A Battle Cry: Psalm 23
Grace and peace to you,
My sisters and brothers and siblings in Christ
As seasons wane,
And Creation draws its energy inward
To sustain life
In these days of stillness
May we turn towards the One,
In these days of chaos and uncertainty
Who will shepherd us O God,
Beyond our wants
Beyond our needs
From Death into Life
Amen
(pause)
Every Thursday,
As time transforms from the end of the day,
Morphing into something new
I sit in the silence,
I lament to the Holy Spirit
My struggles with the small
But mighty number of students
That gather for a Word and a Meal.
And in conversations with fellow colleagues,
It seems my experience
Is not isolated.
And the why’s begin to reverberate
Perhaps its due to the beginning of the academic year,
Perhaps the word that comes from within,
That they are receiving,
Along their spiritual journey
Is just to remain still,
Perhaps even,
Is because they see the flaws
Of the rhetoric that we subscribe to,
Instead of the WORD from GOD we should cling to.
(pause)
We profess publicly
That we believe in this life altering
Reformation
Movement.
This movement which opened up a starving people
To the life renewing Spirit of truth,
Giving them life,
Through the Scriptures
But did we leave
That transforming revival moment,
Nailed to that ancient door?
(pause)
 Such a juxtaposition
of images
in our Scriptures
before us,
about God,
that causes me
to question
how would someone who is still wondering about faith
about how Grace
and Mercy,
and Peace
And community
Is defined
Here?
(pause)
In the Psalms,
Words spill out from within
A nameless poet and singer
Of an ever present Hope
Regardless of what we are facing
Loss
Frustration
Abandonment
Even
Bewilderment
At the state of this,
Our world
Outside our door.
(pause)
The Creator God,
Always
There
Always
Loving us
Marking and
Sealing us as God’s Own
(pause)
And we can imagine
That this Psalm
Is being chanted
Whispered
Spoken
In many sacred and ordinary places
Like in the tattered remains
Of the echoes of thriving life
In Puerto Rico, and many other places,
Where we, here in these “united” States
Have long deemed as
unimportant
(pause)
These words,
are giving comfort to those gathered
In living rooms
And around dining room tables
Trying not to acknowledge the void left,
The empty chair,
The light diminished,
Emulating from a sister or brother,
A parent or a friend
Who simply wanted to enjoy a night out,
Dancing at a club
Or listening to a concert
Or simply walking down a street,
Enjoying the last bit
Of a fading summer’s breath.
(pause)
This Psalm
Reminding us
That we should not fear,
Because the comforter is among us,
Is spoken during weeping
Outside of doctor’s offices
Community clinics
And hospital rooms
Where families are caught between
The care that needs to be given,
And the emptiness in their pockets
And the absence of access
To health insurance,
So much so
That their bodies will
Always remain
Physically broken
And scarred
(pause)
So,
We should not be surprised,
When people shy away from the proverbial four walls
Because if we are confessional,
We have built up a façade
Of what it means
To be Christian
Because it seems,
As the collective body of believers,
And if we are bold to say,
Christians,
Especially as confessing that
This is a Christian nation,
Christians have abandoned the Table
Where the gift of Life,
The Bread and Wine
The Body and Blood
Of Jesus
Is there,
For us FREELY
Without cost
Without price.
(pause)
Instead,
We have replaced it
With an ideology
Of the dominant, oppressing culture
That offers grace,
With narrow conditions
We have replaced the shepherd
With a callous King,
Who seemingly has no patience
Instead of teaching,
He demands obedience
Instead of freedom to experience life
He demands perfection
And those that he gathers at his table,
Is merely just for show
Parading his brute force
And false might
There is no room for error,
with this king,
I cannot see this king
In our Gospel
As Jesus nor the One,
Who loves us
Forgives US
In spite of everything that we do.
(pause)
Because we have allowed ourselves,
Collectively as
A dysfunctional body of faith
We have preferred to segregate ourselves,
With people that we are comfortable with
Instead of those that express their righteous anger
Jolting us back to kneeling at Jesus’s feet,
To do the work that we are called to do,
Because of the forgotten commandment
Of loving one another,
Which means
Working for wholeness
Equaling wellness and health care
Which means
Mercy,
Equaling restorative justice
Forgiveness of those who break the law,
Which means
Grace
Equaling understanding
Not reluctance and apathy
Which means
Peace
Equaling cooperation
Not
Devastation.
(pause)
We have replaced
A theology of the Cross
With one
Of glory
A Theology of Glory,
As one Elder stated on Facebook yesterday,
“Jesus without the wounds of suffering
And death.
Ultimately,
That depiction of Jesus
Ignores real suffering
And death
In the world.”
Are we,
In our constricted understanding
Of the liberation
Of God’s Word
Projecting this miseducation out
From these collective spaces
Until,
Psalm 23
Becomes this desperate CRY
Of where is Our Shepherd
When we don’t hear an answer?
(pause)
No wonder,
Psalm 23
For many of us
Broken
Searching
Fearful
Is a constant chant
Because
We are not ashamed
To say,
We
Need
God!
(pause)
But even here,
In these words
There is Good News
It is because the Creator
IS AFFIRMING
IS PRESENT
We have NO REASON TO FEAR
It is because the Creator
Calls ALL OF US
To the Banquet
REGARDLESS
Of our shortcomings
Our failings
(pause)
It is because
We are shown love
Through being FED
We should be MOVED
To do what we have been commanded
THIS important work of building one another UP
That lies before us.
Because this
Reformation movement
DID NOT END
500 years ago
It is a battle CRY FOR THE HERE AND NOW
IT is what we need NOW
So that
Psalm 23
Becomes a prophetic proclamation
“The Lord is my Shepherd
I will never,
Ever
Be in want!”
Thanks Be to God.
