Monday, April 22, 2013

The 23rd Psalm


April 21st, 2013       “The 23rd Psalm”        Rev. Heather Jepsen

Psalm 23 and John 10:22-30

          The 23rd Psalm is perhaps the most beloved of all our Scripture.  Of every piece of literature that people have written about God, and specifically about God’s love, nothing transcends time and applies to all generations like the 23rd Psalm.           

          When we explore the words of the Psalm we find out why the images it presents are so timeless and meaningful.  This morning I would like to spend some time with the Psalm and examine each of the Psalm’s lines.  Feel free to follow along using the Bible in your pew.

          As you know, the Psalm begins, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”    I shall not want.  What a powerful statement that becomes in our modern culture.  All we do is want.  We want higher salaries, a better retirement, a bigger house, a nicer lawn, a better car.  We want and want and want more of this and more of that.  We are possessed by our desires for what we do not have. 

          And not all of our wants are negative things.  When I think of wanting the first thing that pops into my mind is that I want to sell my house in Washington State.  I want to be more financially secure; I want to be more settled here in Warrensburg, I want to be able to stop relying on the generosity of others and to support my family myself.  Expand that thought and we find it is not simply about material possessions, I want more good things for myself and my family.  Safety for my children, that they would have good opportunities, good education, that my parents would be in good health and happiness in retirement.  It’s not about greed, I want good things for those I know and love. 

And yet, “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”.  When we say that, we are making a statement about our faith.  We are saying I believe that God will provide for me and for those that I love, God will give every good gift that I need.  Similar to “give us this day our daily bread”, God will provide for me one day at a time.  If I let the Lord be my shepherd, then I shall not want, rather I will trust in the goodness of God.  It can be a challenge.

          As the Psalm continues it explores the ways that God provides for us.  “He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.”  When we think of ourselves as humans, this image brings to mind feelings of peace and rest.  I always imagine laying in the deep green grass on a sunny afternoon, the day is not too hot, there is a light breeze, and not a tick in sight.  I also imagine myself walking beside a cool lake or a gentle creek.  Can you see those gentle places, those green pastures and still waters?  Sounds like vacation doesn’t it, don’t you want to be there right now?  The image is a rich one for us. 

If we continue with the image of sheep presented in the first line then we find something deeper, we find a God who provides more than a peaceful moment.  Green pastures are food for a sheep, still waters are drink.  God provides for the needs of the body as well as the needs of the soul.  Food, drink, nourishment; these are the things we can count on God for.  The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; God gives food, drink, nourishment to us.  God provides because God is God.

          “He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.”  In right paths shelter is provided and danger is averted.  In right paths we are safe and our lives are productive.  And, as many of you know, if you spend time walking in the paths of the Lord, you are often walking in a different direction than most.  Like a salmon swimming upstream, you are going against the grain, going against the easy way.  You are walking in paths of righteousness. 

God keeps me alive through food, water, and shelter, and God does these things for God’s name.  God does these things because it is in God’s nature.  God does these things to help me stay on right paths, to help me to continue to work for justice and peace in the world around me.  God’s fundamental character is one of goodness and mercy, so will mine be if I am following in right paths, and that shall reflect on the name of God. 

            “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil; for you are with me.”  This phrase touches each of us deeply.  Who has not felt at some moment in their life to have been in the valley of the shadow of death?  As a nation we have been there several times this week.  From the bombings in Boston, to the explosion in Texas, this nation sometimes appears to be nothing more than a valley of death’s shadow. 

We have all also been there in our personal lives, and we have witnessed loved ones on that journey as well.  Whether from emotional, physical, or spiritual distress we have all been in this dark valley.  We have all been in this darkest of places where everything around us tells us that we are at our most alone.  Yet, “I will fear no evil; for you are with me.”  Though we feel utterly alone in our suffering, God is with us.  Though as a nation we seem to bog down in sorrow, God is with us.  And though our loved ones suffer, God is with us and them.  Ours is a God who knows suffering, so ours is a God who knows that dark valley.  The presence of God helps us to remain strong in the face of fear.  At the moment of greatest threat, God still provides. 

          “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”  In shepherd’s terms the rod is present for our safety, the rod is used as a weapon to protect the sheep.  God provides protection from things in the world that seek to harm us.  The rod is that straight stick, weapon of choice, that can knock a threatening intruder upside the head.  The rod can also represent the royal scepter, for our God though a shepherd is also a king. 

