July 8, 2018 Jonah: The Compassion of God

For many years I thought of myself as being fairly literate when it comes to technology.  I’ve realized in more recent years that if I ever was, I am no longer.  Part of it may be my impatience at learning new things.  I don’t like to read user manuals and I don’t like to spend time learning how to operate a new device.  I learn the few basics so I can operate the device and that’s about it.  So I’m often surprised when I learn something new.  I remember learning a while back about a feature of my phone that I did not know existed.  If you push the home button twice it shows all the apps that are running in the background.  I checked it yesterday and there were 56 different apps running, all of which were using power and memory and affecting the operation of my phone in ways of which I was not aware.

I think there is a spiritual parallel to those apps running in the background.  I believe there are, for lack of a better word, “apps” that run in the back of our minds, operating like a software program, telling us how to act and think.  Those “apps” are a combination of our experiences, our influences, what we have been taught, and a collection of other factors.  Those “apps” determine how we see people, how we see the world, and how we think about things in general.  What this means is that you and I may not be the independent thinkers we believe ourselves to be.  We have been conditioned to see ourselves, to see others, and even to see God in particular ways and here is what we need to understand about those “apps” – much of the time, we are not aware those “apps” are running in the background of our minds and we are not aware of how much power those “apps” exert over our thinking.  Some of them are powerful for the good, and some of them, the not so good.

As we conclude our series of the book of Jonah this morning, I think it’s fair to say that Jonah had some very faulty “apps” at work in his heart and mind.  They were “apps” that caused him to look upon the Ninevites in a negative way.  But it wasn’t just the way in which he thought of the Ninevites; it was also the way in which he thought of God.  Jonah wanted God to deal with the Ninevites in a way that suited Jonah, not God.  Jonah, we will see, was not at all pleased with the way God chose to deal with the people of Nineveh.  What Jonah needed to learn was The Compassion of God.

Follow along with me as I read the fourth and final chapter of Jonah, although we will start with the final verse of chapter three, because that is what causes Jonah’s angry outburst in chapter four.

Jonah 3:10 – 4:11 –

10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring the destruction he had threatened.

1 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.

3 Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

4 But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

5 Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city.

6 Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant.

7 But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered.

8 When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It would be better for me to die than to live.”

9 But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”  “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”

10 But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.

11 And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”

Chapter four begins by telling us that Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry.  Why?  What terrible calamity came about to make Jonah angry?  What terrible condition of the wrold stirred his anger?  What great injustice took place to bring about such anger?  Jonah was angry for a really, really bad reason.  Here’s what he says in verse 2, and you can almost see him stamping his feet and throwing a fit as he says it – is this not what I said when I was still at home?  That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish.  I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.  Jonah, amazingly, is angry about God being a God of love and compassion.

Jonah did not flee to Tarshish because of fear or anxiety about the task God gave to him.  Jonah did not flee because of any personal hardship he might experience.  Jonah did not flee because he felt ill-equipped for his task.  Jonah fled because he did not want to see God demonstrate love and compassion.  Think about that for a moment.  What Jonah wanted was not compassion, but a ring-side seat to a Sodom and Gomorrah style destruction of a people he detested.  I have to admit that I’ve not always had the most positive attitude about some people, but I try to keep that to myself, because I recognize it’s wrong to feel that way.  Jona, however, didn’t even have the good sense to keep quiet about how he felt.  He blurted out his feelings to God with no hesitation and he lacked the good sense to be embarrrassed about his outburst. 

Jonah’s complaint is especially tragic because he’s doing more than simply objecting to God’s actions.  The folly of Jonah’s complaint is that he is actually objecting to the very nature of God.  It is God’s nature to be compassionate and loving, and Jonah knew this, and because God was prone to compassion and love, Jonah wanted nothing to do with the mission he was given.  Sadly, it wasn’t that Jonah did not understand the nature of God; he understood it very well – he just rejected it.

I have stated several times during this series that Jonah is not a very sympathetic character, and we become painfully aware of what a tragic figure Jonah is as we read chapter four.  This chapter gives a very stark comparison between God and Jonah.  God is loving and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, while Jonah gleefully anticipates the destruction of the large city of Nineveh.  He was rooting for it.  He was hoping for it.  And he was greatly disappointed when it did not happen.

