Psalm 23  (not a full sermon this time, mostly some notes)

 

     Do you like taking a walk?  On a beautiful spring day it’s an easy thing to do.  Feel the sun, listen to the birds, and enjoy the colors and smells of all the spring flowers. 

     When I was recovering from my accident about the only exercise I was allowed by the doctor was walking, so even in the snow I would get out there once or twice each day to walk around our pasture.  When the snow began to melt I still kept it up, enjoying all of the emerging signs of spring. 

     When you take a walk, where are the places you like to do that?  On your own road or street, maybe the Westshore trail, or maybe you enjoy going to a park? 

     Let’s go on a walk together this morning.  Not around the town or pn the Westshore.  And don’t worry that you didn’t bring your walking shoes.  This morning I’d like to walk with you through the 23^rd Psalm.  It is one of the most recognized readings in all of Scripture, and many people who can’t receipt anything else in the Bible from memory can often remember this Psalm. 

     It’s well worth walking through it, because it is so well-recognized that we often stop to think about its meaning. 

     “The Lord is My Shepherd” … these are among the most well-known and recognized words in all of Scripture.  Written by David, the brave boy with the sling and smooth stones who defeated Goliath, and who later became King of Israel.  As a boy, before he went to face Goliath, David was a shepherd, taking care of his father Jesse’s sheep, so these words have a strong hint of the autobiographical. 

     I have to tell you, though, that I don’t know a whole lot about shepherds, who they are, why they choose such a vocation, and what they do as their daily tasks.  But a few hints come to mind from other places in the Bible.

     The first is The Parable of the Lost Sheep, in which Jesus tells about a shepherd who upon discovering that one of his sheep is missing, leaves the 99 other sheep behind to search for that missing one.  My old children’s Bible showed a picture of that shepherd climbing down into a steep ravine to rescue that missing sheep caught in brambles and thorns.   Would you be happy if you were successful 99% of the time in the different things you do?  The parable reveals that God is never happy with a 99% success rate, so that if you are the 1% who is lost or left-out or forgotten, God is completely focused on you, and will climb down into steep ravines and thorny brambles to find you!

     Then there is this other passage, which we will read as an affirmation of faith near the end of the service when Jesus says “I am the Good Shepherd”, moving this talk about sheep and shepherds from a theoretical discussion about the 99 and the one to a very personal and intimate promise from Jesus to look out for you, when he says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, and I lay down my life for the sheep.”  Jesus is the Good Shepherd, not just looking for us, but risking everything in the Cross to find us, to find you. 

     “I shall not want” or “I have everything I need” or “I don’t need a thing”.  Say it with me, please, “I have everything I need”.  Have you ever said this about yourself or your circumstances?  Have you ever looked around yourself, at your home, your property, and your possessions, your relationships, your health,  and everything else?  And said to yourself, “I have everything I need.”  That you are truly satisfied with what you have?  Wouldn’t you like a new car, a new cell phone with amazing apps, a vacation home in Hawaii, or perfect health?  Who could actually say “I have everything I need”?  But I think this really means that if we truly understand and experience the Lord as a shepherd who cares for each one of us, then there is nothing else that we really need.  Try saying it, “I have everything I need”. 

    “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters”.  I once went camping in the Adirondacks, and on a hill overlooking a beautiful, isolated lake on a sunny morning my friend George Mead and I were watching a couple of loons floating on the water and singing to each other, “loooo”, “loooo”.  George turned and said to me, “This is my church”.   Away from the normal busyness of everyday life, George was most aware of God in a beautiful park.  So the Psalm invites you to listen to God leading you to those quiet, restful, contemplative places where you can more attentive to God’s presence and power. 

     “He restores my soul, he leads me in right paths for his name’s sake”.  It is interesting to me that this is not so much about obedience or meeting high ethical standards, it is a vital recognition that God’s purpose is to restore us, to heal us, to help us, to revive us, to rebuild us, physically and spiritually.

