Goodness and Mercy In Pursuit
(Painting by Jill Steenhuis)
Blessed be God who animates our lives and pursues us in the act of shepherding with goodness and mercy. AMEN
I don’t know about you but one of my childhood nightmares was of something frightening pursuing me and it was inhabited by that feeling of hiding in the wrong place the discoverable place which increased as the dream went on, the anxiety grew, and just as the dark pursuer was about to find me BAM I woke up. Who or what was that?
Well as I have come to understand dreams a little more and in fact have not had that particular version of a dark dream for a while, though many bizarre dreams lately!, I have come to wonder whether the pursuer was not an evil one but was in fact something divine and whether comfort might indeed have come from being found. by something like amazing grace.
On this Good Shepherd Sunday when many of us feel like lost sheep as never before I wonder if we might pause and spend some very important time remembering who and whose we are and what it means to worship a common ordinary herder. The thing is ours is a theology of shepherding and there is nothing common or ordinary about it!
What I know of shepherding comes from little snippets gathered along the way. They all seem to line up under the adjectives: persistent, committed, obedient and courageous.
They are a little bit like the responders we have witnessed or identified with during this pandemic.
Plain and simply good shepherds keep their sheep safe; search and rescue when the flock or even one member is lost; go through wind, storms, sleet or hale to do so!
The other thing about shepherds and sheep which is astounding really is that once attached or imprinted the sheep know and only respond to their true shepherd’s voice. The sheep follow him because they know his voice; they will not follow a stranger. John 10:1-10
So capitalize all of this and turn to the lectionary for a consideration of the holy shepherd and holy sheep!
Psalm 23 which has appeared many times recently has always been a cornerstone for our faith. Most of us know it by heart. My experience with the dying has been that it is requested as much as the Lord’s Prayer and brings a sense of peace into the room as well as a blessed reassurance.
However, in recent years I have found that Psalm 23 might call for a more intentional lectio divina kind of moment. Specifically, I have found that many when asked can stay with the valley of the shadow of death part and fear no evil and then tune out much of the rest. Preparing a table for enemies can be disconcerting in pastoral moments so we tend to gloss over the rest.
I had the most profound experience once in a retreat when I was called to parse and pause on each phrase. When I reached the “Surely Goodness and Mercy Shall Follow Me All the Days of my Life” part I felt a divine accompaniment but I confess I pictured myself in front of that goodness and mercy as though it were a linear concept, disembodied from them!
Then the retreat leader pointed out something which literally changed my life!
The Hebrew word underlying “follow” is “radaph” and is translated pursue, chase, seek out! Wait, What!? That is a completely different notion! A routine walk with goodness and mercy was transformed into an intense pursuit and I might add one which unlike the nightmare would end in me being found or found out.
Just think what this means: Our reality and our relationship with the Holy One the Good Shepherd is of passionate intense persistent care! God will simply not, not ever, let go!
I imagined, again as distinct from the nightmare terror of being chased by evil, instead a comfort and compassion of being searched and known by love itself.
This is the Good Shepherd of whom we speak today! This is the image of radical persistence which Jesus taught the disciples! This is the Shepherd who pursues us and collects us and protects us and inspires us. This is the Shepherd whose voice is true and strong, the opposite of the false or evil voice. This is the Shepherd who so loves us, so loves the world, that he will only rest once all the sheep are safe and enfolded into the pasture of eternal peace and love.
So I invite you to realize you are not in a nightmare but in a dream filled with light and love. Let Goodness and Mercy catch you! When we are thus enfolded in God’s Goodness and Mercy we become the new creation, the fullest versions of ourselves, and as Hymn 296 proclaims: our despair is turned to blazing joy.
I invite you to ponder these words as you listen to Sherry’s amazing rendition of Hymn 296...it was a goosebumpy moment for me when I first heard it and I am now thinking God caught me!
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