So, as we wrap up our brief study of the book of Jonah, here are a couple of thoughts to remember –

We don’t get to determine who is worthy of love and compassion; God does.

If you’re a parent, at some point you’ve dealt with an angry, petulant child.  Perhaps it was in a check-out line or other public place, where the child decides to have a fit that comes complete with the stamping of feet, crossed arms, pouting lips, and an angry outburst.  That’s Jonah.  Jonah decided he should be the judge and jury for the Ninevites, revealing that Jonah had some really, really faulty religion in him.  Here is something important to remember – being religious does not guarantee a person will be compassionate.  It should, but it does not.  There is, sadly, many examples of the reality that religion does not automatically bring about compassion.  We see far too many examples of the angry, judgmental face of religion.  You’ve seen that side of religion.  It’s the pointing finger, the red face, the shouting at people of whom it disapproves, refusing to show an ounce of compassion. 

To become a compassionate person sometimes requires a very pronounced change in our nature – a new nature – which is possible, as Paul reminds us as he writes II Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  And in Romans 12:2, where Paul writes and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 

No one is outside of God’s love.

We live in a very contentious, divided time.  We often hear the word tribalism to describe the manner in which we gather in groups of like-minded people.  We separate ourselves and gather according to beliefs, politics, economics, and many other factors.  Because we are often uncomfortable with differences, we associate with those who are similar to us.  In doing so, however, we can become skeptical of those who are different from us, even to the point of becoming less than compassionate or loving in our dealings with those who are different.

Jonah did not approve of the manner in which God loves.  He wanted judgment and punishment, not grace, compassion, and mercy.  Jonah wanted to shrink the circle of God’s love, allowing in only those of whom he approved.  There are still too many people who want to shrink the circle of God’s love, but however much they might want to shrink the circle, God wants to expand it, or do away with the circle all together.  Paul says that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all on in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).  Those were the divisions of Paul’s day, and they were very deep divisions between people. I think we can extrapolate that idea out and say that today there is no black, white, Hispanic, right, left, American, Russian, Iranian, South African, gay, straight; pick a category of people who make you uncomfortable and know that God loves them as much as he does you or me.

Even in the early church there was a struggle with understanding God’s love for all people.  As Gentiles were coming into the church in large numbers there was quite a bit of discussion about what would be required of them before they would be fully accepted into the church.  Acts chapter 15 tells us about a gathering in Jerusalem, known as the Council at Jerusalem, to discuss the issue.  Imagine, having a gathering to discuss who would be welcome into the church!  Thankfully, it was decided to welcome people into the church regardless of their background!

Jonah did not believe the Ninevites were worthy of God’s love.  It was not, however, Jonah’s decision to determine who was worthy of God’s love.  There are always people who want to serve as gatekeepers to God.  It was true in the time of Jesus, as the religious leaders appointed themselves gatekeepers to God, seeing themselves as the ones who would decide who God loved and did not love, and it still happens today.

If love is foundational to the nature of God, so it must be for us.

Jonah has been gone for many centuries, but in some ways he is still with us.  Jonah’s closed mind still occupies the heads of many people who cannot open themselves to God’s inclusion of all people as his children.  His cold heart continues to beat in the chests of far too many who cannot – or will not – love other people, especially people who are different.

Love is foundational to the nature of God, so it must be for us as well.  And if love is foundational, that means we must demonstrate the compassion of God.  We often speak of being the hands and feet of Christ, and that is a good description of how we should live.  Compassion is, we can say, the hands and feet of love.  Compassion is the way in which we make love visible.  Love that is not visible is not really love.

Compassion must be, then, at the heart of what we do as a congregation.  We live in a time when there is a growing rise in radical individualism, a way of life that says, basically, as long as I am happy and comfortable, all is well.  As long as I have what I need, all is well.  I’ve got mine, and that’s what matters.  I’m going to enjoy my life, do what I want to do, and that’s that.  That type of life is what we find expressed in Jonah.  As long as Jonah was comfortable and happy, things were fine.  This is the lesson of Jonah and the plant.  As he went out of Nineveh, Jonah sat down in a place overlooking the city, still hopeful that God might destroy it.  When the plant grows up to provide shade for Jonah, he is happy.  The coolness of the shade provides him with contentment.  When things are going well for Jonah that is all that matters to him.  But when the plant dies, and the heat of the sun beat down upon Jonah, he complains of his misfortune.  God then scolds Jonah, pointing out his lack of compassion for Nineveh – “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”  “It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”  But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.  And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”  As long as things were good for Jonah, that is all that mattered to him. 

