I wonder if you have every heard this one:
“Timmy was a little five-year-old boy that his Mom loved very much and being a worrier, she was concerned about him walking to school when he started Kindergarten. She walked him to school for the first couple of days, but when he came home one day, he told his mother that he did not want her walking him to school everyday. He wanted to be like the big boys.
He protested loudly, so she had an idea of how to handle it. She asked a neighbor, Mrs. Goodnest, if she would surreptitiously follow her son to school, at a distance behind him that he would not likely notice, but close enough to keep a watch on him. Mrs. Goodnest said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be a good way for them to get some exercise as well so she agreed.
The next school day, Mrs. Goodnest and her little girl, Marcy, set out following behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighbor boy he knew. She did this for the whole week. As the boys walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, the little friend of Timmy noticed that this same lady was following them as she seemed to do every day all week.
Finally, he said to Timmy, “Have you noticed that lady following us all week? Do you know her?”Timmy nonchalantly replied, “Yea, I know who she is.” The little friend said, “Well who is she?” “That’s just Shirley Goodnest,” Timmy said. “Shirley Goodnest? Who the heck is she and why is she following us?” “Well,” Timmy explained, “every night my Mom makes me say the 23rd Psalm with my prayers ‘cuz she worries about me so much. And in it, the prayer psalm says, “Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life. So I guess I’ll just have to get used to it.1”
Shirley Goodnest and Marcy will follow you all the days of your life! Today will conclude our 6-week series on Psalm 23. May you and I dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Forever, points to memory and the memorialization of those we hold dear. To memorialize is to commemorate and have the memory live beyond the life of someone. This is what we do on Memorial Day for those serving our country. We recall their honor and memory, letting their memory live beyond their life. This is a great honor our country imparts for military service people.
And it hints at eternal life – life that lives beyond itself. Life that is more than the accumulation of minutes, hours, and days. Life that points beyond itself. Eternal life. We have often imagined that eternal life is something that begins after death. Now, some might debate about whether it begins immediately or if there is some waiting time. But a collective part of imagination places eternal life as happening after death.
This is not a complete understanding. Jesus taught us that eternal life begins the moment we glimpse who God is and how God calls us to life. Jesus, the Good Shepherd who laid down his life at Calvary and lays down his life every day on our behalf. Eternal life begins when our lives are transformed enough to wipe off the glare of earthly living and giving us further vision to see beyond ourselves acting like God’s people. Eternal life begins in moments and snippets when we see God. Eternal life in the here and now or in the then and there points beyond us.
If you go to enough funerals, if you watch enough news, if you see enough lives, you begin to understand the words, in the midst of life, we are in death. You begin to think about life and death, not as separate books, but as interwoven stories. Memorial Day is a civic reminder that life is fragile and fraught. War is more common that peace. Conflict is more common than reconciliation. The twentieth century was a century of war – the statisticians tell us more people died in that century in war than all the other centuries put together.
Do you know the story of Arlington cemetery? Arlington National Cemetery is comprised of land that once belonged to George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Washington and step-grandson of George Washington. Custis spent his life commemorating Washington and built Arlington House on the 1,100-acre plantation as a living memorial to his famous grandfather. The property moved through the family with a desire to memorialize Washington and the principles of liberty, justice, and freedom.
In 1863, the government established Freedman’s Village on the estate as a way to assist slaves transitioning to freedom providing housing, education, employment training, and medical care. People of faith shaped this cutting-edge village to serve with those who have been oppressed.
As an act of justice, freedmen were buried here alongside those they fought alongside in battle. Today, the property is 624 acres and commemorates the life of any who served in the armed services. May their lives have glimpsed the goodness and mercy of God and they will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Their loved ones decorated their graves so their lives would live on.
On Thursday, the church celebrated Ascension Day. Jesus, having completed his earthly work, models eternal life present here on earth, even as it is in heaven. This is not a “Beam me up, Scotty” or a click my heels and “there is no place like home.” Jesus in ascension, models how porous life eternal and today’s life are. The miracle of ascension is not a one time, Jesus only miracle. Each and every time, people of God draw near, glimpse the life-changing power of God, find their live transformed by God, and live eternal life here and now (in fits and starts), the miracle of ascension is previewed.
