"The Purpose of Living"
The 23rd Psalm - up close and very personal.
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. John T. Harries
Sunday, March 10, 2002
Texts: Psalm 23:1, St. Mark 4:35-41 & 6:47-51
Texts:
"The Lord is my shepherd
I shall not want."
Psalm 23:1
"The wind stopped and everything was calm. Jesus asked his disciples, 'Why were you afraid? Don't you have faith?'"
St. Mark 4:40
Prayer:
God who comes to us even in our darkest hour,
may your Word now be spoken,
may your Word now be heard,
may we discover your purpose for all our living,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The human mind has to be one of God's most amazing creations. When Dr. Andrew Stirling's wife, Marial, phoned me yesterday morning to ask me to preach today on account of his illness, within an instant my mind had flashed back to an experience during my student days at North Toronto Collegiate, close to 50 years ago.
Each year, I would enter the North Toronto public speaking contest. The first round of competition was called "Spontaneous Speaking." Topics were placed in a hat. Each competitor was asked to draw a subject at random, and to speak spontaneously on that topic for five minutes.
Marial Stirling's telephone call, and the feelings that it precipitated, must have prompted my mind to remember that I had, at least in some ways, been there and done this before.
To be honest, I had forgotten the topic of Andrew's sermon for today. I went running into my home office to find an Order of Service. There it is - you can see it for yourself in print - "The Purpose of Living." I think that it's a darn good sermon title, don't you agree? So instead of trying to freshen up something stale and worn from a preacher's sermon barrel, I decided to pull this same topic out of the hat, so to speak, like I used to do in the public speaking competition. My sermon topic today is - "The Purpose of Living" - that's how I used to begin my speech-making in high school!
However, preaching is much more than good public speaking. One needs a biblical text of some kind. I again wondered what Dr. Stirling had selected. The 23rd Psalm - you just heard it read as our Scripture reading.
Psalm 23 - the most popular and best-known piece of Scripture in the whole Bible. Doesn't this psalm just speak for itself? Everyone knows it. Many of you will have memorized it in Sunday School. This psalm is read at almost every funeral celebration. This psalm is known universally by believers and atheists alike. While it does summarize the purpose of all our living, what else can be said of it than that? "The Lord is my shepherd, and therefore, I shall not want?"
Again, my mind traveled back to the public speaking contest. One of the tricks of the trade - so to speak - in "Spontaneous Speaking" was to approach the selected topic indirectly, through a subject that was already familiar. In other words, for my preaching purposes this morning, to illuminate Psalm 23 indirectly through the two "storm stories" in the Gospel of St. Mark, both of which I have become very familiar with during the past few weeks. So let's go down that road and see where it will lead us.
Some of Jesus' followers were crossing the Sea of Galilee. Suddenly, without warning, a great storm blew up, like the one that hit southern Ontario this weekend. The wind started to blow. The waves began to fill their boat with water. It was about to sink. The disciples were terrified. They thought that they were going to drown.
That's exactly how my wife Barb. and I felt on February 7th. We had just arrived at Dr. Biggs' office in Newmarket to receive the results of an unexpected ultrasound and CT scan that I had had the week before.
"Barb and John," he said, "before I open your file, I want to tell you that you are going to have to turn to your faith in this matter."
I looked at Barb, and she looked at me in astonishment. Did he say, "faith," as in our Christian faith? Or did we misunderstand?
"We have cancelled John's bunion surgery that was scheduled for tomorrow," he went on. "You will have to learn about surrender," he said. "You will need to place these medical results in the hands of a Higher Power."
I felt as if I had just been run over by a Mack truck!
Following this difficult appointment with Dr. Biggs, we went directly to the hospital for a consultation with a kidney specialist.
"There's a tumour on the right side," he said, "and there's a tumour on the left, and they have to come out."
Suddenly, without warning, a great storm was blowing up. The waves were filling our boat, and we were beginning to sink.
1. ALL IN THE SAME BOAT
But let me point something out to you that I have been thinking a lot about. Notice that in the two storm stories in Mark's Gospel - one in Chapter Four, the other in Chapter Six - the followers of Jesus are all in the same boat. Not just me, but you too! I know that most of you have had days like our February 7th. I know, for a pastoral fact, that many of you who are here this morning are going through very similar circumstances right now. And I also know that even if you have never to this point lived through such a time as this, you will.
How can I know this for sure? Because this is the very nature of life itself. We are flesh and blood. We are living, breathing beings. Bad things happen even to good people.
Think about that grandfather who was trying to do his best. He has been charged with criminal negligence because his granddaughters died in that Thunder Bay motel, as he drove them from Slave Lake in Alberta to Grand Bend, Ontario. Think about that homeless man who was left to bleed to death for two days in a garage, after being thrown through the windshield of a car. Think about the violence, hunger and fear raining down on soldiers and civilians alike in Afghanistan. Think about the families of the 141 people who have been killed in Israel and Palestine during the past week, by the kind of suicide bombers who struck again last night in Netanya and Jerusalem. Or think about those who will gather at Ground Zero in New York City tomorrow evening, to turn on those eternal beams of light, in memory of loved ones lost on September 11. Or think about the scores and scores of cancer victims whom I saw last week when I went for further tests at Princess Margaret Hospital.
This is what life is like - it is always tenuous at best, unpredictable, delicate and vulnerable. We're all in the same boat on that sea in Galilee, at one with the very nature of God's good creation. Storms blow in, the winds and the waves will come to sink our ship, and we need to be ready. But what is our purpose in all of this?
