Lent, Week Four

During this season of Lent, I'm writing reflections based on the psalm assigned for each Sunday by the Revised Common Lectionary (look it up, if you want), and sharing those with the congregation I serve when we gather for Evening Prayer on Wednesday evenings. This reflection is from April 2, week four, and is based on Psalm 23

we’re so far removed,

            most of us,

      from sheep and shepherds

            the Lord may as well be my

                  blacksmith, or my

                  tentmaker

people still do those things

      but they’re not so ubiquitous as they once were

tentmakers & blacksmiths & shepherds are,

      you may be aware

            no longer part of everyday life

*** 

but though we may not know shepherds

            or tentmakers or blacksmiths

      we all know shadows

      we all know death

what scares you?

            spiders, or snakes

            school …

                  or graduation?

      valleys

what keeps you up at night?

            taxes? rent? grades?

      shadow

what twists you up deep inside?

            divorce? unemployment?

                  life-sapping illness?

                        (your own, or a beloved’s)

      death

*** 

it may not be today,   

      but we live in the promise

            that we’re not so far removed

                  from the shepherd

            that we’re not so far removed

                  from the table prepared for us

      we live with hope in the promise

      that our soul will be granted

            respite

            rest

            repose

            refreshment

            renewal

     

      that we will be led beside

                  and are not so far removed from

            still water

      that we are led beside

                  and not so far removed from

            the living water springing up to eternal life

Thanks be to God.