     With youth from our church I participated in our presbytery’s Mission Madness yesterday in Rochester.  Kylie and Alex, Michaela and Samantha spent the morning doing good work to help others, along with parents Tamara and Pam.  My assignment was at the Rochester Area Interfaith Hospitality Network.  This is a program involving a large number of churches, synagogues, and other religious groups in providing shelter and help to whole families who have lost their homes.  I like how they use the word “hospitality” in their name, instead of “homeless”.  This  reminds me of the Psalm, that our mission is not just providing food and shelter for people who need them, but to be involved in restoring the soul, and giving attention and love to people who have been badly scarred by a difficult experience. 

     “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; This may refer to David’s personal experience during a very difficult time in his life.  In fact, he was running for his life, with his enemies close on his tail.  He was sleeping in caves, and living hand to mouth.  He was in desperation, Maybe this is why the Psalm has been so popular through the many years, because anyone who has been living close to the dark shadows knows needs God’s assurance. 

     “For you are with me, your rod and your staff comfort me”.  This is a bit cryptic to most of us, but the rod and staff probably refer to a king or queen’s symbols of power.  So the ruler on a throne would hold that rod or staff as a reminder that with their power they can hit you over the head and force you into submission.  But the rod and staff in the hands of God are not used in that way at all, and symbolize a different kind of power, not the power to destroy but the power to heal and build up. 

     “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.”  This is all about abundance, that God is generous beyond measure.  David sees God’s abundance in the food on the table, the healing oil, and an overflowing cup.  Where do you see God’s abundance?

     “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”  More testimony about the abundance generosity and love of God.

     “and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.” 

And this final sentence includes a promise that God’s love and care os not for just a few moments here or there, but a lifelong experience from start to finish.  What began as a short walk through a familiar Psalm becomes the entry into a life-long experience of God’s love and abundance.   

