Community Church of San Carlos Sermon: Your Rod and Your Staff, They Comfort Me Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost October 11, 2021

We have heard and spoken these lines along with the rest of the 23rd Psalm at least a hundred times. ?

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

We love the 23rd Psalm like we love the Lord’s Prayer and yet there are some puzzling lines in both, like “your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

What??Rod and staff??What?

Remember we are talking here as if sheep talking to a shepherd.?The staff is a big walking stick, at least as long as a cross-country ski pole and useful for stabilizing you as you walk along.?According to all the commentaries, no shepherd 3,000 years ago would think of being without one.?We might have called it a shepherd’s crook in old England, perhaps even today. ?

And the rod??The rod was the curled or crooked end of the shepherds crook, used to pull or push sheep out of thickets or any other place they might get caught.?You have to remember that sheep are adorable and useful but not very intelligent animals.?So a rod and staff was one implement altogether, a long stick with a curved end to poke or grab sheep and, by the way, if need be, to poke away any predators that might come along.

If you are a sheep, it is indeed a comfort to know that your shepherd, your minder, has something to pull you away from trouble and to keep trouble away from you.?So when we say we say “your rod and your staff, they comfort me,” we are affirming that the power of God, and the limitations God puts on us, are a comfort to us.

This is a great lesson for us today.?After eighteen months of a nasty, pervasive and highly contagious virus, we are sick of it.?We are tired of wearing masks.?We are sick and tired of social isolation.?We are tired of all the precautions we have to take.?We are so ready for this to be over.?Yet we must be grateful that we know enough about viruses to take the steps we are taking and we must be grateful for the limitations we put on ourselves.

Can we imagine what it was like to live through the plague back in the middle ages??To endure a similar contagion without a clue as to what caused it and what we should do about it? ?

God has acted, as God acts in the world, through human agents; God has given us, through countless doctors and researchers; God has given us some pretty good techniques for getting ourselves through this crisis alive; God has given us a rod and a staff to protect us; God has given us through Moses and through our Savior and through Saint Paul a reverence for the law and an abiding faith in God.?As Saint Paul tells us this morning:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. ?. . . Do not worry about anything . . . And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

At this point let me remind you of the faith of one our Puritan ancestors, John Winthrop, first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.?Yet he was not always popular and after three years, the General Court of Massachusetts chose Thomas Dudley to be Governor instead.?It was a contentious election process during which Thomas Dudley engaged in a variety of not very ethical and not very Christian maneuvers.?Nonetheless, Winthrop accepted the results with equanimity.?

He accepted his demotion without protest or?complaint or the least sign of resentment.?Others might have thought that he had lost an election, but he did not. This decision had not been made by men, he believed, despite all of his opponent’s machinations; it had been made by God.?God therefore had provided him with an opportunity to reflect on the fickle state of human affairs and given him a lesson in humility and patience.

Winthrop still felt strongly his vocation to be a leader of God’s people and to administer His covenant with them.?If, however, God did not want him to lead now, he would wait quietly until He did. ?

Winthrop then waited the requisite three years for the next election, after which his qualities of humility and forbearance became valued again and he was re-elected.?And re-elected several times more.

So here we are again today with another lesson in patience and humility.?Are we sick and tired of lessons in patience and humility??Well, yes. But that is where we are and when we accept who we are and where we are and how we are; and take a deep breath and know that God is with us whoever we are, wherever we are, however we are, then we say to God:?“Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”?

This is how we shall endure this crisis, by giving thanks that God is with us, in mask wearing, in social distancing, in sacrificing any number of activities we normally do.?This is the fast that God has chosen for us.?This is the day the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

- Psalm 23?Dominus regit me

The?Lord?is my shepherd;

I shall not be in want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures

and leads me beside still waters.

He revives my soul

and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I shall fear no evil;

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me;

you have anointed my head with oil,

and my cup is running over.

Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the?Lord?for ever.

Isaiah 25:3-9

Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;

cities of ruthless nations will fear you.

For you have been a refuge to the poor,

a refuge to the needy in their distress,?

a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.

When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm,

the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place,

you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds;

the song of the ruthless was stilled.

On this mountain the?Lord?of hosts will make for all peoples

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,?

of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.

And he will destroy on this mountain

the shroud that is cast over all peoples,

the sheet that is spread over all nations;?

he will swallow up death forever.

Then the Lord?God?will wipe away the tears from all faces,

and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,?

for the?Lord?has spoken.

It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.?

This is the?Lord?for whom we have waited;?

let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

Philippians 4:1-9

My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.