The staff is the crook that pulls the sheep into line, the crook that pulls the sheep out of the dark valley.  In my silly imagination the shepherd’s crook makes me think of that big hooked stick that would pull unsuspecting performers of the stage in old comedies.  As a pastor I find comfort that just when I am about to make a fool of myself, God’s crook will yank me off the stage.  The rod and staff are a comfort for they keep the sheep protected and keep the sheep in line.  God works to keep us on those paths of righteousness, and to rescue us in times of peril. 

          “You prepare a table before me, in the presence of my enemies.”  God provides for us even in the presence of those who seek to harm us.  I always envision, sitting at a table laden with food, while those who seek to harm me crowd around.  In remembering our reading from last week, Jesus encountered the disciples at breakfast.   Our God is a God who invites us to sit and eat.  God cares for us spiritually and physically even in the midst of a dangerous world. 

As a clergy person I find a connection here to the sacrament of Communion.  When we share a meal around the table in community, then that becomes the table that the Lord has prepared for us.  The Lord’s Supper is a meal that will sustain us as we journey through the dark valleys of life.  Whether dining with friends, strangers, or even foes, God meets us when we gather at table.

          “You anoint my head with oil.”  God marks us as separate, as special.  God names us, claims us, and marks us as one of God’s own.  Here I find a connection to the sacrament of Baptism where we are marked as God’s own people.  In Baptism God anoints us as God’s own and we are forever bound to God, through all time and eternity.  I also am reminded of the times I have anointed folks with oil.  Weather for healing or for blessing, making a physical sign of the spiritual mark of God is a powerful moment in our lives.

          “My cup overflows.”  I love this image of the cup of blessings, so full that it sloshes over the side.  Not only does God provide for us what we need, God provides for us abundantly.  Hence, I shall not want.

          “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”  Wherever we go, good things will follow in our paths, because we are on the path of the Lord.  I love this idea that goodness and mercy are not only marks of God, but marks of the lives of God’s people.  I am reminded of cartoon characters who leave a path of blossoming flowers in their wake.  Some people leave messes and heartache behind them but not those who follow the shepherd.  They leave paths of goodness and mercy.

“And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.”  I think this is my favorite line.  Forever God will provide.  Forever God will be in relationship with us.  Not just in the green pastures and dark valleys of this lifetime but throughout all of eternity.  I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  Even when I feel like I have turned away or am trapped in that darkest valley, I know that I dwell in the house of the Lord.  It is a powerful word to give hope to the hopeless. 

          In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks of the shepherd’s relationship with his sheep.  “My sheep hear my voice.  I know them, and they follow me.”  Those who had the ears to hear could recognize that Jesus was the Messiah, could see that he was in fact the good shepherd.  The sheep need not only to hear the shepherd’s voice, but they need to see clearly enough to recognize that he is the shepherd in the first place.

          Being sheep of the good shepherd comes not because we are the best looking, the brightest, or because we have earned our way there.  Being one of these sheep is a gift of grace.  It is grace alone that provides for us in green pastures and dark valleys.  And it is grace alone that scoops us into the Father’s hands and keeps us safe there forever.  What a wonderful God we have that provides for us in such a way.

          As you know, the Psalms were written as songs.  They were meant to be set to music.  So this morning, as we have explored this Psalm in words, we will now experience it in music.  Beyond singing a few settings of the Psalm, I have brought music to listen to.  This is from John Rutter’s Requiem and is entitled “The Lord is my Shepherd”.  I am certain that like me, some of you here have performed this piece yourselves.  This is one of my favorite things, and whenever I read the 23rd psalm I hear this music in my head.  I invite you now to sit back, close your eyes, and let yourself be enveloped by this setting of the 23rd Psalm. 

Monday, April 8, 2013

Walking Wounded


April 7th, 2013          “Walking Wounded”          Rev. Heather Jepsen

John 20:19-31

          Everyone knows the story of doubting Thomas.  Even those outside the faith sometimes use the phrase to refer to a person who just seems to doubt the stories or promises of others.  This morning, we return once again to this famous text, looking for a new meaning for our own lives of faith and doubt.

          The reading begins on the very day that the women discovered the empty tomb.  It is Easter evening, but instead of going out into the world to preach the resurrected Christ, the followers of Jesus have locked themselves away.  Having seen one of their own killed just a few days before, they are hiding from the Jews, afraid that their own lives are at risk.

          Suddenly the risen Christ appears to them, locked doors being no barrier to him.  The scene is striking as Christ mysteriously appears standing among them.  It would be like us looking around to realize all of a sudden that he was here and we didn’t even notice him come in.  He says “Peace be with you” and then he does a strange thing.  The text makes it clear that before he says anything else, he shows them his wounds.

