Endless Praise

Jesus said:
“My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
No one can take them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,
and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.
The Father and I are one.”
—John 10:27-30

We long to stand where endless praise is sung,
where we are named and counted as the stars,
where each one sings to you in his own tongue—
O Shepherd, speak to each of us in ours!

For we are weary of our Babel here,
the endless bleak confusion of our days.
But if you speak, our senses may yet clear
and let us seek together for your ways.

Bring us where all distress is in the past:
The Lamb is in the center of the throne,
his court a refuge that will ever last.
We'll never be displaced, for we are home.

Oh, see: Our thirst and hunger are no more,
and you will wipe the tears from every eye.
Then speak to us, Good Shepherd!  Speak, O Lord!
That we may find the springs that ne'er run dry!

Speak, then, and let it be as you will say:
Make us your own, as you made sea and land,
that we may stand there in your endless day
where nothing takes us from the Father's hand.

Jesus, der gute Hirte im Tympanon der evangelischen Friedenskirche in Hanau-Kesselstadt, Photo By amras.wi – Own workOriginal text: eigenes Photo, Copyrighted free use, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69223980

Scattered Flock

For today’s readings on bad shepherds, the Good Shepherd, and the 23rd Psalm:

Good Shepherd, we have scattered in our fear,
and, troubled by our shadows now, we balk.
Come find us in the wilds and draw us near
and gather us again into your flock.

Worn out, for every step we took was wrong,
we hunger for the pastures of your rest.
Our weary hearts have thirsted for so long:
Oh, lead us to the waters that refresh!

Lord, spread your table near our enemies,
and make it long, for we ourselves are foes,
then bid us all sit down with you and feast
on broken bread, and wine that overflows.

And when the meal is finished, lead us out
forever in the pathways of your peace,
the road that winds at last up to your home.
Let love and mercy follow at our feet.

Then even in the valley of our death,
though once we fled we will no longer fear,
for you are with us, every pulse and breath.
Our Shepherd, you will stay forever near.

Woodcut of Christ carrying the Lamb, illustration from the prayerbook of Martin Luther By Sebald Beham – British Museum, [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32907633

Good Shepherd

Jesus said:
“I am the good shepherd.
A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
A hired man, who is not a shepherd
and whose sheep are not his own,
sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away,
and the wolf catches and scatters them.
This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.”
—John 10:11-18

O loving shepherd of the flock,
the storm is rising high
and predators who stalk the dark
are circling nearby.

Your voice still sounds, a constant pulse
that rings out low and clear
amid the howling of the wolves
so swiftly drawing near.

O, let us hear you through the storm
and panic-stricken night,
and keep us safely in your fold
'til morning rises bright.

But if we're scattered to the winds,
still you would find us there.
If we are driven by our sins,
we have not left your care.

For you have climbed the farthest hills
and combed the valleys deep,
that even from the darkest vales
you will bring back your sheep.

Not one is lost forever, then,
though we have left the fold;
not one will slip out of your hand,
but you will bring us home.

James Tissot, The Good Shepherd.

Carry Us

Carry us these last miles; get us to Bethlehem.

Crossing the barren wilds: Make us a way through them.



Carry us further still, Shepherd and lamb enthroned.

Gather our hearts to fill; carry us all back home.



Till Eden's earth again; garden the waiting world,

sower and seed as one, new life within us furled.



So shall the deserts bloom watered by mercy's rain,

so shall the world be womb, bearing you out of clay.



So shall our hearts bear fruit, harvest from barren stone

hollowed by mercy's flood, holding heav'n's bread alone.



Carry us, infant Lord, like we were infants too.

Dwell with us in the world that we may dwell with you.

Flight into Egypt By Joachim Patinir – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=156123

A Gentle Lord

For the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A:

The one who cast down chariots
and parted waters in the sea
comes to us riding on a colt
to set the bound and captive free.

He comes to us a gentle Lord
to bless the bread, the cup to fill.
He breaks the bow and bends the sword
and bids us know him and be still.

Not to the mighty but the weak,
not to the great but to the small
does Christ the tender shepherd speak,
does he reveal the Father's all.

Not to the wise and learnèd ones
but to the children and the lambs
does Jesus show what God has done
and leads them to the great I Am.

Lift up your heads, you mighty gates;
cast off the yoke of your success,
for patiently he stoops and waits
to lay on us his yoke of rest.

He hides his wisdom from the wise,
so let us lift our heads and see:
In wars unfought and burdens light
our shepherd leads us into peace.

Entry into Jerusalem, by Giotto, 14th century. By Giotto – Unknown source, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2941674

The Shepherd On the Hillside

For Easter season, and Good Shepherd Sunday:

The shepherd on the hillside
climbs down into the glens:
A river runs from his side;
the sun shines through his hands.

