This Sunday’s readings are all about shepherds. I am reminded of a Lenten retreat I gave in 2015 in Newmarket and in 2018 in Toronto, which focused on that theme. In particular, it reflected on the words of Marty Haugens hymn “Shepherd me O God” which begins….
Shepherd me, O God, Beyond my wants, Beyond my fears, From death into life.
You can hear this hymn here or go through the entire retreat on my website here
Though the retreat was developed five years ago … the threefold theme contained in the first line of Marty Haugens hymn seems particularly appropriate to where we find ourselves this fourth Sunday of Easter during a pandemic.
Shepherd me, O God, Beyond my wants
When we ask to be shepherded beyond our wants, it begs the question of what do we want at this time? An honest answer would likely be “I want to go back to the way things were before this covid-19 virus pandemic.”
Yet to do that means we would have not seen how much our lifestyles impacted the environment – which was visible only when we turned off our abuse of the earth for a while. Or of how much the excessive “stuff” in our lives got in the way of enjoying the simple pleasures of being together as a family. Or of how people whose jobs we tended to look down upon as a society, were so important to our health. Because all of these insights lay beyond our “want” to return to the way things were.
Shepherd me, O God, Beyond my fears.
When we ask to be shepherded beyond our fears, I suspect we would want to not have this heightened anxiety about the future. About our jobs. About the economy. About our health and the health of our children or our parents. About a cure or a vaccine. About the unknown. It means we would want to know how our life will unfold.
Yet to have experienced these fears puts us in solidarity with the majority of the people on the face of this earth, whose life is not as privileged as ours. Who, long before this virus hit, were facing bombs raining on their heads, or were refugees trying to escape with their life, or were standing in line waiting to fill a pot of water in a country ruined by years of war. And who had no idea how their future would unfold.
It would mean that we would continue to act as if we were somehow in charge, and not have learned a hard lesson about the vagaries and ambiguity of life. It would mean continuing to believe a myth that we can control everything and everyone. And that somehow we are entitled to much more than life can honestly offer. Because all of these things lay beyond our fears.
Shepherd me, O God, From death into life.
When we ask to be shepherded from death into life – well – that’s the real core of the issue isn’t it ….
…. because that journey means dying to our old ways, our old sense of identity and self-aggrandizement, our old views of our inflated importance in the scheme of life and the unfolding of creation. And to risk taking a journey into a new, life-giving way of seeing ourselves and God’s creation. One that recognizes our interconnected with each other and with all of creation. One that works together with others to make a better life for all. One that doesn’t put the weakest in our community at risk, and values people over profits and politics.
We didn’t ask for this pandemic, it just came. And it wasn’t as if we didn’t know it may come … it’s just that most of us didn’t take the threat seriously. Yet this pandemic has given us the ability to redefine how we want to live our lives going forward. To make a break from the past ways of thinking, to learn and integrate the lessons of history, and create a new way going forward.
It truly is an opportunity, shepherded by God, to move from death into life.