What if?
Scriptures: Psalm 23
John 10:1-10
Friends, it is good to be here with you today. In the past few weeks, with all the over-hyped and under-cooked negative media attention focused on Trinity UCC and their retired pastor, I have been feeling particularly strongly our connections to one another as members and congregations of the United Church of Christ. We are members of one body, and what affects one member affects us all. And at the same time, it is good to have a chance to visit another corner of the church and to see that, in fact, life goes on as well. We continue to gather in love and faithfulness to seek God’s face, and to listen for God’s word. So thank you for your witness, and for your hospitality. It is a pleasure to be here today. I’d like to open with a sung prayer. If you know the song, please feel free to sing with me.
“Spirit of the Living God”
Today I’d like to take some time to meditate on the twenty-third Psalm. I realize that this is a dangerous enterprise. In fact, it’s a little bit like trying to plant seeds in the ruts of a dry dirt road. After all, this is a favorite Scripture, not just in the church, but in the wider world, too. “The Lord is my shepherd…” Who here saw the movie Titanic? It’s okay, you can raise your hands. Do you remember the part where, as the ship is sinking, the pastor on the boat has a little crowd collected? What is he reading? The 23rd Psalm, of course! Hopefully, I didn’t just spoil the ending of the movie for those of you who haven’t seen it. But this is typical – Psalm 23 is usually the Scripture wafting gently, and ever-so-spiritually through the funeral scenes in movies. And it has a special place in many of our Christian hearts as well, being worn smooth and comfortable with use.
Which is all to the good. But it makes this a hard scripture to hear with new ears. It makes me want to try it out with other professions:
How about one in honor of being in a college town:
The Lord is my thesis advisor, I will get my degree
She makes me take the weekend off between drafts
She leads me to new primary sources
She restores my hope
And inspires me to do the important research
And do it the right way
Even though I hit writer’s block at three in the morning
I don’t fear failure
I can always call you
Your quick wit and your kind voice – they comfort me
You prepare a table before me
In the presence of my toughest graders
You keep me healthy and sane
My cup overflows
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
And I shall write according to the Lord’s school of thought
My whole life long.
There might be other ways to rewrite the Psalm, too:
The Lord is my boss, I shall not want
He makes me take vacation when I’ve been putting it off
He leads me to new ideas that energize me
He reminds me why the work means so much to me.
Or:
The Lord is my day care provider, I have everything I need
She puts me down for naps when I am cranky
She gives me healthy snacks when I am hungry
Her hugs warm my heart.
It’s fun to explore, and at the same time the exercise makes me realize how hard it is to get at the power and beauty of the metaphor of shepherd and the sheep. After all, the shepherd cares for the sheep all the time – healing them, resting them, leading them to new food – and sheep, at least in cartoon and stuffed-animal form, have this very appealing vulnerable quality to them. In real life, of course, sheep are loud, dirty and dumb. This makes the kind patience of the shepherd all the more beautiful.
The question I am left with, though, after reading this Psalm, so well known and so often intoned is this: Why, if we have been reading this Psalm collectively, faithfully, memorizingly, repeatedly, why is it so hard to live accordingly? There’s a saying you may have heard once or twice: “Pray like everything depends on God; work like everything depends on you.” That quote might be the exact definition of what I’ve heard described as functional atheism. In other words, we say we believe in God, but our way of doing things assumes that God does not exist. At least not in a way that has practical implications. We keep working as if things really did depend on us, and not on our Good Shepherd. Why is it so hard to recognize God as our shepherd and ourselves as sheep? What if we could trust God like the author of Psalm 23 does?
What if we could say, “I trust God for my financial security, and I’m willing to practice stewardship accordingly?”
What if we could say, “I trust God to keep the world spinning, and I won’t do work of any kind for one day every week?”
What if we could say, “I trust God enough to make the right and ethical and good choice, even if sometimes it is also the most costly choice?
What if we could say, “I trust God even in the face of death?”
And what if we could live in gratitude like the Psalmist?
What if we gave thanks for the table of love, joy, and gratitude God sets for us?
What if we gave thanks for the healing God works on our hearts, our bodies, and our souls?
What if we gave thanks for God’s goodness and mercy?
What if we lived as a people dwelling in the house of God?
I realize those are a lot of what if’s. And I almost want to throw in a handful of caveats: don’t forget that you have a part in your healthiness; don’t forget that these things take thought and prayer and discipline, etc, etc. And those things would be true. But guess what? Today I think it’s enough to ask the question, what if? and to imagine what that might look like. Not as a list of shoulds for us to do. Because Psalm 23 isn’t about us and what we do, it is about God. As sheep, our job is pretty simple – to follow where God leads. Easier said than done, of course, but it gets easier the more we do it. The more we step out in faith, the more we will trust God. The more we listen for God’s voice, the more we will hear it. The more we speak our gratitude, the more we will find to be grateful for.
In our gospel lesson, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, explains why he has come to his disciples, and to us: I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. What if, we had that life of abundance? What if it is ours to receive even now?