We can never give in to that way of life.  We can never give in to the pull of individualism that separates us from the needs of our community.  There is far too much need for us to withdraw into the comfort of our own lives.  We must continue to live compassionate lives and build that compassion into the heart of who we are as a church.  I am very grateful for what we do as a congregation.  We take care of our members, yes, but that is not all we do.  We move beyond our own congregation, beyond our own walls and we minister to those who are in prison, we feed the hungry, we help to settle the refugees, and we perform countless other works of compassion.  This is the heart of who we are, and thank God that it is!

The tone of our culture is not exactly one of love and compassion right now.  We are at a critical juncture in history, one that requires the church to be the beacon of compassion that is so sorely needed.  Let us be the hands and feet of Christ!  Let us be the hands and feet of compassion!

July 1, 2018 Jonah: The Call Upon Your Life

This morning we come to the third of the four messages from the book of Jonah.  Next week ends our series of messages from this very short, but powerful book.

Today I want to talk to you about calling.  The book of Jonah covers a lot of themes, and one of them is the calling that God places upon us.

Follow along as we read Jonah 3:1-10 –

1 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time:

2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

3 Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it.

4 Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.”

5 The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.

6 When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust.

7 This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:  Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink.

8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence.

9 Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring the destruction he had threatened.

I have two things to say today, the first of which is –

1.  You Are Called by God.

Tanya has two younger brothers.  I first met her brother Mike, the older of the two, in May of 1978, a couple of months after Tanya and I began dating.  Mike had come to help Tanya move her things home for the summer.  I was in the lobby of her dorm when he came walking in.  He was, I think, a senior in high school at the time.  I can still see him walking into the lobby, with all of the 17-year-old swagger he could muster – which was quite a bit – and his long hair swinging as he walked (it was the 70s – we all had long hair!).  Mike walked right to me, stood in front of me, and without any other comment spoke his first ever words to me – So.  You’re going to be a minister, huh?  How do you know you’re called?  Did God whisper in your ear or something?  I don’t remember all of my answer, but I think it may have started with the words listen here, punk.

But it’s a legitimate question – how does one know God has called them? 

In one sense, it’s an easy question to answer how did you know you were called, because everyone is called.  I talk to a lot of people who feel they aren’t doing anything important with their lives.  They will say I’m just a _____ (fill in the blank with whatever vocation you choose).  There’s often a sense of regret in their voice, as though they believe they aren’t doing anything meaningful with their life.  But we must remember that our worth and our value are not based on our vocation, certainly it is not in the eyes of God. In America we measure ourselves too broadly by vocation, but that’s not God’s measurement.  God desires to use us – wherever we are and whatever we do – to live his love and his kingdom values.  Being called by God means far more than occupying a vocational ministry. 

The disciples, called by Jesus, are an interesting example of this.  They had no theological training.  We don’t know, in fact, if they had any kind of religious training.  They probably attended the synagogue, but we don’t know if they did so with any regularity, or at all.  I think it’s very, very significant that Jesus did not call his closest followers from the religious class.  Not one of them came from that group.  Sometimes, when I sit in minister’s meetings I understand why.  We’re kind of a weird group, we ministers.  One of the reasons we’re kind of weird is because we live in a bubble and while we experience a lot of reality because of what we do, we’re shielded from a lot of reality as well.  You are out there living in the middle of some very difficult realities, balancing life and work and so many other matters.  Remember, then, that God can use you where you are.  You don’t have to go to seminary.  You don’t have to be ordained.  You don’t have to have a special talent.  You don’t have to get up in front of a group of people and preach.  You only have to be who you are, where you are, and allow God to speak through your life. 

Sometimes, I think that when I speak some people expect certain things from ministers.  That’s just what he’s supposed to say.  Pay no attention to him.  But when you speak, or act, it carries a lot of weight.  People hear you, or watch you, and think, they are just like me, so if faith is important to them, maybe I need to take a closer look at it. 

