The Valley of Love and Delight
Sermon Series: Simple Gifts #4 - The Valley of Love and Delight
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
Really - valley of love? Really – valley of delight? How do we reconcile the 23rd Psalm’s valley of the shadow of death with the song’s valley of love and delight? The valley is a metaphor in scripture for difficulty. Honestly, I have always imagined that the Good Shepherd lifts us out of stagnant, pigment-less valleys and places us on calm, colorful mountains. But looking again at Psalm 23, no such promise appears. The location doesn’t change. It is as if, our courage in the face of evil combined with God’s gifts of steadfast love and care reconstruct the valley. Our relationship to the valley alters it from a place of fear to a place of delight. The song Simple Gifts parallels Psalm 23; goodness is a gift from God. God’s gift of simplicity echoes the still waters. God’s gift of freedom echoes the security of green pastures. God’s gift “to come down where we ought to be” echoes the right paths. Our reception of these gifts transforms difficult, dry bone valleys into delightful ones. Our prophetic promotion of these divine gifts transforms life.
They were small, toothy dinosaurs, the Coelophysis, running around in large packs on spindly legs. They lived in the high desert spaces of New Mexico. Remember in Jurassic Park the dinosaurs that hunted in packs. The Coelophysis resembles them but were smaller.
Something awful occurred. A Coelophysis tribe died together in a heap. Their remains were found in 1947, a mass grave. Paleontologists are not sure what happened. Maybe it was a natural disaster, or a virile pestilence.
Many of us worry that something dark again this way comes. Suffering again mass murder in public places, we grieve. We worry about how to protect our loved ones and we worry about how to help the young adults who silently suffer brooding deathly vengeances against strangers. How can we prophesy God’s peace to Cho Seung-Hui, Nidal Malik Hasan, and James Holmes? How can we raise the bar on our messages of God’s compassion, and how can we better communicate as God’s loving communities of inclusion, and how can we reach them before their despair devolves into violence? How can we baptize them into knowing and growing in God’s amazing grace?
We also worry that American democracy will be massacred with the bones of our country’s egalitarian dream littering the States. We worry that money in politics, we worry that dogged party politics, that commercial corporatism, and disinterested electorates will decimate the good of our governmental system. We worry that health care, housing, hunger and hopelessness will not be harnessed but will spiral downward to disaster, to valleys of dry bone. Nonetheless, we are called to prophesy, to prophesy that God’s Spirit blows life, a vibrant life transforming desolation to delight.
Eleven huge, ton-heavy blocks of earth were extracted from the site and sent around to natural history museums throughout the world. One block stayed at Ghost Ranch, our Presbyterian Conference Center of the West. They constructed a museum around the block of stone and bone. The Ranch’s valley of fossilized bones is considered one of the richest quarries of the Triassic era.
I was blessed to live as a volunteer at the Ranch. Halfway through my year, a student paleontologist came to work. Her name was Rosie. Her task was to extract the little dinosaur from its dry earthly tomb.
She chipped and sanded, scrapped and brushed the stone down to its skull. It was so dry, that gleaning it from its surrounding earth threatened to pulverize it. She had to saturate it with glue. Rosie in six months almost entirely recovered the skull and the bones of the mouth.
If you wish to see a Coelophysis, one of the 11 blocks was acquired by the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum. Go see a little dinosaur revived from its dry death. Go see the delight of children who imagine the creature alive, whose joy grows seeing the bones knit back together. Go see them learn to respect life.
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, now hear the word of the Lord...foot bone connected to the ankle bone
At Ghost Ranch, if we had the means to scrap the surface off of this Triassic quarry, we could stand on the top of the low mesas and look down upon a valley of very dry bones. The prophet, Ezekiel, had a vision from God, a desolate valley of bones, dry, brittle, futureless bones.
We all have dry moments, those times where life is not within us, or around us. Everything is sad, lonely, depressing, hopeless, and tearful. Nothing tastes, smells, or feels good. My mother called these moments, the blues. She would say, “Be gentle with me today, I’m having a blue day.” If the moments grow to days, and the days grow into a hopeless string of day after day after day, we end up prone, detached, and in dry valleys. If we allow despairs to settle into us, despair about American politics, despair regarding self-hate, despair about personal health, despair about gun violence, or worry for others. If we allow despair to settle into us, the demon despair will wick out all our life, our moisture, will wick out our hope. And the demon despair will silence our prophetic voices of hope and change.
