Grace,
mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Psalm
23:4)
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil, for you are with me.
Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our
hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
At the end of the book of Genesis, there is a passage where the
old man Jacob is about to die and he blesses his children and grandchildren.
And he says: God has been my shepherd all my life long to this day.
As we come to bury Reg today and to give thanks to God for his
life, we also want to say: God has been his shepherd all his life long to this
day. Yes—even to this day, not simply up until the day when he died just over a
week ago, but also still today and forever. And that’s at the heart of the Christian
faith: that God will be our shepherd all our life long right up until the day
when we will stop counting the days. Jesus says: I am the resurrection and
the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and
everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
And so, I’ve chosen for our funeral text today from Psalm 23. The
Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. We’ve already prayed this psalm
together and it’s so well-known to so many people, even people outside the
church. So let’s pray to the Holy Spirit that he may come and strengthen us and
comfort us with the holy word of God at this time of our sadness and grief at
the loss of our father, our grandfather, our good friend, our fellow Christian,
Reg Schultz.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not want. Who’s the Lord here? Who’s the shepherd? And who’s the sheep? The
shepherd is Jesus Christ, the man who was born of the Virgin Mary and who is
also true God. St Paul says: No-one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy
Spirit. He is our Lord, and his sheep, his flock, are the ones who cry out
to him: The Lord is my shepherd. But the flock calls out to the shepherd
with one voice. We say: he is my shepherd, not our shepherd. It’s almost as if
every sheep were the only sheep, and God treats all the sheep together as if
they were one.
And how does Jesus come to us to
be our shepherd? He speaks his word to us. Jesus says: My sheep hear my
voice. He calls each sheep by name, and knows each one. But shepherds don’t
spend time talking to sheep all the time, but they call out to them especially
when they are in danger or in need. And if they talk to them when they are not
in danger, it’s so that the sheep will recognise the shepherd’s voice when they
are in danger.
You see, with Reg, he became one
of Jesus’ sheep when he was baptised. He was washed with water, but also at
that occasion, Jesus spoke his words to Reg: I baptise you in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Jesus didn’t baptise Reg
in silence. He spoke his words, and as Reg went through life, he could trust in
that word, and learn continually to hear his shepherd’s voice.
The most wonderful thing about
Jesus’ words is that they are always new, and always teach something new. They
always create something out of nothing. And so it’s such a wonderful gift when
someone dies to come and hear Good Shepherd’s voice, the voice of Jesus.
Because if want to be comforted by Jesus, we always have to learn it as if we
had never heard it before. The comfort doesn’t already exist in our hearts
somewhere buried in the grief. The comfort needs to be created by Jesus’ living
voice. In the gospels, Simon Peter once said to Jesus: You are the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And Jesus said to him: Blessed are you, Simon,
Son of Jonah. For flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my Father
in heaven.
So also at a funeral. It is our
Father in heaven who comforts us through our Good Shepherd Jesus. Jesus teaches
us his own Christian comfort. Flesh and blood might teach us a few things that
make us feel better, like “he’s gone to a better place”, or “he’ll live on in
our memories”, but Jesus teaches us something that we could only learn from
him. Jesus says: In my Father’s house are many rooms, and I am going to
prepare a place for you. If it were not so, would I have told you? Everyone who
believes in me will never die. This child is not dead but sleeping. Lazarus is
dead, and I will go and wake him up. I am the resurrection and the life. Today
you will be with me in Paradise. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all
sleep, but we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised
imperishable, and we shall be changed.
Where else can we learn any of
those things except from the mouth of Jesus himself? That’s why even today at
this funeral we come to gather not just around Reg, but around Reg’s shepherd,
to hear the living voice of Jesus. The Good Shepherd laid down his life for the
sheep, and has destroyed death for the sheep. Jesus died, but he is not here
today in a coffin—but he has risen to life, and keeps all those in the coffins
safe with him. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still
waters. This shepherd gives me food to eat and water to drink. Once again,
these words of Jesus are food for us. Jesus says: Man does not live on bread
alone, but on every word from the mouth of God. And also, Jesus gave to Reg
so many times this food to eat, and this water to drink. It wasn’t Reg’s work:
it was Jesus’ work. And also, so many times Jesus gave to Reg his body to eat
and his blood to drink in the Lord’s Supper. What wonderful food this is!
