The Good Shepherd Sunday: A View from the Field

Fourth Sunday of Easter 2014

Psalm 23 

Dominus regit me

1

The LORD is my shepherd; *
I shall not be in want.

2

He makes me lie down in green pastures *
and leads me beside still wat

3

He revives my soul *
and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.

4

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no evil; *
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

5

You spread a table before me in the presence of those

who trouble me; *
you have anointed my head with oil,
and my cup is running over.

6

Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days

of my life, *
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

_______________

Reflection

Some years back, I saw an entirely enthralling film titled Memento in which the main character (played by Guy Pearce) is out on a quest to find his wife's killer.  The only problem is that in the home invasion during which his wife was killed, he suffered a head injury that does not allow him to make new memories:  everything he experiences in the present, including clues, will be forgotten in just a few moments.  So, he develops a series of techniques and strategies for hanging on to his experiences, for example, by immediately tattooing notes on his body.

The genius of this movie is the way it is shot.  The movie plays from end to beginning with replays that  makes one question all of one's assumptions about what is going on in the film.  In short, it makes you think like the main character thinks as you watch the film.

Today, the Fourth Sunday of Easter is typically called Good Shepherd Sunday and the readings reflect both the metaphorical description of  the sheep and the shepherd.  But what about the view from  field?  What do the sheep have to say?  Because of their genre (poetry and songs of praise) the Psalms are able to, much like the film Memento, evoke a response, not from a traditional angle of vision, but from the angle of the speaker and in the case of The 23rd psalm, from the angle of the sheep, a sort of view from the field.

Go ahead, take an experimental moment  and read Psalm 23 again slowly, as if your were reading the words of the actual sheep describing her relationship with the shepherd.  Then, compare and contrast your own knowledge of God with that of the sheep.  How is your experience the same?  Different?

The sheep says, The Lord is my shepherd.  Am I being shepherded or lorded by something or someone other than God?  

The sheep allows itself, turns itself over to the master to be led to still waters.  In the sometimes frantic experience of contemporary life are we allowing ourselves to be led by Jesus into prayerful moments of calming intimacy with him.  Is our daily life punctuated by prayer pauses?

In the face of potential adversity (the valley of the shadow of death) the sheep puts complete confidence in his loving shepherd.  Can we face adversity in confident faith in an all-powerful and ever-loving gracious God?  

The sheep recognized the shepherd's crook not as an object of discipline but as a tool ensuring its safety; as a comforting pastoral tool, not a rod of punishment.  What is our view of God and how does that operative view bring us closer to him an others?

Contrary to popular belief, sheep are pretty smart.

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