Shepherd/ess of Grace: Embracing Kindness and Nurture

Join Tara as she reflects on the origins of Mother's Day as a day of peace and gratitude. She shares personal stories and insights from Good Shepherd Sunday, encouraging listeners to become good shepherds and shepherdesses in their own lives through acts of love, care, and nurture. Tara highlights the importance of extending gratitude and kindness beyond one day, drawing inspiration from the 23rd Psalm and influential figures in her life.

Transcript

S6 E15 Shepherds of Grace: Embracing Kindness and Nurture

Pastor Tara Lamont Eastman: [00:00:00] Welcome to Holy Shenanigans. I'm your muse, Tara Lamont Eastman pastor, podcaster and practitioner of holy shenanigans. Here at Holy Shenanigans Podcast, we celebrate all the ways that holy and sacred things show up in our everyday lives. So thanks for joining us for the always Sacred Never Stuffy adventures that we call Holy shenanigans.

Last Sunday was the annual celebration of Mother's Day in the United States. This day originated with Anna Reeves Jarvis after her mother Ann died on May 9th, 1905. Jarvis set out to create a day that would honor her and all moms and celebrate them with [00:01:00] handwritten letters of gratitude in 1914.

President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Jarvis's idea as a national holiday to be celebrated each second Sunday in May. Before Jarvis Mother's Day was envisioned as Mother's Peace Day by poet and author Julia Ward, Howe, Howe, and Anti-war activists, which included Jarvis's own mother. It created this idea that Mother's Day should spread unity across the globe in the wake of so much trauma following the Civil War in America, and the Franco Prussian War in Europe.

Thanks to good housekeeping for this information. Since then, mother's Day has become a $25 billion industry. I love the origins of this holiday. With its call to simple pleasures of writing letters to loved ones, [00:02:00] as well as extending gratitude to those who nurture. Just imagine if Mother's Day could be expanded to all women, to remember them, to honor them as they hold up at least half of the world.

Anyway, just imagine what a gift it would be for the world. For more peace, for more gratitude. More nurture. All this love and nurture and gratitude shouldn't be limited to just one day a year. But as we think about this last Sunday as Mother's Day, it's also important to remember that it was Good Shepherd Sunday in the Liturgical Church calendar.

 This is a day where Jesus is lifted up as the gentle shepherd king, so different from the kings of the world, a king of compassion. Care, love, and humility. The [00:03:00] scriptures for Good Shepherd Sunday that fall on Mother's Day offer an important lens to help Jesus followers live out their faith. Today's text, focus on healing and feature the 23rd Psalm.

The Lord is my shepherd. When you think of the qualities of a shepherd, what comes to mind? Protection, feeding, herding, rest. While we may not be shepherds that care for actual sheep, the 23rd Psalm points to a lot of ways where we can do some shepherding work in the world. I think the work of shepherding can take on many forms, including listening, responding, and taking action.

Small actions of love and care can make a difference in the world. We too can be a shepherd or a shepherd us. [00:04:00] I don't have firsthand experience with herds of sheep, but from what I learned from the 23rd Psalm and John 10, the skill of a shepherd is diverse and adaptive. The primary goal of shepherding though is caring for sheep and keeping them healthy and safe.

And while the role of Jesus as shepherd is bigger than ours, you and I also are invited to this work of caring for nurturing and shepherding people. There are lots of ways to be a shepherd, and shepherding involves three important things, listening, responding, and action. These are the central actions of good shepherds, but perhaps a few examples of good shepherds I.

Might help to expand our understanding of this role. When I think of Good Shepherd people in my own life, I think of the writer, Madeline Langle, whose [00:05:00] books have guided me through many tough times. I think of Fred Rogers from Mr. Rogers neighborhood on PBS, who taught me to love others and appreciate who I am too.

I think of my dad whistling to call me in from playing outdoors, who held my hand as we walked together, who taught me how to drive. I think of my mom reading Charlotte's Web to me when I was home and sick in bed. I think of all of the meals she made from scratch for our whole family and how she modeled daily devotion to prayer as she sat with her Bible and coffee each and every morning.

