5/3 Ps.23 I John 3:16-24

In many ways, the Bible is a commentary on the injunction in Deuteronomy: two paths I give you life and death. Choose life. John sees the Christian life as a life-affirming path. To reject it is to follow a path that leads to death and darkness. I want to emphasize spiritual life this morning. This morning, let’s look at the 23^rd Psalm with a spiritual focus, as a journey inward. The journey inward can be athe work of a lifetime. It can be filled with hazrds and great reward. Think of the old word, Pilgrim’s Progress, on the road to the Celestial City. The Lord is my shepherd. Few psalms start so personally as this one. If the shepherd image doesn’t work well for you; move on to the next line. God provides. Spiritually, God is such an ample provider that each one of us will lack nothing. God gives us all we need to live a rich spiritual life.

The psalm centers at the line, “for you are with me.” At a retreat the leader asked the group to name their favorite proposition. Images of sentence diagrams and failed Spanish tests flashed through their minds. He asked it as an entry point to the center of this psalm, for you are with me. We can walk in the valley of deepest darkness, the one filled with doubts and fear. We are not alone.

God leads us to Spiritual green pastures and quiet waters. I was at Crown Pointe and saw a devotional, Still Waters, published by an Amish Mennonite group in Kentucky. In the midst of an unquiet life, we all need some quiet still time. More than that, we need to be able to find a quiet, still point within us. So often our lives are in turmoil and turbulence. It seems we have no stable center, no safe, secure abode. I attended a Renovare group after Easter with mostly clergy and a sprinkling of church members. Right away, when the microphone was turned over to the crowd gathered, the immediate desire was a sense of peace. Think of it. Right after Easter, when a sense of peace in the face of fear of death should be at its highest, anxious people wanted some peace

God spreads out a table for us. Not only is God the host, but we get to have our enemies witness the feast. Yes, Christians have enemies. We certainly have spiritual enemies. Our vices are not eradicated. The ones called deadly, such as arrogance have us claim spirituality, godliness, in their absence. God does spread out a spiritual banquet for us. We may accept or reject the invitation. At the feast, we may act as if we are on a diet. Goodness and steadfast love, hesed, follow us, not looming disaster, not trouble, but the blessings of God will follow us. To dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long/forever is to live in the realization that we are temples fo the Holy spirit, that god has chosen to make a home with us, in each one of us.

We receive a valuable reminder this morning: to walk the talk. John puts it strangely though. We usually say tell the truth. John tells us to do the truth. At the same time, John is spiritually generous. Instead of cowering before God, he says clearly that God knows well that we weaken, and our conscience may condemn us. God is our judge. God doesn’t take things as seriously as we do at times. God may well be more gentle on us than we would be. Both of our readings this morning are reassuring words for anxious souls. Sometimes when we are anxious, we return to the comforts of familiarity. Perhaps no passage is as well-known as the 23^rd Psalm. It breathes spiritual security.