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Sunday, June 28, 2009
GREEN PASTURES AND STILL WATERS: YOU RESTORE MY SOUL
THIRD IN A SERIES ON THE TWENTY THIRD PSALM
By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz
Psalm 23 Good News Bible Translation
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I have everything I need. 2 He lets me rest in fields of green grass and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water. 3 He gives me new strength. He guides me in the right paths, as he has promised. 4 Even if I go through the deepest darkness, I will not be afraid, Lord, for you are with me. Your shepherd's rod and staff protect me. 5 You prepare a banquet for me, where all my enemies can see me; you welcome me as an honored guest and fill my cup to the brim. 6 I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life; and your house will be my home as long as I live.
A week ago we had the annual meeting in Grand Junction of all United Methodist pastors and laypersons from our three state area. It was a good time together for several reasons. Our new Bishop, Elaine Stanovsky, did a great job in leading us through our worship experiences and through our business sessions. On Friday morning at 6:30 about twenty of us from St. Andrew were present at the breakfast meeting honoring fellow church member, Carol Harr, who received the major award from the Church and Society group for her outstanding (quiet) work for peace and justice. She received the Peacemaker of the Year Award.
On Friday evening there was another great event for our church folks as our Holy Pretzel choir performed their “Detours” concert for an audience of about 400 lay persons who were thoroughly inspired by the message of God’s faithfulness through the detours and changes of life. The choir got the longest standing ovation I have ever seen at an annual conference session, not only because of the important message they brought but also because of the excellence and competence with which they sang and performed. It was their 13th concert in 7 days!!
At the end of the session on Saturday afternoon there were another twenty or so people who drove to Grand Junction to celebrate the ordination of Jerry Herships as an Elder in Full Connection in the United Methodist Church. It was a sacred and joyful worship service and reception afterward for all of us. It now means that as a fully ordained United Methodist Pastor, Jerry can do everything and anything!
There was also an additional time of holy wonder for me as Judy and I drove over and back from Grand Junction, not only driving through the incredible mountain scenery that we all enjoy from living in Colorado, but especially seeing the grandeur of Glenwood Canyon. On the way back home we stopped at one of the rest stops and just watched the water of the Colorado River for a few minutes. The place where we stopped was fairly calm but we had seen some serious rapids through some earlier parts of the canyon. To be in that setting and to be beside the water was refreshing. It restored our souls just as the Psalmist says.
Water in the Bible has different meanings. When I officiated at an outdoor wedding last summer, it started to sprinkle just as the bride arrived at the end of the aisle in front of me, and I began by saying that in the Bible rain is a sign of blessing! It sprinkled just enough to bless the couple and then we proceeded.
Water in the Bible is first seen as a symbol of chaos and destruction. That is the way the Bible begins with the book of Genesis that tells us that in the beginning, when God was about to create the heavens and the earth, something did already exist, and that something was the turbulent watery chaos that the spirit of God was already beginning to calm and to control. And when Psalm 29 describes the thunderous voice of God over the Mediterranean Sea, God is still calming the chaos and the lightning storm. When Jesus, in a story that appears in all four gospels, is described as calming the storm and even walking on the stormy waters, the writers are telling us that when our lives are that chaotic and turbulent, Christ can calm those storms as well. Have you discovered that yet?
In Psalm 23 it is quiet and peaceful water surrounded with a peaceful green landscape to which God leads us. Rabbi Kushner tells us that he once heard a landscape architect say that the most peaceful scene that can be framed by a window or patio door is grass leading to water seen through trees, and those of you who get to the golf course regularly tell me that part of the joy of the game is, not just following the frustrating little white ball, but, of course, being in the entire setting of grass, trees, water and sky.
Something good happens to us when we do what the Psalmist suggests, to take time in God’s creation with landscape and water. There is the story on your bulletin about the Hasidic rabbi whose son would often spend time alone in the forest. The rabbi asked the boy why he felt he needed to go to the forest to find God when God is the same everywhere. The son said, “I know that God is the same everywhere but I am not.”
We may identify with that. We feel close to God when we experience the grandeur of God’s creation. We feel a new sense of awe and wonder when we are in a place like Glenwood Canyon or at the top of a ski run overlooking several other mountain peaks. And, if we have ever felt wonder and awe, then we have had a spiritual or religious experience because those feelings are the beginning of knowing God’s power and presence. Albert Einstein talked about how awe and wonder, in the creation, are the source of all true art and science. He said that “all who pause to wonder and who stand rapt in awe” will truly live. We feel that spiritual feeling in the mountains or in pastoral settings and beside the still waters.
The writer of Psalm 23 says that God will lead us to the places and the times that will refresh us, just as a shepherd leads the sheep to a place of grass for nourishment and water to drink. God, like that shepherd, will guide us to the times and places that refresh us and restore our spirits.
