SERIES ON PSALM 23
II "A PASTORAL PRESENCE"
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, October 15, 2000
Text: Isaiah 40:1 -11 and Psalm 23
I received a telephone call from a very distraught funeral director. He said, "Andrew, I would like to ask you a question. Are you as open-minded as I think you are?" Well I didn't know how to answer because by 'open-minded' it could mean that I have nothing in my mind whatsoever, but realizing that he was asking a genuine question I said that I considered myself to be reasonably open-minded. He said, "I would like a favour of you. In two days time we have to bury a young child and there is no other minister available to do this and I need someone who has a very open mind about the whole event." I said, "If it is a child, of course I will do whatever I can." So the next day I was supposed to meet with the parents of the child and the funeral director but the parents didn't show up for one reason or another. The funeral director and I talked about the funeral and what we had in mind and finally he said to me, "Tomorrow, I want you to be ready for absolutely anything!" This sounded most ominous. I said, "Absolutely anything?" And he said, "Yes, I don't want to say more at this point because I don't know what will happen, but tomorrow I want you to keep a very open mind and I suggest you come to the funeral very early."
I did as he requested; I prepared a service of comfort for those who had lost a child... one of the most difficult things a minister can do. I sat outside and finally went into the funeral home an hour early and there I sat waiting until about ten minutes before the service was due to begin and there was nobody in the chapel at all, nobody within the funeral home sanctuary. Suddenly there was a tremendous rumble going down Portland Street in Dartmouth where I was at the time. The rumble got louder and louder to such a point that I realized that something enormous was about to take place. And it did! Within seconds the parking lot was filled with hundreds of gang members' motorcycles. One by one the members of the gang got off their PAGZ motorbikes with their leather jackets and their tattoos and chains and swastikas and helmets, they filed into the church quietly filling all the pews and I looked at the funeral director aghast. I said, "What am I getting my self into here?" His comment to me was: concentrate on the child. Finally the mother and father walked in, also in their leathers with their chains, swastikas on their arms. They sat down and I entered and all rose and the service began. I was terrified! What happens if I say something wrong; what will happen to me? How will they ever be able to recite the Lord's Prayer, I thought? No one will know how to respond to the prayers or the readings; what is going to happen? But I decided to remember what the funeral director had said and to think only of the dear child. I went through the service and in the middle of it the funeral director stopped me and whispered during an organ piece and said that there was a member of the congregation who would like to say a few words. I thought, "Oh my goodness, what am I going to do? If I say no, what will happen to me? If I say yes, what could be said?" I opted for the safe side; I am weak by nature. I said, "Let him speak."
The man came down the aisle with his leathers and chains and he carried a book which he opened and said, "I was watching 'The Dukes of Hazard' and I thought that this sounded real cool and would be nice to read it now." You can imagine that my heart stopped beating at that point. He began to read and he looked up and said, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want; he leadeth me." There was not, by the end of the service, a dry eye in that place. Never have I seen such tough people externally, become so soft internally. Never have any words that I have said after something has been read seem so superfluous as they did at that moment, for here we were saying farewell to a child of a prostitute who had belonged to a biker gang and the words The Lord is my shepherd had captivated the place.
There is something about these words which last week I said are universal. They are so powerful that they go right to the heart of human existence; they speak of a God who cares. They speak of a God who loves. They speak of a God who corrects. They speak of a God who gives hope. They speak of a God who nurtures his people. The words of the 23rd Psalm are universal. I want to look at one of the Psalm's stanzas when the psalmist says and writes that the shepherd will lead us beside still waters. The shepherd will lead us beside green pastures and the shepherd will restore our souls. For in these metaphorical words that the psalmist used there is a universal and timeless message that applies to every generation and why even when a child was being buried, they were words of comfort and hope.