In May, I traveled with Tanya on one of her work trips.  She travels a lot for her work and I try to accompany her once or twice a year, when it’s a welcoming location.  She invited me to travel with her to North Dakota last November, but I declined.  I hope it doesn’t make me a bad husband to decide against traveling with her in the cold!  When it came to the warm weather of May – and a trip to Myrtle Beach and Orlando – well, I was all in for that trip.  When we arrived in Myrtle Beach it turned out it was Biker’s Week there.  I was once a motorcycle rider, many years ago, but I gave it up because of safety concerns.  Even in my motorcycle days I did not look like a biker.  I have no tattoos, don’t look good in leather, and I’m not at all intimidating.  As I watched long lines of bikers ride through Myrtle Beach, I was surprised at how many of them, on the backs of their leather vests, had logos for Christian biker organizations.  I was glad to see those logos, because those bikers could reach other bikers much more effectively than I could.  We need bikers who can reach other bikers.  We need athletes who can reach other athletes.  We need teachers who can reach other teachers.  We need politicians who can reach other politicians.  And so on, and so on.

It’s really a shame that Jonah could not embrace his calling, and that it was a source of misery for him.  I think his biggest problem was he was afraid of the people to whom he was called, which leads to our second point –

2.  Do Not Be Held Captive By Fear.

Some of you will ask me after church, why do you mention fear so often?  I do so because it is such a powerful factor in our lives.  We fear many things in life.  For Jonah, he feared what he did not know, he feared what he did not understand, and he feared what was different.

I am always fearful of something.  Standing up here each week is something that is not easy for me, and often makes me feel fearful.  I fear that I am not bringing the words you need to hear or that I am not accurately interpreting the text from which I am preaching, among other things.  So what I have done, for many years, is to find something to do that helps me to overcome my fears, such as ride roller coasters.  It’s not that I enjoy the ride so much (although I do like to go fast, as anyone who has ever taken a ride in a car with me will know) as it is the sense that I have overcome a fear.  Roller coasters give me a headache, they bang me around so that my neck gets sore, and I’m dizzy and walk funny when I get off of one, but I feel like I’ve conquered a fear after I complete the ride.  One time, when we were traveling, I went to a big water park.  I love water parks; they do not, thankfully, scare me.  I was walking around the park and there was an attraction that caught my attention.  Swim with sharks a sign said.  I don’t know why that intrigued me.  Perhaps it was because I thought, this is a great way to overcome fear.  There was a park information booth across from the entrance of the attraction so I walked over to talk to the guy who was working in the booth.  There was a notebook there with pictures and descriptions of the sharks, stingrays, and other fish in the attraction, along with several waivers I would be required to sign if I got in the water with the sharks.

After reading the waivers, I had to ask the obvious question – has there been any problems?  And by problems I meant have the sharks eaten anyone?  He said, um, no.  What kind of answer is that?  Um, no.  It’s like he had to think about it for a moment.  If a shark had bitten someone you know the answer right away.  Answering in that way made me wonder if he was uncertain about answering honestly.  So I do what I often do when I’m nervous, which is to make a joke, and said, well, there’s always a first time, right?  He didn’t answer that question at all, which did not exactly fill me with confidence.  So I made the wise choice – I decided swimming with those sharks was exactly what I should do.

I put on my snorkel, goggles, and flippers and got in the water.  We were instructed to swim slowly across the tank, not to kick our feet, and not to touch any of the creatures in the tank.  Not touching a shark seemed like a given to me, but I guess some people need to be warned.  I started to swim slowly across the tank and about halfway to the other side I had relaxed enough that I decided to look around a bit.  I looked below me – the water was about 15 feet deep – and there were two sharks swimming right up towards me.  That’s when I realized I had a brass locker key dangling from my wrist, and I remembered reading once that marine biologists think one of the things that attract sharks to people swimming in the ocean is the presence of jewelry or shiny objects.  So my idea was to take it off, hand it to the swimmer next to me, and ask can you hold onto this for a minute? 

The sharks came right up under me, and then leveled off and glided just below me.  It’s hard to breath a sigh of relief in a snorkel, I’ll tell you that.  I tried to stay calm and just kept going, but when I got close to the other side there was a shallow area of water, about three feet deep, and there were two sharks right there, where I was supposed to climb out.  It was like they were waiting on me.  But, obviously I made it.  I climbed out and thought, I can’t believe I just did that.  I was so excited about having made it through the shark tank you know what I did?  I did it again!  I was excited about swimming with those sharks!  My family, surprisingly, did not share my excitement.