2. GOD COMES ACROSS THE WATER
Notice what actually takes place in the two storms that are described by Mark. When Jesus saw what was happening in the middle of the lake, he came to the disciples, walking on the water. Understand if you dare, what this means! This is the Gospel writer's way of saying that God is the One with power enough to walk over that which is causing us to capsize. He walks on the water, into the storm, and conquers that which causes us to be afraid. He orders the wind and the waves to die down.
How does this happen? The day after receiving my medical news, I had a quiet call from our son-in-law's mother, Grace Crabbe. She has been working with cancer patients for many years.
"You are going to feel further down than you have ever felt in your life before," she said. "Then gradually, " she went on, "you will begin to pick yourself up, and when you do, you will have hope."
The Lenten wilderness has been very real for us this year. I can tell you that our family was in shock for several days. We did feel further down than ever before. But gradually, bit by bit, day by day, things began to change. Why is this? It's because God sees the storm. And he walks across the water, and as he arrives, he calms the wind, and he brings the precious gift of hope.
During that first week, Dr. Stirling invited me to lunch. One of you kindly and anonymously picked up the tab. (Thank you!) Andrew arrived at the restaurant at Yonge and St. Clair carrying this big red teddy bear under his arm, and plunked it down on the table.
"This is from Marial and myself," he said, "and from all your friends at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church. It's to keep you and Barb company at this difficult time."
After I regained my composure, the "three" of us had lunch! I have since named the bear "Stirling." He now sits on the white settee just inside our front door. For our family, he has become a symbol of how Jesus comes to us with hope. He represents God's victorious Resurrection walk across the water to rescue a sinking ship!
What is the purpose of life? To see God standing there on your shoreline, whatever that is about for you this morning, and whatever might be happening to you. The purpose of life is to recognize God's coming, to welcome his presence, to acknowledge his power to calm the waves, to open all our living to his Spirit. As Dr. Biggs said, "to turn your file over to a Higher Power." This is what the 23rd Psalm is all about - " The Lord is my shepherd, therefore, I shall not want."
3. GOD GETS INTO OUR BOAT
But I also want you to notice what God does when he comes. Jesus did not just give a friendly wave to the disciples, or simply wish them well. He did not just make a quick pastoral call, and then go on his way. Jesus did something so truly remarkable that it is hard for us to believe. He got into the boat. He stays with us where we are. He chooses to actually experience whatever storm and suffering that we are facing. He puts himself on the same cross where we are hanging. He gives himself the same burdens that we are bearing. He suffers as we suffer! That's what the amazing love of God is all about. It sits by our side!
How does this happen? I can tell you, in a whole myriad of ways. Through prayers, phone calls and e-mails, cards, letters, flowers, invitations to be together, and countless acts of kindness, each one of which is just like Jesus coming to sit with us. Two weeks ago, a friend unexpectedly knocked on our door and passed along 50 pages of helpful kidney research, which he had gathered on the Internet. Others of you have helped us to find our way through the unfamiliar maze of medical treatment.
One of you made us some delicious cookies and this ugly-looking mouse to hold onto. There's a rock inside! Can you hear it? [Tap, tap.] Do you know what this beastly little thing has come to mean to me? When the ugly and mousy things of life happen to you, hold onto the rock of your Christian faith that is on the inside. And that's just what I intend to do!
What is the purpose of life? To accept God's call for you to become the presence of Jesus in the storms. To walk across the water to those who need your help. To calm down the waves with humour, hope, knowledge, perspective and prayer. To climb into the boat to carry the crosses and to bear the burdens that all of us must endure. To become a living incarnation of the 23rd Psalm wherever its message is needed - to bring about those green pastures and to still the troubled waters in Jesus' name, to restore the soul and to bring comfort so that we shall fear no evil. To tell God's world that nothing can separate us from his love, and that we shall dwell in his presence forever.
Dutch theologian Henri Nouwen was one of the great spiritual writers of the 20th century. More than any other, he has helped us to understand how it is possible for the hope in Psalm 23rd to defeat our despair, even when we must look death in the face. His best-known book is called "The Wounded Healer."
"… The way out is the way in," he writes. "Only by entering into communion with human suffering can relief be found … Every Christian is invited to find in the fellowship of suffering the way to freedom … Jesus' broken body is the way to new life. We are called not only to care for our own wounds and the wounds of others, but also to make our wounds a source of healing power. This is the announcement of the wounded healer: 'The Master is coming - not tomorrow, but today, not next year, but this year, not after our misery is passed, but in the middle of it …'" (The Wounded Healer, p. 77, 82, 95)
This is what the 23rd Psalm is all about. When you want to remember the meaning and miracle of its message, turn to the "storm stories" in Mark's Gospel. We're all in the same boat in this life. Yet we are to see and to celebrate God's coming through the storm. We are to be his presence in the boat. We are to have faith not fear, for the Master is coming today, even now.
Psalm 23: As we lift up our prayers for Dr. Andrew Stirling, and for all those who are suffering this morning, this is the Word of God that is on our hearts. And in the days ahead, as I check into hospital for surgery, these are the very words that will still the storm.
Let me invite you to stand with me now, and to say the words of this great Psalm as you surrender yourself and all the storms of your life to Jesus the Christ, who is our Saviour …
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside still waters;
He restores my soul:
He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil:
For You are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23)
Thanks be to God for this, the purpose of all our living. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.