The Lord is my shepherd (by Greg Tuttle)
By Greg Tuttle, Assisting Campus Minister with Agape San Diego, the combined Lutheran/Episcopal Campus Ministry at San Diego State and UC San Diego
My siblings in Christ Jesus., I wish to share the faith with you this morning in the name of God who creates us, redeems us, and sustains us all. Amen..
Thank you Mother Kate for trusting me with your pulpit today.
Thank you for supporting St Francis.
A portion or your support of the ministry of this special congregation goes to the common life fund of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego. We’re a direct beneficiary of that fund and I thank you.
Specifically, thank you for your Christmas present to our ministry. This donation went directly into our program fund and will entirely fund our hospitality at San Diego State University this year. More on that later.
St. Francis and Assisi hold a special place in my heart and one of my favorite places on earth.
In Assisi, beauty and serenity seem to rise from every stone street and hillside view, inviting pilgrims and wanderers alike into a slower, prayerful rhythm of life. This sacred walking city, shaped by the spirit of St. Francis carries a deep sense of purpose where pilgrimage becomes not only a journey through place, but also through the soul.
I’m not sure if it’s because it's beautiful or important or one of the most special places I've visited or all three and more.
As the story goes, Francis protested the wealth and selfishness of Assisi in an incredibly scandalous statement of disapproval THEN did God’s work in the nearby valley. Clare, about a decade younger, established her ministry in Assisi, connecting the generosity of this picturesque hilltown with the work being done in the valley.
That collaboration was essential to the work for which Francis gets the credit so I LOVE that your parish hall is named after Clare because that’s where the work is.
Depending on the website, Francis was in his early 20’s and Clare in her teens when they began this wonderful tag team. They were young adults who wondered how the faith of their childhood matched with who God was calling them to be.
Meeting young adults, during that pivotal time, to wonder with them is what we do with students, faculty, and staff on our county’s two largest universities.
This Sunday is affectionately called Good Shepherd Sunday and rather than being caught up in the imagery that Jesus just gave us about being the gate or the shepherd. I’d like to focus on Psalm 23.
You might’ve heard a sermon or two on Psalm 23… so here’s another that might be closer to bible study, so let’s get to it.
I’m excited to dive into this beautiful piece of Davidian poetry but, in order to do so, First… I’m afraid that I need to be a little boring.
In Justice Antonin Scalia’s 2012 book, Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts, he repeats a former opinion where he concluded that the word “‘shall’ can reasonably be understood as mandatory and ought to be taken that way.” Now, I appreciate his scholarship way more than his opinions. My Mother, the English Professor, made sure that we knew, from a very early age, when to use will and shall and never the two shall meet. The verbs will and shall are common and formal when used as future markers and these modal verbs are largely interchangeable. Will we go to lunch after church? Yes. Shall we go to El Rey? You bet! Will has become more common than shall and, yet, both have specific uses when used intentionally.
And for that reason, “Shall” is a specific, important word.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want OR I shall not want.
Any therapist worth their salt and what I share with our students week after week is that you are not your feelings. I can safely say that, I feel happy, not that I am happy. Make sense? Similarly, I feel anger. I am not anger. So when students say, “I’m lonely” I thank them for their vulnerability then remind them that they are a beloved child of God and encourage them to think of feeling lonely rather than they ARE lonely.
When we say that we feel happy or feel frustrated we acknowledge that we are capable of multiple, simultaneous emotions and that we are not one thing.
So when we hear, The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want. The psalmist tells us that God’s providing love keeps us from being where, not only our needs are met, but that we’re far from any state of want and that’s awesome.
We read from the New Revised Standard Version whose translators sought to offer the most accurate Bible possible.
In the mid-1970’s nearly 30 interfaith scholars were tasked with translating, as close as they could, the original Hebrew and Greek texts of scripture, even adjusting recently discovered sources in Turkiye as well as the, so-called, Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946. Their 15 year task longed to return to the original meanings of our sacred stories rather than perpetuate the over-use and over-translations of The King James Version and to correct the tragic New International Version to give us an honest, faithful translation. Since the pandemic we’ve even had a vibrant Updated Edition to add to the 1989 New Revised Standard Version which replaced 1952’s Revised Standard Version which replaced 1901’s American Standard Version.
So, as popular as “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want” might be… “I shall not be in want” is more accurate.
When we read, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want… we take it seriously because shall is the certainty.
Travel Guru and famous Lutheran, Rick Steves, has a wonderful adage: Pack what you want because you can always get what you need. Sure, I can get toothpaste in Istanbul but I can’t get my favorite Tshirt. To take it a step further, the Rolling Stones that you can’t always get what you want but that sometimes, we get what we need.