May you be blessed today by the presence of The Good Shepherd. May your trust in God grow, may you hear Jesus’ voice and know it as his, and may your heart be filled with joyful gratitude of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
John 10:1-10
Friends, it is good to be here with you today. In the past few weeks, with all the over-hyped and under-cooked negative media attention focused on Trinity UCC and their retired pastor, I have been feeling particularly strongly our connections to one another as members and congregations of the United Church of Christ. We are members of one body, and what affects one member affects us all. And at the same time, it is good to have a chance to visit another corner of the church and to see that, in fact, life goes on as well. We continue to gather in love and faithfulness to seek God’s face, and to listen for God’s word. So thank you for your witness, and for your hospitality. It is a pleasure to be here today. I’d like to open with a sung prayer. If you know the song, please feel free to sing with me.
“Spirit of the Living God”
Today I’d like to take some time to meditate on the twenty-third Psalm. I realize that this is a dangerous enterprise. In fact, it’s a little bit like trying to plant seeds in the ruts of a dry dirt road. After all, this is a favorite Scripture, not just in the church, but in the wider world, too. “The Lord is my shepherd…” Who here saw the movie Titanic? It’s okay, you can raise your hands. Do you remember the part where, as the ship is sinking, the pastor on the boat has a little crowd collected? What is he reading? The 23rd Psalm, of course! Hopefully, I didn’t just spoil the ending of the movie for those of you who haven’t seen it. But this is typical – Psalm 23 is usually the Scripture wafting gently, and ever-so-spiritually through the funeral scenes in movies. And it has a special place in many of our Christian hearts as well, being worn smooth and comfortable with use.
Which is all to the good. But it makes this a hard scripture to hear with new ears. It makes me want to try it out with other professions:
How about one in honor of being in a college town:
The Lord is my thesis advisor, I will get my degree
She makes me take the weekend off between drafts
She leads me to new primary sources
She restores my hope
And inspires me to do the important research
And do it the right way
Even though I hit writer’s block at three in the morning
I don’t fear failure
I can always call you
Your quick wit and your kind voice – they comfort me
You prepare a table before me
In the presence of my toughest graders
You keep me healthy and sane
My cup overflows
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
And I shall write according to the Lord’s school of thought
My whole life long.
There might be other ways to rewrite the Psalm, too:
The Lord is my boss, I shall not want
He makes me take vacation when I’ve been putting it off
He leads me to new ideas that energize me
He reminds me why the work means so much to me.
Or:
The Lord is my day care provider, I have everything I need
She puts me down for naps when I am cranky
She gives me healthy snacks when I am hungry
Her hugs warm my heart.
It’s fun to explore, and at the same time the exercise makes me realize how hard it is to get at the power and beauty of the metaphor of shepherd and the sheep. After all, the shepherd cares for the sheep all the time – healing them, resting them, leading them to new food – and sheep, at least in cartoon and stuffed-animal form, have this very appealing vulnerable quality to them. In real life, of course, sheep are loud, dirty and dumb. This makes the kind patience of the shepherd all the more beautiful.
The question I am left with, though, after reading this Psalm, so well known and so often intoned is this: Why, if we have been reading this Psalm collectively, faithfully, memorizingly, repeatedly, why is it so hard to live accordingly? There’s a saying you may have heard once or twice: “Pray like everything depends on God; work like everything depends on you.” That quote might be the exact definition of what I’ve heard described as functional atheism. In other words, we say we believe in God, but our way of doing things assumes that God does not exist. At least not in a way that has practical implications. We keep working as if things really did depend on us, and not on our Good Shepherd. Why is it so hard to recognize God as our shepherd and ourselves as sheep? What if we could trust God like the author of Psalm 23 does?
What if we could say, “I trust God for my financial security, and I’m willing to practice stewardship accordingly?”
What if we could say, “I trust God to keep the world spinning, and I won’t do work of any kind for one day every week?”
What if we could say, “I trust God enough to make the right and ethical and good choice, even if sometimes it is also the most costly choice?
What if we could say, “I trust God even in the face of death?”
And what if we could live in gratitude like the Psalmist?
What if we gave thanks for the table of love, joy, and gratitude God sets for us?
What if we gave thanks for the healing God works on our hearts, our bodies, and our souls?
What if we gave thanks for God’s goodness and mercy?
What if we lived as a people dwelling in the house of God?
I realize those are a lot of what if’s. And I almost want to throw in a handful of caveats: don’t forget that you have a part in your healthiness; don’t forget that these things take thought and prayer and discipline, etc, etc. And those things would be true. But guess what? Today I think it’s enough to ask the question, what if? and to imagine what that might look like. Not as a list of shoulds for us to do. Because Psalm 23 isn’t about us and what we do, it is about God. As sheep, our job is pretty simple – to follow where God leads. Easier said than done, of course, but it gets easier the more we do it. The more we step out in faith, the more we will trust God. The more we listen for God’s voice, the more we will hear it. The more we speak our gratitude, the more we will find to be grateful for.
In our gospel lesson, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, explains why he has come to his disciples, and to us: I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. What if, we had that life of abundance? What if it is ours to receive even now?
May you be blessed today by the presence of The Good Shepherd. May your trust in God grow, may you hear Jesus’ voice and know it as his, and may your heart be filled with joyful gratitude of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
posted by Amy Sens at 7:48 PM
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