Scripture: Psalm 23 (Contemporary language paraphrase by singer/songwriter Bobby McFerrin, dedicated to his mother)
The Lord is my Shepherd, I have all I need,
She makes me like down in green meadows,
Beside the still waters, She will lead.
She restores my soul, She rights my wrongs.
She leads me in a path of good things,
And fills my heart with songs.
Even though I walk, through a dark & dreary land,
There is nothing that can shake me,
She has said She won’t forsake me,
I’m in her hand.
She sets a table before me, in the presence of my foes,
She anoints my head with oil,
And my cup overflows.
Surely, surely goodness & kindness will follow me,
All the days of my life,
And I will live in her house,
Forever, forever & ever…
Sermon: “God, Our Mother”
TODAY is Mother’s Day, a day to celebrate mothers and people who have played a mothering role in our lives. Psalm 23 was one of the lectionary readings set for today, and I chose singer/songwriter Bobby McFerrin’s paraphrase of Psalm 23 for our reading because he used the feminine gender for God, and dedicated his paraphrase to his own mother. Here’s what he said about it when he was interviewed in 2012:
[This version of] The 23rd Psalm is dedicated to my mother. She was the driving force in my religious and spiritual education, and I have so many memories of her singing in church. But I wrote it because I’d been reading the Bible one morning, and I was thinking about God’s unconditional love, about how we crave it but have so much trouble believing we can trust it, and how we can’t fully understand it. And then I left my reading and spent time with my wife and our children. Watching her with them, the way she loved them, I realized one of the ways we’re shown a glimpse of how God loves us is through our mothers. They cherish our spirits, they demand that we become our best selves, and they take care of us.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omega-institute-for-holistic-studies/bobby-mcferrin_b_1582043.html
What Bobby McFerrin said is so beautiful, isn’t it? I quote it because he paints an inspirational picture of the way mothers can and hopefully do function in our lives. But I quote it knowing that we live in an imperfect world, and while mothers may all aspire to cherish their children’s spirits, take care of them, and help them to be their best selves, sometimes mothers, for various reasons, are unable to do this. And that’s painful--for the children, for the mothers themselves, for the whole family. I want to recognize that pain--and let you know that if this was your situation--God recognizes your pain.
However, the good news of this psalm is that God, who is our ultimate mother, cherishes every member of her flock and can restore us: body, mind and soul, regardless of any deficits we may have experienced in our lives. Thanks be to God.
For the sermon today, I want to go through Psalm 23 and look closely at what it says about the ways God takes care of her flock.
Psalm 23 may well be the best known chapter in the whole Bible. I think this is mainly because of Verse 4, which many of us can quote from memory: “Yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, i will fear no evil. For thou art with me.” Verse 4 affirms that God is with us during the most difficult parts of our lives--even through death--which is a powerful, beautiful, hopeful message. Praise be to God! But, because we focus on that one verse, that one message, almost exclusively, we may miss some of the other equally powerful, beautiful, hopeful messages in this Psalm. So, today’s sermon will focus on the other verses and see what we can learn.
The Psalm starts out with the analogy of a shepherd taking care of the sheep.
Verse 1: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” Other translations, including the Bobby McFerrin paraphrase say, “The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need.”
I want to start by noticing the words “want” and “need” in these translations--because the words “want” and “need” can mean two very different things. I may want a whole bunch of things that I don’t really need, which I think may be true of all of us. Some of the items on my personal “want” list include:
· an inground, heated swimming pool in my backyard;
· a NEW bright blue, electric, mini cooper convertible;
· a Rhodes 19 sailboat with an accessible mooring
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but while I may want these things, I’m fairly certain that I don’t need any of them and that God, my shepherd, is not going to supply them for me. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy them if she did, but it's important for me to recognize that I don’t need them.
My point: verses 1-3 are talking about God supplying needs, not wants. Basic needs.
First for food. God provides the sheep with green pastures not only so they can have a nice meadow to rest in--but first and foremost so they can have food to eat to sustain their bodies. From a sheep’s perspective, green pastures are primarily for eating, secondarily for resting. We humans may tend to forget that distinction because we get our food from other sources.
