Protecting The Flock--A Sermon

This is the sermon I preached today at our alternative worship service, CrossWalk.
“Protecting the Flock”
Psalm 23
First UMC Fort Collins/CrossWalk
April 13, 2008

When I decided to do my sermon on Ps 23, I read a commentary that said, “It would be vain of any preacher to presume he or she could preach a good sermon on this psalm,” It is so well known that people have already identified everything it means to them. Well I couldn’t resist a challenge, and while I am not trying to be vain, I didn’t give up my idea of preaching on it. I will say it really doesn’t need explanation, and certainly doesn’t need a sermon. Everyone familiar with Psalm 23 savors it in different ways.

Walter Brueggemann in his book "The Message of the Psalms" begins his commentary on Psalm 23 with these words: "It is almost pretentious to comment on this psalm. The grip it has on biblical spirituality is deep and genuine. It is such a simple statement that it can bear its own witness without comment.

I read a story this week by Rosemary Brown, Methodist clergywoman from Tennessee. In the story she tells of a camping trip she had to Colorado. She sees a shepherd (cowboy hat and cowboy boots in tact) just hanging out and a sheep near a deep ravine. She wants to yell out to the shepherd to notice his sheep in danger, when a sheepdog comes up and circles the flock and runs to gather back the endangered sheep.

I was visiting with a lady from our congregation in the hospital this past week, and she writes stories for the Senior Voice, a local newspaper for those over 50. Her article this week, which she showed me from her hospital bed, was about shepherds, and the sheepdogs they have as friends.

These two stories have put a new character in Psalm 23 for me. The sheepdog. Unspoken in the Psalm, but an important part of the shepherd’s life and work. This Psalm might be for us a comfort, a source of hope and joy. But this Psalm can be more than a personal psalm for those seeking a personal peace. This psalm can be a call to action—a way of recognizing the connection we have to the Shepherd and perhaps the responsibility that being under the shepherd’s care places upon us.
Perhaps, at times in our lives, we are not the sheep, but the sheepdog.

God is indeed the shepherd. God watches over us. Over all. And God expects something of us. There are some sheep that are in danger and in need of help. And the shepherd expects us to gather everyone up and offer protection and help to someone who needs it.

Monday night. I wanted to stay home and watch the NCAA Basketball championship game. I am a huge college basketball fan and even though my team (DUKE) had already long since gone out, I wanted to watch the Kansas-Memphis showdown. My son, however, had other plans for us.

My son is 13, a 7th grader, and in need of a few extra points on his grade in World History class. He can get extra credit, he says, if he goes to the school to watch a film on Darfur. He can get even more points if one or both of his parents come. So we pile in the car and head to his school, basketball program left behind.

My husband and I admit to each other on the way to the school that we know the situation is bad in Darfur but we don’t really know that much about it, and this embarrasses us. We are both clergy who pride ourselves on our efforts to preach social justice sermons. Yet neither of us has ever even read anything in depth or been to any kind of social justice program related to the situation in Darfur. Maybe God is leading us. “God leads me in the path of righteousness for God’s name’s sake.”

My son goes to a public school, but it is a magnet school for the arts that a student can only get into by audition. I sat in the school’s concert hall, a school not everyone has access to, watching a passionately produced film about the plight of a people who live a life of destruction and death every day.

And just a few, a mere handful of people, are trying to get the word out about their plight. Brian Steidle, a former marine captain, accepted a job after his military time was complete as an “observer” in the Sudan. You see, Sudan had experienced a twenty-year civil war. Twenty years. A cease-fire was declared and he was being sent to monitor the cease-fire. To document events as they happened. To take pictures of what he saw.

The part of Sudan that he was assigned to was a region called Darfur. What he saw, what he took pictures of there was nothing like he had imagined. What he saw and documented, was a systematic execution of whole villages by the Sundanese government in power. Men, women, and children shot, or set on fire, as well as their homes, all they had.
Brian has devoted the last several years trying to get the word out. Trying to help the world to see that all is not well. That basic human decency is not the norm. That some would take their power, and wealth, at the expense of others. Brian is trying in spite of the danger and the cost. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”

And me? I sat at in an elitist magnet school concert hall, state of the art, and watched Brian’s film about the devastation and genocide in Darfur. I sat in a place “beside still waters,” a place that “restores my soul” and I watched in horror the images of people “walking through the valley of the shadow of death.” How can I not fear evil? Where is God in this?