For oh, his flock has wandered,
his own have gone astray,
the whole driven asunder,
each one to our own way.

The hills stripped bare of grasses
plunge down into the gloom:
a thousand deep crevasses,
a thousand crowded tombs.

And he will plumb each gravesite
to gather up the bones,
restoring what he made them,
their flesh and blood his own.

There shall be none abandoned,
no tombstone left unturned:
Each debtor shall be ransomed,
each prodigal returned.

In silence we await him,
in separate sorrows lie,
for none in death can praise him
'til dawn shall break on high.

Then oh, the light shall touch us
that's streaming from his hands.
See how the Shepherd loves us
and makes us whole again!

Fifth-century Ravenna mosaic illustrating the concept of The Good Shepherd By Meister des Mausoleums der Galla Placidia in Ravenna – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=155308

Because You Are My Shepherd

Because you are my shepherd, 
O Lord, I should not want.
I should embrace the desert,
and love the endless drought,

should not desire the pasture
or hunger for the feast.
Beside no restful waters
should I lie down and sleep,

but to that very meadow
you lead me day by day,
and when I walk in shadow,
that longing lights my way.

For you have set a table
and bid me sit and eat.
You kneel amid my craving
and ask to wash my feet.

If I had no more hunger,
I'd have no need for bread.
Your wine would be no wonder,
your mercy could not bless.

You know my deep desiring,
for you have thirsted, too;
let my want entice me,
that I may thirst for you.

Fifth-century Ravenna mosaic illustrating the concept of The Good Shepherd By Meister des Mausoleums der Galla Placidia in Ravenna – The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=155308

It Makes No Sense

Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So to them he addressed this parable.
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the lost one until he finds it?
And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
and, upon his arrival home,
he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous people
who have no need of repentance.
Luke 15:1-32

It makes no sense to go,
to leave your ninety-nine
and search the desert high and low,
one straying sheep to find,

to leave your treasures there
untended in the fold
and wander God-alone-knows-where
one tarnished coin to hold.

All reason cried out, “Stop!”
Obsession drives you thus
to fill and overfill the cup
and pour out more for us.

Why would you do this, Lord?
Why leave a world you'd won
and risk it all to gain still more?
Why break yourself for one?

Would any do the same?
O Savior, let it be
that someone senseless, in God's name,
would find and rescue me!

Though I cannot repay
or even comprehend
the love that tracks my wand'ring way,
oh, find me still! Amen.

James Tissot – *The Good Shepherd* (Le bon pasteur) – Brooklyn Museum – Online Collection of Brooklyn Museum; Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2007, 00.159.106_PS2.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10195949

Sacred Heart 2022

I myself will pasture my sheep;
I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD.
The lost I will seek out,
the strayed I will bring back,
the injured I will bind up,
the sick I will heal,
but the sleek and the strong I will destroy,
shepherding them rightly.
Ezekiel 34:11-16

But is this not enough?
You've ninety-nine in fold.
Why range the dales and hills above
one lamb the more to hold?

Why seek the ones who stray,
too foolish for their good?
The wolves will teach what all their prey
should well have understood.

The feeble and the lame--
these ones you ought to cull.
Instead, how senselessly you claim
they make your sheepfold full!

And so you seek them out,
abandoned on the hills.
From living springs they fled to drought,
and yet you seek them still.

O Christ, I'm just as lost,
and lame and foolish, too,
a fleece that isn't worth the cost
my care would be to you,

but you have gathered me,
a lamb within your arms.
Good Shepherd, gather every sheep
and keep us all from harm.

At the Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome By Unknown author – http://www.xanthi.ilsp.gr/istos/walls/thesi/thesi_1.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=515973

From Every Tribe and Nation

I, John, had a vision of a great multitude,
which no one could count,
from every nation, race, people, and tongue.
They stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands.
Then one of the elders said to me,
“These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
“For this reason they stand before God’s throne
                        and worship him day and night in his temple.
            The one who sits on the throne will shelter them.
            They will not hunger or thirst anymore,
                        nor will the sun or any heat strike them.
            For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne
                        will shepherd them
                        and lead them to springs of life-giving water,
                        and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 7:9, 14b-17

From every tribe and nation,
from every race and creed,
all kinds from all creation:
One shepherd's voice they heed.
They know him, and they follow
when Christ calls them his own,
and when they stand before him,
they worship him as one.

Their hearts have not been faultless,
but in his strength endured;
their robes were never spotless
until he made them pure.
Their languages were sundered
by pride on Babel's plain,
but now they sing in wonder
one song to praise his name.

No more shall envy take them
from Christ the shepherd's hand;
no more shall hatred shake them
who in his temple stand.
They gather in his shelter,
untouched by any fears:
The Lamb is their own shepherd,
and he will dry their tears.