Why? Because the psalmist says that the Lord leads us beside still waters. The metaphorical language is powerful here for it implies that there are sheep who thirst who need to be able to drink. They can't go by rushing waters because if they do it moves too fast and they cannot drink. They cannot go by torrid waters because if they do there is a danger that the sheep will get swept away. It must be by still waters that the thirst of the sheep is quenched. My friends, I think it is fair to say as human beings that we have that deep thirst of which the psalmist speaks. The great St. Augustine once said that "Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee". In other words, within the heart and soul of people who have been created within the likeness of God there is a thirst for the things of God, there is a thirst to be guided by God, there is a thirst to be led into pastures green and places where there is water that will quench the thirst within our souls. Let me tell you that the society in which we live has a very profound thirst within it. Just this past week on television as I watched the events unfolding in Jerusalem something else came on the programme. It actually became a call-in show for people who 'need guidance in their lives'. A particular person came on and people could phone in and receive all kinds of guidance in their lives and I was amazed! At 2 o'clock in the afternoon people were phoning in with the most intimate concerns of their lives. They had concerns about their finances, about marriage, about the environment and where we should put our garbage, about world peace, about the future of humanity, about whether or not they should date a particular person. It was incredible! How many people phoned in seeking guidance from a complete and absolute stranger? I couldn't help but think that there is within the heart and soul of people a deep craving for guidance and being led in their lives.
The psalmist says it is the Lord who leads the thirsty to go beside still waters, that the guidance that people really need is not just the guidance of the many voices that are out there but the guidance that comes from the words of God and from the heart of God. That is why the psalmist says this is what a thirsty humanity should do. A thirsty humanity should first of all be still and go beside quiet waters. I love the words of Abraham Lincoln who said, "It is better to keep one's mouth shut and to appear a fool than to open it and to remove all doubt." I think that many of us open our mouths and confirm that we are unwise. When I listen to the advice that was being given on that television show I must admit, with all due respect, I cringed. It was lacking in godly inspiration and wisdom. So often when we open our mouths, when we speak without the inspiration of the Spirit we can say all manner of things that in fact can indite ourselves. A story that I read not long ago was of a young woman who went for a job interview. During the interview she was asked, "Can you tell me, do you have any particular skills or abilities?" The young woman thought about it for awhile and said, "Yes, I do. I have won many awards for crossword puzzles and I am well thought of for my crossword puzzles." The interviewer said, "Actually we were looking for people who had skills useable while in office hours." She said, "Oh yes, that's right, that was during office hours!" Sometimes we open our mouths too soon, too quick to get advice, too quick to give advice, too slow to be still and quiet. I think that is one of the reasons why, in the law of Moses, in the very story of creation itself, there is set apart a Sabbath for humanity, a time of rest, a time to be still, a time to be quiet. I think that one of the great sicknesses of the society in which we live is the fact that we do not take the time to have a Sabbath. Whether you have your Sabbath on a Saturday or Sunday is dependent on tradition but the fact is that there is need for a wise society, a peaceful society, for a society that is fed, for a society that is given sustenance to stop and to listen to the word of God. There is a lack of wisdom, there is a crying out for people to tell us what to do because we do not take that time to sit beside still waters.
There is also a sense in which the shepherd leads us to green pastures. There is not only a thirst, there is also within us a hunger. A hunger, just like any appetite if not fed, will try and feed itself on other things. It will feed itself on meaningless things, it will feed itself on temporal things. One of the great challenges in the western culture in which we live is that despite all our affluence, despite all the things that we possess, all the modernities that allow us to be able to achieve our goals faster and communicate with greater speed is the fact that still, within our hearts, there is a hunger for something deeper, for a greater sense of meaning. We need to be able to graze on green pastures, the pastures that the shepherd leads us to. In the passage from Isaiah we heard of one of the most poignant and emotional moments in Israel's history: they are in exile, their land has been taken from them, they have been scattered to the four comers of the earth, Jerusalem is laid bare and a whole generation is growing up that has no knowledge of Jerusalem, no knowledge of the temple or God's redeeming grace. II Isaiah in this marvelous passage holds out a vision of the comfort that God gives to his people, the strength and sustenance that God gives is just like a shepherd who takes the lambs and holds them to his bosom, taking the people who are broken and are hungry and thirsty for God's will and kingdom, and protecting them under his arms. It is a glorious vision, a feminine vision, of God bringing the nation to his chest.
