Readings: Psalm 89:20-37, 2 Samuel 7:1-14, Ephesians 2:11-22, Mark 6:30-34
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, on July 18 2021
We can get so busy. There are a hundred things to do and not enough days to do them all. People’s needs press in on us and we are not sure if we can cope. We travel through different experiences and do not always have the time to evaluate them or consider how they have affected us.
The Good News is that God recognizes our need for time and space for ourselves, our need to be "far from the madding crowd." After their Missionary journeys, Jesus invites the disciples, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest awhile".
The not so good news for the disciples was that this did not happen straight away. Jesus recognized they needed a break. But then the crowds pressed in. Jesus could have sent the crowds away. Instead, the heart of Jesus is moved with great love towards them. As Mark tells it, (verse 34) "He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd."
The disciples witness two great miracles - the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus coming to them across the water during a storm. At the time both happened, the disciples were still hoping for a break. In retrospect, they must have looked back and been glad that they did not get one!
This passage tells us that there are times when compassion drives us to look beyond even our legitimate needs. It is not that God doesn’t know we need space to be the people of God. But there are people with greater needs than us. If we look at them through the eyes of Jesus, we might just witness a miracle! Our time for renewal will come, but their time of need may not be able to wait.
The disciples had their lives in the care of the shepherd, but the crowds are described as 'shepherdless sheep.' The need of the crowd was deeper than that of the disciples. Though weary and exhausted, compassion is the adrenalin that motivates Jesus to teach the crowds of His Father's ways. The sheep needed their shepherd. To be a sheep without a shepherd was to live a precarious existence. Let me suggest three reasons, why shepherdless sheep are objects of God's compassion.
1. A Shepherdless Sheep easily loses the way.
Sheep are prone to wander. Sheep are pack animals that will follow any other sheep that appears to be heading somewhere, without questioning where they may end up. That is why the field a sheep lives in is enclosed by fences.
"All we like sheep have gone astray" laments the prophet Isaiah (53:6). There is an inbuilt tendency in all of us to drift away from God. We spend much of our lives looking for others to guide us, but we do not always take the time to consider where they may be leading us. Humans, like sheep, are pack animals. We are communal beings who need each other to live contented lives.
Life can be very bewildering. We reach a point of decision and don't know what to decide. We come to a crossroads and don't know which way to turn. We wait to see which way everybody else is going and join them, in the presumption that it must be the right way, because everybody else is headed there.
Sometimes we take the time out to consider questions like "Why am I here?" or "Where is my life headed?", but most of the time we don't. And even when we do we don't always have an answer. We can be like the motorist who stopped his car, looked around and said, "I don't know where I am, but wherever it is, it's not where I want to be!"
We need a shepherd to guide us. Jesus offers to be that Shepherd. His Word offers signposts that guide the Way. As we learn of the ways people of God before learned to live God's way, so we can walk in those ways for ourselves. As we discover how people of God have made their decisions, so we take confidence that God can also guide our decisions that we make the right choices, even when the crowd is heading off in the opposite direction.
If we allow Jesus to lead us, then we are no longer sheep without a shepherd.
2. A Shepherdless Sheep has a bad diet.
Sheep cannot consume anything they like without suffering the consequences. The professional sheep farmer ensures that the field in which their sheep live is free of plants that could harm them. The sheep’s diet is supplemented by different feeds that maintain health and help growth. Like humans, sheep are prey to many different diseases and receive inoculations and preventative treatment to avoid them.
Turn on the TV or pick up a magazine and you can be sure, sooner or later, food will get a mention. When it comes to food, we are a diet conscious people. We want to know not only what tastes good and looks good but also what is good for us. We know that what we put in our stomachs effects the way we live. If we don't take care, then we suffer for it.
We even have tablets to take when our lifestyle causes us to eat badly - numerous remedies for heartburn, indigestion, constipation, overeating, under eating and so on. Even when we have a bad diet, we take steps to supplement it so that appears to our stomachs to be a good diet!
