Green Pastures, Still Waters

Well, good afternoon to all of you.

As I was preparing this week, I had to admit, or rather came to realize, something kind

of troubling about myself, which in itself is not a newsworthy event.

But in this case, I think it has particular relevance for what we're going to be talking

about today.

I realize the habit that I have, and that is that a lot of times when I'm talking to people

and people ask me, how you doing?

I respond by referencing whatever else I say.

I reference how busy I am.

How you doing, Tommy?

Well, it's a particularly busy season.

Things have been crazy right now.

I thought the summer would be calming down, but the summer's been actually pretty full.

Things are crazy right now.

It's a Christmas season, so things are always kind of out of control.

Whatever time of year it is, whatever time of day it is, however I'm actually doing, typically

I will make some reference to how busy I am.

And here's the thing.

I'm not just trying to sound important.

I'm not just making things up.

I am, in fact, busy most of the time.

And then most people I talk to seem to do the same thing.

It seems to be a very common sort of language, almost an aspect of the D.C. subculture.

The only acceptable answer to how are you doing is to say, well, I'm all right, but things

are kind of crazy right now.

It's just a norm.

And it got me thinking, why?

Why is this such a common way that we describe our lives?

And if you're anything like me, and I know some of you well enough to know that a lot

of times it's true.

We're pretty busy people.

We live at a pretty frenetic pace.

So last week we started this series looking at Psalm 23.

You may have heard of it.

One of the most well-known psalms in the world, if not the most well-known.

And we started this weekly meditation taking this psalm verse by verse and really trying

to go deep into what it has to say to us about ourselves and about God.

And we know that for hundreds of years, Christians have looked at this psalm and believed that it's

describing Jesus, that when God talks about being the shepherd of his people, that Jesus

is that shepherd.

He's the fulfillment of that promise.

We talked about that last week.

And so this week, last week we looked at verse 1.

This week we're going to look at verse 2.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

And as I looked at this verse and I thought about this aspect of my life, the busyness

and the craziness, I came to ask this question.

Is that just a function of living in D.C.?

Is that just the way it is here?

Or is there a deeper spiritual reason, a problem, the evidence of which is this frenetic lifestyle?

So that's the question I want us to consider.

We're going to look at verse 2 of this psalm and we're going to ask first, what does this

have to tell us about us?

And then second, what does it tell us about Jesus, the one who claims to be our shepherd?

So let's pray.

Our Father, we do recognize that these are merely words generated by a human being, that

these words that we're reading are merely words printed on a page, in a book.

And yet you're a God who's promised to speak to us.

You've said that through your spirit you can illuminate these words.

You can fill them with power.

That you can actually use them to bring us face to face with the living word, Jesus Christ.

And we pray that through everything that happens here this evening, that we would come face

to face with him.

And that the eyes of our hearts would be open to recognize him.

We pray this in your son's holy name.

Amen.

So Psalm 23, verse 2, what does this first have to tell us about us?

Psalms 23:2

The truth about the human condition.

If you look at these words of David, who was himself a shepherd before he was a soldier

and king.

He says this, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

We looked at that last week.

And then what does that shepherd do?

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

Now notice the language there.

The shepherd is doing things for the sheep, which shows us what the sheep need.

What do the sheep need?

Well, sheep need to be made to lie down.

They don't lie down on their own.

And second, they need to be led to clean, still, drinkable water.

They're not very good at finding clean water on their own.

In fact, a lot of times they'll settle for very dirty, polluted water.

So sheep are, in essence, dependent beings.

They need to be made to rest.

They need to be made to eat.

They need to be made to drink.

And if there's no shepherd, the sheep suffer.

So they are very dependent.

They need a shepherd.

And this is essentially what it's telling us about the human condition.

It's saying if we apply this metaphor of sheep to us,

it's saying our deepest need is to know our shepherd,

that we are as dependent as sheep,

and that we need someone to make us lie down.

We need someone to lead us to good drinking water.

Even in the Gospel of Matthew,

Jesus is looking out on a huge crowd of people,

and this is how it describes his reaction.

It says that Jesus had compassion for them

because they were harassed and helpless like what?

Sheep without a shepherd.

This is Jesus' description of the human condition.

Now, I don't know about you,

but being told that I need to think of myself like a sheep

is a kind of negative experience.

I don't hear that well.

I don't think anybody hears that well,

especially if you're a religious or spiritually inclined person.

The idea of being a sheep is anathema

to everything that we value in our society.

We want to be critical thinkers.