Where ----is--- God--- in--- this?

What I came to realize, however, was that the better question is “Where am I?”

You see, God indeed is my shepherd, and I want for very little. I lead a life mostly beside calm waters. That means God expects something of me. God is calling me, the sheepdog, to help people out of their valleys of death and into new life where perhaps their cups, too, can runneth over. God is calling me. Despite my ignorance of the situation. Despite my inclination to ignore the problems in Darfur and around the globe.

God . . . called . . . me.
In a school concert hall. At a movie we only went to see for extra credit. I became aware of my responsibility to my shepherd and to that shepherd’s sheep.

What sheep shall you keep? What flock is crying out for your protection? God leads you in a path of righteousness . . . what is your path?

Amen.

Magnet Pulling

A poem  from Women's Uncommon Prayers (Morehouse, 2000).

Magnet Pulling

Today, I have the sense of the sprouted seed

Long in darkness, somnolent, confined

Suddenly pushed through the wet resistant earth

Popped to the wide blue of the roaring sky!

Blazing and warm and mellowing, the sun

Draws me, magnet--pulling--

There is only the upward, outward thrust--

Surge, our pulse, our beat and loving--

Flamboyant, new, this

Camouflage of foliage--

Does it belong to me? And what

of this heavy, bursting seedling

Inside?

"O Lord, how manifold thy works!

In wisdom hast thou made them all!"

-Mona C. Hull, Ph. D.

Mom Communion

Wednesday night, Bev Halperin and I finished our class for children and their moms.  We ended with communion. The children made stoles and chalices and then they served their mothers communion. It was a touching moment for me to witness these wonderful children serving their equally wonderful mothers the sacrament of Holy Communion.  Bone of their bone, flesh of their flesh.  It was a tender and beautiful moment in time.

scripture change

On the last post, one of my scriptures was listed as Genesis 15. I have changed it to Genesis 17: 1-5, 9-11. 

Peace,

Pam

Jesus Last Name . . . Could it be Abrahamason?

My sermon this week is part of a series addressing Jesus last name, in other words,  who Jesus is connected to. Who are his relatives? What is his lineage? Just where did his folks come from? And why does it matter?

My scriptures are taken from Genesis 15: 3-6 and Romans 4: 1-3, 9-12, 16. These scriptures are about Abraham. The sermon addresses how Jesus is connected to Abraham. Jesus Abrahamson. Being connected to Abraham today can mean you are either a Jew, a Christian, or a Muslim.  But in Jesus' day it clearly connected you solely to the Jewish people.  Abraham is in Jesus lineage as found in Matthew and in Luke.  Jesus is a faithful Jewish man.  Why do we often overlook the ties we have as Jesus followers to the Jewish faith?

Abraham's faith is parallel to Jesus' faith, I think.  Abraham had faith, as evidenced in the scripture, before his covenantal circumcision that made him Jewish. He believed God and trusted God before his conversion experience.  Jesus had faith before any of us were following him--Jesus had faith in God and his unwavering dedication to be a righteous servant is what led him to the cross.  

There is so much more we can explore between Abraham and Jesus.  What do you have to say about Jesus Abrahamson?  Let me know by posting to the comments below.  Or email me at pameverhart@fcfumc.net.

Peace,

Pam

new book I've read

I just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Hosseini who also wrote Kite Runner. I thought this book was excellent, very well written, a page turner. It is a very intense look at women's lives in Afghanistan. It made me appreciate again being a woman in America. I highly recommend this book.

How do we slow down?

We did have a wonderful time at the SS Teacher retreat. One fun thing we did was share some of our favorite books. This led to many interesting, lively conversations. We found that we didn't have enough time for everything which is always a struggle. The retreat was 24 hours because it's often hard to get women to be away from their families for longer than that amount of time. How do we as women encourage each other to slow down like Pam said and take time to renew and refresh ourselves?