God at the Department of Transportation--November 17, 2021

 

God at the Department of Transportation--November 17, 2021

"The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake." [Psalm 23:1-3]

You know what I am grateful for?  Cross-walks.

I am grateful, in all honesty, that human beings have agreed to this convention where a community of people trusts their local municipal government to mark out lines at intersections for people to cross so they don't get hit by oncoming traffic.  I'm grateful we have collectively agreed to obey stop-lights and traffic signals when we are the ones driving, so that the pedestrians crossing will be kept safe.  And I'm grateful that we teach our children when they are the ones walking to wait for the sign (or, in some of the cross-walks where I live, for the voice of "Jimmy Stewart" as well) to indicate when it is safe to go in the narrow pathway between the white painted lines.

That's a good system.  And I am perfectly content to trust my local town council or the crew from the Department of Transportation to figure out where there is enough potential danger to tell us all where to walk, and where to stay in the lines.  In fact, I have never, not once, heard anybody decry crosswalks as "government overreach" or "tyranny" or an "oppressive mandate," because, honestly, we've all been the pedestrian, grateful for a place and time to cross a busy street--and probably because we have all been the driver before, too, realizing just how close a call we might have had with someone jaywalking across the middle of a busy city block.  

Honestly, could you imagine the utter idiocy of someone protesting that their "rights" were being infringed because they wanted the "freedom" to get hit by a car and walk wherever they damn well pleased in the name of liberty?  No, of course not--being directed to do something that is the right thing to do isn't tyranny--it's how we learn to do the right thing. All of that is to say, having someone else guide you onto a good path isn't a bad thing, just because someone else is telling you to follow it. It does not require defiance that pretends it is noble martyrdom or "I can do what I want with my feet"-style stubbornness. Sometimes exactly what we need is a trustworthy voice saying, "Walk here--this is a safe way to go."

I know there is something in our national culture that just like to rebel at things because we think that makes us noble or independent or strong, but sometimes it just makes us jerks who don't know a good thing that is being placed in our hands--or at our feet--for free.  That is to say, sometimes we are like wayward, easily agitated sheep who need a good shepherd. And that's part of what I think we need to hear again in these familiar words of the Twenty-Third Psalm: it's the notion that God directs us on good paths, because on our own we are often too stubborn, too ornery, too self-involved, or too foolish to figure out where to cross the street.  We need God, like the local Department of Transportation crew, to mark out where it is good and right for us to put our feet and step through potential danger.  We need God to do more than offer friendly suggestions or the invitation, "I think everyone who wants to use the cross walk should, but I think those who would rather cross in the middle of the busy city street are free to do so as well." We need a God who, like any shepherd worth their salt, moves us in the right direction and doesn't leave us to our own misguided devices.  That's not God being a "tyrant" or a "dictator" or anything--it's God being a good shepherd.  A good leader and ruler.  It's the Divine as the Department of Transportation--directing us where it is good and right to go, and keeping us from endangering ourselves or others by doing so.

Looking ahead to this Sunday when our church tradition focuses on the Good News that Christ is King (which is why we call it "Christ the King Sunday," creative folks that we are), I think that's something I have often missed seeing the importance of.  As an American Christian I have been taught to be all too skeptical of any voice, from anywhere, claiming they have the authority to tell me what to do--and sometimes, let's be honest, we end up treating God the same way.  We have a tendency to think that God doesn't get to tell us what to do if we don't like it... or that God's intention that we live in justice and mercy with one another has to be run past me for my vote of approval.  But that's the thing--God does not need my approval to be God, and God does not need to ask for my support before issuing commands like, "Love your neighbor."  These things are not up for debate or a vote--they are the order of the day in the Reign of God.  God gets to tell me where the right paths are, and I need to learn to trust that God can see further down the road than my sheep's perspective can see.  

In a culture like ours that seems to deify the motto, "I'll choose my own path, thank you very much, and nobody can tell where I have to go," it's worth remembering that when we do pick our own path, some pedestrian often ends up getting hit by a car.  But if we can see the value of having an authority decide where we need a cross walk, maybe we can see the good news in having a God who shepherds us in "right paths," even "making us to lie down" when we would otherwise get ourselves or the rest of the flock in deep trouble.  Like the old saying goes, "If Jesus is your co-pilot, you and he should switch seats."  Every time I head down my own way and treat God's voice as just a "helpful suggestion" that I am free to ignore, I find myself in danger before long.  Maybe, if I can see the good of having my local town council tell me where it is safe to cross the street, I can rediscover the good news of a God who shepherds me "in right paths for his name's sake," too.

Maybe you can, too.  Today, let's step out into the day, no longer with the childish defiance of adolescents looking to rebel against whatever directs we are given, but with the trust that God knows where the cross-walks ought to be... and God will lead us to live, act, and speak where it is right.

Lord God, be our shepherd, be our king, be our guide, and lead us in right paths today, in spite of our stubbornness and selfishness.