Praying Psalm 23 on your hand.
John 10.1-10, Psalm 23
Forgive a very basic sermon today, but I hope one that will live with you. I’ve brought along a visual aid. My hand. Your hand.
The thumb.
Look at your hand. Just for a moment. Now try to imagine it without your thumb. It still works but not very well.
The thumb is an amazing organ. It is the digit that each of the other fingers – the pointing finger, the middle finger, the ring finger and the little finger – relate to. Without the oppositional structure of the thumb, they can work together, grasp and hold but they cannot really do anything precise.
The thumb in my illustration stands for the Lord Jesus, my shepherd.
He is the one closest to me.
He is the one who has come to us, who calls us – you and me – by name.
“He calls his own sheep by name .. the sheep follow him because they know his voice”
We think of him in the garden after his resurrection. Mary is distraught. The body of Jesus has disappeared. She sees what she thinks is the gardener. Jesus says, ‘Mary’.
Everything changes when we realise that we are known and loved and that we belong to him. We can face anything. Danger, rejection, suffering and death.
And we know when he calls us and when he speaks.
It is a voice that comes with great clarity and conviction.
Forgive a very basic sermon today, but I hope one that will live with you. I’ve brought along a visual aid. My hand. Your hand.
The thumb.
Look at your hand. Just for a moment. Now try to imagine it without your thumb. It still works but not very well.
The thumb is an amazing organ. It is the digit that each of the other fingers – the pointing finger, the middle finger, the ring finger and the little finger – relate to. Without the oppositional structure of the thumb, they can work together, grasp and hold but they cannot really do anything precise.
The thumb in my illustration stands for the Lord Jesus, my shepherd.
He is the one closest to me.
He is the one who has come to us, who calls us – you and me – by name.
“He calls his own sheep by name .. the sheep follow him because they know his voice”
We think of him in the garden after his resurrection. Mary is distraught. The body of Jesus has disappeared. She sees what she thinks is the gardener. Jesus says, ‘Mary’.
Everything changes when we realise that we are known and loved and that we belong to him. We can face anything. Danger, rejection, suffering and death.
And we know when he calls us and when he speaks.
It is a voice that comes with great clarity and conviction.
I’m not talking about an audible voice, although some do hear something, but an inner voice.
It is like being in a room full of people where there are many voices and suddenly, we hear the voice of someone we know.
We don’t work it out. We recognise it.
Or it is when we hear something and we know this is right, true – before we understand why. There is a resonance between Jesus’ words and something deep within us.
Anselm spoke of our Christian reflection as faith seeking understanding.
I’m not really speaking about a mystical experience.
Many people will never have a mystical experience.
And those who do? Often the experience will be very brief.
The visions of Julian of Norwich lasted less than 24 hours, but she spent the rest of her life reflecting on them in the light of the bible and Church’s teaching.
This ability to hear within the voice of the shepherd is not usually dramatic. It is about listening and becoming familiar with his voice. It is something that grows over time. It comes from spending time in worship, in reading the bible, in learning verses, in reflecting – on my own and with others.
One of the desert fathers said, “A man who wishes to discern the thoughts must first sit quietly in his cell and learn to distinguish between them”.
Psalm 23:1: The Lord is my shepherd. He comes close to me. He knows me by name.
And the index finger, the pointing finger.
I hold this and I remember the Lord Jesus the prophet, the teacher, who points the way, who leads me.
‘He leads his sheep out’ (v4)
And I notice here that the shepherd leads. He goes ahead of us. We are invited to follow.
It is like being in a room full of people where there are many voices and suddenly, we hear the voice of someone we know.
We don’t work it out. We recognise it.
Or it is when we hear something and we know this is right, true – before we understand why. There is a resonance between Jesus’ words and something deep within us.
Anselm spoke of our Christian reflection as faith seeking understanding.
I’m not really speaking about a mystical experience.
Many people will never have a mystical experience.
And those who do? Often the experience will be very brief.
The visions of Julian of Norwich lasted less than 24 hours, but she spent the rest of her life reflecting on them in the light of the bible and Church’s teaching.
