Dear Friends,
It’s the perfect date! April 25th! – and I make no apologies for the fact that Miss Congeniality is my favorite movie.
Perfect is, of course, an interesting or even impossible qualifier for us as Christians. Perfection as we conceive of it is about any number of things, but ultimately it gets entangled with complicated ideas about purity, sinlessness, and in our resurrection hope. We live with the idea that perfection for us is an aspiration that cannot be experienced in this life – but that, as we pray, we do our best to encourage. "On earth as it is in heaven,” and all that.
Still, one of the wonderful things about the Bible, and particularly the Parables, is that we are offered a vision of what the perfect might be like. It is where we encounter the Good Shepherd, the cool water, the good green grass. It is where a table is set before us, a great feast. But still, we so rarely understand. Just like the disciples who hung on Jesus’s every word as he made one of his great “I am” statements.
I am the Good Shepherd.
Here’s the twist, though – or maybe there’s more than one. Jesus calls himself the Good Shepherd, not the Perfect Shepherd. In the text from the Gospel of John, though, the opposite of the Good Shepherd is simply “a stranger.” And in Godly Play, we offer an even clearer, but not moralizing distinction; the other figure is the Ordinary Shepherd.
In the common structure of opposites, Good is countered by Evil. But not everything needs to be so stark. And in our daily lives, isn’t that what we actually encounter most of the time? We are impressed by those who do good works because they are stepping out of the ordinary. But most of us, most of the time, are ordinary. We run from the wolf. And there’s nothing wrong or bad about being ordinary. It’s just… well, ordinary.
Revising The Ordinary
One thing about the ordinary is that it can get dull. Our ordinary clothes wear out because we need them for daily use. Ordinary foods get cooked on Tuesdays, not for special occasions. Like I said before, there’s nothing wrong with ordinary. But ordinary is easy to overlook. Sometimes we need to give it a little polish to view it with fresh eyes.
I’ve written about this before, but overly familiar scripture becomes, for me, not just ordinary, but also tiresome. I never want to hear them again. But then, sometimes, there are moments that make those pieces of scripture fresh. Someone revises their usual presentation, brings new vision to the matter at hand, and I’m hooked in again.
Sometimes things become ordinary because we love them so much that we need them in our daily lives. In a Velveteen Rabbit twist, love of something can wear it out and make it even more special than if we set it on display behind glass. We’ve all seen that happen with our own favorite childhood toys, or our children’s. So, let’s summon our own fresh eyes.
The Lord Is My Shepherd
If any piece of scripture has gone accidentally stale for me through other’s love of it, it may be Psalm 23. People love it. It may even be objectively beautiful. But I find other things more interesting and compelling. So what can bring this text back to life?
I find Psalm 23 to be the perfect text for a youth or intergenerational project that considers the many ways we come to the same text. How does listening to The Corner Room’s version of Psalm 23 change how you feel about it? Or, more radically, Common Hymnal and Sharon Irving’s “Our Psalm 23” – which gives the text some modern reshaping alongside gospel music vibes:
Of course, there’s also all kinds of visual art depicting and illuminating this passage. Sarah Lea West, whose visio divina pieces you’ve likely encountered, tunes us into the auditory aspect of our connection to the Good Shepherd: My Sheep Hear My Voice
What happens when we hold a variety of these source texts side by side? And how can we highlight or revise Psalm 23 so that, though the heart of the text remains the same, it feels new? I invite your experiments.
News & Resource Central
Before I leave you this week, friends, a rundown of upcoming events, new resources, and things you shouldn’t miss!
There’s still time to enter Illustrated Ministry’s coloring contest for a copy of Daneen Akers’ new book Mama God. Though, contest or not, you’ll want a copy of this book!
Early Bird Registration for the Godly Play North America Conference ends on May 1st! The keynotes will be fantastic, you’ll get to take part in story circles, hear about the revisions we’ve been hard at work on, an the workshop lineup is stellar, if I do say so myself; catch me offering a session on access and inclusion! I hope I’ll get to meet some of you there!
Are you into breath prayers? They’re a great grounding and centering practice and can be ideal for getting your circle settled. Well, it’s a great moment if you’re looking for some new ones. Sarah Bessey has 10 new breath prayers in her newsletter this week, and there’s also a new series at Little Way Chapel over on IG.
I find that it is notoriously difficult to find good (explicitly church-y) books for older children. Ask me about picture books, and I’ve got you covered, but middle grades on up get tricky. That’s why I’m so excited about this biography in verse about Pauli Murray, Episcopal priest, feminist activity, and total groundbreaker. What are your favorite books for the late childhood and youth contingent?
Let’s leave it there for this week. Go forth and enjoy this Perfect Date! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!
Peace,
Bird