We want to be questioning and asking and probing and going deeper

and resisting naivety and having both eyes wide open

and embracing doubt and uncertainty and all of those things.

And being a sheep seems like the opposite of all that.

You know, we think of sheep as these kind of blind, dumb animals

that just follow the flock.

That's the last thing we want to be.

And I agree.

And yet there's something about this metaphor

that David would apply not only to himself,

but to all of us.

And so what I want to do now for the next few minutes

is just consider this claim that we need a shepherd,

that in many ways we're like sheep,

whether we admit it or not,

and just look at our lives and ask,

is there any evidence that should make us consider

that this might be speaking about us?

There's an interesting book that I came across

in my preparation for this

by a guy who's actually a shepherd.

He, I mentioned it last week, if you were here,

he spent years as a shepherd

and then he wrote a book on Psalm 23,

infusing it with all of his reflections

about being a shepherd.

Most of us are city people.

I have no idea what a shepherd lifestyle is like.

And this guy wrote a book from that vantage point.

It's very helpful.

And he looks at this verse,

he makes me to lie down.

And he says there are actually four common reasons

why sheep refuse to lie down.

There are four things that keep them on their feet

and moving, even if they're exhausted.

And helpfully for us, he gives them all an F word,

so there's nice alliteration.

So at least I'm happy with that.

But there's four factors.

Fear, flies, friction, and famine.

One, hunger and thirst, right?

So fear, anxiety about primarily predators.

If you look at sheep, they are 100% prey.

There's nothing predatory about sheep.

They're 100% there to die.

Probably at the hands of another creature, right?

And so they're defenseless.

And so they're constantly on alert for threats

because everything is dangerous.

If you're a sheep.

And it's because they're helpless.

You know, most of their environment they cannot control.

And so they huddle together

and hope to be closer to the center

and less vulnerable, right?

That's basically all you can do if you're a sheep.

The next thing that keeps them on their feet.

So if they're wary about predators,

they're not going to sit down.

They're going to be nervous and restless

and looking around.

They're not going to rest.

The next thing that keeps them on their feet is flies.

Flies and pests and things

and things that are kind of buzzing around them.

These annoyances.

They'll stand and they'll stomp

and they'll shake their heads

and they'll shake their coats

and they'll do everything they can

to keep these bugs at bay.

But they won't rest.

And then the third thing is friction.

And by that, what he means

is there is constant infighting in any flock.

I don't know if you know this.

I didn't.

But there's constant infighting.

Because sheep are very particular

about the hierarchy.

Every flock has a hierarchy.

And every sheep knows their place in the hierarchy.

And these things are pretty specific.

So with chickens, you call it a pecking order.

With sheep, you call it a budding order.

My kids in the morning worship service,

I heard this really loud laugh from my kids

who are four and seven when I said the budding order.

But there is a budding order.

And that means that they will headbutt each other

and use that as a way to establish a hierarchy.

So they're constantly jostling for positions.

So that keeps them on their feet.

And then the last thing is famine.

Hunger and thirst.

If they're hungry or thirsty,

they will go off and wander and scatter

and they will easily get lost.

Sheep have a horrible sense of direction.

And so they will just get lost

looking for food and drink.

And he says, of particular danger is the drink part.

Because there are lots of little polluted potholes

in places with stagnant, nasty water.

And sheep don't really know the difference.

And if they can't find clean water,

they'll just settle for the polluted water.

And so they get parasites and nematodes

and things like that.

So he says, all of these are reasons

why sheep will, instead of lying down and resting,

they will wander and scatter and stomp and shake

and bud each other

until they're utterly exhausted and depleted.

And more vulnerable to die.

And so he says, these are problems.

And he says, unless all of them are dealt with,

unless all of them are dealt with,

sheep won't lie down.

And so as I looked at this list,

I did start to reflect on my life.

And I started to think,

what are the things that might have parallels

into my life?

Is there evidence that I'm actually living

like a sheep without a shepherd?

And I wonder if you might ask the same question.

As we look at the same four categories applied to us.

First category is what?

Fear.

You know, we talked a lot about fear and anxiety last week.

I've realized actually recently

that I'm more anxious than I thought I was.

I didn't used to think of myself as an anxious person.

But man, I had this crazy dream this morning.

I woke up at about five o'clock in the morning.

I dreamed that I was in this tiny pond

and I was on this really big wave runner.

I don't know.

It started out as a fun dream.

And I was, all I could do was one big circle.

So I was just going,

yeah, yeah, yeah, around this tiny little pond.