How can I get over my panic of creatures that want to eat me for dinner but struggle to step across the street and help my neighbor in need?  How can I perform an act of courage, such as riding a roller coaster going over 70 miles an hour and looping over and over, but be afraid to go to someone of whom I need to ask forgiveness.  How can I overcome one fear but not my fear of loving and accepting people who are different from me?

Fear is a powerful force in our lives, and it will keep us from doing what God calls us to do and will keep us from being the people God wants us to be.  Do not be afraid.  Do not be afraid.  Do not be afraid!  Jonah, unfortunately, was afraid, and he was also unwilling.  He was unwilling to answer the call of God on his life.  Perhaps it was fear that kept him from answering the call.  Whatever the reason, let us not be like Jonah!

June 24, 2018 The 23rd Psalm - Enough

In the 11:00 service today I will not be preaching, as music will fill that time.  Because many of the singers and musicians are not available to this service, I am preaching in this service, so you get a bonus message! 

When I was in seminary, back in the early 80s, one of my professors spoke to our class about money.  He told us that at some point in the course of our ministry a good many of us would be earning in six figures (I thought at the time he surely meant to count both sides of the decimal point).  That brought a lot of excitement to the room.  In the early 80s that was a lot of money.  It’s still a lot of money.  It also stirred discussion about how much is enough?  How much money is enough?  $30,000?  $50,000?  $65,000?  $100,000?  $1,000,000? 

The 23^rd psalm is, undoubtedly, one of the most beloved passages in all of Scripture.  And this may be a strange thing to say, but sometimes I wonder what it is about the 23^rd psalm that is so beloved.  I wonder because this psalm really challenges us and asks some very difficult things of us.  It challenges us to slow down, and we’re not people who are very good at slowing down.  It asks us to trust God and not ourselves, and we aren’t always very good at trusting anyone beyond ourselves.  It asks us to care for others.  It reminds us of the dangers of life and even of our mortality.  It tells us that God wants to set us down at a dinner table with our enemies.  And, in our focus for today, it asks us to find God to be sufficient – to be enough – for our lives.  So much of what this psalm has to say runs completely counter to how we live in our modern age, but, thankfully, we still love the psalm.

This morning, we will focus on the idea of enough.  The psalm begins with this affirmation – the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  That is phrased as a declaration – I shall not want!  Let me ask you a question – does it seem a bit naïve to say, I shall not want?  How many times a day to we say, or think, of something we want?  Usually, we use the word need rather than want, because if we can convince ourselves that something is a need rather than a want, it’s much easier to justify getting it. But if we are really being honest with ourselves, isn’t it a bit naïve to say I shall not want?  Really.  Who lives that way, saying I shall not want?  Anybody?

What does it mean to say the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want?

1. It means we are the shepherds for others.

Our local Ministerial Alliance ended a few years ago, unfortunately.  Near the end of its lifespan, we spent a long time talking about the difficulty of meeting the many needs surrounding us in our community.  Why didn’t we just say why worry about it?  Because while this psalm gives the image of God as our shepherd, there is something else that is implied.  A shepherd, in Biblical days, most often cared for sheep that belonged to someone else.  This psalm, then, is a call to care for others, as God promises to care for us.  As God is our shepherd, we are called to be a shepherd to others.  We find this call multiple times throughout the Scriptures.

The book of James, which is so practical as to sometimes be painful, says, If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?  (James 2:15-16). 

In Mark 6 we read of the large crowd following Jesus, and Mark records this in verses 34-37 – When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd (underline emphasis mine). And he began to teach them many things.  And when it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is now late.  Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But he answered them, “You give them something to eat.”

Why does it seem, that in spite of their trust, so many people don’t have enough?  Some people ask why God doesn’t do more to help the millions of people in our world who need so much.  I think the better question is why does humanity let such things happen?  Why do I spend my money on unnecessary items when I know that money can make a difference to someone else?  Could it be that God is waiting on us to put to use all of the resources given to us?

