The Lord is my shepherd…(beginning with a stuffed animal- a sheep- the size of a beagle under my arm) I brought my sheep with me today. I got this sheep when I was living in Amherst. She was at a garage sale, destined to be tossed out - I rescued her for 25 cents, maybe it was a dollar. Every shepherd has to have a sheep, and she along with you are mine.

As I pondered the twenty-third psalm I was taken back to my college days. It was 1970 and with several friends I had gone hiking. We hiked up over this pass and as we started down the other side there was a beautiful view of Durango. There also in the trail at the base of a cliff was a sheep, one that had wandered off in last night’s storm and had fallen off the cliff. The sheep wouldn’t move. She had broken her hind leg. We had to go and find the shepherd- one of those shepherds who lived among the sheep in one of those shepherd’s wagons. He had to come and carry her home and care for her.

We are often sheep who stubbornly wander off, encounter all manner of storms, and fall off all types of cliffs. Of us the prophet Isaiah wrote, we like sheep have all wandered astray. It is our Good Shepherd who comes to rescue us, carry us home, and tend to us.

I shall not want. We live in prisons of want. I want to be healed; I want to be promoted; I want to be married; I want to be single; I want this or that. As I pondered this I was reminded of two stories that I read: one was of a missionary who went to work for a time among the lepers of Togo. As he was preparing to leave, he held a worship service and a lady attended whom he’d not seen before. When he asked what song they’d like to sing, this woman who lost her ears, lips, and nose to leprosy, raised a hand from which she’d lost her fingers and asked, “Could we sing Count Your Many Blessings.”…The other story was of a man who had little more than nothing. He sat down to dinner one night which amounted to only a stale role and some watered down milk. With folded hands he proclaimed, “All this and Jesus, too!”

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul. Back when I was a principal I was wound pretty tight. I remember this one-day prior to the start of school. There were two teachers sitting in my office. They weren’t leaving until we’d dealt with their problems; there were two or three people waiting in the lobby, my secretary was going in and out and I was on the phone. Into the midst of it came Ruth Ann. My secretary must have called her. Ruth stands next to me until I hang up the phone. She hands me a psalm and says, “Read it.” I read it, threw it down, and started to do something else. She picked up the psalm and handed it to me and said, “Read It.” I read it a little slower and put it down. She picked it up a third time and put in my hands and said “READ IT!” This time I read it slowly and the peace that passes understanding seemed to flow over me….The word of God has power to convict, to forgive, to comfort, to offer direction, healing and… peace.

He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. When I was principal in New Castle, I had to drive out into the country each day. One fall morning as I was going to school I came across a terrible scene. During the night a flock of sheep had gotten out- wandered off- in search of warm place to bed down. They chose the warmth of the pavement, just below a rise in the road. A semi coming from the east came over the rise and never had a chance to stop… There were dead and injured sheep all over the road.

We have a shepherd who leads us away from danger. It said in our Gospel lesson that the sheep know His voice and follow that voice. We hear that voice by and through the Word of God. He leads us in paths of restoration, forgiveness, righteousness, and adoption. By that voice he keeps us from danger.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of …… caner, heart attack, family strife, unfairness, disease…even death. My valley came back in 1996 when I was diagnosed with cancer. It was a warm June evening, oh so pleasant. I had had a suspicious mole removed from my cheek. The doctor had told me even if it were cancerous that he was certain he’d gotten it all. He’d call me in a week to ten days with the report. He called the next day and said, “Meet me at the hospital in thirty minutes; I won’t discuss this over the phone, and yes you can bring your wife.” Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of…. What is your valley? Is it cancer, heart attack, worry, abandonment, MS, arthritis, old age? I will fear no evil for you are with me.

I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff they comfort me. Back when I was a teacher in Walden, Colorado, our long term principal left and we hired a top-rated principal with years of experience. He knew a lot but after one year things didn’t work out. He was going to lose his job. I remember the night in the hall outside the room where the school board was meeting. Everyone was there. All the teachers on one side of the hall and Cliff was on the other, all alone. I couldn’t abandon him. It cost me dearly but I went over and stood with him. Even if he’d made mistakes I stood by him.

Jesus comes and stands by us and with us no matter what we’ve done, what sin we’ve committed. He stands by and claims us and even holds us in his sheltering arms. Our shepherd says to us, Never will I leave you, never will I abandon you. (Deut 31.6)

You prepare a table before me in the presences of my enemies. St. John records a wonderful story of restoration and a table. You remember bold and brash Peter; I’ll never leave you even if everyone denies you Jesus. Well, he did deny the Lord and then some. Some days after Jesus had risen the disciples had gone ahead into Galilee but the Lord was to them a long time in coming. Peter announced one evening that he was going out to fish and others went with him. That night they caught nothing, and in the early morning, they saw a man standing on the bluff overlooking the lake. He called out to them to let their nets down on the right side of the boat and when they did they caught a miraculous number of fish. It was then that it was revealed to them that it was the Lord.

Peter is so excited as soon as the boat is even close to the shore he jumps out of the boat and wades ashore. He comes up to Jesus and there he finds a fire with fresh bread and fish grilling on the coals. Jesus welcomes him and shares a meal of restoration with him. That same Jesus says to us. I know all that you have done, all your sins, and still I have prepared a meal for you. To us He says, “welcome to My table.” “Take, eat - this is My Body; Take, drink - this is My Blood for the forgiveness of your sins.”

You anoint my head with oil, and my cup overflows. When I was in Amherst, a most beloved teacher, Dan Watson, a man a year or two younger than me, was diagnosed with liver cancer. I remember going to his house one day with anointing oil. I anointed him and prayed over him and with him. To Dan’s way of thinking he wasn’t ready to die. He had kids to teach, parents to care for, farming to do. Several months later Dan died.

God had filled Dan’s cup to overflowing. He poured into his cup the promise of eternal life. Dan wasn’t ready to leave but God said, “It is time.” God had poured into his cup the promise of reunion with his parents. God had poured into His cup the chance to teach his students one more time.

We had to have the funeral in the Methodist church because it was the only church big enough to hold 500 people. I was privileged to preach that funeral to proclaim to his students that Dan believed in Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior and that Jesus was Dan’s good shepherd who lived, died, and rose again for him.

And surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. Back in Rifle I had a friend, Bev. She and her husband had cancer. In one of my weekly visits to see her after her husband died she asked me if I could name the three angels in the twenty-third psalm. Can you? Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. She gave me a hint - one is “goodness”. Well then there is mercy, but where is the third?… It is “surely” (Shirley). She went on to explain. There were many days when she could tell “goodness” was in charge: her kids would call, she could get around reasonably well and then there were days she said “mercy” was in charge: a doctor’s report was good or the pain was okay, but boy were there days that “Surely (Shirley)” seemed to be in charge: the meds didn’t seem to work, she lost more hair, she couldn’t keep her lunch down. On those days we’d laugh rather than cry that “Surely (Shirley)” was on duty.

Bev and I knew that her shepherd had never abandoned her. That her shepherd was not just following after her but pursuing her and taking her up in his arms.

And our psalm ends with the promise I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Amen.