Where are those experiences and places that restore your soul? I hope that being with others for worship is one of those places, where music and silent prayer and scripture can be a wellspring of encouragement and re creation for you. I know there are other places and experiences that God uses to help restore you.
Reading the psalms is one of those places for me. Music is one of those places for me. The last musical experience I had that was so refreshing and reviving was last week when our 51 youth performed their concert at the annual conference event. I found myself smiling almost the whole time. What do you do that helps you smile most of the time and helps revive your drooping spirit? I was in the front row and could see each of our youth whether they were in the chorus or offering a solo or playing an instrument, and I just smiled.
I was so moved by the message of God’s faithfulness through the detours we all experience in our lives and by the faith we have that God will lead us to the places that restore our souls in all the times of life, even in the valley of the shadows and even in the darkest valleys. The audiences that our choir sang for included people who also know this: the youth in the correctional facility, the folks in homeless shelters, the residents of nursing homes and even members of some of the churches where they sang.
Only God can truly revive our souls. I saw that again this week as I reread a book by Dr. David Wolpe called, Why Faith Matters. I have quoted from it before. Wolpe tells of having surgery for a benign brain tumor and then a couple of years later being diagnosed with a form of cancer that he has been in treatment for. I have mentioned his book before. He writes that it may be especially in those times of suffering that we can sense God being closer to us than ever before.
Does that make sense to you? It did to the psalmist. The phrase in Hebrew that we know in the words, he restores my soul, can be translated in other ways. I encourage you to look at the different versions of this psalm in your bulletin and find a phrase that means the most to you in your walk with God: God gives me new strength God renews my strength God gives new life to my soul. God, you let me catch my breath! God restores my spirit. God renews my life. God revives my drooping spirit
The one I like best is not on that list. It is from a translation and commentary by Jonathan Alter. He says that we need to know what the Hebrew word is here and where it is used already in the Bible. The word is nefesh and it is used in Genesis 2 in the second creation story where God forms a man from the dust of the earth and breathes into the man the breath of life. With that breath the man becomes a nefesh, a living being, a soul. Psalm 23 gives us the message that when we have almost stopped breathing, God restores us and breathes into our drooping spirits the essence of life.
Have you ever felt that low? Have you ever felt that down, that discouraged, almost lifeless? Most of us have been there at one time or another. The promise that God can restore our lives, can revive our drooping spirits, is probably the reason why this psalm is so popular with people in AA and other twelve step groups. The serenity prayer is a popular resource and the 23rd Psalm is a popular resource with people making some significant change in their lives and in their behaviors. We believe in the power of twelve step groups here at St. Andrew and I am so pleased to say that last week another twelve-step meeting was added in our building. Now, in this building and in LIFEspot during the week, we have EIGHT groups using the twelve step methods to overcome dependency and addiction. Those groups, I believe, with their practice of mutual support and mutual accountability and their looking to God as the power above all powers, are the closest thing to the first century church that we can know about.
By the way, those eight groups are just a few of the over 100 different classes and group meetings that use our building Sunday through Saturday of most weeks. We are a well used building and we are out of space but planning on dealing with that problem on July 12.
What are those places and times and experiences where you can put yourself where God has a chance to revive your drooping spirit? I hope worship is one of those experiences. I hope you are committed to being in a worship setting regularly and faithfully so God can do that for you.
I am closing this morning with a prayer from the current issue of the Devotional Resource Alive Now. We will be printing this in our prayer resource book available for our time of discernment as we move toward our vote on July 12 to expand ministry and space.
I think we can just pray this prayer together now:
O God, Our hearts understand the children of Israel. They were witnesses to your great provisions. With awe they watched your miraculous hand at work in their lives. They saw you make a path through the Red Sea for their escape. You rained down bread from heaven for them to eat. Time and again their enemies were defeated by your might. Yet still they grumbled and struggled, fearing the Promised Land ahead of them, looking back with longing to their enslavement. O God, We confess that like the children of Israel we cry out for what is familiar, preferring the predictable routine of life in Egypt over the unfamiliar yet extraordinary future you have for us. History shows you have never failed us, but in our fear we wrestle to hang on to the past. Growth requires the labor pains of the new, and change challenges our comfort level. We want the Promised Land, a place of purpose and new life. Yet our hearts are often timid and uncertain. O God, Our heartfelt desire and delight is to be led by your Spirit to new places of ministry and service and to the places of worship and fellowship that bring you greatest joy. Help us to walk without hesitation in the path you set before us, never allowing fear to take us back to Egypt. Give us hearts of obedience and action. Give us eyes wide open to see your big plan and join you. Give us imagination to see all the wondrous possibilities of the Promised Land. And give us courage, O God, to be part of your lifelong journey of rebirth.