2023-09-18
Brooke Strong
Sermon Text...
Kristin LeFeber
Youth Sunday Sermon – September 17, 2023
As you may have already realized, our text for today is Psalm 103:1-5. First of all, it’s printed on your bulletin. It was also our call to worship. Morgan read a version for us. And now, one more time, yet another version:
NIV Version
Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Of the many things I am, I am a teacher – mostly a Sunday School teacher. And I know that repetition is key, not only for younger people, but for learners of all ages. And since today’s verse is short and sweet I thought we’d go for it. It’s a lovely selection from the book of Psalms – one, I hope, might now pop into your heads from time to time.
In teaching, simplicity and clarity is also key. Not just for younger people, but for learners of all ages. So here’s my seemingly simply message for today (something you may also have picked up on) God is good.
When I read today’s Psalm this is the message I get from the Psalmist: Praise God because God is good.
Other biblical authors have come to similar conclusions:
1 Chronicles says, “give thanks to the lord for he is good, his steadfast love endures forever.”
Psalm 34 says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”
James 1 says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights”
And one of my favorite theologians, Julian of Norwich wrote, “And so in this vision, as I understand it, I saw truly that God is everything that is good for us.”
I am a teacher, but I am also a student. I am currently enrolled and studying to become a Spiritual Director at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. One of the reasons I really wanted to go to seminary was to learn and to grow. And I’ve certainly done both over the past year, but I have also proceeded to question everything as well:
Is spiritual direction the right path for me? How do I discern what God is calling me to do? Does God even call us to particular things? How involved is God in our lives? How do I hear from God? How do I interpret what God reveals to me? Is God really good all of the time? And on and on and on…find me tomorrow, I’ll have seven more.
Having a lot of questions and not a lot of answers can be a scary feeling. We like answers. We like certainty. But life is not black and white. It’s not even gray. Gray is too concrete. Life is a mystery full of questions –
Some of which I have come to believe we must decide an answer for, or we will have no faith to stand on. Questions are natural, even helpful. Mystery is real, but we need a place to start. For example, because of scripture like today’s and my own experiences and the tradition of our faith I have decided to believe that, yes, God is good all of the time.
God may be confusing, hard to hear or understand, and God might even change God’s mind, I don’t know. But what I know of God so far has taught me that God is good and so I have decided that is true and a foundation of my faith…a jumping off point to help me begin to answer all of those other questions.
When I first began considering studying spiritual direction for myself, I sought my own spiritual director to not only better understand what spiritual direction was, but to help me walk through all the questions seminary (and faith journeys in general) can bring up. It’s been an excellent choice for me and every session has been rewarding in some way.
In a recent time together, my spiritual director and I explored how I might know something was from God – one of the many questions swirling around in my mind. We had a breakthrough of sorts and discovered that for me, knowing something is from God is a deep knowing that something is good. And this deep knowing is not necessarily something I only understand in my head or hold in my heart, but one I also feel in my body.
My spiritual director had me physically sit still with a something I had been laboring over for months and months, even years. I wanted to know if it was from God. So my spiritual director had me sit with it to see how it felt. And even though I had spent all that previous time hemming and hawing over what to do in that moment of stillness I experienced a deep knowing that it was good. And I decided that the feeling of good I had was God.
And what did it feel like? Well, for me, it felt like bubbles. To me, good feels like the bubbling up of an exciting idea, or the gentle flow of a peaceful bubbling brook, or the tingle of a refreshing drink of seltzer water. So when I sit with something and I feel the bubbles, I know it’s good – I know it’s God. And that feels good.
Now – kiddos in the room. Just because something feels good on the surface doesn’t mean its from God. But when you deeply know something is from God – it feels good. It might not feel like bubbles for you. It might feel like warmth or shine like light or something I can’t even imagine or you can even articulate. But discovering how you know something is good – that something is from God - is important. It’s important information that we can use.
I have learned that when I become anxious or fearful or overwhelmed, I can stop and take a deep breath and center myself by remembering the feeling of the bubbles – by remembering my starting point – by remembering that God is good. It’s like a place I can go in my own body. And when I feel the bubbles, I always smile and calm down and can return to my journey.
But there is an important step not to overlook and that the psalmist makes clear: we must also take the time to thank and praise God for all of God’s goodness. Like God’s forgiveness, healing, redemption, satisfaction and love.
Again, you might not feel God bubbles like I do. But you might. And even if you don’t I offer you mine –offer you the starting point of associating bubbles with the goodness of God. I’m literally passing out bubbles at the end of the service for you to take home and enjoy. So blow some bubbles. Decide that God is good. And then blow some more and praise God, oh my soul. Amen.