The people of Judah were defeated by the Babylonians. They were humiliated, de-humanized, removed from their homes, their fields, their Temple and dragged to the foreign land of Babylon. Ezekiel was the son of a priest of the Temple. At thirty he should have put on the robes of a priest, but in exile there were no robes. He sought God’s gifts of green pastures, of still waters and prophesied words of reproach and repentance. The people were dry and lifeless not only because they were a captive people but more so because they betrayed God’s love. They overlooked the true joys of life and greedily consumed wantonly. They misused others. They lost the beauty of caring for the weak.
God’s Spirit of community and compassion had been drained from them. They were a valley of dry, hopeless bones.
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, now hear the word of the Lord...ankle bone connected to the shin bone
Have you seen the movie, Sister Act? It has a vibrant, sexy, naughty character, played by Whoopie Goldberg, whose life is threatened by “organized crime.” She seeks refuge in an inner-city parish and convent. This convent once had great spirit, great energy, and a great mission to the people of the city.
Slowly retreating from encroaching crime, change and poverty, the convent passively closed its doors and went into hiding. The spirit of service and joyful worship retreated and they were left dry bones.
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, now hear the word of the Lord...shin bone connected to the knee bone
The Spirit of God is present every moment of our lives. Even on the driest blue day. God’s Spirit offers the gift, simplicity; the gift, still waters; the gift, courage in the face of evil; the gift green pastures. Breathe the gifts in. Breathe God’s hope and care in. Be courageous. Fight hopelessness. Prophesy to the misguided political powers that God would have us care for each other. Prophesy “no” to children with death-dealing guns. Prophesy a hope that all children will be loved, deeply loved into life-affirming wholeness. Prophesy compassion is life, care for other’s is life. Prophesy water, prophesy food, prophesy dignity, and homes, and health, and good work – prophesy God’s good will and be enriched by God’s Spirit.
I spent six months working as an intern at the Woodstreet United Reformed Church in Walthamstow, a borough of London. That church has a glorious history. A beautiful building was packed for decades with wonderful people.
The balcony was full in worship and the Church School was celebrated. But a valley of rubble replaced the Woodstreet Church. WWII bombs fell out of the sky and leveled the church and much of the borough.
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, now hear the word of the Lord...knee bone connected to the thigh bone
Breathe! Breathe in God’s Spirit. Breathe in God’s power. Let’s allow God’s Spirit to stir dreams within us. Maybe there is a new mission for RUC, a mission to ensure that no child will grow up in Rockville in an isolation that grows to violence. Let’s ponder how we can help vulnerable children not succumb to the powers of violence. Breathe.
The story of Ezekiel’s vision contains the Hebrew word, Ruach, 10 times. It means spirit, breath, wind, breathe. The dry bones are knit together, sinew connections, muscle, skin, life. And then the Spirit of God rushed into them with promise, new life, vibrant life, the gifts water, green, simplicity and freedom. The dusty dryness is replaced with fluid, color, and passion. Ezekiel prophesied and the people of Judah were given new life, a new hope. The Spirit of God was with them in exile. Life was restored to their valley of bones.
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, now hear the word of the Lord...thigh bone connected to the hip bone
Watch Sister Act and see the Spirit of God well portrayed. A spirit of hopeful change came into the convent ushered in with the irreverent character of Whoopie Goldberg. The nuns sing with gusto, feet planted firmly, voices wide and full. They open their rusty doors and learn anew how God’s love is found in service. They danced in the streets with the people, cleaned up the bones of the church yard, provided council and love to the young. Their neighbors were welcomed, they came and love abounded. Life was restored to their valley of bones.
The Woodstreet United Reformed Church was granted reconstruction money by the English Government. They built a less grand structure. The neighborhood of friends and members was gone, mostly relocated. The church could have remained in the valleys of disillusionment. But Elder Edna Timberlake, Elder and Treasurer, Arthur Chamberlain, and Elder Pianist Billy Woodward breathed of God’s Spirit deeply. Woodstreet, when I was with them, reached out to its new Afro-Caribbean neighbors. They sponsored a Drop-In Centre for the elderly to gather together for a cheap meal and checkers or Scrabble. Life was restored to their valley of bones.
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones. Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones, now hear the word of the Lord...hip to back, back to neck, neck bone connected to the head bone -- Now hear the word of the Lord
Now RUC is in no way dry, cannot be characterized boney. But, every community can welcome more God, more love, and more life. Our community can again welcome the hard task and call to be prophets, to dream and speak words of change to our society.
Breathe in God’s Spirit. The little dinosaur lives in our imaginations dancing with delight in God’s wonderfully, creative Spirit. The convent alive, Woodstreet dances, RUC prophesies. Accept God’s gifts and together we will transform valleys of desolation into joy and delight. For the sake of Love, may it be so. Amen.