Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Wisdom Wednesday: Pause, Psalm 23

Grace and peace to you, I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, March 12, 2024 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Those are the comforting words of Psalm 23, King James version. This Lenten season at Peakland we have been considering the psalms and how these ancient words speak the truth of God’s love and God’s care to us today. But the Psalms are also here to challenge us, to challenge our assumptions of who God is and who God wants us to be and what God wants us to do. Now it can be challenging to find new messages and new meanings in such a familiar Psalm, as Psalm 23 is to many of us. This Lenten season, we at Peakland are reading Pause: Spending Lent with the Psalms, written by Elizabeth Caldwell. And Rev. Caldwell found a way to challenge me and my understanding of one of the verses of Psalm 23. In her book Rev. Caldwell included a translation of Psalm 23 by the poet Pamela Greenberg. The key verse for me which gave me some new insight is: You spread a table before me in the face of my greatest fears. Instead of the Good Shepherd preparing a table before me in the presence of my enemies, the table is set in the face of my greatest fears. It’s hard for me to identify people I consider enemies, but I can certainly name the fears I deal with. We all have fears we deal with: anxiety about our work and our families. We have fears about our health and well-being. Many of us have financial fears. Having God with me in the face of my fears, challenges me to consider who do I have more faith in? God or my fears. Which is stronger in my life, my faith, or my fears. Sometimes, I confess it, I act like my fears have greater sway over my life than Jesus. If God is with me in the face of my fears, if God is leading us through the valleys of dark shadows in life, then we truly fear no evil. We have one more Psalm to consider this Lent. Next Sunday and next week we’ll hear the words of Psalm 130 -- Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice! Looking ahead to Holy Week here at Peakland, for Palm Sunday, March 24, we’ll have one united worship service in the sanctuary at 10:00 a.m. which we will also live stream. For Maundy Thursday, March 28, we’ll have a 6:00 p.m. dinner worship service our fellowship hall. This is a free meal but contact the church office at PeaklandOffice@gmail.com to reserve your place at the table. On March 29, I’ll post a pre-recorded Good Friday devotion, and then on Sunday, March 28, Easter Sunday, we’ll have a 6:30 a.m. sunrise service and then our usual sanctuary services at 8:30 and 11:00, Horizons worship at 9:45, and we’ll livestream the 11:00 worship. Do reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.com if you’d like to know more about Peakland. Check us out our webpage at PeaklandUMC.org. Thanks be to God!