          I think that as readers we almost skip over this part of the text to get to the next part where Jesus gives the disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit.  But to skip this part of the text is to make a huge mistake.  If we simply imagine the scene that night, we can see how important this would have been.

          Jesus says, “Peace be with you” and he shows them his hands and his side.  Imagine it, the first appearance to many of the disciples and the first thing Jesus does is not to say, “hey, I’m ok” or “hey, I got resurrected” but to say in essence, “look, here is where they put the nails in my hands.”  Then Jesus would have opened his robe or lifted his shirt, so that the disciples would see not only the wounds on his hands but the large gash in his side where the spear entered his body.  It is only after Jesus makes his suffering clear that he goes on to give the group the gift of the Holy Spirit.

          Enter our friend, doubting Thomas.  Thomas was not there that night and so when the disciples tell him what they saw and experienced he is reluctant to believe.  It is important to note that even though he doubts, Thomas is no less a part of the community of disciples.  In fact, despite his doubts about the resurrection, Thomas is still considered numbered among the twelve.  In our modern church community, where similarity of belief is often so important, we could learn a lesson from the earliest faith community which had room for the biggest questions and doubts.  The disciples do not try to convince Thomas to believe through peer pressure or coercion.  Rather, they seem to have the faith that Thomas will come to belief in his own time.  I think this is a great evangelical lesson for all of us.

          Thomas says that he won’t believe unless he himself sees the wounds of the Lord.  Again, we have this strange emphasis on the wounds of Christ, rather than on his healed body.  Some scholars have wondered if Thomas wasn’t the unnamed beloved disciple who appears so often in the gospel of John.  If so, perhaps Thomas himself was the only male apostle to witness Jesus’ crucifixion.  If that was the case, maybe he is unable to believe in a resurrected Christ who does not bear the wounds of the cross which would have been so vivid in his own memory. 

          A week passes in a stalemate, the disciples claiming to have seen the Lord and Thomas refusing to believe unless he sees Jesus’ wounds himself.  At the end of the week, the disciples are again gathered behind closed doors, but this time Thomas is among them.  Jesus appears once again among them and once again he says, “Peace be with you” and goes about the business of showing off his wounds, asking Thomas not just to look at his wounds but to actually touch and see that they are real.  He says to Thomas “Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.  Do not doubt but believe.” 

          The text doesn’t say exactly if Thomas really touched the Lord’s wounds or not, but I believe that he did.  I think Thomas really wanted to know that the very Jesus who was hanging on the cross a week ago was now in his presence, still bearing the open wounds of his suffering.  Thomas needs to know that the suffering of Christ was real, and not simply a show put on by a magical non-human being.  Though Christ has been resurrected, he has not lost the marks of his suffering.

          I think that there is a very powerful message in this passage for us.  Many preachers will stand in their pulpits and tell you that God will make everything OK, that God will take away all the hurt and pain in your life.  While I want to believe those promises, I think it is important to remember that just because we have new life in Christ it doesn’t mean that we aren’t still wounded people.  And just because we are believers, it does not mean that we will live without suffering now or in the future.  If Christ is to be our true model for faith, then we must recognize that he still carries the wounds of his suffering.  Even though he has a healed body, he still carries the fresh scars of his rejection and humiliation upon the cross.

          Author and pastor Frank Honeycutt wonders if this shouldn’t be more significant in our life as a church.  Our liturgical practice of sharing the peace of Christ with each other comes from this text.  What if we truly modeled our passing of the peace after Jesus?  “Peace be with you Jim, take a look at my cardiac bypass incision.”  “Peace be with you Jenny, have I told you about how I can’t pay for my medications this month?”  “Peace be with you Frank, I want to tell you that I am still struggling over the loss of my brother and that I never said I was sorry.”  “Peace be with you Isabel, you know my grandson is still mixed up with drugs don’t you?”

          The truth is that we are all wounded people.  So many times when people ask how we are, we responded with a “good” or a “fine”, lying straight to the face of those that we love.  As Christians we are sometimes embarrassed by the suffering in our own lives.  We wonder why, if we are good Christians and have faith; our lives are still a mess of suffering and sadness.  We often worry that if others were to find out about how we really live, all the things we worry about and struggle through, that they will think less of us as people or as Christians.

