Broadcast earlier today on KUVR-1380 AM, Holdrege, Neb. April 29, 2010 |
What do shepherds talk about with their sheep? That’s easy … just like when friends in Christ act as little shepherds to each other, they talk about what really matters |
Welcome to The Shepherd’s Notebook from Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church near Smithfield, Nebraska. I’m Pastor Cathi Braasch. Today, we’re picking up on yesterday’s conversation between David, the shepherd-king and psalmist, and one of his sheep, name of Lambchop. Let’s listen in … + + + |
Lambchop: David, I know baaaad things happen.. I know that sometimes, really baaaad things happen to sheep. I know that sheep die. I have a feeling that I will one day die, maybe one day soon. I don't know if I can get through all the problems of a sheep's life. I struggle with other members of the flock. I get aches and pains, and diseases. But I don't have to worry, David. You are always here with me, like right now. You poke me with that shepherds’ crook when I need to get moving. You catch me with its hook-end when I run away from you. You are always here in the good times and in the bad times. Like when that pack of coyotes sneaked in and tried to kill the flock. You give me assurance and guidance for being a sheep whatever comes along. David, who does that for you? Lambchop…And when the bigger, stronger sheep try to push me away, you protect me and make sure I have space at the feed bunk. You make sure that all of us get enough – and the other sheep are starting to let me in, too. They’re learning from you. I know you will protect me. Around the clock, 24/7/365. But, David? Who does that for you? + + + |
The Lord does indeed gift us for shepherding each other along this journey we refer to as the life in Christ. |
Christian friend, who is it that you shepherd? Perhaps you’re the neighbor who all the little kids trust to see that the bullies don’t have their way with them. When you do that, do it for Jesus and let those kids know who shepherds you. Maybe you’re a pastor or lay leader who is struggling and wondering, “God, how will I ever be able to shepherd this flock that you’ve entrusted to me?” Allow yourself the comfort of prayer and conversation with a trusted friend and co-worker, that you may be reminded of the joy of your calling and the one Good Shepherd who will never leave you alone or lead you astray. |
That’s Shepherd’s Notebook for today. For credits involving this conversation between David and Lambchop, see the final paragraph of yesterday's posting. |
Thursday, April 29, 2010
THE GOOD SHEPHERD is SAFETY, SECURITY, SANCTUARY
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Shepherd’s Notebook – April 28, 2009
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Even when walking through the dark valley of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and staff comfort me. (From Ps 23) |
Whether it’s during long nights tending mother ewes and baby lambs, or long days herding a flock of sheep that just won’t go where they need to go, every seasoned, sensible, serious shepherd knows this truth: Really good shepherds pretty much live with the sheep. Sometimes, they even talk to each other. |
Today, we’ll listen in on a conversation between David, the shepherd boy who would become king of Israel, and one of his sheep. David is hearing a word from the Lord that he will pass on to God’s people: the 23rd psalm. |
Imagine David sitting under a tree, talking to one of his sheep. Let’s listen in: Lambchop, the Sheep: I don't know what is going to happen next in my life. I don't know where i will get my next meal. But you are my shepherd. I trust in you, David. I trust that you will provide for me. But, David, who does that for you? David: the lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I wander around, looking for good grass and clear water. I am not very good at finding it. But even when I wander around, I know that you will lead me to the best pasture and the safest, sparkling streams. But, David, who does that for you? God makes me lie down in green pastures. God leads me to still waters. OK, David, here’s what really gets to me. I am not always good staying on the path or with the rest of the flock. I don't always come when you call. But you bring me back to where I should be. And you still love me, even after I wander off. Who does that for you? God leads me in the paths of righteousness, for his name. And God restores my soul. + + + |
We’ll pick up on this conversation between the Shepherd-King David and the sheep when we meet again tomorrow. Until then, would you please think about whoever shepherds you in Jesus’ name? It could be your pastor, your Sunday School teacher, your faithful prayer partner, your loving spouse … or anyone who shows you the grace and love of Jesus in their abiding, unconditional love and care for you. |
Name these special persons in your prayers this day, and, with a note, e-mail or phone call, let them know that you’re praying for them. And invite them to listen in for the rest of this conversation tomorrow and Friday. + + + The Shepherd’s Notebook with Pastor Cathi Braasch, Hope Ev. Lutheran Church, Smithfield NE, is being heard daily this week, April 26-30, 2010, on KUVR – 1380 AM Radio, Holdrege, NE. Special thanks to Mike Poole, author of the drama Lambchop, which was adapted for insertion into this message. The original script appears at http://www.dramatix.org/archive/Children/Lampchop.html with a link to www.textweek.com |
Shepherd’s Notebook for Tuesday, April 27, 2010
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| “Because the Lord is my shepherd, I have everything that I need.” Hold on a minute! Did I just say "everything"? What does it mean to have “everything that I need? Would “everything I need” ever be enough? |
| We’ll look for insight in God’s word, specifically in the 23rd Psalm. You’re listening to Shepherd’s Notebook from Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church near Smithfield, Nebraska. I’m Pastor Cathi Braasch.
