This Fourth Sunday of Easter has often been called “Good Shepherd Sunday” because the scripture readings always deal with some aspect of Shepherds and sheep. Wayne Wold says in his book, Tune My Heart to Sing that “our first impulse might be to observe the Sunday with green-colored glasses and dwell on images of pastoral hillsides and babbling brooks, playful sheep and a smiling shepherd.” It is great when life is like that. However, it is not a realistic or honest way to proclaim such a perspective as normal for a Christian’s life. We need to make sure our preaching and music do not proclaim that narrow view. For our own lives tell a different story.
As I sat down to write the notes for tomorrow’s service I am concerned about two dear friends in the hospital that are in the “valley of the shadow …” We hear the news of earth quakes, hillsides with mudslides, of brooks running dry with drought or rivers overflowing their banks and flooding cities. We know of sheep that often doubt or wander from the shepherd – sometimes in our own families. Our shepherd knows a reality that is less than perfect. He has lived on this very same earth a life that included rejection, torture, death, and the grave.
In the gospel reading for this Sunday Jesus tells us about thieves and bandits who enter the fold by some other way than the gate, and that they come to kill and destroy the sheep. Jesus wants us to be able to recognize these enemies of the faith for what they are and to resist them. We need to be aware of important issues in the church and not ignore them, ever heeding the example of Christ who told his followers the truth, no matter how distasteful. How can we discern who are the thieves and bandits of the faith, and how can we be prepared to tackle them head-on?
The Good Shepherd knows his sheep by name and they know his voice. Though they can sometimes disagree, (ahhhh, does this sound familiar?) Christians come to know through a life of worship, learning, fellowship, and prayer what is the voice of the Good Shepherd and what is the voice of the impostor. The thief comes only to maim and destroy. The Good Shepherd comes that we might have life, and have it more abundantly.
We hear the Shepherd’s familiar and encouraging words in the words of the 23rd Psalm – the Psalm appointed for Easter 4. The singers in the loft were delighted to be able to sing this again in this beautiful version from “The Anglican Psalter” in 4 part Anglican Chant. It is from a Psalter used by the Cathedral of St Paul in London.
The quartet will sing BROTHER JAMES’ AIR another familiar piece during Eucharist. This paraphrase is a metrical psalm and follows as closely as possible the language of the King James Version of Psalm 23. These words are based on the 1641 version by Frances Rous (1524-1579), who married the sister of John Calvin. The divines of the Westminster Assembly made a further revision, and it was altered again before appearing in the Scottish Psalter of 1650.
Brother James was the nickname taken by James Leith Macbeth Bain, born about 1840 in Scotland, who was a mystical poet, writer, and spiritual healer. He fluctuated from belief to agnosticism, and back again to a belief in divine love. He formed a Brotherhood of Healers (who went about treating people for both spiritual and physical illnesses), writing poems and melodies, and singing to the patients as a part of the healing process. Toward the end of his life, he worked for the slum dwellers of Liverpool, and at a home for children. He died September 19, 1925.
The following explanatory note by Bain precedes the original printing of the hymn with the original melody name of Marosa, now commonly identified as BROTHER JAMES’ AIR:
“This melody is so named after the seventh daughter of my friend Captain McLaren, whom I christened some years ago. The words are a version slightly modified by me to suit the melody, of the old, classic Shepherd-Psalm, than which I know of no more beautiful Hymn of Love. This hymn, sung slowly, will be found to be a potent requiem for the blessing of those dear men who have fallen in this war. For, the whole of the Christ-blessedness, and all the strength of the great Body of Christ, even the One Holy Catholic Church of Heaven and Earth, can be uttered, and has been uttered throughout the Ages in this Psalm of the Heart of God.”
From that ancient melody to the contemporary hymn, I Come with Joy, our sequence hymn. It has been paired with Acts 2:42-47. It was in July 1968, while serving as pastor of the Congregational Church, Hockley, Essex, England, that the contemporary hymnist, Brian Wren wrote this text. As were many of his hymns, it was written to fill a special need, this one as the conclusion of a series of sermons on the Communion service.
“Its purpose,” he said, “was twofold: to start with an individualistic ‘I come with joy’ and end with a sense of being bound together with everybody else. This was a deliberate progression because I wanted to move away from what I think is an over emphasis on the individual in Communion hymns. The other purpose was to make suggestions about Eucharistic theology in a very simple way. It has lines like ‘His presence is always near,’ ‘ is in such friendship better know.’ I understand the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist to be in the gathering of people who are committed to each other” (The Hymn, January 1981).
As we sing this hymn, then later, as we take communion, may we think of the Good Shepherd always being near, feeling His presence and being able to recognize His voice.
We close our service by singing the hymn, Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us, with the closing words, “Thou hast loved us, Thine we are.”
Sources:
Hymnary.org
Companion to the SDA Hymnal
Hymnal 1982 Companion
Tune My Heart to Sing
The Anglican Psalter
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