Revelation 1:4-8 It happens to us, and it even happened to the disciples. It happened long ago, and it may be happening right here, right now. The tomb was found empty, the women met the risen Christ in the garden, they recognized Jesus as he broke the bread, they met him on that mountain in Galilee, a victory over death beyond even their wildest hopes, but it appears that it was hard, very hard for them to sustain the excitement and joy of the resurrection. One of the most remarkable stories is found at the end of John’s Gospel, when after all of these incredible things have happened in and around Jerusalem, the disciples have gone back home to go fishing. It is almost as if nothing really happened on that Easter morning, because everything has gone back to what it was before Jesus appeared. It happened to those disciples long ago, and it even happens to you and me. What seemed so sure and certain one week ago on Easter Sunday, has already begun to slip away, and we have drifted back to the way things were before Easter: to old habits, old behaviors, old expectations, and old dead-ends. It’s easy to see why. Though we have been amazed and astounded by the empty tomb and the stories of the risen Christ, the world has not really changed very much. The world has not taken the promise and hope of Easter to heart. This bothers me a lot. I love the Easter story, reading it from the Bible, sharing it with you during worship, and I love seeing how fired up we get about it on Easter morning. But it feels like all of my effort as preacher to proclaim the hope and power of the Gospel, all of your efforts to carry the Good news into the world, have been met with disinterest. Not animosity, usually, but disinterest. War in Afghanistan, bombings in Iraq, mean-spirited squabbling in Washington, gunshots in a city neighborhood, crime in Batavia. It’s like not a thing has really changed. I better be careful here, because my purpose is not to give up on Easter, and to convince you that the resurrection is powerless. No, my purpose is to give you something from Easter to hang onto, this Sunday and every Sunday that follows. Just a tiny part of the story, but something to hang onto when you’re slipping, something to help you keep your head up when the world weighs down on you, something to keep the music of praise echoing in your head, something to warm your heart, something to reach for when you find yourself in one of those dead-ends, something to smile about when you run into that wall of disinterest. What I have found to share with you is in the back of the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, a simple little phrase, with a big impact. Those of us who have read this book before, even in part, have been struck by its strangeness. It’s not anything like the stories of the life of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It is a strange book, yet it begins with words of simple testimony from a man named John of Patmos. John was a Christian, one of the first Christians, who lived in a time when it was very dangerous to be a Christian, when the Easter story was in danger of being pushed aside or becoming forgotten by a disinterested world. John was in jail, a terrible place to be, far from friends, and family, and church. Yet it was there, at the worst time of his life, that he came to recognize the true power of Jesus Christ as the savior of us all, as he prayed, imagined and dreamed. In his dreams he found his freedom, in his visions he found God like never before. Though caged behind strong bars, perhaps with chains around his ankles, John became liberated by Jesus Christ. So here’s this simple phrase, “Grace and Peace”. And though the words were written long, long ago, they are the kind of words that make Easter real and powerful in you as you face an always disinterested, sometimes hostile world. "Grace and peace be yours from God, who is, who was, and who is to come." “Grace and Peace” – it is this phrase I want to give to you to hang onto this morning. Grace and Peace. Right at the beginning of the letter we're told what it’s all about. Most books save the punch-line and the climax for the end of the story. John gives it away in the very first sentence. If you are looking for a new way of life, if you are looking for a tangible Gospel, if you are looking for an Easter that grows in its impact, you're in the right place. Keep reading! Grace and peace, offered to you in Jesus Christ. "Grace and Peace be yours." Its John's way of declaring that everything that you've ever hoped for, everything that you've wanted to be, everything that you've wanted to give ... is possible in Jesus Christ. The Gospel gets such a hold of us because it tells what we already know, that in our experience things like Grace and Peace are worth finding and keeping and living by and sharing. The Gospel declares that grace and peace are from God to you, something to hang on to, something to reach for, something to live for, beginning with the resurrection of Easter, and continuing through each one of us. Here is a simple exercise, in which you take John’s words and make them personal to you. It’s simple, just add your name. "Grace and Peace to you, Jim." "Grace and Peace to you, ______”. Let’s try it! Peace is a word we generally understand. We hear it a lot, from preachers, politicians, from friends and enemies, in prayers, songs, and our own private thoughts. Peace – not just a cessation of war and fighting and violence, but the creation of all the things that make war and violence unnecessary, food, shelter, sharing, generosity, justice, love and caring. If we want to sustain the power of Easter, we need to incorporate this word into our daily lives. And our church needs to be visible in this community as a center of peaceful activity. Grace is a word that is less familiar to us. Grace means that God offers forgiveness and healing, love and care, freely to everyone. The gifts of God are not reserved for a select few perfect people, but offered in abundance to everyone, whether we have sought it, earned it, or deserved it. This is one of the most radical beliefs of Christians, the idea that God’s love is offered so freely, even to those who feel like they haven’t earned it, even to those who feel like they don’t deserve it. The idea of grace is nearly a complete opposite of the way the world seems to work. grace is the unique gift of God, and by saying the word, sharing the word, living the word, we perpetuate the radical message of Easter. Grace is not what we work hard to get, it is what we receive from God. We need to incorporate this idea of grace into everything we do to sustain the hope and promise of Easter. And our church needs to be a demonstration of God’s grace in action. John understood that God’s grace and peace were not a one-time experience long ago, but the present reality of Christian people, and a powerful hope for the future. "Grace and Peace be yours from God, who was, who is, and who is to come." “I am the alpha and the omega, says the Lord God Almighty, the beginning and the end, who was, who is, and who is to come." The world around us may have lost interest in Easter, but not us. “Grace and Peace” our motivation, our purpose, our hope, the way we live!