So let’s get to it… Lord and Shepherd
A ruler caring for a flock is a welcome image and completely incongruous from the images of historic rulers. Throughout time, except for a few instances, we see rulers as removed from their people, sitting on Iron Thrones in Red Keeps and so on. I’ve watched a lot of Game of Thrones lately.
The Lord is My Shepherd. Not just any shepherd, but mine.
Continuing to Green Pastures… still waters… fine.
Imagine the wilderness of this poet. Rocks, hills, and very few bodies of water so you better believe that green pastures and still waters are a welcome sight over jagged hillsides and flood plains.
Reviving my soul. We need a place of refreshment.
After the pandemic, students shared how they longed for a space to eat and rest, and that hospitality is why we were welcomed onto UC San Diego 18 months ago to partner with interfaith organizations in the Center for Ethics and Spirituality. Not long after we started, a student brought a friend who said, "Oh you're the Nice People with Free Pizza!” Our space was important to one student who brought another because that student was important to the first. To that point, in December, St. Francis donated a gift to Agape that pays for this hospitality at SDSU for this entire year. Thank you.
A banner is one thing and personal invitation is best. St Francis is important to you, you’re here, so who can you invite into this special community?
Moving right along we land in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Not the valley of death but that death is so present that it casts a shadow. Dang.
Friends, I slept in a bed last night.
I ate breakfast this morning.
Knowing that, I’m achingly aware that many of my siblings in our human family did not. Several of our students, regulars on both campuses, also do not. They choose education over housing knowing that one can lead to the other. This is why we’re building a multi-story intentional community at SDSU, replacing our decades-old rectory near where St. Dunstan’s once stood and our ministry began in 1952, so that students can live, learn, and support each other, building community while at San Diego State.
I understand that I’m very far from the valley of the shadow of death and I still hold fast to the Prayer of St Francis, asking God that where there is darkness, let me be a bearer of God’s healing light.
Alright… I shall fear no evil.
Here it is, again, God’s promise that God shares with so many people throughout scripture from Moses through Mary:
Do not be afraid.
There’s that certainty. I SHALL fear no evil for YOU are with me. Not that I invited YOU but because you’re always with me.
By the way, notice the descriptors changed from third person to second from “HE revives my soul” to “YOU are with me.” Closer, more intimate trust.
Rod and staff. Admittedly, I’ve heard or read this text a lot. Conservatively, a thousand times in my life and, until preparing for this sermon, never thought of the shepherd carrying a rod and staff. The first is a long stick to bat away animals who would harm the flock and the second, a crooked staff, like our bishop’s crosier, to help guide the flock. One is to guide the sheep and the other to protect from dangers while the sheep graze.
So when The Lord is MY shepherd, I imagine God standing between me and that which is casting the shadow, God saying:
“you can’t have him.”
Now, caring for sheep is hard, frenetic work. Some sheep act wildly, some are docile, and gathering all of them is necessary. Gathering and welcoming all is simple and hardly easy. In the urban setting of SDSU, near the transit station, beneath our banner announcing, Rest Here • Free Pizza, one of our students likes to say that everyone is welcome, “regardless of how many shoes they’re wearing.”
This next section’s gotta be my favorite. You spread a table before me… the most beautiful Christmas dinner you can imagine. In the presence of those who trouble me. Not my enemies as in the familiar translation. But someone who troubles me AND they are not my enemy. While running for president in 1996, Senator Dole often said that President Clinton was his opponent, not his enemy. They might’ve troubled each other but they were not enemies. As a student, that stuck with me and I respect the late senator for it.
You anoint my head with oil, the sacramental symbol and an important part of baptism. We are special to God. We’re anointed with oil at our baptism, not like this slathering of a gallon of holy oil that Samuel brought to David but special. Set apart.
My cup is running over, right now, overflowing.
We’re provided with abundance.
In our Eucharistic Prayer, we’ll pray for God to, “Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive this holy Sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace;” Faithfulness. Peace. Goodness and mercy. Please note that we pray for unity, not uniformity. Thinking differently is important, working together is necessary.
Rounding out our Psalm: let’s move into dwelling. A place of rest where I can be who The Creator of the Universe made me to be and that’s the kind of dignity that we profess in our Baptismal Covenant. For a short time, on our county”s two largest campuses, our students dwell in the space that they create with each other, for each other, and it’s my pleasure to guide them as they minister with each other.
Where do you dwell? Where can you be who God created you to be? How can you guide others into their dwelling place? Hymn 664 is a gentle rewrite of Psalm 23 and I love this addition: No more a stranger or a guest, but like a child at home. St Francis is a wonderful, kind place to worship. AND so much more. How can you share the goodness of this church family? How can you create a space where someone feels like a child at home?
Friends, rejoice for God’s love provides for us and more than enough to share:
Dignity, love, generosity, in abundance.
My Siblings in Christ Jesus I share this small part of our faith with you in the name of God who continues to create, redeem, and sustain us. Amen.