About twenty-five years ago a couple of friends and I
assembled an osprey nest on the beach along Narragansett Bay. It was a birthday present for another
friend whose property extended out to the water. Although we had great fun driving the 18 foot poles into the
ground it was a challenging and difficult task. They had to be strong enough to support the platform for
ospreys to build their next. The ground was soft, full of sand and marsh. Erecting the supports for a nest
required a lot of strength from each of us. Naturally, building the actual nest was left to the ospreys. Once we completed erecting the platform
for the nest it took several years before these cautious and fearful birds
trusted the site enough to settle in.
Now, for the past several years in the spring they have been laying eggs
and hatching new osprey lives. This year they returned on March 22nd.
The important point to note about this story is watching
and waiting in hope that new osprey life will appear each year. Watching these magnificent birds
alighting on their new home, building a nest, and shepherding new life is an
amazing experience.
I thought about this when I read a recent article in
the Christian Century magazine. (Isaac Villegas, April 15, 2015) The author wrote, “The
Christian life is all about nesting – about creating a home for the gospel, a
shelter for hope and joy and all things good. We are a people who build nests wherever we go, wherever we
settle for a season. We know that
God has always been mobile, living in a tent, providing the people of God a
sanctuary in the wilderness.” As
we read in the 23rd Psalm, “Even though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for you are with me.” We use our churches, God’s house to
provide a refuge, a sanctuary, a secure nesting place apart from the often unsettling
and stressful circumstances of our lives.
God is present with us and with all creation,
including the ospreys as they build and settle in their nest and create new
life. The epistle we read from the
First Letter of John asks, “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the
world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in
word or speech, but in truth and action.” Living in truth, acting out of love, being God’s love
for others in their need is what matters.
“We find ourselves within God’s life when we are drawn into the lives of
others, friends and strangers.”
One of the things I have observed in ministering with
people who are finding it increasingly difficult to be independent is a
reluctance to ask for help. Being
God’s love for others is not easy. There is a reason that Rhode Island has a
statue of an independent man on the top of the State House. We value our independence, what it
means to be self-sufficient and self-caring. We hate to be dependent on others because we feel it is
always a burden for them. We do
not want to be burdensome or dependent.
On the other hand, what we do in truth and action
reflects a genuine desire to serve.
If our caring for others is done in the manner of the good and caring shepherd,
the young, the elderly, the sick, and the grieving people among us would not
have to feel they are a burden.
The 23rd Psalm reminds us that it is the good
shepherd's presence that gives courage to those who walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, a valley that has many names: grief, addiction, unemployment, broken relationships,
worry for one's children, fear, disease.
We help by walking alongside and with those who suffer. The people for whom we really care can
experience the goodness of God shepherding them. “Goodness and mercy shall follow them all the days of their
lives.”
When we are surrounded by people in need there is a
table prepared for them. It is a
table spread with fellowship and communion, a table where God is present and
where caring is evident. I see it
here at All Saints’ every week when the City Meal Site serves the guests who
come seeking that fellowship and satisfying their need to be fed. I see it every time we gather for
worship and break bread and share the cup at the Lord’s table in Holy
Communion.
The Christian Century article concluded by stating,
“The Church is a nest where all are welcome to rest in God’s love. It is a table where all are welcome to
eat and drink God’s life. In us,
the body of Christ, God is made flesh.”
God’s love abides in truth and action. May we continue to love and care
for one another and all whom we meet in truth and action. Amen.
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