And then I lose my balance.

And I fall.

And I fall near the shore,

but I'm too far to kind of reach the shore.

And I fall into the water.

And if you've ever jumped into a pond,

you know the bottom can often be real slimy

and you can sink down into it.

Well, I jump in the water

and I sink down into the slime under the water.

And I sink down so far that I get stuck.

And in my dream, I'm holding my breath

and I'm panicking

and I'm completely stuck in the mire

and I'm looking up out of the water,

but I can't get out of water.

And I'm feeling like any minute I'm going to drown.

And I wake up throwing my pillows off

and gasping for air.

What does it mean?

Can somebody tell me?

Can somebody analyze that?

Well, whatever else it means,

I think there's some anxiety going on in here.

And I think we all wrestle with that.

I think we all wrestle with the sense

that most things in life we cannot control.

Outcomes and other people's opinions

and the future and other people's choices

and our own health

and the health of people that we love.

We can't control these things.

We are helpless.

It produces tremendous fear.

You know, I was just at the hospital

visiting a couple.

Their child, they've done everything they can

for their child,

but the child is in the intensive care unit

because there are health issues

outside of their control

and they feel helpless.

They're right.

We're helpless.

So there's fear and anxiety.

I think that makes us restless.

And you say,

well, I lay down at night.

I get good sleep.

That doesn't keep me from lying down.

Well, I think what this is really talking about

and pointing to

is not physically lying down.

When does your soul lie down?

When does your heart lie down?

How long has it been

since you had a sustained period

of feeling contentment?

I'm at peace.

I'm content.

My heart is at rest.

My soul is lying down.

I think fear and anxiety drive us.

They churn away, right?

Now let's go to the next one.

Flies.

Again, I don't think many of us

have to literally deal with flies.

Actually, we were away for vacation

and when we came back,

our house was infested with flies.

I don't know why.

It's horrible.

It's like a biblical plague.

We've killed most of them.

But I think what this is talking about,

as it applies to us,

is not literal flies.

I think it's the effect

that flies have on sheep,

which is perpetual distraction.

They're perpetually distracted.

They're so distracted

that they can't lie down.

And think about our lives.

How many of you,

how many of us,

are perpetually distracted?

You know, this past Friday,

Laura and I celebrated

ten years of marriage.

Ten years of marriage.

Fantastic.

Very excited about that.

Some of you here,

that's like a drop in the bucket.

So thankful for you.

But for ten years,

that's a long time.

It feels like we're no longer newlyweds.

And we,

and that was great.

And yet, you know,

we got married in 2007.

That was a big year.

Why?

Well,

that was also the year

that the first iPhone was released.

And so,

some of you weren't even born then.

But the first iPhone came out.

And,

and,

and,

and I remember,

it came out about a month

before our wedding,

which was late July.

It came out like late June.

And I remember not long after

we got back from our honeymoon,

we went out to get new devices.

I guess one of the things you do

is newlyweds.

Whatever.

And we,

and Laura got,

I got a new iPhone

and Laura got a Blackberry,

which,

you know,

we called a Crackberry back then.

Because they were all the rage.

But this new iPhone thing

had come out

and I remember sitting in bed that night

and like most newlywed couples are doing,

we're looking at our devices.

And,

and,

Laura is,

has her Blackberry

and she's kind of,

and I have my iPhone

and I remember Laura kind of looking

and looking back and looking

and then kind of setting hers aside

and leaning over and being like,

wow,

it can do that?

And then the next day

we went back to the store

and swapped her Crackberry out for an iPhone.

And we've been an iPhone family ever since.

And I'm not saying that proudly.

Because ten years in,

honestly,

we look back and we wonder,

how different would our marriage be?

How different would our home life be

if we hadn't made that decision?

If we had said no,

right?

Now we couldn't have known then

where the world would be now.

We couldn't have known

what our life would be like.

But we wonder,

are we better off?

There's a man,

big deal in Silicon Valley

named Tony Fidel.

You may have heard of him.

He founded Nest

and before that

he was a senior VP with Apple

and he is called

the father of the iPod

because he was largely responsible

for the iPod's existence.

And then later he was instrumental

in bringing the iPhone

into every home.

So he's a big deal.

And he gave a talk recently

at a design conference.

They're talking about

the power of design.

And he expressed

significant regret

over these devices.

He says,

I wake up in cold sweats

every so often

thinking,

what did we bring to the world?

And he says that

our world is now one

in which screens are everywhere.

