Wadhams United Church of Christ
2569 County Route 10, Wadhams, NY 12993
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Sermon by Steve Smith Order of Service
The Shepherd’s Keep: Sheep-Herder
March 16, 2008 Palm Sunday Psalm 23
In his book, “Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog,” author John Grogan chronicles the mess and mischief of living with a spirited yellow lab named Marley. Grogan and his wife were newly married and had one of those brilliant brainstorms that the young and idealistic are prone to act upon: they decided that owning a dog would give them a foretaste of what it would be like to be parents. They picked Marley out of the litter because he seemed to show the most character of the bunch, and he certainly lived up to his designation as a character. When they discovered that they couldn’t tame this hyperactive Tazmanian devil, they did what any reasonable pet owner would do: they enrolled him in obedience school.
It wasn’t just any obedience school, mind you. They carefully selected one based on testimonials from satisfied customers, with a trainer that Grogan came to refer to as “The Dominatrix.” Their dreams of having a well-trained, mild-mannered lab came crashing down when Marley distinguished himself by becoming the first dog ever to be expelled by The Dominatrix, following an episode in which Marley upstaged and humiliated her. Marley wasn’t entirely devoid of redeeming qualities. He did try different ways of managing his own distress: one of those techniques involved swallowing almost anything he could get into his mouth.
They caught Marley one day in the middle of a self-help session with part of an 18-karat solid gold necklace dangling out of his mouth. But before they could wrestle him to the ground and pry his jaws open, Marley had swallowed it. The ensuing “search and recovery mission” required several days, and he outlined it in hilarious detail. While it might not be suitable for those with delicate digestive systems, it was funny enough to make your sides hurt. All I’ll say about that episode is that Grogan thought the necklace was eventually cleaner than it had ever been before it went in, and that he briefly considered using Marley as a professional jewelry cleaner.
Of course, there came a time when they needed to leave Marley alone in the house, but given his spirited temperament, they didn’t want to leave him with free run of the house. So they hit upon the idea of locking him up in their laundry room, which doubled as a mudroom entrance from the back yard and garage. After a few brief trial runs during which Marley behaved himself, probably because he could still hear their voices, they locked him up for the day. When Grogan came home after work, the house was unnaturally quiet. His first impression was that the experiment had been a great success. But then he opened the door into Marley’s cell.
More correctly, he opened what was remaining of the door, for Marley had scratched and clawed, chewed and dug, until the thin wood laminate had been stripped away to expose the reinforcing cross pieces. These had also been reduced to moist piles of wood shavings and sawdust. The paneling that had most recently covered the walls of the laundry room had met a similar fate. In this case, though, there were also chewed bits of insulation tossed here and there, and wiring had been exposed, and the pipes running through the walls and out to the washing machine had been crimped and gouged by some maniacal monster. As for the maniacal monster, he was lying exhausted on the floor, his mouth and gums embedded with bits of paneling, laminate, and insulation. It’s very possible that he had only stopped when he self-administered some electro-convulsive therapy by chomping down on the electrical wires.
In spite of his misadventures, Marley became a fiercely loyal part of the Grogan family, and lived far longer than his beleaguered owners ever suspected he might. But what do the antics of a loveable but undisciplined dog have to do with the 23rd Psalm? I haven’t quite figured that out yet either, but if you give me a few minutes, I should be able to come up with something. A number of scholars believe that the breeding and domestication of dogs came about as a result of the function their owners wanted the beasts to perform. So the rat terriers, as a for instance, were bred to hunt and kill rodents. Retrievers were reared to seek out the fowl that had been hunted and shot. Cocker spaniels were raised to foul their surroundings when they got nervous or excited.
It’s very likely that herding dogs were the first to be tamed, because the husbandry of livestock goes back to the dawn of civilization. Our daughter has a miniature collie, and it’s very clear that this dog was born to herd things together. If a group of us are walking anywhere near the dog, the dog will try to encompass the group with ever-tightening circles, which is quite amusing when the dog is on a leash. If there is no convenient group of people to herd together, Orion will practice on the furniture. The herders of the pastures are bright, intelligent animals that keep a watchful gaze over the flock, and will alert the shepherd to any slackers or wanderers who fall out of line.