This is a very complicated, difficult, task, to be called as shepherd other people. We sometimes want to protest about how complicated it is to be a shepherd to others.  We are tempted, as were the disciples, to push the responsibility off on God, but God’s call is for us to be shepherds and care for others.  The shepherd was in constant danger.  There was the danger of attack by wild animals.  There was the danger of others coming to steal the sheep.  There was danger from the elements.  There was the danger of not having enough food and water.  It is very, very difficult to be called to shepherd other people.  I think God has a pretty good idea of how difficult it is, but he still calls us to the task.

2.  It means we ask “how much is enough?  What do we really need in life?”

Several yeas ago there was a new reality show on TV, called Preachers of LA.  All four of the ministers on the program lived in quite a bit of luxury.  One scene showed one of the ministers and his wife in their garage discussing which car they would each drive that day.  His wife chose a high end Mercedes, and as she backed the Mercedes out of the garage of this grand home, her minister husband said be careful you don’t hit the Bentley.  I can’t tell you how many times Tanya and I have had that exact same conversation.

Is this what the psalmist meant when he said I shall not want?  That we would have so much that we would want for nothing?  I don’t think so.  I think it’s about controlling our wants.  This psalm is in the language of its day.  If we were to put the 23^rd psalm into the language of our own day, the phrase I shall not want might go something like this – Jesus has freed me from thinking I need the latest iPhone or other gadget.  He has helped me to understand that I don’t need a brand new car or rooms piled high with stuff.  He has helped me to understand that I don’t need everything the advertisers say I need.  He has helped me to say “enough.”  

Phone manufacturers and gadget manufacturers and other manufacturers know that because many people feel so compelled to get the latest device they have a ready source of sales for their products.  I hear some people apologize, for instance, for their old technology – oh, mine’s not a smart phone.  It’s just a basic phone.  My computer is really old.  It’s four years old.  Why do we need the latest and greatest gadgets?  Perhaps the deeper question to ask is, why do we accumulate so much?  What spiritual and psychological needs are we attempting to soothe with our incessant buying and accumulating?  Is there some deep, unmet need, or needs, in our lives that drive us to find satisfaction in getting more stuff?  Is a phone representative of the need for communication, a tool to help us in our daily lives, or is it the need to feel we are caught up to and equal with everyone else?

We want to keep up with everyone else.  People will drive themselves to financial ruin trying to look as successful as the next person.  It reminds me of a commercial that ran several years ago.  A man grinned as he said I’ve got a four-bedroom house.  I live in a great neighborhood.  Like my car?  It’s new.  I even belong to the country club.  How do I do it?  I’m in debt up to my eyeballs.  I can barely pay my finance charges.  Someone please help me.

We have to survive.  We need to eat, we need to have shelter and clothing and medical care.  But we also need peace of mind.  We need the ability to step off of the treadmill of earning and accumulating.  What keeps us from saying enough?

3.  Say “enough.”

The image of the 23^rd psalm is one of peace – walking beside a quiet lake and lying down to rest in cool grass.  It strikes me as a call to put aside our striving and rest from all of our hurried and frenzied living.  But why is that so hard to do?  Why are we so driven to live in ways that we know are not good for us?

 The call to us in this psalm is to live a life of trust, which is certainly a very difficult way to live.  We want to accumulate enough to know that we will be secure in our lives.  But can we ever really accumulate enough to guarantee our security?  Plenty of people throughout the course of history have lost vast fortunes, so even immense sums of money are not enough to guarantee us security.  The best medical care may not be enough to keep us from disease.  The most secure home may not keep us secure from the evil and violence of our world.

The 23^rd psalm, written from the viewpoint of a shepherd, is a reminder that while we live in the midst of uncertainty and even danger, God is always watching over us.  Does that guarantee we are always safe from harm?  No.  What it does mean is that ultimately we rest in God’s care.  Need, danger, and even violence never have the final word over our lives.  Whatever may happen to us in life and whatever struggle we may face, we can live with the confidence that our ultimate security is found in God.

Rudyard Kipling, giving a commencement address at McGill University in Montreal, said there was one striking thing that deserves to be remembered about people. Warning the students against an over-concern for money, power, or popularity, he said, some day you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are.

This beautiful psalm, the 23^rd psalm, reminds us of what truly gives us life, and asks us to say, finally, enough.