Year C, Easter 4, April 21, 2013
In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing and the explosion
of a fertilizer plant near Waco Texas.
John 10:22-30 (NRSV)
(click on the scripture to read it)
I want to talk about Darkness… Not about the scientific
sense of the word, but more about our perceptions of darkness and how we react
to it.
So I ask the question, What is it like to be in darkness?
When I think about darkness I realize there are certainly
different levels of darkness.
Have you ever experienced total darkness, pitch black, that
level of darkness that you can’t even see your own hand in front of your
face? I think I experience this level
of darkness most often when I move from a really bright moment into sudden
darkness; it’s like situational blindness…in one instant, reality seems to
disappear.
Another level of darkness might be similar to the nighttime
under a crescent moon. It is still
really dark, and though you can make out the shapes in front of you, the detail
around you is uncertain.
Another level of darkness is like when the Sun is starting
to come up. The light breaking over the
horizon is different than what the moon reflects. It seems more pure, and in it we begin to see
more clearly, moving beyond that of dark uncertainties. In the sun we can see the details.
This has not been an easy week for anyone. There are so many people moving through these
different levels of darkness. From the
horror of senseless acts of violence, to the devastation of catastrophic
accidents, the darkness is among us.
There has been loss of limb and loss of life. There has been the loss of dreams and the
loss of potential. There has been the
loss of innocence and the loss of security.
Some are lost in the pitch blackness, and yet even in the darkness,
others are beginning to see clarity in the goodness around them.
This darkness is real and is not only felt from coast to coast,
but around the world. No matter where we
sit in darkness, I know the light will overcome our darkness with the rising of
the sun. The Light of the Risen Son
brings with it new vision and new life.
Psalm 23 gives us the guidance we need to survive darkness
in our own lives and begin to truly live into the light of God’s grace.
The version of Psalm 23 we heard today comes from The Book
of Common Prayer. The translation of the
Psalms we read in the Prayer Book are not the same translation that we use for
the Old and New Testament scriptures in worship. I can’t even tell you what translation the
Prayer Book uses for our Psalms, but I think they are a mesh of a variety of
poetic sources. Most of my reading of
the Psalms has been from the Prayer Book, and I think because of this
particular translation I have always associated Psalm 23 with funerals.
For me, Psalm 23 is the voice of someone who knows they are
about to die, and this psalm is their preparation for its arrival. The psalmist surely loves God and their faith
is strong, even with death on the horizon.
This week I was in a study group that used a different
translation than the Prayer Book offers…this translation is the same one that
our Sunday scriptures come from…the NRSV...the New Revised Standard Version.
In hearing Psalm 23 read from the NRSV, it became
clear. For the first time, Psalm 23 was
not about death. For the first time,
Psalm 23 was transformed from being the voice of someone preparing for death,
into the voice of someone who is preparing for life…preparing for life, and not
the afterlife, not “eternal life”, but LIFE… right here and right now.
In the Prayer Book, Psalm 23 says, “Though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
The NRSV does not use the word death at all, it says, “Even
though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me;
your rod and your staff— they comfort me.”
It says, darkest valley.
Though there are time in my life that I could have died, I
have never stared death in the face…I have never thought death was on the
horizon. I have always had trouble
relating to “the valley of the shadow of death”, but walking through the
“darkest valley”,… I’ve been there. I
know that path better than I care to admit…In my own way, I can now relate to
the psalmist journey. I now have a real
connection to this Psalm of life.
I know each of us has spent some time walking through our
own dark valleys. I believe that some of
us are in that darkness right now and in need of a guide to help us find the
right path.
When inner darkness falls on me, the instinct of fight or
flight kicks in. Flight is my preferred
method of dealing with darkness, though it is not usually the best thing for
me. When I run from my inner darkness
what I’m really doing is running deeper into it. When we run in the darkness we usually get
hurt more, and hurt others in the process.
The psalmist knew that running in the darkness was not the
way to safety and offers us this wisdom.
The translation of Psalm 23 found in the NRSV says this:
“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 right paths for his name's
sake. Even though I walk through the
darkest valley, 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 my whole life long.”
The psalmist’s wisdom comes with this guide.
PROFESS… We must profess.
Right from the start the psalmist processes, “The Lord is my Shepherd”
They are saying they belong to the Lord and they will follow where the Lord
leads them. They are professing that
they have turned their lives over to God and they will listen for God calling
their name.
REFLECT… We must not simply follow but we must reflect on
the right paths in which the Lord has taken us.
We must open our eyes and see the green pastures that surround us and
the still waters that restore our souls.
RESPOND… When we reflect on the goodness and grace the Lord
has given us we must respond without fear and embrace the comfort and security
found in the Lord.
HOW… The darkness in our lives is real and it often appears
without notice. How can we even begin to see if the path under our feet is the
right one? The psalmist gives us
instructions. The psalm tells us to walk
and not run. WALK! DON’T RUN! When we find ourselves in the darkest valleys
we are to walk through them. If we run,
we will be responding without listening to the Lord and we will only run deeper
into the darkness. If we run, we will
not be able to listen for the Lord calling our name…calling us where we will
find the right path.
When we walk we can see that even in the face of our
enemies, God’s gifts are laid before us.
Even in our darkest valleys, God is with us and we are surrounded by
good things. If we choose to look for
God’s presence in the midst of darkness you will see a new perspective. You will see your cup overflowing on the
table set before you.
But let’s face it…we are human. No matter how hard we try, there will be
times we will forget to walk. The
psalmist has this covered too. When we
forget to walk and take off running, surely God’s goodness and mercy will
follow us all the days of our lives; God’s goodness and mercy will follow us
all the days of our lives. Eventually we
will stop running, and when we do we will find that God’s love and mercy has
been there all along.
When darkness falls on us like it did this week, we need
time for our eyes to adjust…time for our hearts to adjust. When it hits with such force we have to
decide how we are going to respond…do we walk or do we run?
If our response is to run from this week’s senseless acts of
violence and catastrophic accidents, we will only get hurt more. When we run we can’t see clearly and we can’t
hear the Holy Spirit in our lives. What
we will find ourselves wrapped up in will be things associated with judgment,
hated, vengeance, and hopeless insecurities.
Our running will begin to mold us into the same types of things we are
running from.
If we choose to walk without fear we will begin to
experience things associated with compassion, hope, kindness, mercy, and the
security in God’s love. We will begin to
see God in the midst of tragedy, working through loving kindness and mighty
acts of courage. If we walk through the
guidance of Psalm 23, we will not only see God’s goodness in the midst of darkness,
but we will hear the Good Shepherd calling our names. We will become God’s
goodness as we overcome the darkness, being Christ’s light in the world.
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