Preached on Sunday, May 11, 2025, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Little Rock.

Mustering up as much restraint as a preacher can muster, I preach this morning on just one verse of our Psalm––in fact, only half of a verse, and really, only half of a half verse. Here it is: “my cup is running over” (Psalm 23:5b). For you see, even in this half of a half verse, this mere fragment of Holy Scripture, God has a word for us.

But remember: we can’t hear God’s word for us if we rush through Psalm 23. After all, it’s so easy to rush through passages when we read the Bible. And it’s especially easy to do so when we know the Bible passage as well as we know this one. We know Psalm 23. We learned it on parent’s knee. We learned it in Sunday School and at Church camp. And we have relied on it ever since: in ambulances and in hospital rooms, in our bedtime prayers and in our deathbeds, at weddings and at funerals, at Baptisms and in war zones––at every time and in every place imaginable. We know Psalm 23. 

But sometimes, familiarity prevents us from hearing God’s voice in Holy Scripture. When the passage is familiar, we rush; and we rush because we think we have it all figured out before we even start. We know it so well that we have mastered it. And mastery is a dangerous place for a Christian to be. Mastery is dangerous because it’s a quiet and subtle way to close our ears off to God’s voice. Nothing can surprise us—not even God.

What’s needed––needed always, but needed today especially––is not mastery, but instead, what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls a “childlike naiveté.” We have to be optimistic about what God might say to us here in this oh-so-very familiar passage of Holy Scripture. We have to keep our ears open with passages like this one more than any. Some may call us Christians childlike or naïve, and we say “that’s exactly right,” because that humility is how we can hear the voice of God. So, come with me to just one verse of our Psalm––in fact, only half of a verse, and really, only half of a half verse––and let’s see what God might have to say to us. 

“My cup is running over” (Psalm 23:5b).

Psalm 23 is about a life with the Shepherd, and this half of a half verse reminds us that a life with the Shepherd always includes abundance. A life with God always involves “more.” Why? Well, because the LORD is our shepherd. He guides us and directs us. He sits us down when we need to sit down, and He takes us to places where we couldn’t have gotten ourselves. He gets us through dark valleys and keeps us from being crippled by fear. He restores our souls. He gives us our lives back. Therefore, the Psalmist has us say, a life with the LORD always includes abundance. With God, our cup runs over.

And that is what Easter is all about. It’s no wonder we hear this oh-so-familiar passage of Scripture, Psalm 23, every year on the fourth Sunday of Easter, because this is what Easter is all about. Easter is about more. 

Now, when we say “more,” we’re not really talking about possessing more. That’s the stuff of “mastery.” Notice that the Psalmist doesn’t say, “look, I have an even bigger cup to hold everything that God has given me.” No, the Psalmist says, “God is giving me so much that my little cup just can’t hold it all, and it’s just running all over the place.” That’s what we mean by “more.” Easter is all about “more” in this sense: it’s about cups running over, it’s about 153 big ‘ole fish, it’s about a man Who was down for the count but Who got back up again, it’s about life when life should have been over––it’s about “abundance.” Easter is about God exceeding needs and expectations. Easter is about the surprises of God. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our cup just runs right over.

And in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are made a new people. Easter not only determines our destination, but it also guides our steps. That is, the “more” of Easter is a way of life. We are the people of cups running over. And what might that life look like?

At the very least, if Easter is about abundance, and being an Easter people is a way of life, then this way of life must always include acknowledging our abundance. Notice that the Psalmist doesn’t say, “that cup over there is overflowing!” No, the Psalmist says, “my cup is overflowing! My cup runs over!” An Easter life always involves acknowledging our very own abundances. An Easter life involves introspection, looking inward at what God has done for me.

And such acknowledgement always involves discerning and deciding how we might honor the abundance that God has given to us. If Easter is always about abundance, and being an Easter people is always about acknowledging that abundance, then we are going to have to reckon with what we’ll do with this abundance. So writes Paul to the Corinthians: “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).

There are lots of options for how we might honor and share the abundance we have been given, and each option depends on the kind of abundance with which our own cup overflows. Easter is always about “more,” and the Easter life is always about taking a generous posture with the “more” we have received. But first, we have to acknowledge the abundance given to us in order to know how we might be generous with it.

So, think with me: what’s your abundance?

It might be that our cup is running over with time. We have a lot of time on our hands. Maybe we’re newly empty-nesters. Maybe we have a new job that isn’t quite as time-consuming as the last one. Maybe we’ve recently retired. Maybe we’ve lost our job. Maybe we have more days in this life than our doctor told us we would. Our cup is running over. How might we acknowledge that abundance and share it to the glory of God?

It might be that our cup is running over with talent. Let me tell you, this is a congregation that just overflows with talent. Maybe we’re good with a spreadsheet. Maybe we cook a mean casserole. Maybe we can make Palm Crosses with the best of them. Maybe we have this driving urge to play every organ work that Bach ever wrote. Maybe we have a gift for welcoming people, or feeding people, or comforting people. Maybe we have a gift that the world hasn’t cared about, but that the Gospel welcomes and puts to its service. Our cup is running over. How might we acknowledge that abundance and share it to the glory of God?

Or it might be that our cup is running over with treasure. Now, money is an abundance that always requires introspection. We always have to look inward on this one. We can’t just look at some other person’s cup, discerning what that person’s financial abundance may or may not be. And it’s certainly not up to the preacher to do any of that. But if Psalm 23 teaches us anything, it’s this: we probably have more of an abundance that we realize. For me and Lillian, it’s been this: Are we really spending our excess money the way we want to spend it? Does our spending reflect our values? These are the questions we have to ask ourselves; I’m sure you all do, too. Our cup is running over. How might we acknowledge that abundance and share it to the glory of God?

This is what the Vestry’s Debt Elimination Campaign is all about: looking inward, looking for the abundance in our life, acknowledging it, honoring it, thanking God for it, and then sharing it. Why? So that this congregation might go and do the same: freeing up our budget to take that next faithful step, “sharing abundantly in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8) for a world that so desperately needs it. 

So, maybe it’s time, talent, treasure, or maybe it’s something else entirely––that’s for you to pray about. But this is what it looks like for us to celebrate the “more” of Easter: that we share the abundance that has been given to us, always to the glory of God, the giver of every good gift, not least the gift of new life, won for us by the resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

I’m always blown away by such a little verse of Scripture––a half of a half verse!––something so easily passed over, actually saying something to us, to each and every one of us. And may it be so. May it be so that we faithfully “hear and receive [God’s] Holy Word,” as the Prayer Book puts it, so that we may truly serve God “in holiness and righteousness all the days of [our] life.” For in the words of our Risen Lord, “my sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27). In His Name we pray. Amen.