In this great vision there is a sense in which Jerusalem someday will be a place for all the sheep to return, for those who find themselves wayward and hungry and thirsty to find rest, to be a green pasture. I must admit that over this past week, reading and seeing what is happening to our beloved Jerusalem, to see people being killed and soldiers being murdered and people being shot in the street, I cannot help but think that the vision that Isaiah had, which was a universal vision of Jerusalem being a place of peace, is so often being shattered just by the whims of humanity and the traditions that so often constrain us. I know that sacred places are important for people in their traditions but it seems to me that land and sacred places pale in comparison to God. God's desire. God's will for humanity is to live in reconciliation and peace. God is spirit and those who worship God do so in spirit and in truth. The sacred places pale in comparison to God's justice. The sacred places pale in comparison to the love of the Good Shepherd. The sacred places pale in comparison to the call of God for the people he created to come together. Until Jerusalem reaches the point where it can see in the eyes of the other, can recognize in the eyes of the other, the presence of God, there will continue to be violence for time immemorial. The vision that Isaiah had, that greatest perhaps of all prophets, is of people returning to that great city and having protection and peace.
So it is that when Jesus spoke to Peter, in almost the last words he spoke to him by one of the gospel traditions, Jesus said to Peter, "I want you now then to feed my sheep. To us it says, "I want you, as a church formed in my body, to be a place where the hungry and thirsty find their nourishment and rest." The church should be a place of green pastures where the word of God is heard and people know that the Good Shepherd loves them.
There is one final cause, perhaps the highest point so far in this great Psalm. He says. "and he restoreth my soul". The soul in Hebrew is nepes, not some detached part of a body, not some place located in the middle of our chest or frame, the soul is really our whole selves, given by the ruach, the life, the spirit of God. That is why Jesus in his ministry was quick to show that the restoring of the soul was central to his ministry. Salvation was central to everything that Jesus did. But it wasn't the salvation of something separate from our whole being, it was our whole being. That is why Jesus fed the five thousand, that is why Jesus gave sight to the blind, that is why Jesus identified with the homeless and outcast, that is why Jesus would sit down with the rich and powerful young rulers, that is why Jesus would spend time on a mountain top with people who he wanted to teach. That is why he spent time with the religious leaders of his day; he did so because he understood that the salvation of the soul was the salvation of the totality of our being. For if God indeed, is the creator of us and God desires to restore us to his image, then in fact it is the whole of ourselves that is redeemed and restored by the grace and love of Jesus Christ. So when this great word went out, "the Lord restoreth our souls", the psalmist knew that it was the salvation of his whole life now, and the salvation of his life everlasting. It was the healing and the feeding of the thirsty and hungry person now and was the hope that that person would be guided even for evermore.
I believe this to be true; I believe that faith restores life. Just this week I was given a newspaper article which I loved! It was titled, 'It's Official: God Is Good For Your Health'. I love this sort of stuff; my mind immediately goes to it. A university study suggests that longevity may depend on how spiritual you are. The article by an academic who had done this study says, 'God is good for you. In the first Canadian study to take the assumption that spiritual people lead healthier lives and apply it to national mortality rates, Dr. Shaw has found that each year up to 43,000, nearly 1/5 of all deaths in this country, are potentially attributable to low levels of spirituality. That's as many annual deaths in Canada as from tobacco-related illnesses.' It seems to me that if we're going to start advertising at the Church we should put a little warning sign on our bulletins and orders of service: " If you come and attend worship at Timothy Baton, you may live longer, your health may be better and all your relatives will be able to take care of you." I think this is what we should do! I think it should be mandated by the government. Warning: if you are a person of faith you might live longer lives! Well, I mustn't take this too far but this I do want to conclude from what Dr. Shaw had said and it is the following: people who set aside in their lives time to worship a supreme being, people who spend time in community with other human beings, people who listen to a word of justice and social morality that is outside of themselves, people who practice that in their daily lives have happier, healthier and longer lives. I believe that the psalmist was on to something. It is not an insurance policy. It is not a guarantee of life success, health and happiness. It is nevertheless a statement to all of us and to the society in which we live, that if we will let the Lord take us beside still and quiet waters, we would have a more just and compassionate and healthier society.
The story of the young child did not end with the benediction. A few months later the young mother of the child was in my church and when I greeted her at the door I asked her how she was doing. She told me that in the ensuing months she had changed her life and had been baptized in another congregation. She had wanted to come and say hello to me. I gave her a hug and noticed on her lapel there was a most gorgeous silver broach flickering in the light. It was of a lamb and I commented on its beauty asking what it meant. She said, "Oh, I'm glad you noticed it. I have been wearing this now every time I go to church; it reminds me that my child is in the hands of the Good Shepherd."
My friends, the words of the Psalmist are immortal, don't you agree? Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.