Finding our Home in God

A Sermon preached
on April 13, 2008 by the Reverend Peter De Franco,
Interim Rector of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Clifton, New Jersey

My mother attended school in the days when class would begin with a reading from the Bible. That bible was always the King James Version. Even though she was a Roman Catholic, she would occasionally go with her girlfriends to attend their church services. I don’t think that her priests would approve stepping into the pasture of another church, but with that wisdom that believers have she knew that God is one and we all worship that one God.
Through the bible readings and her Sunday afternoon trips to the protestant church, she learned the 23rd Psalm. I think it is her favorite prayer. I think of her whenever we come to this fourth Sunday of Easter which is called Good Shepherd Sunday and we usually pray Psalm 23.

I am sure that while many of you read the words of that psalm from our Book of Common Prayer in your head and perhaps even on your lips formed the words of the King James Version.
The Lord is my shepherd; *
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; *
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul; *
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his
Name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; *
for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of
mine enemies; *
thou anointest my head with oil;
my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life, *
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

We all love this psalm. I think one of the reasons we love this psalm so much is the accumulation of images from this psalm brings our hearts great comfort.

Many of the psalms present God as a Warrior who battles for the people, as a King who rules over them with Justice, as a Judge who brings a fair ruling to the people. A recent commentator on the bible called these the psalms of Homeland Security. Secure the borders, summon the army, bring the villians to court.

Psalm 23 takes an alternate approach. In this Psalm, God comes as a shepherd. If you hear this psalm with the ear of your heart, you will find yourself surrounded by feelings of great comfort: Not being in want, finding sufficient food and drink, protected against enemies, enjoying a rich banquet where perfumed oils scent the hall, and your cup is never empty. Those feelings of security come together in the final sentence: And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

If you had to find a word of comfort to summarize all those feelings, I think that word would be home. Even if our childhood memories of home left something to be desired, there is a longing in our hearts to find and to build a perfect home. There is something deep inside us that yearns for that place of abundance, of warmth, of protection, of assurance. If we were to put a name on that home of our heart’s longing, we would call that home God.
In God’s home we are free of want. Let’s remember that this psalm was written by a person who lived in ancient Israel. In a country where the pastures were green only two months of the year, God leads us to perpetually green pastures. In a land where flowing waters could sweep away the sheep, our shepherd brings us to still waters so we can both drink from the waters and even cross them in safety.

Like every good prayer, this psalm enlists not only our trust in God, we are invited to place our trust in God especially in the midst of the most difficult crises of our lives. No crisis can be more difficult for us than death. The thought of our own death or the death of those near and dear to us strikes terror into our hearts. Our souls are crushed whenever we have to endure the death of a member of our family, our parish, our neighborhood or our city. Yet whenever I walk with someone through that valley of the shadow of death, I always say Psalm 23.

I think of my mother who spent the night alone on the day my father died. I wonder what comfort my mother drew from psalm 23 in the night she first heard of my father’s death and mourned the loss of her husband. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
I fear no evil, even in the face of the greatest evil. For the rod which Jesus, our good shepherd carries, is none other than his cross. The cross on which he walked through the valley of the shadow of death. That cross gives us comfort for on that cross Jesus has destroyed both death and fear. He has first gone into that dark and deadly valley and come through with the light of resurrection, of new life, of life in that place where the pastures are always green, where the waters are still, where food is abundant, where faith displaces fear, where want is replaced by plenty.

God creates for us a new home. That home is God. A home where we know that the final victory is on the side of life, even if we walk in the valley of the shadow of death. A home where we can be assured of a meal, a banquet in the sight of those whom we fear. A home we enter through the door who is Jesus. Through that door, all can enter. Through that door, all can find a safe haven. Through that door, all can experience the home their hearts desire.

So listen this day, listen carefully to your heart, and in the depths of your heart, if you listen carefully enough, you will hear the voice of our good shepherd calling us into the sheepfold, calling us home.