THAT S ALL I NEED TO KNOW Sermon by Paul R. Powell St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church, New Orleans Sunday, April 21, 2013 A Sunday School teacher decided to have her 2nd grade class memorize Psalm 23, one of the most quoted passages in the Bible. She gave the children a month to learn the chapter. One little boy was excited about the task, but he just couldn't memorize the Psalm. Although he practiced and practiced, he could hardly get past the first line. The day came for the children to recite Psalm 23 before the congregation. The little boy was nervous. When his turn came, he stepped up to the microphone and proudly said, "The Lord is my Shepherd and that's all I need to know!" From the mouth of babes Most of us don t know anything about sheep other than what they look like. In my only trip to the British Isles, one of the most memorable parts of the trip was when we went up into the mountains in the north of England (or maybe it was Scotland) to visit a sheep farm. Only a few of us chose to take this extra trip, but I remember so well the enormous trees that looked as if they had been there forever. The farmer, or more properly the shepherd, demonstrated the use of his dog to round up the sheep, but I was so struck with the absolute beauty of the green pastures, those enormous old trees, and the sheer peacefulness of the whole setting. Psalm 23, of course, came to mind. Sheep and shepherds were a common site in ancient Israel and therefore a common analogy which all would understand. But is what we have always thought and heard about the 23 rd Psalm the real story? It is possibly the most recognized chapter in the entire Bible and it has brought comfort to thousands, perhaps millions. But I suspect that most of us have no clue what this book means. The Lord is my shepherd. That makes us what? Sheep? Have you ever been to a circus or watched trained animals such as bears, elephants, and tigers? But have you ever seen sheep do tricks? Know 1
why? Because sheep are stupid! Sheep are dumb as dirt! Did you know that sheep are the only domesticated animal that cannot survive in the wild? Cats, dogs, birds, horses, pigs, even cows if you set them loose they ll get by somehow. But sheep? Sheep get eaten by wolves. In the animal kingdom, there are four survival stances: fight, flight, posture, and submit. We see this even in armed conflict as well. I can shoot you, I can run away, I can fire a warning shot, or I can surrender. So how do sheep stack up? Sheep don t fight. They have neither offensive nor defensive weapons. No fangs, no claws, no shell, no spray, nothing. On the upside, they do come equipped with about 8 pounds of Velcro all over their body, so you can grab them pretty much anywhere and drag them to the ground What about flight? For starters, sheep are slow. Their eyesight is just as poor as their hearing. They have little strength, less stamina, and no sense of direction. Best of all, they have an over-active startle reflex, and they don t blend into anything. So even if they could run, they can t hide. As to posturing, dogs bark, cats hiss, rattlesnakes rattle sheep just baaa. That s the barnyard equivalent of Please don t eat me, please don t eat me, please don t eat me! Fearsome, yeah right! Dogs raise their hackles, cats arch their backs, rattlesnakes coil and lift their heads to make themselves appear larger. What can sheep do? How do you puff up when you re already fluffy? Sheep know one trick and one trick only. They flock. We know how hard it is to get a hundred people moving in the same direction, but flocking is very simple. All you need is a hundred tiny brains, each big enough to hold two rules: (1) If you see a sheep, get closer; and, (2) Don t bump into anyone. Here s how it works. Here s the herd. Over here is Little Joe Sheep. Joe sees a wolf. Startle reflex kicks in and he starts to run. No one wants to get bumped, so they all start to run. No one wants to be alone, so they all run together. Notice that the entire flock is running, and the only one who knows why is Joe, and Joe is probably already dead. They keep running until they get tired, the wolf stops to eat Joe, and they live to baa another 2