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| I’m guessing that the 23rd psalm, with its portrayal of the Lord as loving and caring shepherd, gets heard more often at funerals than any other single setting outside of Sunday morning. Nevertheless, the 23rd psalm is as much about living as it is about dying. |
| I enjoy Eugene Peterson’s rendering of the 23rd psalm in The Message edition of the Bible: God, my Shepherd! I don't need a thing. |
| Like any other very familiar expression of faith, such as the Lord’s Prayer, the 23rd psalm is something that might easily be taken for granted or just set aside for some future use. Yet the psalm is written almost entirely in present-tense terms. So, if you’ve already told family and friends that you want this psalm read or sung at your funeral, please don’t wait until then to “live in” this most beautiful, pastoral of psalms. Hear the echoes of the Hebrew children, freed from slavery in Egypt, provided with enough to sustain them for 40 years in the desert, and, yes, even grumbling about all that manna. Hear them longing for the so-called good-old-days under slavery. Hear how this psalm distinguishes between our childish, selfish wants and our truest, deepest needs. Let’s pray: Shepherd us, O God, that we may give thanks for your provision and always distinguish between wants and needs. In Jesus’ name, Amen. |
Monday, April 26, 2010
Shepherd’s Notebook for April 26, 2010
(broadcast earlier today on KUVR-1380 AM, Holdrege, NE)
Chances are good that you’ll know this sentence when I speak it, and you’ll even know where it comes from.
Say it with me if you do: The Lord is my shepherd.
I’m Pastor Cathi Braasch from Hope Evangelical Lutheran Church, Smithfield Nebraska.
This week we’ll spend some time focusing on the 23rd psalm.
Psalm 23
A psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd;
I have all that I need.
2 He lets me rest in green meadows;
he leads me beside peaceful streams.
3 He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.
4 Even when I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
protect and comfort me.
5 You prepare a feast for me
in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
(New Living Translation, from http://www.biblegateway.com/)
That title “shepherd” may be more familiar to some than to others.
Cultures in ancient Middle East used shepherding terms to describe kings as well as working sheepherders. Ancient Israelites used “shepherd” to describe the Lord God, and Israel’s prophets didn’t mince words when it came to renouncing bad shepherding by civic and religious leaders of their day.
Nowadays, city folks may have little if any exposure to the work of shepherding. I know what that’s like. As a 12-year-old, I got my first experience of sheep and shepherding when i was placed in foster care on a ranch in the central California hills. That was a half-century ago, yet I remember it like it was yesterday. Before I knew it, I had a few lambs of my own to tend, even as my siblings and I were being cared for – shepherded, if you will -- by the foster family that took us in. My husband and I have raised sheep together since 1973 – that's the last 36 years out of our 43-year marriage.
Sheep and shepherds go together in the spiritual life, too.
The 23rd Psalm celebrates what every hungry, lost, needy sheep needs most – the good shepherd.
Welsh scholar, rural pastor & poet George Herbert wrote of it this way in his poem on the 23rd psalm:
The God of love my shepherd is
And He that doth me feed:
While He is mine, and I am His,
What can I want or need?
He leads me to tender grass
Where I both feed and rest;
Then to the streams that gently pass;
In both I have the best
Or if I stray, He doth convert
And bring my mind in frame:
And all this not for me desert
But for His holy name.
Yea in death’s shady black abode
Well may I walk, not fear
For thou art with me; and thy rod
To guide, thy staff to bear.
Nay thou dost make me sit and dine,
Even in my enemies’ sight:
My head with oil, my cup with wine
Runs over day and night.
Surely thy sweet and wondrous love
Shall measure all my days
And as it never shall remove
So neither shall my praise.
Let’s pray: Dearest Lord Jesus, good and gentle shepherd, you have made us your own and tended to our every need. Keep us safe, and secure; and keep on sending us out to seek those sheep who have not yet trusted you. Amen.
Shepherd's Notebook will be heard daily this week at 8:40 AM on KUVR-1380-AM out of Holdrege, NE
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Good Shepherd Sunday Radio
- Sunday, April 25 (4th Sunday of Easter) -- it's Good Shepherd Sunday in churches that follow the Revised Common Lectionary , which is a set of Bible readings that are used in worshipping congregations wherever they might be.
- Monday-Friday, April 26-30 -- Pastor Sheepherder will be offering daily devotions on Radio KUVR - 1380 AM, Holdrege NE at 8:40 AM. Guess what the theme will be? (Hint: see item 1) If you're too far from Holdrege to pick up the broadcaset, check here next week for transcripts of the devotions.
Thanks to KUVR Radio and the Phelps County (Neb.) Ministerial Association for presenting Daily Devotions.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Real Hope
It must be Spring. I can tell.
It’s not just that the days are getting longer and, finally, warmer, even though they’re still punctuated by occasional blasts of chill winds and snowy squalls. Nor is it only that Sandhill Cranes, baby calves and newborn lambs are arriving as expected. Red is busy shearing the ewes. I still have one more lamb to tag, vaccinate and dock.
The long and somber season of Lent is rushing toward its climax. Today begins the Triduum, the Three Days (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday) leading to Easter.
It’s all these signs, and yet it is something more.