And they're distracting us.

And they're interrupting

what's important.

And at the same time

they're promoting

a culture of self-aggrandizement.

And he says ultimately

that all of this addiction

and distraction

and kind of perpetual,

you know,

that all of that

is actually designed

into the devices.

And so he says

this is a design problem.

If you know anything

about Silicon Valley

and the history

of the culture there,

back in the 60s,

there was a lot of idealism

in Silicon Valley

about this new thing

called the internet

and how the internet

was going to transform

the world

by bringing people together.

It was going to result

in this kind of utopian vision

being realized

where people all around the world

are connected as one

and it's this community building

relationship enhancing technology.

And then Fidel says

all of that changed.

All of it changed.

That got scrapped.

Why?

The designers.

Who was designing

these products?

Mostly young,

white,

unmarried men

in their early

to mid-twenties.

They were the designers.

And he said

a lot of these guys

did not have

community building

and connection

and relationship

on their mind.

And so the products

got designed

around values

like individual empowerment

and personal freedom.

And so what you have

is this whole community building

aspect pushed to the side

and you have devices

that create

tiny little

microspheres

of individualism.

And that's the net impact

that they have

on us.

They atomize society.

And so he says

a lot,

and this is really interesting,

a lot of those

same designers

are now older

and they're married

and they're having kids

and they're looking back

and they're rethinking

these design decisions

and saying,

like Fidel,

what did we do?

Right?

So the point is,

I think,

regardless of what's happened,

we can't go back now.

We can't change that

and the impact

that it's had.

But I think the reality

that we need to admit

is that I think

we are all addicted

more or less

to the internet.

We're all addicted

more or less

to the devices

in our lives.

And what that means is

we live in a constant state

of perpetual distraction

all of the time.

And the longer this goes on,

the more it deeply worries me.

It deeply worries me.

It's not that these technologies

haven't done good things

to the world.

It's not that they haven't helped

or benefited society.

But there's a huge cost

that I don't think

we're fully aware of.

Because what it means

is that we experience,

if you're anything like me,

we experience the most

wonderful aspects of life,

like our spouses

and our kids

and our friends

and the people

that we're dating

and love

and the wonderful dinner parties

and great food

and nature

and beautiful sunsets

and amazing music

and all of the things

that God built into creation

to make this world beautiful,

that we experience all of that

in a state of perpetual distraction.

I'm never fully present

with my kids.

I'm never fully present

with my wife.

I'm never fully present

in any moment

because there's constantly

something pulling my attention away,

distracting me ever so briefly.

There's a cumulative effect of that.

So I like to say

I'm not like a sheep

and I'm not bothered

by the distraction of flies,

but I would say,

if I'm honest,

I am.

Only the buzzing isn't out here.

It's in my pocket.

But there's a constant buzzing

in my life.

Perpetual distraction.

The third thing I think

that we should think about

as it applies to us

is friction.

Friction.

Why don't I lie down?

Is it partly because

I'm so wrapped up

in establishing

the hierarchy around me?

What do I mean by that?

I mean

comparing myself.

You know?

How do I measure up?

You know,

I'm turning 40 in a month

and I told you last week

it's kind of freaking me out

and one of the things

that when you reach

a milestone age like 40

and you're basically dying

is you look around

and you say,

well, you know,

what have I done

in my life up to this point

and then what do I hope

to accomplish,

you know,

before I die?

And then you look

at other people

who are 40

or 35

or 30

or 25

and you look at

all the amazing things

they've done

and you look at yourself

and you look at them

and you're like,

oh my gosh,

I'm wasting my life,

right?

That person is so much

more beautiful than I am.

That person is so much

more successful than I am.

That person is so much

more,

they're a better parent

than I am.

They're a better husband

or wife than I am.

That person is

so much more educated.

They're so much more articulate.

They're so much more gifted.

However you play this game,

social media makes it

that much easier.

But it's that discontentment,

that unwillingness

to lie down

because we're constantly

feeling like failures

when we compare ourselves

to other people.

Living in a place like D.C.,

it feels like everybody's smarter,

everybody's job is cooler,

everybody's doing amazing things

and you're like,

man,

my life is just kind of

a disappointment

compared to that.

And time's running out.

I'm dying.

I'm falling apart.

What do I do?

Work harder.

Try harder.

Make a change,

right?

Not lie down.

Time's running out.

So I think that friction

is there,

right?

And then underneath

these three,

the fear

and the flies

and the friction,

I think the last one

is maybe the most fundamental.