          The reality of our faith is that suffering is still a part of our lives.  The uniqueness of our faith is that we have a God who suffers alongside of us.  We have a God who was broken and wounded physically and emotionally upon the cross and who still carries those wounds in his healed body.  God promises us a certain amount of healing in our lives, and I think we all can agree that our lives are better with God than without.  But, even though we are a healed people, we also carry the scars of our past and current hurts in our bodies.  Perhaps if we approached our faith from an honest position about our suffering, we would find that we have a more honest and authentic faith.

          Like Jesus Christ, we are the walking wounded.  Wherever we go we take with us the scars of our past and the sufferings of our present.  If we are to be true to our faith, we must be honest with ourselves and others about the pain in our lives.  It makes us no less Christian to admit our own wounds.  Rather, it models us more after our Lord.  The first thing that the resurrected Jesus did among his disciples was to show them his wounds.  The first thing he did was to show them that he was in fact human, he was just like them, and even the miracle of the resurrection could not take away the scars of his rejection. 

          This Sunday after Easter, we can be confident in God’s promise of new life for each of us.  But we must also face the reality that we still carry the wounds of the past.  Like Jesus, it is our honesty about these wounds which will help us to reach out to others with the message of the gospel.  We are blessed to be the walking wounded.  Amen.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

This is Easter!


March 31st, 2013     “This is Easter!”    Rev. Heather Jepsen      

Luke 24:1-12

This is Easter

Early dawn –
the air is cool
and crisp
the sun just breaks at the horizon
with reluctance the women make their way
to the darkness of the tomb

Early dawn –
Mary the mother of James
Joanna
Mary Magdalene
and the nameless others
together the women move through the quiet morning

Early dawn –
the women smell the sweetness
of the wild sage warmed by the rising sun
the women smell the spices that they carry
the spices that they carry for him
the heavy odors of myrrh and frankincense comfort their hearts

Early dawn –
the women travel together in silence
the women travel together in pain
it is the third day since he died
the third day that they have been without their leader
the third day that they have been lost
the third day that they have been alone

Early dawn –
the women’s hearts are heavy
hearts that once knew great joy
hearts that once held great hope
hearts that believed in a promise
a Messiah

Early dawn – and the women slowly walk to Christ’s tomb

But wait
what
what is this?

The stone has been rolled away –
who has come here
who has done this
surely no man is strong enough to move this stone

The stone has been rolled away –
the women rush into the cave
the women rush into the tomb
the women rush into the cold dark place of death
to find . . . that he is gone

The stone has been rolled away –
he is gone
where is the Messiah
where is Jesus
look, here are his garments
has someone taken the body

O God, what has happened to him?

Blinding light –
a crack of sound
a flash
the women are
without sight

Blinding light –
suddenly there appear
two men
dazzling
angels

the women
their hearts beat with fear
what can this be
where is Jesus?

Blinding light –
a vision
a voice
“Why
Why do you look
for the living
among the dead?”

Blinding light –
a flash of memory
don’t you remember
he said he would rise

Blinding light –
and behold
he HAS risen

Run –
the women scatter out of the tomb
the women run out of the cave
the women drop their spices and
hurry back through the morning sun
hurry back through the fields of sage
hurry back to tell
to tell what they have seen

Run –
the women arrive to the others
and breathlessly they tell
the words spill from their mouths
in a frenzy

something’s happened
the stone was rolled away
we were worried
light
angels
we were scared
he is gone
he is not there
he has risen

he is gone
he is not there
he has risen

Foolish women
poor foolish women
what are you saying?

he is gone
he is not there
he has risen

the men are perplexed
this can not be
for surely this is not the way the world works

and they turn away
for he is dead
they saw it
they know it
it is true

foolish women

in Peter
a flicker of hope
a glimmer of faith
a warming of the heart
an eagerness to know

Run –
can it be true
Peter hurries to see
and yes
the stone has been moved

yes Jesus is gone
look
see here
here are the linens
wrapped
wrapped and set
set for a burial
a burial that could never last

This is Easter –
the dark shroud of death conquered
conquered by the bright light of resurrection
the hope of new life
the eagerness to tell
tell what has happened
tell what we have seen
he is gone
he has risen

This is Easter –
the world is not what we imagine
the world is not what we thought
the stone has been rolled away
the unbelievable is true
the hope is real
there is a new life
a new life for all

This is Easter –
despite our fears
despite our doubts
despite what we think we know
we set of running to the tomb
we peer into the mystery
and low and behold
here are the linens
here is the empty death bed
here is our world turned on its head

This is Easter –
life has won
no death can hold this Jesus
no death can hold this Messiah
no death can hold this people

This is Easter –
Christ has risen
the old life is gone
let a new life begin
begin today

This is Easter-
we have seen it
and we stand amazed

Amen