This life is not merely practice for the one to come. This life is not merely a trial to be endured. Of course, we may know trials. But this one precious and wild life we are living is what God is interested in. This is the reason that goodness and mercy, two of God’s most bedrock characteristics follow us all the days of our lives and we live in God’s house and presence forever.
Eternal life is present tense, not only future focused. Eternal life is knowing God in transforming and meaningful ways. About eternity, we know so few details. But the Bible shows us healing and forgiveness, raising up the downtrodden, confronting powers of cruelty and evil. And each and every time, Jesus says, here is eternal life, the kingdom of heaven, God’s way breaking in to the ordinary and broken lives that are all we know and changing the course of our lives. Wherever hope, healing, peace and justice appear, we are glimpsing eternity itself.
And so we could say that eternity was breaking into history when hearts are soothed and bodies are healed. Eternal life is among us when justice is more than an accomplishment of a checklist but a presence of mind. Eternal life is glimpsed when live out reconciliation and peace, when we live within a place where our resources are ample and we share with others. Barbara Brown Taylor says it this way: “Get ready for the Jesus who is continually coming into the world by living today. Write that letter, reconcile that relationship, get the help you need and do it now. Refuse to keep living yesterday over and over and over again. Today is the day to be generous. Today is the day to be a new creation.”2
And we dwell in the house of the Lord. We come near to God. We come near to one another. No two of us will do it exactly the same. Some of us will naturally sit with others in pain; others of us will naturally bring joy and reframing in the center of need. We dwell in God’s house, live eternal life by praying and fasting, studying God’s word and loving God’s people (all of them). Seeking justice and peace, remembering and commemorating those who have shown us light along a path of darkness.
Live life this way and we live as Jesus did. We live like the Good Shepherd and for the Good Shepherd. We live as those who know eternal life can come here and now, especially through God’s grace. “Do this and you will live, Jesus says. Throw your body into it and you may even find that your question about eternal life is not such a burning question for you anymore—because the minute God’s word becomes flesh in you, heaven is where you are.”3
Scriptures tell us again and again to remember. To memorialize, to call to mind. We are called to learn from. Learn from the mistakes of the past, the glories of God’s ways. On this Memorial Day weekend, may you join Timmy in declaring Shirley Goodnest and Marcy will follow you and you will just have to get used to it. May you join with those who know Jesus so intimately that your confidence in dwelling in his house is palpable. May your life points others to eternity, the kind that come then and there as well as the kind we know here and now.
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen
1 http://www.theredheadriter.com/2012/09/chuckle-of-the-day-shirley-marcy/
2 https://blog.diocesewma.org/tag/m-scott-peck/
3 http://www.barbarabrowntaylor.com/newsletter374064.htm
Old Testament Lesson: Psalm 23: 6
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.
Gospel Lesson: John 10: 11-18
‘I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, May 27-Saturday, June 3
Sunday: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,” Psalm 23: 6a. The certainty of the psalmist is no mistake. Prayerfully ask God to invite you into certainty about God’s commitment to you.
Monday: “and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.” Psalm 23:6b. To dwell is more than to stop by. To dwell is to live comfortably and openly. May you live abundantly in God’s presence.
Tuesday: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” John 11:10-11. Give thanks to God for the Good Shepherd who cares eternally for each of us.
Wednesday: “The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.” John 11: 12-13. Depend solely on Jesus. Where is God teaching you this?
Thursday: “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.” John 11: 14-15. Jesus knows you. You know Jesus. Take time today in his presence.
Friday: “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.” John 11:16. Each time you affirm that you are part of God’s flock, let God show you that others are as well. The Good Shepherd has many sheep.
Saturday: “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.’” John 11: 17- 18. Jesus is the eternal shepherd and never stops caring for us in life, in death, in life after death.