The shepherd in turn will either handle it himself or give the command to the dog. These highly trained creatures will quickly respond to verbal or visual signals, ready in an instant to go streaking off after the offending rogue to bring them back into the safety of the flock. I say “the safety of the flock” because there were any number of very real dangers to an animal that lingered behind or trotted heedlessly off away from the herd. The predators of the animal kingdom waited for such an opportune moment: be they wolves, lions, cougars, or snarling panthers, these opportunists worked best when their prey was isolated from the group.
Or, if you happened to be a rustler who was a few heads short of a herd (literally or figuratively) and needed to jack a few animals, it was a whole lot easier to snag the stragglers than it was to attempt a frontal assault on the whole flock. While the herding dogs could be gentle enough with the sheep or goats, they were surprisingly ferocious when it came to intruders. Poachers have an amazingly short learning curve in their encounters with herding dogs: crimps, gouges, and even outright tears of the flesh can be very persuasive. Once was usually enough to learn a very important lesson about steering clear of these maniacal monsters when the dogs sensed that danger was near. So they tried to avoid the dogs when they did their poaching.
So again I ask, what does all of this have to do with Psalm 23? The phrase I’m looking at today is the one that reads, Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life… It’s wonderfully poetic, isn’t it? But what if it’s more than just poetry? What if it’s the poet’s expression of the way they came to understand God’s watchful presence in their life? What if that ancient psalmist was picturing a couple of fiercely loyal herding dogs darting around the edges of the flock, or spinning around the herd in a series of ever-tightening circles to keep them close together? And what if, using poetic license, the psalmist named those dogs Goodness and Mercy?
These dogs, Goodness and Mercy, had become partners with the shepherd in tending to the flock. Not only did they help to maintain order within the flock, they were ferocious and fearless guardians when it came to dangerous predators or sneaky poachers. While the sheep or goats might become momentarily annoyed by some dumb dog nipping at their heels, these herders were invaluable assets to the shepherd and owner of the flock. With God as my shepherd, the psalmist is saying, there are always going to be a couple of faithful dogs keeping an eye on things and helping to keep me in line when I become reckless, preoccupied, or restless with my safe little world.
Okay, now that we’ve been able to establish a connection between Marley and Psalm 23, let’s see if we can’t make it more personal for those of us who have a hard time telling the sheep apart from the cows and pigs. Returning briefly to Marley’s story, there came a time when Grogan and his wife had brought a child into the world, in spite of their disastrous experiment with Marley. They often wondered what kind of watch-dog he would make, because he always greeted company with a boisterous joy that could easily bowl the unsuspecting guests over onto the floor, where he would proceed to smother them with aromatic doggy kisses.
One afternoon Grogan came home to find his street swarming with police cars. It seems a burglary ring had hit hard that afternoon, and the police responded with a show of force in their effort to crack down on crime in that neighborhood. While there were a lot of people milling around outside on lawns, sidewalks, and corners, his own yard was suspiciously empty, and Grogan soon discovered the reason. Marley was on the loose, and this fierce guardian now had an infant to watch over, so anytime anyone got close to the property, they got to see a side of Marley that no one had ever glimpsed before: the protector of the weak and helpless lambs.
I can only speak for myself, but there have been times in my life when stressful circumstances left me feeling vulnerable, weak, or helpless. I once had a boss whose personality style was very similar to The Dominatrix that Grogan described. When after a mere seven months I finally decided I had had enough, and the agency kept insisting that I was the problem, I managed to escape with all my body parts intact, but my psyche took a hit that still hurts today, nearly ten years later. Though I couldn’t see it at the time, I am now convinced that Goodness and Mercy helped keep me sane. When some of the darkest episodes in life have literally bowled me over to the point of not being able to function for periods of time, those wonderful guardians of my soul kept intruders at bay while I sought and found healing from my Soul-Keeper.