day. That s it. That s their entire survival strategy. Please don t eat me. Eat Joe. He s tasty. Run! Run! And God says, That s you. It s the language of the Psalms and it s the language of Jesus, when he calls himself the good shepherd. We have no clue what we re saying! Sheep are dumb, stubborn, and willful. Even when they have a shepherd around they re not safe because they still get lost, get drowned, and get trapped. Pick another animal, any other animal. But God says, Nope. You re a sheep. Fine. If we re sheep, let s learn about the shepherd. If you read Genesis, you d think being a shepherd is a good thing. All the big names are shepherds: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses. But when the Israelites are taken into exile, they go through a cultural shift from nomad to city dweller. By the time of Jesus, shepherds have such low social status, that their testimony isn t acceptable in court. Besides being despised, their job is dangerous. Every shepherd carried a staff for the sheep and a rod for the wolves. The sling was dual purpose. If a sheep started wandering off, you could drop a rock in front of its nose and it would run back to the flock. David showed you what else it s for. Suppose it was a good day. No thieves. No wolves. You still have to take care of these stupid sheep. You have to go fetch them when they get lost. They have four legs, you have two, which means any place they can get into, but not out of, is definitely difficult and probably dangerous for you. This is the holy land. It s not like there are green pastures and still waters all over the place. This is hard land divided by dark valleys. Every morning you walk to the pasture. At mid-day you make them lie down, so they can get the most out of their food. In the afternoon, you take them to still water, because they re scared of running water, because if they fall in, they drown. In the evening, you walk them home. If any are too young or too sick to keep up, you carry them. Your corral looks like a big circle, a thorny hedge with a tiny opening. You sit in the doorway and hold your staff low so they can only enter slowly, one at a time. One by one, you check them out and count them, and assuming everything s fine, you lie down in the doorway so that nothing gets in or out except over your body. Tomorrow, you do it all again. 3
The Bible says there are three kinds of shepherds. The hired hand who does the bare minimum: feeds them, waters them, and when the wolf comes, abandons them. The bad shepherd drives them. He pushes from behind and smacks them to keep them in line. As a result, the sheep become even more stupid and more skittish. They never learn to exercise whatever intelligence God gave them, so they never thrive. They just survive. The hired hand abandons them, the bad shepherd drives them, but the good shepherd knows them, and they know him. He doesn t have to drive them from behind. He leads them from the front, so that whoever attacks has to go through him first. He calls them by name and they come to him. If two good shepherds shared a meal and their flocks became intermixed, they would stand at opposite ends of the field, call out, and the sheep would sort themselves out. The good shepherd is their guide through danger, their gate to safety, their rescue when lost, their healing when hurt. The good shepherd is their life. What does this mean for us? Three things: First, when we see the phrase, for his name s sake we need to pay attention. If it s for God s sake, it s definitely for our benefit, but probably not for our comfort. All we want is a nice life: enough food, water, and shelter, no pain, no work, no danger. God isn t satisfied with nice. God is good. Notice the very next phrase after for his name s sake? Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Sound fun to you? Second, be like the shepherd. Don t push, lead. Don t yell, call. Share your life and build trust so that when you speak, people listen. You don t need to influence everyone. You just need a little flock of people who know you and trust you, because you know them. You get to decide whose opinion matters, and it s not the critic. Third, we are not nearly as tough, smart, or independent as we think we are. And neither is anyone else. We are sheep in wolves clothing: trying to be cool, trying to be in charge and independent. Who are we trying to impress, other sheep? We think hanging out on the fringes makes us cool. Actually, it makes us dinner. Smart sheep stay close to the shepherd. 4
I m not saying we should be dumb, stupid sheep. But we should act more like they do in relation to the shepherd and the flock. We need to listen to the Good Shepherd s voice, go where he leads us, stay close to him and to one another if we are to survive spiritually in this world so full of evil forces that would gobble us up. If we are truly honest with ourselves, it s only when we go off on our own that we get into the biggest trouble, trouble that we can t get ourselves out of. But Jesus is there, ready and willing to lead us back into the fold, into fellowship with the flock, and lays down his own life for our eternal safekeeping. How much joy do we miss, how much time do we waste trying to prove to ourselves and to each other that we re really not sheep, and we don t need help? So today, I pray that the Good Shepherd who loves you anyway will be your guide, your guard, and your companion every step of the way. The Lord s my Shepherd, that s all I need to know. AMEN. 5