Hearing the voice

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. We tend toward images like Psalm 23 which seem gentle, kind, loving pastural scenes. Yet I can’t help thinking about the tools of a shepherd. Think about what a shepherd uses for tools.

First is the dog. Have you ever watched these dogs? They are amazing as they respond to the shepherd’s commands in seconds, running from one end of the herd to another. Biting heels when sheep get out of the fold and wander on their own. Yes, nipping at the heels, this isn’t comfortable, is it? Plus, they are being told where to go, what to eat and what not to eat because sheep will eat things which would kill them.

Next is the shepherds crook, you know like the one the bishop carries. Imagine being hooked around the neck with this, yes, to keep you safe, but it would block your airway to do so. Or imagine being struck with it because you are wandering your own way. Now all analogies break down after a while, the point is not in bring conformity, the point is in how we follow and listen and hear the shepherd’s voice.

The Psalmist translation gives us calming images, but the actual words are a little more disturbing. Where it tells us about goodness and mercy are following us, it actually is translated as being pursued to by goodness and mercy. Do we always pursue goodness and mercy, or is goodness and mercy pursuing us? Sometimes we forget the goodness and graciousness God continually shows us. We must be reminded we don’t always display these traits. As someone cuts us off in traffic, we usually don’t say kind things when this happens. Or when we are in a hurry to get somewhere and someone is slow, kind thoughts aren’t the ones going through our head.

The other part of this Psalm is in dwelling in God’s house, it should be we turn or re-turn to God’s house. We leave, we go out, and somehow, we journey back to this place. This can take on many forms. Going away from God for a time and being away from church, then returning to it later in our lives. In thinking we know the answers for our life and living and finding we aren’t the ones in control of our lives, we must surrender to God’s way and let go of our own way. These are difficult lessons, they hit us over the head, or take our breath away, or nip at our heals. They are not the ways of comfort and peace, or an idyllic understanding of God and life. All the stories of the Bible are set up in this way.

Jacob, son of Isaac, schemes, cheats, connives, and tries to control the outcome of receiving his father’s blessing and gaining the inheritance. He cuts himself off from his family, from the way of life he knew and must go away. He doesn’t wrestle with God and return until after he has been cheated and lied to by his father-in-law Laban, he is even pursued by him because his wife, Laban’s daughter, steals the idols from her dad. Yet still God’s goodness and mercy pursue Jacob, he learns what it is to return to God.

This Psalm would be better worded this way:

The Lord is my shepherd, and provides for me, even when I don’t acknowledge it and try my own ways. He leads me to good places, and I strike out on my own way because I can do it better, suddenly I realize what a beautiful place God has led me to.

Get the picture? It is like we come to ourselves and realize where God has been all the time. The one providing, guiding, leading us and we have struck out on our own journey with our own ideas and our own agendas and forget we are supposed to be journeying with God.

This is the last thing about the Psalm, where it says paths of righteousness the Hebrew here is not a path it is a track, a groove, a rutted way. If you have every walked in a path like this it is rocky and some grooves are deeper because of mud, they may even contain water and you have to jump to the higher ground to stay dry.

Our journey with God as our shepherd is just that, a journey. We become familiar with the path and sometimes we hit rocky spots, but God grooves with us, watching and waiting for us to see we have been traveling with a guide. Sometimes we need to jump into the middle to avoid getting all muddy and sometimes we end up in the mud hole and stuck and God patiently waits for us to see what a mess we are in and God is still beside us.

So this should bring us comfort. God sticks with us even when we stray. Even when we think our ways are better. God is still there crook in hand to save us, bring us back to the fold, and journey with us instead of against us. This is the hand of comfort we need when we stray. Where is the moment you have strayed and struck out on your own? What have you learned from this?

Even though this is an idyllic Psalm we often don’t take time in our lives to reflect on how we have made our journey. Right now, we are living in a time which challenges us. It challenges our faith because we have not been able to be a community of faith. It challenges our trust because we wonder if we will ever see one another or whether we can trust God’s providence. The challenges of these past months and year seem to keep us separated from a fold we had grown used to. So we must listen carefully to hear our shepherd’s voice.

Yes, listen. One of the Psalms asks us to be still. Can we take the time to be still? To listen carefully to what God is saying to us in this time. Maybe we hear it in the voice of Jesus, or maybe it comes on the wind, or maybe it is in the creation God has made. Whatever it is we need to lay aside our anxieties and fears and listen for God’s voice. To lead us to still places and pastures. It is never easy; it is meant for us to pause and learn. God is speaking to us in the still waters for our own restoration.