There is scripture and then there is scripture.
There are the words and images that we all share in and then there are the words and images that we have a more personal credence too. Sometimes, often, the two overlap.
I have known many people who have what can be called an “expanded Bible” to include “other” readings.
Like the Beatles. The favorite scripture verse for many is, “Love is all you need.”
The 23rd psalm is scripture. It is written into the hearts of many, a scripture verse that is also a scripture of personal credence, a text that transcends divisions, even of belief and faith.
It is a secular psalm, a secular scripture because of its almost universal appeal.
It is part of the secular creed of what was once our countries civil religion. I guess now we have an uncivil religion. But the 23rd psalm endures.
It’s message is much like the creed of the Beatles, God is all you need, God is all I need, God is all we need. I lack nothing.
The image of the transcendent Shepherd who cares for the people, the world, the creation, and even for me, the appeal is ancient.
The scriptures of the Shepherd, the images of the Shepherd, they have always been the favorite.
Of the many images of God throughout history, this is the image that has endured with the most universal appeal.
Our own window is evidence.
Today is unofficially known as Good Shepherd Sunday, the fourth Sunday of the Easter Season, the psalm, the gospel, the Collect are all about the Shepherd, every year.
It is a faith statement, a confession of faith, a proclamation, that God is all I need. I lack nothing. God is all. I lack nothing.
God can be trusted to provide.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus is the providence of God, the abundant providing-ness of God, the goodness, the mercy, the never-failing steadfastness, the untiring commitment, the stubborn as a bent nail belligerent-ness of God.
When Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd, what we are meant to hear is that Jesus is God’s stubbornness, God’s stuck-ness to us, God’s can’t call it quit-ness to us. If the Lord is your Shepherd there is no escape.
It would seem that these are loaded statements: “The Lord is my shepherd”, and “I am the good shepherd.” They have tremendous weight and depth.
When we say these things, when we hear them, when we make images of them to pass down through the generations, we reflect God’s stubbornness, God’s refusal to call it quits.
Despite it all: the Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing, despite what the experience to the contrary may be, the Shepherd still provides all, the Shepherd is still good.
Take that.
Faith is contrary. Take that.
God is all we need. Take that.
The shepherd is good. Take that.
And we will do likewise, despite it all.
We will care, and nurture, and provide and forgive and serve despite it all. Take that.
As the sheep of the shepherd, we are each little shepherds of creation and human dignity.
Shepherding is what we do. Restoring the earth, and insisting on the dignity of all, belligerent and stubborn and relentless.
Little shepherds of creation and human dignity.
God is tenacious and so am I. Take that.
The Lord is my Shepherd. I lack nothing.
There is scripture and then there is scripture.
And that is the Bible truth.