You know,

what he refers to as famine,

hunger and thirst.

Now hopefully,

praise God,

many of us are not dealing

with actual hunger

and thirst.

But I think deep down,

the way this applies

is there is a deep hunger

for fulfillment.

There's a longing

for meaning

and satisfaction.

And remember what he said

about sheep.

If they don't find

the clean, pure,

clear water to drink,

they'll find a pothole

and they don't care

if it's polluted,

they will drink from it.

And I think we're the same way.

We start to look

for fulfillment.

And we take things,

maybe good things

in our lives,

but we begin to try

to draw fulfillment

from them

and it's drinking

polluted water.

And you can do this

with really good things,

but when you try

to suck meaning

out of those things,

they pollute you, right?

So if it's your job,

you know,

well my job is really

the thing that gives me meaning.

That's the thing

that makes me valuable

and worthwhile.

What happens?

Well,

either you change jobs

every two years

because no job

can ever fully fulfill you

or you become

a workaholic

and you work

80 hours a week,

which many of us do.

Looking for that,

this is the thing

that gives me value.

I've got to succeed.

If I fail,

what does that say

about me?

I can't fail.

Or you can take

really great things

like your spouse,

like your kids.

Yeah,

I don't care about work.

I would never make that

my source of meaning.

I'm a family man.

I most care about my spouse.

I most care about my kids.

That's where

my meaning lies.

Do you know what will happen

to those people

if you look to them

to give you meaning?

You will crush them

because your expectations

will be so high.

They'll be inhumanly high

and nobody can ever

live up to that.

No marriage can live up to that.

No marriage can give you meaning.

No marriage can satisfy you fully.

No human being can do that.

You'll crush that person.

You'll crush your kids

because you'll need them

to measure up.

You'll need them

to be everything for you.

You'll crush them.

They're humans.

They can't sustain that.

Whatever it is we look to

and say,

this will give me meaning.

It'll end up making us sick.

It'll make everybody

around us sick.

So anything in life

can become that.

So pulling all this together,

David in Psalm 23 verse 2,

Psalms 23:2

he's reflecting on

what he believes

our deepest need is

as human beings.

He's saying,

we need to know

our shepherd.

The one who can make us

lie down.

The one who can lead us

to good, still, clear water.

So what's the evidence

that we are sheep

without a shepherd?

If you look at your life,

how do you know

whether or not

this applies to you?

Well,

do fear and anxiety

cause you to

to churn?

Right?

Do you wake up at night

restless?

Do you

do these things haunt you?

Right?

Do you have weird dreams

about being sucked

into the slime

under the water?

I don't know.

Maybe your dreams

are different.

Do these things haunt you?

Are we perpetually distracted?

Why do we allow ourselves

to be perpetually distracted?

Are you dealing

with interpersonal strife

or envy

or jealousy

or bitterness

or resentment?

And of course,

how do you deal

with your hunger

and need for fulfillment?

Where do you go?

What do you look to?

That's what it tells us

about us.

All of this

is evidence.

It's all signs

and symptoms

of a life lived

without a shepherd.

So if that's the case,

then I want to just spend

our last few minutes

asking,

if that's the life

without a shepherd,

then what is

the shepherded life?

What does that look like?

And what does this tell us

about Jesus

as our shepherd?

We said that all

of these F words,

fear, flies, famine,

that they all need

to be dealt with

before sheep will lie down.

Well, the author

of this book

I was telling you about,

he says that there's

only one thing

that's needed

to deal with all

of the fear,

the flies,

the famine,

all of it.

There's only one thing

that's needed.

It's the presence

of the shepherd.

He says with his flock,

the minute he would

come in among his flock,

the minute they would

see him,

realize that he was there,

all these issues

would go away.

They would become

palpably more relaxed

and many of them

would just,

immediately when they

saw him,

they would just lay down.

The shepherd is here.

It's okay.

The shepherd is here.

All the infighting,

all the headbutting

would stop

because they're no longer

looking at each other,

they're looking at him.

And there's this

wonderful encounter

in John chapter 4

John 4 · chapter mention

between Jesus

and a Samaritan woman.

You know,

we said a moment ago

that unless we know

where to find clean,

pure water,

we, like sheep,

are going to drink

from polluted water.

If we can't find clean water,

we'll drink from polluted water.

Well,

this Samaritan woman

in John 4

is such a person,

right?

She's looking for fulfillment.

She doesn't know

where to find it

and so she's not looking

at her job

or at her kids.

She's looking to

the attention of men,

right?

