"Emmanuel: Glimpses of God Incarnate," December 10

Friday, December 10

Psalm 23

God as Shepherd”

MY PERSONAL ENCOUNTERS WITH SHEEP comprise only a few roadside stops to “ewe and awe” at a herd of sheep. My encounters with shepherds amount to exactly one, but it changed how I think about Psalm 23.

That encounter, ironically, happened not too far from Bethlehem. We’d just finished touring a disputed Israeli settlement and were looking over a barren area of rough and tumble hills stretching down to the Israeli-Palestinian border. All of the sudden we spotted some movement as a man wearing faded pants and a heavily soiled shirt appeared over the top of a hill. His pant legs were tucked into rubber work boots and over his shoulder he’d slung what looked to be a burlap sack of potatoes. He disappeared down the hill into a ravine and re-emerged on a hill nearer to us. From this closer vantage we could see that it wasn’t a bag at all over his shoulder, but a sheep. The lamb struggled a bit and the shepherd tried tucking it under one arm before eventually holding it close, clutched to his chest. The sheep didn’t appear terribly amused at the situation; neither did the shepherd, as he was constantly readjusting his grip on the squirming animal. When he topped the hill nearest us, he set it down to take a breather, all the while keeping one hand firmly on its neck.

That shepherd was “covered in sheep.” He was not unaffected—in looks or smell—by his recent proximity to sheep. His clothes were stained not by his own mess, but from dealing with the sheeps’ mess; his boots showed he’d trod where his sheep had trod. It dawned on me that the work of a shepherd brings you into the thick-of-it, into the messes and troubles of your sheep. From this disheveled Israeli herder I learned that being a shepherd means drawing close and getting down in the dirt with the reality that sheep live.

In light of that brief encounter, I now read “The Lord is my Shepherd” quite differently. Certainly God is protector, leader, guide, but maybe most importantly, God as my shepherd reminds me that God gets down in my dirt and in my mess. God draws near, maybe not in spite of our foibles and troubles, but precisely because of—and amidst— the troubles and mess we create for ourselves. During Advent we are reminded of this God, who, as shepherd, enters our mess.

–Dr. Andrew Zirschky, Research Professor in Youth Ministry