This ability to hear within the voice of the shepherd is not usually dramatic. It is about listening and becoming familiar with his voice. It is something that grows over time. It comes from spending time in worship, in reading the bible, in learning verses, in reflecting – on my own and with others.
One of the desert fathers said, “A man who wishes to discern the thoughts must first sit quietly in his cell and learn to distinguish between them”.
Psalm 23:1: The Lord is my shepherd. He comes close to me. He knows me by name.
And the index finger, the pointing finger.
I hold this and I remember the Lord Jesus the prophet, the teacher, who points the way, who leads me.
‘He leads his sheep out’ (v4)
And I notice here that the shepherd leads. He goes ahead of us. We are invited to follow.
There is calling but no driving.
And Jesus went ahead of us
He went into baptism, that voluntary symbol of dying to self and coming alive to God.
He went into the wilderness to be tempted. He knows what it is like to want to put the things of this world: our physical desires, our longing to be someone in this world, or for power - before God. And he resisted, even to death.
He experienced the transfiguration. The opposite of the temptations – that amazing experience – and he shows us how to deal with those moments when heaven is opened and we encounter God.
He goes to the cross: he experienced God-abandonment. When we cry out, ‘My God why have you forsaken me’, we know that he has gone ahead of us.
And he has gone ahead of us through God forsakenness and the cross to the resurrection.
And he calls us to follow him.
He is our shepherd who has gone ahead of us. He leads us, he teaches us.
“He leads me beside still waters ...”
“He guides me in paths of righteousness for his names sake”
And I hold the middle finger, the tallest, and I think on the one who is King and Lord.
He is the one who is our protector.
He is the gate.
The shepherds of the time would become the gate. They would lie across the entrance of the sheep pen at night and prevent big bad wolves from coming in.
He is the shepherd who protects us from thieves and bandits.
They are mentioned in verse 1 and 7. They are the false teachers. They do not call, they compel. They do not lead, they drive. They will use us and exploit us. They will either stand over us with a stick and beat us if we do not do what they want, or they will manipulate us so that we need them and become dependent on them. And then they will destroy us.
But we discover what they are like when the danger comes. They run away.
But this is the shepherd who sticks with us in danger. He will not abandon us. He will protect us. When we think we are at rock bottom, with nowhere to turn, abandoned by people – maybe even by God, he will be there.
The shepherd who stands tall over us, lies down for us and becomes the gate.
“When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me.”
And we hold the ring finger
We remember that our shepherd is the one who shows us steadfast love.
And Jesus went ahead of us
He went into baptism, that voluntary symbol of dying to self and coming alive to God.
He went into the wilderness to be tempted. He knows what it is like to want to put the things of this world: our physical desires, our longing to be someone in this world, or for power - before God. And he resisted, even to death.
He experienced the transfiguration. The opposite of the temptations – that amazing experience – and he shows us how to deal with those moments when heaven is opened and we encounter God.
He goes to the cross: he experienced God-abandonment. When we cry out, ‘My God why have you forsaken me’, we know that he has gone ahead of us.
And he has gone ahead of us through God forsakenness and the cross to the resurrection.
And he calls us to follow him.
He is our shepherd who has gone ahead of us. He leads us, he teaches us.
“He leads me beside still waters ...”
“He guides me in paths of righteousness for his names sake”
And I hold the middle finger, the tallest, and I think on the one who is King and Lord.
He is the one who is our protector.
He is the gate.
The shepherds of the time would become the gate. They would lie across the entrance of the sheep pen at night and prevent big bad wolves from coming in.
He is the shepherd who protects us from thieves and bandits.
They are mentioned in verse 1 and 7. They are the false teachers. They do not call, they compel. They do not lead, they drive. They will use us and exploit us. They will either stand over us with a stick and beat us if we do not do what they want, or they will manipulate us so that we need them and become dependent on them. And then they will destroy us.
But we discover what they are like when the danger comes. They run away.