She's looking to

the sexual desire of men.

If there are men

out there who desire me,

then I have value,

then I have worth

as long as I feel desired,

right?

It's what somebody I know

called lady lust.

She goes,

you know,

I don't often lust

after men.

Like,

I don't look at them

and think,

wow,

I really want to have

sex with that person.

She says,

you know,

most often I look at men

and I say,

wow,

I really want that guy

to really want to have

sex with me.

That's my version of lust.

And this woman is thinking,

as long as I can be desired,

then I have worth

and value and meaning.

And so she encounters

Jesus at a well,

which is not a coincidence,

and Jesus says,

give me a drink.

And that enters them

into this conversation.

And at one point,

Jesus says to her,

in verse 13,

everyone who drinks

of this water

will be thirsty again.

And of course,

what's he talking about?

He's not talking about

the well water.

He's talking about

the men in her life.

As long as you keep drinking

from that polluted stream,

it's going to make you sick.

And you're just going

to be more thirsty.

It's not going to satisfy you.

It's amazingly insightful.

And he says,

but whoever drinks

of the water

that I will give him

will never be thirsty again.

He says,

you've been with five men,

and the one that you're

living with now

is not your husband,

and that's a polluted stream.

And of course,

as we hear his language

and we think about

this encounter,

and she's a Samaritan,

he's a Jew,

she is bracing herself

to be condemned.

But what does he do?

He doesn't condemn her.

This is not a condemnation.

This is an invitation.

He doesn't say,

I can't believe

that you are sleeping

with all these people

and you need to,

you know,

become a secondary virgin

and put your purity ring

back on and promise me

that you're never

going to do it again.

He doesn't say any of that.

He says,

he says what?

You're drinking

from polluted water.

I can show you

where to find clean water.

I can show you

where to find

life-giving water.

He's saying,

you're living like

a sheep without a shepherd,

but I'm here now.

It's okay.

I'm the shepherd

and I'm here

and so you can lie down.

He's saying,

I'm the one

that can make you lie down,

cause you to lie down.

I'm the one

who can lead you

to the good water.

Why?

Because I am that water

and you don't have

to wander anymore

or drink polluted water

because I'm here.

So Jesus is the true shepherd

who has come

to call his flock

to himself

and so I think

this psalm

is an invitation

to all of us

to come into

the shepherd's presence

even as he is present

with us.

There's a,

one final image

that I'll share with you

before we close

and it's an image

that I heard last week

after the service.

Steve Arpey,

the priest who serves,

the retired priest

who's a part of our community

and many of you know him

because he's up front

from time to time.

But he told me

this wonderful detail.

He and his wife

lived in the Middle East

for years and years and years.

A lot of their ministry

was spent there

and in that time

they got to see

shepherds firsthand

and he said last week,

you know,

there's a big difference

between the Western

approach to sheep herding

and Middle Eastern shepherds.

And he said,

you know,

in the West,

like what we think of

as is driving the sheep.

You have the sheep dogs

and maybe even people

on horses

and you're driving the sheep

and you're behind them

and it's fear driven,

right?

You're driving the sheep forward.

Maybe that's why images

like God as being a shepherd

is not necessarily

a comforting image for us

because if we think

about fear

and condemnation

and being driven

in a certain direction.

But that's not how

a Middle Eastern shepherd operates

and that's not the image

of Psalm 23.

That's not how Jesus operates.

In the Middle East,

shepherds lead their sheep.

And you know how?

They go out in front of them.

You know how they lead them?

They call to them.

They speak their names.

Many times,

they'll even sing to them.

So they're led by the voice

of the shepherd.

They go,

not because they're driven

out of fear,

but because they're called.

They're wooed.

They're summoned.

And they respond.

Out of trust and love.

And this is how Jesus,

I believe,

calls to us.

In the midst of the fear

and the anxiety

and the busyness

and the buzzing

and all the craziness,

I think the voice of Jesus

is always calling to us.

It may be through a movie

or a poem

or a conversation

or a sunset

or a service like this.

But I think the voice

is always there.

He's always singing.

He's always calling.

He's always drawing.

He's always calling us.

And so my prayer for us all

is as we continue

in this service,

we're about to have

an amazing baptism.

I'm very excited about that.

As we spend some time

in prayer,

as we come to the Lord's table

together,

that we would all

have our ears opened

to cut through the noise

and to hear and respond

to the voice of our shepherd

even as he calls to us.

Let's pray.

Yes.

Amen.

Good morning.