Second. God leads the sheep beside the still waters not primarily to provide a calm environment for them to clear their minds, meditate, or do yoga. (When this psalm was written, Goat Yoga had not been invented yet--and sheep yoga has never been a thing, as far as I know, thanks be to God. But I digress…) God leads the sheep beside the still waters so they can literally quench their thirst--so they have water to drink to sustain their bodies. God is supplying needs, not wants.
Third. The traditional translation of verse 3 says that God leads the sheep “in paths of righteousness.” Other versions talk about “right” paths. Commentators agree that “right paths” is a better translation. Which leads to the question: “What makes a path right or wrong?” And are we talking right or wrong in a moral sense or something more practical? J. Clinton McCann, Professor of Biblical Interpretation at a UCC seminary, makes a good case that the “right paths” being spoken of here are designated “right” in a practical sense. In keeping with the analogy of the shepherd providing for the basic needs of the sheep, right paths are logically the ones that lead the sheep to the green pastures and still waters--places to eat and drink, where “danger is avoided and proper shelter is attained.” (New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Vol. IV, p. 767.)
So, the analogy of God being a shepherd means that God is first and foremost concerned with supplying the basic necessities to sustain our bodies, just like a shepherd does for his/her sheep. In fact, McCann the commentator suggests that a better translation for the shepherd “restores my soul” is the shepherd “keeps me alive.”
Which brings us to something that this Psalm implies but doesn’t state outright: that even though the word “my” is used a lot in this psalm, it is not just addressing the needs of an individual’s body or soul. Saying the Lord is “my” shepherd doesn’t mean that I, as an individual, am taken out of the flock and favored. No. It is important to understand that this psalm was written in an era when the concept of an individual with individual rights apart from the community did not exist. What that means is that the concern of this psalm was always for the entire community. It was understood by the author and the initial hearers that the shepherd was concerned with meeting the basic needs of the whole flock, equitably. Not favoring some and discriminating against others.
So, an important implication of this Psalm is that just as God is concerned with meeting the needs of the whole flock equitably, so we too, as children of God should be concerned with equitably meeting the needs of our whole community.
Which is brings us to verse 5, a fascinating verse. The traditional version reads, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. We seem to have moved from the analogy of shepherd and sheep to that of a gracious host--or hostess--providing a meal in the midst of an armed conflict. What a wild thing to think about!
Professor McCann suggests that the wording used in verse 6 sheds light on this analogy. Verse 6 reads “surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.” The word for “follow” in Hebrew literally means “pursue,” which is something that enemies generally do in the midst of war. But the analogy of the table with overflowing provisions implies that the “enemies have been rendered harmless.” It is God, the gracious hostess, who pursues the flock in order to meet their needs and surround them with overflowing goodness and mercy. Professor McCann even goes so far as to suggest that this Psalm raises the possibility that even enemies are invited to the table to experience God’s goodness and mercy, God’s steadfast love. Wow!
So what difference does all of this Biblical commentary make in our lives today?
Let me suggest two main things.
1. We need to allow God our Mother, Our Shepherd, to restore us: body, mind and soul. We need to open our hearts to God in prayer and ask God, first and foremost, to meet our needs. Because our truest identity is found in being God’s child, and when we accept that identity and make our home in God’s steadfast love, then we will truly have all that we need.
2. We need to follow the example of God, our mother, our shepherd, our gracious hostess, who cares for the needs of the whole flock, equitably, not just a favored few. So, we need to share what we have with others. If we have found green pastures and still waters--food and drink and calm places to do yoga, then we need to continue to work to make sure our fellow human beings and other creatures on this planet have the same.
How we do this may look different in different people’s lives. Some examples may include working to promote:
· legislation that protects the rights of the most vulnerable or stops climate change;
· local efforts to celebrate Juneteenth or Pride month;
· the work of the local food pantry.
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The list of ways we can help our fellow members of God’s flock is endless. The important thing is that each of us does something to prioritize the needs of others rather than focusing only on our own needs and wants. And I know you already are doing such things. This Psalm reminds us why we are doing them and encourages us not to lose heart.
So, this Mother’s Day, may we allow God our Mother, in the words of today’s paraphrase, to
…restore [our] soul…right [our] wrongs,
…lead [us] in a path of good things,
And fill [our] heart with songs.
And as we do this, may God use us to bless the rest of the flock. Let us pray…
Rev. Dr. Marlayna Schmidt
Franklin Federated Church
Franklin, MA