When bouts of depression or anxiety have overshadowed or even obliterated the light in my life, the Shadow-Walker has been there to help me plant each and every step in the right path, the trail that leads me beside the still waters, or takes me beyond to green pastures. Whenever it feels like I’ve lost my way in life, and I begin to wonder where God has disappeared to this time, there always seems to be a Path-Tender who can reassure me that I have not been forgotten or forsaken, and that God is with me still. When seasons of burnout have left me panting for springs of living water, or hungering for the God who seemed so very real so very many years ago, my Cup-Filler has given me the cup filled to overflowing with God’s glorious mercy; my Table-Setter has reminded me of the place I have, that we all have, in the very heart of God’s wondrous goodness.
While their disastrous experience with Marley may not have been the foretaste of parenthood that they were expecting, the Grogans were prepared in ways that they never foresaw to help them deal with the ups and downs of parenthood. While our children may never systematically dismantle a mudroom, they sometimes can become so unraveled by life that they seem unrecognizable to us. Their lives can become messier than anything a mere dog can produce. Learning how to become Shadow-Walkers, or Path Tenders, or Cup-Fillers, or Table-Setters, or Sheep-Herders seems to be part of the journey we undertake in our role as parents.
And in ways that we can’t yet comprehend, those shaping experiences are shaping us and them for the journey of eternity. They are preparing us for something far better, far more glorious, than eye has seen or ear has heard. And in the meantime, keep your eyes out for the Marleys of the world. They might just be angels helping to shape us for the next chapter in life.
Order of Service back to sermon
"NC" refers to The New Century Hymnal, The Pilgrim Press (1995)
16 March 2008 Palm Sunday
A Candle for Peace NC #202 (vs.3)
Call to Worship
Leader: Suffering Servant, we come with humble hearts, amazed and awed at the depth of your sacrificial love for us.
People: Blessed Jesus, you entered Jerusalem triumphantly in lowly estate, riding on a donkey.
Leader: Yet you emptied yourself, forsaking all glory and power, and came as a servant to all.
People: Fill us with your humility, that we may attend to others with the same abandon that you demonstrated so abundantly toward us.
Leader: Son of David, come to us now and be our King, that we too may sing our hosannas.
ALL: Hosanna! Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!
Hymn NC #213 Hosanna, Loud Hosanna
Responsive Prayer
Leader: Holy One, your love for us is so great that you gave us Jesus to be our Shepherd through the darkest shadows of life.
People: Merciful God, we tremble when we think how easily Judas betrayed you. We shudder when we realize how many times like Peter, we have denied you through our words and actions.
Leader: Your ways are beyond us, O God, shrouding us in a mystery. Be with us in the hour of our need, and do not abandon us when we deny you.
People: May your words live within us and strengthen us, that we might keep our eyes focused on you through times of trial and suffering, and walk with you to the end.
Leader: God of second chances and new beginnings, let this Holy Week be a time of preparation. Help us to be grateful for Christ’s gift of self, for Christ’s anguish and passion, for Christ’s never-failing love.
People: Embrace us with your love, that we may remember with gratitude the forgiveness you offer us time and time again.
Leader: Envelop us with your grace, that we may accept this opportunity to rise again with Christ, and move forward into new beginnings.
People: Fill us with your Spirit, that we may live as your servants in the world.
Pastoral Prayer, Lord’s Prayer
Hymn NC #197 Near the Cross
Psalm 24, Ezekiel 37:1-14, Matthew 21:1-11
Sermon The Shepherds Keep: Sheep-Herder
Offering, Doxology, Dedication
Hymn NC #195 The Old Rugged Cross
Benediction
Leader: On the back of a donkey, in the midst of a procession of waving palms, Jesus came to bless us.
People: On a wooden cross, in the midst of a jeering crowd, Jesus died to set us free from all that keeps us from God.
Leader: May God lead us into Holy Week reflections with a sense of peace, forgiveness, and hope.
People: May we experience anew the forgiveness of the Last Supper, the soulful anguish of Good Friday, and the promise of the Easter Resurrection.
Leader: Be filled with the love of God in Christ until we gather again to celebrate New Life.
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