are tall enough orders in themselves. But the documents of the ELCA and our synod mandate page after page of work to be directed by the bishop. For all that though, I think that congregations led by faithful pastors will keep on doing the work of the Church no matter who our next bishop is. Or whether we even have a bishop.

But of this I am certain: Unless the Church—congregations, pastors, bishops, janitors, and physicists—unless the whole Church is attentive to God’s Word—the Word as it meets water, bread, and wine in the Sacraments, the Word as lived out when we serve others in Jesus’ Name, the Word as we share it when we invite our spiritually disconnected friends and neighbors to follow Christ with us, the Word as proclaimed by faithful preachers, and most importantly, the Word in Scripture, the authoritative source and norm of our life, faith, and practice—unless the Word of God is central to our life as a Church, we will be impotent in dealing with the real-life issues that face people in our parishes. Only the Spirit-empowered Word of God—Law and Gospel—will enable us to help people dealing with things like domestic violence, relational discord, and all the other sin-rooted maladies that afflict us and our neighbors.

It is the Word that convicts us of our sin and our need of a Savior.

It is the Word that shows us that the crucified and risen Jesus is that Savior Who will never abandon His people and is preparing a place for us with Him in eternity.

“The Lord is our shepherd. We shall not want.” People steeped in God’s Word know that!

Christians who don’t regularly attend to God’s Word are setting themselves up for disaster. So are church bodies. We live in an imperfect world. Bad things happen. Temptations come to us. Accidents and disease may come to us. If we’re not steeped in God’s Word, life will knock us flat.

In a way, the message of the whole Bible is summed up well in Psalm 23. Psalm 23 tells us five important things about God, our good shepherd: God provides for us; God He allows us to be at ease, confident that if we will let Him into our lives, He’s with us no matter what; that God gives us life; that God stands with us in dark times, even when we die; and God welcomes us to be with Him always.

I sometimes hear people say, “Well, I believe in God. What do I need to mess with reading the Bible or worshiping or any of the other so-called disciplines of the Christian life for? If I’m freed from sin and death simply for believing in Jesus, I don’t need all that stuff.”

Let me tell you a true story. Shortly after I learned how to ride a bicycle, I begged my Mom to send me on errands to Gus’ IGA near the corner of Central and Sullivant Avenues in the section of Columbus called the Bottoms, where we lived. I had a twenty-four inch, beat-up blue Schwinn bike. I’d grown tired of using it to tool around the neighborhood or the blacktop in front of the warehouse behind our place.

Besides, Gus had a daughter named Mary Ann and she made my eight year old heart go pitter-pat. My mother was resistant to the idea. Sullivant and Central were busy thoroughfares. But one day she started to fix Johnny Marzetti and realized she didn’t have a key ingredient: canned tomatoes.

My two year old sister Kathy needed attending. So, Mom sent me to Gus’ for the tomatoes. When she called me in from playing baseball in the alley, I was psyched! Here was an important errand I could run on my own...and I might get to see Mary Ann in the bargain. “Remember, sliced tomatoes in the can,” my mother called out to me as I pedaled off.

By the time I got to Gus’ five minutes later, I had forgotten what I was supposed to buy. I had to ask Gus to dial my home number, so that I could ask Mom to repeat her order. After I got off the phone and had paid for the tomatoes, I asked where Mary Ann was and learned she wasn’t even around.

On the way home, I decided to take an alley that rolled steeply to my street. I rolled down that hill without looking to my right or left. A car came along just as I approached the end of the hill. Boom! I hit the car’s side. Fortunately, neither I nor the car were hurt.

Now, here’s the point: In the blink of an eye, I had forgotten that I was supposed to get tomatoes. I’d forgotten that I should look both ways when turning onto a street. I’d even forgotten, apparently, how to use my brakes. I was so consumed with thoughts of being a big shot and of seeing Mary Ann that the important things I knew and needed to remember got crowded out of my brain.

The same thing can happen to you and me when it comes to the most important thing in the world, our relationship with Jesus Christ, both as a church and as individual Christians. We can become so consumed with everyday life that we forget our Good Shepherd and our daily need of Him.

Our attentiveness to God's Word is what God uses to daily remind us to keep building our lives on Him and His promises.

It would be a shame if the Church of Luther and Melanchthon and the Reformation forgot that. God’s Word is our great heritage. On its pages, we’re reminded again of the truth we must never grow tired of remembering: The Lord is our shepherd. We shall not want. He makes us lie down in green pastures. He leads us beside still waters. He leads us in right paths for His Name’s sake.

Never grow complacent about those truths! Never grow complacent about God's Word! Amen