Psalm 118 Defeated. Have you ever felt defeated? You gave it your best effort, you had the highest hopes, you felt strong, the goal was in sight, but then it all fell apart. And instead of lifting your trophy as you dance around the winner’s circle, you’re a sad heap of sorrow flopped on the ground. Defeated. It can happen in sports, in politics, in diplomacy, in argument, in a doctor’s office, on the job, in marriage, just about anywhere. Where have you experienced defeat? I’ve experienced it on the golf course – in one tournament I lost every single hole to a better player, it wasn’t even close. I’ve experienced defeat when a girl in high school said “no” to me on the telephone, ouch! I’ve experienced defeat when a fantastic candidate got pounded in a dirty election. I’ve experienced defeat when a church had to close. I’ve experienced defeat when a friendship was betrayed. I’ve experienced defeat in realizing the terrible consequences of a fatal car accident. Most of the time, I don’t enjoy remembering defeats. I don’t think you enjoy remembering your defeats, either. I don’t want to bring you down on this beautiful Easter Sunday, but I begin here because to appreciate the Easter victory we need to be honest about how far we have come. All the way from the worst defeat, to this new day, to celebrate victory that lasts forever, the kind of victory that is once and for all. I love it when I discover spiritual treasures in the Bible, today from Psalm 118: “I was right on the cliff-edge, ready to fall. , when God grabbed and held me. God’s my strength, he’s my song and salvation. Hear the shouts, hear the triumph songs in the camp of the saved? The hand of God has turned the tide! The hand of God is raised in victory! The hand of God has turned the tide! I didn’t die, I lived! And now I’m telling the world what God did!” [Psalm 118:13-17] Well, of course, the Bible is not all happy talk, it includes lots of sad stories about defeated people, Adam and Eve ejected from the garden, the Hebrews enslaved in Egypt, Goliath crushing the Israelites, the Babylonians capturing Jerusalem and carrying away all of its people into exile, the Romans conquering the country and humiliating the people. All of these defeats culminate in the Cross. Where Jesus died. Defeated. That's what Jesus friends thought when they saw him arrested, that's what they thought when they saw him beaten and spat upon, that's what they thought when they saw him dragging his cross up the hill of crucifixion, that's what they thought when they saw him breath his last and die. Defeated. The murderers had the last word. He hadn't done anything to hurt anyone. Healing the sick, feeding of the hungry, loving the left-out. These had been powerful experiences for them all, signs of hope for the future. But the future had been defeated before it really even had a chance to begin. Defeated. The murderers had the last word. The women went to the tomb early Sunday morning with herbs and spices, oils and myrrh, and fresh burial clothes. They went to the tomb to wash Jesus body, to comb his hair, to close his eyes, because he had been buried in a hurry in the last moments before the beginning of the Sabbath on Friday evening - unwashed, dirty, and bloody. His last words on the cross as he died had been, "My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?" They felt abandoned too. Defeated. The murderers had the last word. Now you know the story of what they found when they reached the tomb where Jesus was buried – it was empty! It looked like the murderers had had the last word, but now they aren't so sure. If he's not here, where is he? They see the burial bandages strewn on the floor. And then a strange young man begins to speak, telling them to look for Jesus in Galilee. It's not much to go on, but the truth of the resurrection slowly sinks in: Defeated? No, it is God who will have the last word. It is God, the Lord of Creation, the Lord of History, who has the last word, how could they have ever thought otherwise? Think of a defeat you have experienced. As the women stood at Jesus’ tomb, as we stand at any scene of defeat, as we remember any defeat, we acknowledge today that it is God who has the last word. The murderers’ words are lost in the wind, sink into the sand, are washed away by the rain, but the word of God stands for eternity. This is a day of victory for the defeated. It was a day of victory for those defeated followers of Jesus. It is also a victory for you. This is not like a sports victory, where the players put the trophy in the glass case, and then have to prepare for the next season. Easter is a once and for all victory, the trophy is never put away, but a victory we can experience each and every day. In one way we have robbed this victory of its power, by celebrating it once each year in the spring. In fact, every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection victory. Just listen to these final phrases in Psalm 118: “This is the very day God acted - let’s celebrate and be festive! Salvation now, God. Salvation now! Oh yes, God –a free and full life! Thank God – God is so good. God’s love never quits!” Where is the risen Christ today? Not defeated, but moving ahead of us into Galilee and everywhere else where defeated people are found, to show that the Cross was not a defeat, but for an eternal purpose: the salvation of everyone everywhere. You see, God has the last word. He is not here. He is risen. He's already moving ahead. You can catch up with him in Galilee. If you think that what he did before made people talk, you should see what he's about to do next. Starting today. Starting with you.