He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his
name’s sake. Once there was funeral in Judea which Jesus went to, where a young
man was carried out in a coffin. Jesus touched the coffin and said: Young
man, I say to you, arise. And he restored this soul of the young man, and
gave him back to his mother. So also, Jesus restores Reg’s soul and keeps it
safe. He will also keep watch over his body and resting place. And Jesus also
restores our souls and says to us: Blessed are those who mourn for they will
be comforted. Also, we read: He leads me in paths of righteousness for
his name’s sake. Often at a funeral, people like to say that the person who
has died was a good person, and then all the focus in on them. There’s always a
kind of embarrassment about this too, because everyone knows that the person
wasn’t perfect! Of course, there are so many good things that we’ve received
from Reg. But Jesus doesn’t save Reg because of all those good things. He doesn’t
lead him in paths of righteousness for Reg’s sake, but for his name’s sake.
Jesus wants to show you that he is a good shepherd. He wants to live up to his
name. He leads Reg in paths of righteousness completely freely, without any
contribution from Reg, simply because he loved him, because he wouldn’t let one
sheep be snatched out of his hands.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
will fear no evil, for you are with me. Here in the middle of the psalm
is the heart and centre of it. If we were to try and work things out by our own
reason, and by our own thinking, without the words of Jesus, we would probably
think that Jesus is only with us in those times when things are going well for
us. We would probably think that when things are going bad, that this is a sure
sign that Jesus has buzzed off somewhere, and has dumped us in a ditch.
This isn’t true: Our whole life is surrounded with troubles, and
problems. Friends we know and love die.
But it says: Even though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. He’s still with
me. He hasn’t left. Jesus doesn’t just attend weddings and baptisms, and all
the happy occasions. He attends funerals too. He attends hospital beds too. He
attends nursing homes. He attends deathbeds. He attends gravesides. He attends
sad hearts, lonely hearts, hearts that walk through the valley of the shadow of
death. I will fear no evil, for you are with me. We don’t recognise
Jesus’ presence only when he gives us some gift of joy or pleasure or strength.
But Jesus is with us even when we feel nothing—even though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. The rod and
the staff are there to bring the sheep closer in, to hook around their neck and
draw them in. Sometimes they might be given a little tap on the rear end to
keep them in line!
Now let’s listen to the last part of our psalm.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you
anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will
follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.
All of sudden the picture changes: One minute we were talking
about sheepy kind of things, pastures, streams, rods and staffs. Now the scene changes: All of a sudden the
sheep almost changes from being a sheep into a kind of prince or princess enjoying
a wonderful banquet. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my
enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Now the little sheep’s
enjoying a great banquet, and good wine. And it’s a kind of good wine
that overflows from the cup. It’s a kind of wine that when you drink it, you forget
the sad things from before! It’s a good vintage, worth the whole bottle. This
is wine is eternal life, the joy of the Holy Spirit!
St Paul says: I consider that the sufferings of this present
time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. We
come to remember Reg today, but we also need to remember that Reg’s life isn’t
finished. The green pastures and the water, and the valley of the shadow of
death have now given way, to a table prepared, anointing with oil, and an
overflowing cup! The book of Revelation says: Blessed are those who are
invited to the marriage supper [the wedding banquet] of the Lamb! This
is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
So as we join together to give thanks for Reg’s life, let’s comfort
and strengthen ourselves with the wonderful promise right at the end of the psalm.
Let’s give thanks to God for the way these words are fulfilled in Reg not just
in this life, but in eternal life. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me
all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen and comfort us with your precious
voice, your holy words. Teach us your comfort and come and stay with us and
remain with us in our time of mourning. Be with us, even though we walk through
the valley of the shadow of death. Strengthen us in your promise: Surely
goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in
the house of the Lord forever. Bless us, dear Jesus, Good Shepherd, and let
nothing snatch us out of your hands. Amen.
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