Trusting God's Presence: Psalm 23 and Thin Places

Two things I feel we can take away and leave this place with today. First, follow. Surely, goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow. Scholars have written that this word follow can be interchanged with the word pursue. Several weeks ago at one of our Wednesday night worship services at Wesley, I asked the question, Do we need to love god before god loves us? Simply the answer to that is no. And why do I say it's no? It's because from the moment we enter this world God pursues us with God's love.

I challenge us all each day as we lead up to Easter and even beyond. Take a moment and let us ask ourselves where we have seen the presence of God's grace in our lives on that given day. And when we feel like we're lacking anything from God, take a moment, Take a moment in the day, take a step back, and give thanks to God for one thing and one place in which we have seen God show up and that thin place might just be revealed because again this psalm isn't a psalm about death and dying, it is about seeing and realizing the beautiful nature of god in the living, in the present moment.

Something beautiful about that statement. The god who is everywhere can sometimes be felt somewhere. That's what I believe Psalm 23, my friends, is talking about. It's trusting that the presence of god is not only everywhere but it can be felt somewhere. And in this passage we see this as a passage of trust, of trust in god. Two reasons. When we read this passage, we can assume that there is some crisis or tribulation that has come forth and so god's presence is made known in the reading of this.

And I started thinking about my trust in God in that day, and some may say this is heretical, if it is, but fully believe that I saw the face of Jesus in that woman that day. God was present in that woman that day. And why do I tell you this story? Why do I tell you this story? It's because when we look at our scripture, it's more than a scripture that we look at when we're in times of of grieving or around death and dying. It reminds us in this passage that that the presence of god is here and now.

But this passage in its fullness, is not about just death. And as beautiful as it may be to read at a funeral, a celebration of life, it's more for the living. Those of us in the present moment. Now why do I say this? I say it because of my experience on St. Cuthbert's Way. Along that journey from friends and colleagues who have traveled more vastly in Scotland, they taught me about what is called, and you may have heard this phrase before, what they call a thin place. And in the Scottish Christian tradition, a thin place is a location where the boundary between heaven and earth feels unusually permeable.

And what about if we go to the very beginning? What about Genesis? After Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, they hid. They didn't want to be found. They were hiding from god and what what was god's response? Where'd you go? In a grace filled and passionate and loving way, god is pursuing them. God, friends, god pursues us not in some weird stalking way but in a way that is filled with everlasting love and embrace. It is in this pursuit that thy kingdom comes. It is in the reception of this pursuit when we accept God's grace in our lives that a thin place may very well appear.

Hey, god loves you. Jesus loves you. There's nothing you can do about it. But we get to leave here and go and do something with it. So may we go and be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ grace filled and sharing grace with our brothers and sisters we encounter. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Maybe in our first time reading this passage or hearing this passage, we might come to a conclusion that god is our shepherd that we don't want. We don't need. However, what it's telling us is that because god is our shepherd, we lack nothing. We lack nothing. I want for nothing because God provides. And many times we think that god isn't around. I'm sure we've all thought that at some point. God, where are at? Or that god doesn't provide and that maybe I just don't see these blessings and gifts that god is pouring out around us. But here's a challenge for us all, including myself

It is in the trust that no matter we we don't need to know the crisis or the tribulation. We don't need to know the the hardship that might be happening in that given moment. It's trusting that whatever that may be, god will work. Trust will be made known and all will be made well. We see the presence of God as a thin place within this scripture that the author's relationship with God is not about a forthcoming interaction. It's not about let's just wait and buy our time and then we get to have this great interaction with God, but a present relationship in the in between.

The point of the pilgrimage, the point of any pilgrimage is to come out on the other side with something that has changed. There's some change. There's some movement. There's something new. Whatever that may be. Trust in god is what I found and I found that in a few ways. One is, even though I had no idea where I was going, I wasn't smart enough to get a self plan service in Europe. So, I didn't have map. I trusted that I was able to follow our leaders who knew how to read the Saint Cufford symbol, very similar to your stained glass here along the walk to know that we are on the right path.

I started walking and she was watching me walk and she walked over to me and said you're not going to make it. Like, you you're just not going to happen. I said, well, I don't know. What do you suggest I do? She goes, well, today is my birthday and my nephew brought me out here because there's a few things I wanted to see today and I first was to come here to Saint Cuthbert's Cave and the second is I'm actually we're going to the Holy Island. Why don't you ride with us?

First is, well, nobody really knows where I'm at and number two, if I don't make it out of here, I'm either gonna die at this cave or I'll die in the back of this car. I don't know. So, I trusted enough, her nephew came over and and we started talking and they guided me to their car and she when when they start giving you snacks like a grandmother does, it's like, I think I'm alright. I think I'll be fine and she gave me all, they had had a picnic so she was giving me stuff and

Now, unfortunately, pop culture is kind of taking this scripture in movies and TV and whatever else and we hear these these words maybe at a gravesite in a scene on on television. Yey, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. And what we see is the scene kind of cuts or or it kind of the camera pans and fades away from that scene to something else that might be going on within the plot of that movie or or television. But they don't move forward or or read the beginning or the end of that passage. They they don't

And finally that leads us to being able to dwell in the house of the lord all our days. Not in some faraway place but in the here and now that is god's world. And how can that come about? Through our being the church and knowing that through it all that is this life God's presence abounds when we just chill and see, go and do and live fully in the life that is right now.

But mostly though, in this entire pilgrimage, it was on the last day that I found full trust in God and in humanity when I found myself alone. I can't even tell you how many miles away I was from the Holy Island Of Lindisfarne, but you have to reach the tidal area of Lindisfarne before the tides come in because when the tides come in you cannot make it to the island. The roads are cut off and you can't walk. And if you are in the middle of making your way through the tidal muds