Do any of you remember the movie The Fugitive, with Harrison Ford? I saw it again just recently. He does a fantastic job of showing the stress of being hunted. One twitch in a cheek muscle and boom! you're right there with him, forgetting to breathe, the adrenalin shooting through your system, your heart racing, your mouth dry... It’s pretty exciting, isn't it? But only because it's happening to someone else. Really being hunted is no fun at all. Have you ever had a dream of being chased, running running running down a tunnel with some faceless enemy on your heels, and wakened up with your heart racing, unable to go back to sleep again? Or even worse: have you ever found yourself caught in a place you ought not to be at night, with dark alleys to pass holding who knows what? Every footstep, every shadow might be your enemy. Did that shadow move? Are the footsteps gaining on you? I've been mugged - twice - and I know that shadows can hold things that are going to jump out at you.
When my middle godson was three, I got him a book about Jesus' parable of the lost sheep, told from the point of view of the lamb who had strayed. It's a perfectly delightful retelling of the tale, meant to illustrate in a personal way what it's like to be found by the shepherd and taken home. But my godson didn't like it. He didn't like stories about being lost. And so I've been thinking, a bit, about that lost lamb. Did he hear a wolf in every whisper in the grass? Did every breath of wind become a hawk swooping down to pluck out his eyes? Somehow I don't believe that the lamb came scurrying thankfully back to the shepherd's side the minute he heard footsteps. I'll bet that lamb's heart was beating so hard he couldn't hear anything else, that he had his eyes tight shut and was doing his best to look like a bush or a rock or something.
And another thing about sheep. I didn't think shepherds kept dogs in Bible times; at least, they're never part of the shepherd metaphors. But apparently some did, because they're mentioned in Job. Have you ever seen sheepdog trials? I've never seen them in real life, but I've seen a few on TV. Those dogs are good. You know how they work? They run around the outside of the flock, usually on the side away from where the shepherd is, barking at sheep who look like they might try heading off in the wrong direction, even nipping at their flanks and heels if they get really stubborn about going their own way.
I bet those sheep think the dogs are just another kind of predator. I'll bet those sheep don't consider the dogs to be their friends.
So I've been thinking about people, and about sheep, and about how easy it is to drift out of God's purposes and into our own. How extraordinarily reassuring it is to know that God doesn't let me wander out of his keeping any more now that I am a Christian - and ought to know better - than he did when I had no idea of what it meant to be under his care. God uses all of creation to steer us back in his direction, just as the shepherd uses his dogs. I've been amusing myself with the fancy that two of God's sheepdogs are named Hesed and Tov, the Hebrew words for goodness and mercy. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." It's not a perfect metaphor, of course, because I do not believe and do not intend to imply that God plans disasters for us in order to punish us from straying and to force us back into obedience, even though it does sometimes work out that way. On the contrary: we can count on God to protect us from real danger even better than sheepdogs protect their flock from real wolves.
Because it is tov - goodness - and hesed - mercy - that protect us. Tov is every kind of goodness that there is, except the pinched self-righteousness that sometimes tries to pass itself off as goodness. The goodness of God is a lavish, abundant sort of goodness that doesn't cut corners when no one will be looking. It covers everything from a fresh-baked loaf of bread to a Bach cantata, from a starlit night to a ship under sail, from courage to compassion to creativity. James the brother of Jesus captured it well when he said
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of ...lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. [Jas 1:17]
Every thing of excellence and beauty that we see, all the common gifts of grace which we take for granted, even the ones which we misuse, are from God. If we can learn to see God's hand in all good things it will turn us back daily - even hourly - into his presence. I've heard some people say that they think heaven will be boring, and that they'd rather go to the other place where they can enjoy a good laugh and a cold beer with their friends. I assure you: laughter and a good appetite are gifts from God, and where God is not these gifts will also be taken away. Incidentally - and somewhat off topic - I believe it was Martin Luther who said that beer is proof that God loves us. But the point is that God's goodness comes in every format imaginable, it is always an expression of his love for us, and it surrounds us - you and me - always.
The word hesed is more difficult to explain. It's translated mercy, love, kindness, loving kindness, steadfast love, loyalty, unfailing kindness. It describes something primary about the very nature of God. You remember the passage in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says to
...Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. [Mt 5:44-45]
God can't help being generous. God's lavish gift-giving is not reserved only to those who have entered into his covenant promises; indeed, one of the reasons for the covenant with Israel is to reach the other nations, just as one of the reasons for creating the church is to carry the good news of Jesus Christ to those who are still outside that covenant.
The essence of hesed - kindness, love, mercy - is that it is freely given. Perhaps an even better translation than the ones usually used would be 'unconditional love.' There's no sense at all in any of God's dealings with us that he is reluctantly carrying out a promise once made and now regretted. The covenant God established with Israel, and the covenant God has now established with us, his church, through Jesus Christ, is based on his unfailing, unconditional, never-ending love. The covenant is a free gift to humanity based on God's eternally self-giving character. God's givingness, his generosity, his loving-kindness, is usually called grace, and it is something so unlike what we encounter in normal human existence that most people - even many Christians - have trouble believing in it. Or we may say that we do, but it is only a shallow acknowledgement of an incomprehensible reality.
The goodness and the mercy which will follow each of us all the days of our lives is part and parcel of the very nature of God. It is what we mean when we say that God is love.
But even when we know and trust the goodness of God, most of us drift away from God on a regular basis and need to be brought back. Or if we don't actually drift away, perhaps we stagnate, content to wade in the shallow waters of spiritual immaturity. Sometimes we hesitate or stop our ears when we hear God's Spirit calling us because we don't want to give up a particularly cherished and almost invisible sin, like self-indulgence or self-righteousness. It can be pretty painful sometimes when God makes us look at ourselves straight, and challenges us to let him help us give it up. But I think just as often we hide from God out of shame. I've done quite a lot of counseling work, and I'm simply amazed at how many people believe that their colleagues, friends, even their spouses, won't love them anymore if those others in their lives knew what they're really like on the inside. God knows what you're really like: inside, outside, yesterday and tomorrow, and he loves you. If he's calling you, it's not for exposure and punishment, but for rewards unimaginable. Possibly to be remade, which can be painful, it's true, but hey. Think of it as reconstructive surgery. So if you've been resisting the call of the Spirit to enter into a new or a deeper relationship with God, remember that it is goodness and mercy that are seeking you out; come out of hiding and draw closer to God.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
King David knew the goodness and lovingkindness of God from babyhood, and wrote this beautiful song that has comforted and inspired God's people from that time to this. Even he strayed, and all of us have, and will again, from the way of perfect trust and obedience. But the mercy and goodness of God will surround us, and follow us, and bring us back, no matter where we go, all the days of our lives.