I also think of another person that I affectionately call Grammy Joyce. I was first introduced to Grammy Joyce when I was in my early twenties. I met her daughter at a church function, and very [00:06:00] soon her daughter and I became fast friends and eventually so would Grammy Joyce and I too. Grammy Joyce had the gift of listening, responding, and taking actions.

As a seamstress, she would use her gifts to work on flags for the local band, but she also used these gifts of sewing on a more personal level to help with our wedding budget. She made the bridesmaids dresses from scratch. When I was expecting my first baby, I had a hard time finding maternity clothes that were long enough for my work, and so Grammy Joyce took it upon herself.

To invite me to go find some material in a pattern, and she created me several dresses that I could wear throughout my pregnancy. Inside the collar of each dress was a little tag that said, made, especially for you by Joyce. [00:07:00] When our first child was born, we only had one vehicle, and my spouse worked all the time.

So every Tuesday, Grammy Joyce would pick me up for a grocery run. And for lunch, for conversation and teaching me important things like how to balance a checkbook. Grammy Joyce was not a grandmother by blood, but she was a shepherdess, a good shepherdess who listened, responded, and took actions of love and nurture that I am still grateful for and remember.

Over 30 years later because of the example of the good Shepherdess Grammy Joyce. Now I wonder myself, who am I to be a good shepherdess to today? As I shared this story of Grammy Joyce, you've probably thought of a [00:08:00] few people in your own life who have done some good shepherding for you. As we think about all of these people.

Who have offered quiet and gentle acts of kindness and nurture in our lives. What else are we to do but to respond with acts of kindness and nurture ourselves today? How might we be called to be a shepherd or a shepherd? Us people who care for and nurture in the name of God go beyond the binary of mother and father.

This call for people to extend care and nurture is an invitation for each of us to become good shepherds, to become good shepherdess of God's love, nurture, and care in the world. So dear Holy shenanigans podcast listeners, I invite each of us to pause, to ponder, and to [00:09:00] give thanks for the nurturers of our lives.

Who are you grateful for today? You know my list. Madeline L’engle, Fred Rogers, Grammy Joyce, my dad, my mom, my mother in love, Janet, and so many more so often in life, we can think of disappointments and shortfalls in our relationships with loved ones. But today I invite you to remember to put those memories back together where you were nurtured and cared for, and to use those memories as inspiration to share nurture for others in the world.

Who do you know not only by blood, who could use a little nurturing today? How might you be a gentle shepherd or shepherdess? To someone else. [00:10:00] How can we listen, speak, and take action in ways that will nurture someone else? Consider the words of Psalm 23 from the message as some inspiration. God, my shepherd, I don't need a thing.

You have beded me down in lush meadows. You find me quiet pools to drink from. True to your word. You let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction. Even when the way goes through Death Valley, I am not afraid. When you walk by my side, your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure. You serve me a six course dinner right in front of my enemies.

You revive my drooping head. My cup brims with blessing. Your beauty and love chase after me Every day [00:11:00] of my life, I'm back home in the house of God for the rest of my life. May God help us to lead others to lush Meadows, to find quiet pools to drink from. May God help us to move from ideas to action. May we be true to our word and also do the things we say we believe.

Maybe help someone to catch their breath so they know the right way to go. God, help us to listen, speak, and take actions of love, grace, and good shepherding. I am your Holian and against muse, Tara Lamont Eastman. Thank you for joining us this week for holy shenanigans. That surprise, encourage, redirect, and turn life [00:12:00] upside down.

All in the name of love. This is an unpredictable spiritual adventure that is always sacred, but never stuffy. You can support Holy Shenanigans Podcast by giving@www.buy me a coffee.com back slash tara l Eastman. If you are in the Northwest Pennsylvania region, I invite you to join me at Warren First Presbyterian Church for weekly worship at 10:00 AM.

Until next time, may you be well, may you be at peace, and may you and I take up the call to be good. Shepherds and Shepherdeses.