As I wrote for our local paper and church newsletter earlier this week, a particular word from the Lord has been rolling through my thoughts this last week:
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jer 29:11 (NIV)
Greeting cards bear these words to convey encouragement. You can find this verse on refrigerator magnets , wall plaques, and even computer screen-savers. Jeremiah’s words convey what human hearts long for: Assurance in the midst of apprehension, hope for times that seem all but hopeful.
Jeremiah’s words do convey all these things, and yet they say much, much more.
The Lord gave this word to Jeremiah as part of a message of divine judgment. The people were all too human. They were prone to follow false prophets – slick, skilled showmen who would “… dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace.” Jeremiah 6:14. When Jeremiah delivered God’s sobering word of judgment, they tried but failed to kill God’s messenger. Then, they turned to false prophets like Hananiah, who, with great skill and flair, attempted to seduce the people into false security. False prophet meets true prophet, and truth prevails. For the rest of the story, read Jeremiah 28-28.
With God, there is both judgment and mercy, law and gospel. These are God’s alone to give. And thanks be to God, they have been taken care of in the person and work of Jesus Christ, who has taken the punishment for our frailties, follies and failures – in other words, for our sin.
In truth, we humans can only give what we have received. In tough seasons of life, in those times when our human frailties, follies and failures trip us up, our human nature is to grasp for whatever sounds good, even if it is not of God. When we long for the quick fix to serious issues, when we are seduced, ever so gradually, into what is slick, shiny and showy, it’s as though we are believing the false prophets who preach “peace, peace … when there is no peace. "
Jeremiah, God’s vigorous bearer of true hope, is a prophet for yesterday, today and tomorrow. He could only give what he had first received. Pray that what we give will be what we have received from God. Pray that our souls may awaken to the true Spring, the one who springs forth from death and the grave, the Christ of our Easter hope.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Believe it, and you have it’ -- Jesus, The Sheepherder and Martin Luther
Sheepherders have been known to talk to themselves even as they talk to the Good Shepherd. During Lent 2010, I’m using “A 40-day Journey with Martin Luther” as my daily devotional guide. Just a week or so into that annual 40-day Lenten journey, there was a question I imagined Jesus asking:
“So, Cathi, how’s it going with your soul?”
Well, for one thing, I know that Jesus really cares about what He’s asking and who He’s talking to. So, I can answer with confidence that He will understand what I mean.
“It’s going okay, Jesus.”
“Really? Okay?”
“Okay, but just because you’re here.”
Leave it to Jesus not to stop asking when I give Him an easy answer.
On a day like today, which is often, I marvel at and treasure what it took for the Apostles, the Early Christians, and the 16th century Reformers to get up, day after day, with no confidence of their own, only the confidence in Christ that is “the peace that transcends understanding.” (Phil. 4:7.) Luther’s Morning Blessing is just such a treasure. (For more on Luther’s morning blessing, go to http://www.oldlutheran.com/oldlutheran/page.php?page=confirmation&id=9 )
So, Pr. Sheepherder was praying the Morning Blessing … and she didn’t get far before Jesus started asking questions …
“ I give thanks to you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ your dear Son …”
“And what is it you’re giving thanks for today, Cathi?”
Leave it to Jesus to cut to the heart of the matter.
“Today, Jesus, I’m grateful for a little phrase from Luther:
‘Glaubst du, so hast du.’
“You want to translate that?
“What, Jesus, you don’t speak German?”
“Just let me ask the questions, okay? Now, translate.”
“ It’s ‘ Believe it, and you have it.’ “
“And what does this mean, Cathi?”
“Hey, that’s my question!” Luther interjects.
(Forgive me for this little Lutheran insider joke. “What does this mean?” is a standard line that Luther used in teaching the chief matters of the Christian faith. His little boy Hans used to wander around, like lots of little kids, and ask “What is this?” So, “What is this” or “What does this mean?” followed by an answer was a standard part of Luther’s teaching in what ‘s known as Luther’s Small Catechism. But, I digress.)
Jesus continues ... “C’mon, Luther, let her answer now.”
And the holy conversation continues, morning after morning, day after day, Lent after Lent.
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‘ Believe it, and you have it.’
Pure and simple, the Law and Gospel rolled up into one thing: GRACE. If I had to get up every morning and depend on my own talent, charm, wit, insight, compassion and so forth in order to be good enough to receive God’s seal of approval, I’d be dead. If I had to depend on my own ability to believe God’s promise, I’d be only a dead woman walking.
Such is the beauty of GRACE: God’s unimaginable promises of forgiveness, new life in Christ, beginning now and never-ending, all delivered by the Holy Spirit makes it possible to receive, appreciate and believe that the gift is given for me and for all who believe Jesus.
GRACE: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense
God’s Word forever shall abide,
No thanks to foes who fear it;
For God Himself fights by our side
With weapons of the Spirit.
Were they to take our house,
Goods, honor, child or spouse;
Though life be wretched away,
They cannot win the day.
The Kingdom’s ours forever.
A Mighty Fortress, the final verse
Text by Martin Luther
Amen and Amen.
-- Pastor Sheepherder