But this is the shepherd who sticks with us in danger. He will not abandon us. He will protect us. When we think we are at rock bottom, with nowhere to turn, abandoned by people – maybe even by God, he will be there.
The shepherd who stands tall over us, lies down for us and becomes the gate.
“When I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me.”
And we hold the ring finger
We remember that our shepherd is the one who shows us steadfast love.
He really wants the best for us. He has come to bring (verse 10) abundant life.
On Thursday we went to London to see Gorky’s ‘Summer people’. The Russian title is a bit more immediate for us: ‘Dachniki’ or ‘Holiday cottagers’. It is about members of the Russian bourgeoisie at the beginning of the C20th. And it is about their fighting and philosophising and feasting and flirting – and just how empty it all is. One of the characters says at an outdoor party, ‘Oh, they’re only having a good time because they’re drunk’, to which the other replies, ‘I’m drunk and I’m not having a good time’.
That is life without the shepherd.
But Jesus says that he has come to bring life abundant: to enable us to live life as we were created to live: in relationship with God, in relationship with others, and growing in love and holiness: becoming the people we were created to be, becoming sons and daughters of God.
In the words of Psalm 23:
“You spread a table for me in the presence of those who trouble me.
You anoint my head with oil and my cup shall be full.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”
And finally this little finger. This is me!
Ismael, a children’s song writer, wrote:
“Big thumb’s tough and big thumb’s strong;
Other fingers follow on.
Little fingers’ just like me, tiny but important”
The little finger is dependent on the thumb. It works with thumb. Without the thumb it doesn’t quite work.
This is me – and without Jesus I don’t quite work.
Without the Lord Jesus, our shepherd, without God, we are incomplete, we are lost.
But with the Lord Jesus we are whole.
And because he has risen from the dead, because he has conquered death, if we are with him, united to him, we too live with the hope that death is not the end, that we will rise.
And as I hold this little finger, I remember my need for God, for his guidance, protection, love; for his presence and the hope he gives me – now and for eternity.
“And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever”.
One final illustration.
Forgive me if you find this childish, but we are talking in Psalm 23 and in John 10 about matters of the heart.
If thinking of the five fingers in this way does not help you, perhaps this might:
‘The – Lord – is – my (hold ring finger) – shepherd’
On Thursday we went to London to see Gorky’s ‘Summer people’. The Russian title is a bit more immediate for us: ‘Dachniki’ or ‘Holiday cottagers’. It is about members of the Russian bourgeoisie at the beginning of the C20th. And it is about their fighting and philosophising and feasting and flirting – and just how empty it all is. One of the characters says at an outdoor party, ‘Oh, they’re only having a good time because they’re drunk’, to which the other replies, ‘I’m drunk and I’m not having a good time’.
That is life without the shepherd.
But Jesus says that he has come to bring life abundant: to enable us to live life as we were created to live: in relationship with God, in relationship with others, and growing in love and holiness: becoming the people we were created to be, becoming sons and daughters of God.
In the words of Psalm 23:
“You spread a table for me in the presence of those who trouble me.
You anoint my head with oil and my cup shall be full.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”
And finally this little finger. This is me!
Ismael, a children’s song writer, wrote:
“Big thumb’s tough and big thumb’s strong;
Other fingers follow on.
Little fingers’ just like me, tiny but important”
The little finger is dependent on the thumb. It works with thumb. Without the thumb it doesn’t quite work.
This is me – and without Jesus I don’t quite work.
Without the Lord Jesus, our shepherd, without God, we are incomplete, we are lost.
But with the Lord Jesus we are whole.
And because he has risen from the dead, because he has conquered death, if we are with him, united to him, we too live with the hope that death is not the end, that we will rise.
And as I hold this little finger, I remember my need for God, for his guidance, protection, love; for his presence and the hope he gives me – now and for eternity.
“And I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever”.
One final illustration.
Forgive me if you find this childish, but we are talking in Psalm 23 and in John 10 about matters of the heart.
If thinking of the five fingers in this way does not help you, perhaps this might:
‘The – Lord – is – my (hold ring finger) – shepherd’
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