The book I’ve been reading for fun this week is called Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy by one of my favorite non-fiction science authors, Mary Roach, in case anyone else was interested in reading about scientific attempts to re-create various parts of the human body. To my surprise, in her first chapter, she spent a few paragraphs talking about the relationship between sheep and humans throughout our scientific history. In the description of why sheep had been chosen over other animals to assist humans through various procedures and transfusions, she writes, “Sheep, I’ve been told by those who raise them, are the chillest of barnyard animals. Unlike pigs and goats, they’ll tolerate being made to stand or lie around for protracted periods, as long as they have something nice to eat.” In that sense, maybe our comparison to sheep isn’t so wrong after all! But, I also cannot help but think about what all of this means for us in terms of our lives being guided by Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
Maybe it was the reading of these sentences in Roach’s book or, perhaps, my own need for rest this week after far too busy of a month, but it was the second verse from the Psalm which really caught my attention this week: “the Lord makes me lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters” (Psalm 23: 2). Quite literally in Hebrew, “The [Lord] makes me to lie down” , requiring us to rest when otherwise we would keep wandering around doing everything else that we think we need to be doing. In this imagery from the Psalm, the Lord has to lead us to a place to lie down, to restore our energy levels and quench our thirst that we would likely choose to just keep ignoring for the sake of getting another thing done. Or, at least, maybe that is just my brain…But, for many of us, it is far too easy to forget about meeting the needs of our body; the need for food, water, and rest, because the to-do list is long and the schedule is full. Rest, dear ones, is not a reward for after everything has been accomplished, but it is a God-given gift, an important part of faithful living in this life, not just in the blessed rest of eternal life. After all, even God rested! When thought of that way, this phrasing of “the [Lord] makes me lie down…” (Psalm 23: 2a) is actually quite beautiful; yet another example of this relationship we have with our God who desires life and wholeness for all of creation, desiring what is best for us even as we have a hard time living into that reality.
The Sabbath isn’t just a cute idea from generations previous who just didn’t value a hard day’s work like we do now, but it is a time of rest, and dare I say, restoration. It is an intentional time in which we are called to lay down our burdens, to being severing ourselves from the things that ensnare us and turn us from God and one another, to recognize that caring for our bodies is just as important as spending a few more hours working. These bodies that were created in the image of God, that are meant for our embodied faith. These bodies that are not fully replaceable, don’t always function the way we want them to, are capable of producing other human beings, grow weary, need to take rests along the way, will let us know when they are feeling particularly hungry, are prone to aches and pains, and allow us to show signs of love and care for one another. This act of resting, then, isn’t just faithful, but also radically contradictory to everything else society has been teaching us.
If this book has reminded me of anything, it’s that our bodies are miracles in and of themselves! The way that our organs all work together, our cells replicate and replace themselves, our bodies grow and change as we age, our brains are able to communicate with everything down to the tips of our toes, and we are able to heal from cuts and breaks. And, the story of the Good Shepherd teaches us that our bodies are not just something to be used, but are a part of who we are, whether we love our body or we have a hard time accepting it. Even this last part is a manifestation of the way that sin is flowing through our systems, telling us that some people are more beautiful than others, that there are quick fixes to make our appearance better, or that we have to be a certain body size and shape in order to be valued in the world; that we only matter in the confines of acquiring wealth or power for ourselves or for those in power.
Rev. Dr. Carmelo Santos-Rolón, who serves at Churchwide for the ELCA, was our speaker this last week at the Northwest Washington Synod’s Bishop’s Convocation, and he was presenting on neuroscience and theology. One of the things he talked about last week felt really pertinent to this week’s texts and this conversation around restoration. He was talking about how the power of God is to create out of nothing, but the power of the oppressor is to destroy into nothing. It sounds quite similar to what Jesus says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10: 10). The shepherd knows the names of all the sheep and desires to bring them rest and a restoration to abundant life, but the systems that oppress see the sheep only for their use and value. If we move out from this sheep metaphor, we are reminded that God desires us to have abundant life, while the systems that oppress and get in the way of that see us as only being valuable for what we produce, otherwise we are expendable.
This has been the struggle throughout history, between the ways of God and the ways of human systems. We hear in 1 Peter about the suffering that people will endure as followers of Christ, not because God desires our suffering, but because of the difficulties and challenges we will encounter when working toward the restoration of the world as God envisions (1 Peter 2: 19-25). We also read about the way that the early followers lived a common life together, adding more to their numbers, after hearing Peter preach after Pentecost, as they were invited to envision a new way of being together (Acts 2: 42-47). In case you weren’t aware, this ideal community didn’t last forever! Despite the work of mutual aid that they were doing, sin can still get in the way of even the best intentions, dividing communities and turning us back to self-serving interests, especially when people’s lives are so enmeshed in those existing systems that untangling feels important. These harmful systems are still at work in our world, attempting to assign worth to people based on skin color, gender, ability, nationality, sexuality, and so many other societally determined factors. As we hear the promise of rest, as laid out in the Psalm, we cannot ignore the reality that there are still far too many people in our society who are quite literally forced to choose between resting and feeding their families, keeping a roof over their heads, or paying for medical bills.
Our teachings are not devoid of our grief and lament about the painful realities of the world in which we live, nor do they dismiss the heart-aching, anxiety-inducing nature of the valleys we walk through in the course of our living. But, do they risk the courage to make the bold proclamation that this is not what God envisions for us, and reclaim the hope that we have in Christ, even in the midst of pain. The Good Shepherd is inviting us to not just rest by taking a nap for an hour, but to the radical act of restoration that is turning the world back around toward care with and for one another. Sheep may be the “chillest of barnyard animals,” but we humans need a bit more guiding from the Good Shepherd to reach places where we and creation can truly rest and be brought back into wholeness. The road is long, and it feels daunting, and, at the same time, we cling to the hope that we have in Christ who walks with us every step of the way, guiding us all the while, even as we attempt to go astray. Guiding us toward rest and restoration, toward the vision of God which allows for the flourishing of all God’s creation. May it be so!
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Sunday April 12th, 2026 Worship