Grounded in Green Pastures

 Sculptor and environmentalist Anthony Goldsworthy reflected: We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we have lost our connection to ourselves.

 

You are standing in an unplowed field, in a landscape of gently rolling hills. There are a few gracefully grazing animals in the distance. The sky above is blue with puffy clouds. Its brightness goes on and on for eternity. Rays of sunshine flood the meadow and warm your skin. The land is covered in grasses of greens and yellows with a variety of textures. A pleasant aroma of fresh plants and rich earth embraces you. A gently moving breeze kisses your checks. It carries a sweet scent of camomile and clover. There is a cacophony of sound. Birds of all kinds are singing and dancing. They flit from plant to plant, as do the graceful butterflies. There are bees buzzing and delighting in the flowers of the field. Take in the view. Take in the smells and the textures. Enjoy the orchestra of nature before you. And breathe deeply 

 

Through Lent the Hebrew scripture readings have led us to explore nature, human nature, and God’s nature. Each text has provided an earthly environment where God’s nature has consistently pursued relationship with God’s creatures. God’s action has remained trustworthy and steadfast, no matter the expression of human nature shown in each story. God came to the garden to walk with Adam and Eve. God walked the land with Abram and Sara. God was present, waiting before the rock, for the people in the wilderness of Sin. The Psalm for today describes an environment, a green pasture and still water. Once again God’s nature is present in the land. Here God walks in the role of Shepherd. In the description of the place, God’s nature provides release from want, safety for rest, and restores the soul. Everything that happens in the Psalm is in relationship to God’s nature.

 

Psalm 23 is considered a Psalm of trust. Components identifying trust psalms include a perceived calamity, and trust that the disaster will pass, and that all will be well. In this case, trust in the relationship with the Shepherd. Trust in God’s nature. Trust is not a virtue immediately attributed to human nature. Consider the world in which we live, with fake news, doctored photos, and deep fakes. Who do you trust? Who do you put trust in? Do we trust politicians and world leaders; do they trust each other? Do we trust AI? Do we trust another’s word or a handshake or a deal on FB marketplace? Do we trust in a future as temperatures rise and weather patterns change? Do you trust that your children, and those following after, will be okay? Do you trust that despite calamity, these things shall pass, and all will be well?

 

David the writer of this Psalm is the last character introduced in the first reading. David is chosen by God to be anointed by Samuel as the next King. The choosing of the next king happens in an unusual place, not a palace, not a Temple, not with lots of people around to witness the event. The choosing of the King happens on the land. The prophet has asked Jesse and his sons out to the hills to offer sacrifice. While on the land, Samuel examines Jesse’s sons. Samuel’s human nature takes control. Human nature identifies king-material by appearance, stature, being the eldest. Samuel becomes less convinced and less trusting as God says ‘no’ to each passing son. When Samuel has exhausted the candidates that meet human criteria, it is mentioned that there is another son. He is out on the land, in the fields, keeping the sheep.

God’s nature is exemplified in choosing the son who is the closest to the land. What is it about the relationship with the land that makes David king-material and God’s choice? Could it be that walking the land, where we have already determined God is present and choses to walk and journey with humans, grounds a person and opens their hearts – to nature, to human nature, to God’s nature? Does connection and relationship with the land change the soil of the heart, and thus changes what kind of leader that grows? Can it be this simple?

 

There are those who spend time walking, working, and playing on the land, in an embracing field of creation. Consider for a moment the pastors and other leaders in the church that you know. It is astounding the number of currently serving Lutheran pastors who spent summers on the land working at Lutheran Church camps. There is a large number who grew up in farm communities, or working on farms. And there are those who are avid hikers, canoers, campers, and runners. Could it be that nature cradled these persons and gently nurtured and whispered to their human nature, such that their hearts were opened. Their hearts were nourished with good soil, able to hear and grow God’s call to vocation as pastor. And they continue to walk the land and to be fed through connection with nature.

 

Think about the last time you were outside for an extended period of time. Maybe you were on a walk, sitting on your balcony watching and listening to the birds, maybe you went for a sail, put your feet in the surf, gardened, or watched the night sky. Did the time communing with nature and in nature affect you? Change your mood? Calm your anxiety? Clear your mind? …  If a short time in nature can affect a change in you, imagine a life of centred on living, playing, and connecting with the land. For that matter, consider the feeling of change that comes over you in simply hearing, the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.

Connection to nature changes the response defaults of human nature. Connection to nature grows human capacity – beyond our nature – for deeper relationship with God. Grounding attunes us to God’s nature – God’s created orchestra changes paths of thought, creative imaginings, and nurtures a different kind of leadership. Can you imagine changed leaders? Leaders who are not paralyzed by the world for they trust in the Shepherd and so fear no evil. Changed leaders are those who lead in a way where goodness and mercy follow them. This goodness and mercy heals the blind, satisfies the thirsty, and blossoms from one community to the next.

 

Wendell Berry, an American novelist wrote a poem called, The Peace of Wild Things. His poem applies Psalm 23 to present time. He starts in being disconnected and finishes in God’s nature.

The Peace of Wild Things –

When despair for the world grows in me

And I wake in the night at the least sound

In fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

Rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

Who do not tax their lives with forethought

Of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars

Waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

 

I rest in grace.

I will dwell in the house of the Lord – Perhaps you have thought of the house of the Lord as heaven. Afterall Psalm 23 gets read at many funerals. We think of the house of the Lord as a place like a palace or a mansion with many rooms. A place filled with choirs of angels, Saints listening to prayers, and the great cloud of witnesses gathered at God’s banquet table. We hear the words and consider a future place, for a future time when our life is done. We have not interpreted that the green pastures are present now; that we can rest in the grace of the world, and be free.

Why does human nature put off that which grows and nurtures wholeness? I will dwell in the house of the Lord is a statement of faith and trust written by David. David is on the land, walking the land, keeping sheep. Dwelling in the house of the Lord, is dwelling with all of creation, standing in the field where this sermon began. Trusting that God is present and coming to walk with us in a place that reminds us of who we are.

We are invited to ground our human nature by reconnecting to the land, a connection that nourishes us. Where belonging is grounded to the Source of All Being from in the beginning when God created. Connection is earth to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. Resting in grace, for the healing of the whole world.