The tragedy is that though we are so conscious of our physical diet, we can be so indiscriminate in what we feed our hearts, minds, and souls upon. We fail to make the connection between the diet we spiritually consume with the condition of our health.
William Barclay writes in his commentary on Mark, "We need the strength which can keep us going, we need the inspiration which can lift us out of ourselves and above ourselves. When we seek it elsewhere our minds are still unsatisfied, our hearts are still restless and our souls are still unfed. We can only gain strength for life from Him who is the living Bread!"
There is a lot of mindless junk food to feed upon in the field of this world. If we are indiscriminate in what we feed upon, it will result in spiritual indigestion. Maybe we can take our guidance from the tablets Moses brought down from the mountain. The Ten Commandments certainly offer good boundary fences to surround our lives with.
Fences are important not just for what they keep in, but also for what they keep out.
A Shepherdless Sheep has a bad diet, a shepherdless Sheep easily loses its way, and thirdly;
3. A Shepherdless Sheep is defenseless.
A sheep in Jesus time was easy prey for other animals. As an animal it has little to protect itself with. Mother nature has not blessed it with the greatest of defense mechanisms. It’s slow and wooly. It doesn’t have viscous teeth or claws. “Baa” is not a war cry!
A fence provides a boundary to enclose the sheep for their protection. In Jesus day the sheep would spend the night in the sheepfold and the shepherd would sleep across the door to prevent anything taking their lives. It was the shepherd’s job to guard the sheep.
It is good practice to build a fence around our own lives. Not literally, but I mean by setting boundaries. We can do that in all sorts of ways. One of the simplest ways is by cultivating good habits that slowly integrate their way into our lives.
Making time in our schedule every day for devotion and prayer, keeps us focused on the God who is always present. Regularly supporting a particular cause or concern keeps us focused on situations outside of ourselves. Regular attendance at church gives our week a focus that we otherwise easily lose.
But there are even simpler things. Like always counting to ten before we respond to a situation that is aggravating us. Like slowing down. Like being more aware of our surroundings. Like allowing God to be the One who makes the judgment calls, rather than setting ourselves up as God's authority. Like listening before we give our opinion. Like practicing simple virtues such as kindness and courtesy and tolerance.
Such simple practices build a fence around our lives in the sense that they nurture us spiritually and help us to see situations in a different light, because we are coming from a safe place, a quiet place, rather than from a place of turmoil and anxiety.
We also need to recall the promises of scripture in such a way as we make them our own. Words of Jesus. 'I will never leave you or forsake you' “I am always with you" 'I am the Good Shepherd who lays His life down for His sheep.' There is no shortage of words and phrases that we can call to mind when we are going through difficult times... or even when we are enjoying the best of times.
We'll be using the 23rd psalm as our affirmation of faith this morning, and one of the features of that wonderful poem is the way it is appropriate for so many different occasions in our lives, from their beginning to their end. I have heard it read at Christenings, at Baptisms, at Weddings, at the bedside of those critically ill, on battlefields, at picnics, at funerals, on occasions of national celebration or mourning, at times of dedication... the list goes on.
The Psalm is an affirmation that we are not shepherdless sheep. We do not walk through this world alone.
There is One to...
guide us,
lead us,
protect us,
feed us,
heal us,
inspire us,
move us,
shake us,
restore us,
hold us,
comfort us,
clothe us,
eat with us,
protect us,
and surround our lives with
goodness and mercy and righteousness.
Jesus looks with compassion on all people. Jesus has compassion for us. Jesus wants to be our shepherd.
Will we let His Word be our Guide? Will we guard ourselves from feeding on the empty diet of this world and seek to be nourished by His Holy Spirit? Will we allow God to surround our lives by resting our lives in the palm of God’s hand? None of us need to be shepherdless sheep. We have a Savior in the Lord Jesus Christ.
To God's name be all the glory. Amen.
Affirmation of Faith: 23rd Psalm.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil; for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
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