Where We Belong

This is my sermon from last week reflecting on the beginning of school.

It is based on Psalm 71: 1-6. Let me know what you think.

Welcome back to school . . .

Picture from: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=pictures+of+school+buses+from+the+side&id=0820D4C35C

In you, O Lord, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame.
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me.

Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.

For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.

Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you.

Psalm 71: 1-6
 

            The year is 1983 and I stood at the edge of our driveway looking at the very long slope towards the street in my new smocked dress and new white sandals. I had a new blue backpack with my initials embroidered on the back that was filled with 2 newly sharpened really fat pencils, a new 8 pack of Crayola crayons, take a moment and remember what a new box of crayons smells, and a black and white composition notebook.  I headed down the driveway and walked past the 5 houses between me and elementary school. I entered the school and met my first grade teacher. I was excited and then I met my teacher. She didn’t seem mean or scary but she was not my mommy and my world had been upended.

            Twelve years later I was standing in the driveway of Allen Hall at the University of Illinois saying goodbye to my parents. We had unloaded the boxes of clothes, notebooks and new pencils and they prepared to drive the across 5 states without me this time. My daddy pulled me aside. As he was hugging me goodbye he said “I’m not sure how you became this amazing young woman. I’m just getting over you walking to first grade.” I pulled away and started laughing. His response was “What it was a very long street!” Now mind you, I never had to cross the street and it was only 5 houses down but to my father I could have been crossing the Chesapeake when I was six.

            It wasn’t until we had left Lynchburg for Virginia Theological Seminary that I truly understood what my father was trying to explain to me in front of the dorm at his own Alma Mater.  My parents and I had become used to the way things were within our own family. And Chris, Ian and I were firmly oriented in our daily lives here in Lynchburg. The move to seminary and beginning seminary certainly left us feeling lost and uprooted. It was difficult for us to find our way back to the way things were supposed to be. For me, dropping Ian off at the on campus daycare for the first time was amazingly unsettling. I was at a loss of how that little tiny eight month old, who could already walk, was going to survive the next 3 hours ­­without me. The daily rhythm of our lives had been disturbed even though I only had to walk over and visit him at any time. I can’t even to begin to imagine how I will be when I put Ian on the bus or allow him to walk 5 houses away by himself to 1st grade.

        At the beginning of each school year I watch parents put what is most precious to them on the bus and send them to the care of others for their education. Those teachers and administrators do amazing jobs of guiding our children though the next set of hurdles in their lives. But the hard part for most parents is that we feel like it should be us and the unknown can be exciting and a little bit scary for each student in every stage of life, whether they are beginning first grade, seminary, first job or retirement.  

           Every year, thousands of parents send their children off for the first time and every year thousands of children begin new adventure into the unknown. Many may feel as though they as if they have been abandoned to the evils of the world . . .

           The unknown is scary and it is not always safe but it is necessary for us to move on to our next destination.  The Israelites had to leave Egypt in order to reach the promise land and we know they got lost and wandered for 40 years. They were afraid and complained the entire journey and yet they reached their destination. Whenever we leave our comfort zone and our knowledge of how the perfect world should be we take to risk that we may go the wrong direction and get lost.  We get disoriented, lost, our world is upended and we are unable to fight off the evils of the world alone. Fortunately the psalmist has provided us with a form that instructs us on what we are to do when we are in trouble and facing the evils of this world.

           For the psalmist, the only answer to this disorientation is to be with God. God is the safe place where we return again and again when we face trouble. The strong unyielding image of a fortress that stands alone against all evil reminds us of God steadfast desire to encircle us and protect us from the wild beyond the walls. Likewise a mother’s womb is the safest place for a baby to be and there are few moments of disorientation more profound than a baby just after they are born and before they are lying in their mother’s arms. The psalm reminds us that God has made even that journey with us. We are meant to be with God and this lament plants us firmly back in relationship with God.

            We have sung these words today together because none of us is ever alone in our distress. This very personal lament is not prayed just here at St. John’s but also in every other church in the world that follows the Lectionary. They all pray these same words with us today and if we are truly honest we remember that we pray these very personal words that were given by the psalmist to Israel. We pray with Israel and all who have been given the psalms as part of their own tradition.

            In the Hebrew faith, Rabbis speak of the prophets and the Tribes of Israel in the present tense acknowledging that the prayers and concerns of all the witnesses are lifted together in unison. For me, this is a great comfort, my distress is not experienced alone and I am not the first or the only to experience disorientation or to get lost. I have a multitude of examples of those who have lost their way, many while trying to live into their callings. And yet the formula for finding my way again remains the same, Return to God when we are in trouble. Back again to where we are safest.

            We are not the first parents to send our children out into the world. We are not they first to mourn and celebrate life’s transitions. We are not the first kids to walk down the street to first grade or to be dropped off at college. We will get lost but we must remember that contrary to the old adage, we can go home. The formula requires us to return to God when we are lost and we do this together again and again. As parents we will open our arms and welcome our children home, where they can be re-oriented, so they can leave again. God also continues to welcome them and us back into his presence and the safety of his embrace. And for that we offer continual praise.