Riffing on the precious oil running down on Aaron’s beard

The Rev. Sarah Dickinson’s thoughtful take on the value of product leaves Synod Schoolers laughing and clapping

by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

The Rev. Sarah Dickinson (Photo by Kim Coulter)

STORM LAKE, Iowa — The Rev. Sarah Dickinson, pastor of Discovery Presbyterian Church in Omaha, Nebraska, and the eloquent preacher during Tuesday worship at Synod School, riffed so well on Psalm 133 that the precious oil running down the beard and over the collar of Aaron got her and other Synod Schoolers thinking about product.

“Do you use product? Do you use it on your hair if you have hair? Do you put product on your hair to dry it or freeze it in place? Do you have product you use on your armpits? I hope so,” she told the 540 or so people gathered in Schaller Memorial Chapel on the campus of Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa, for Synod School, a community-building event put on each year by the Synod of Lakes and Prairies.

“Synod School is not providing soap. Did you bring product? There’s all manner of product,” Dickinson said. “Did some of you have product you had to leave at home?” What made the cut, she wondered. “Did you have to think about how to get your product in tiny containers, or did you bring your whole thing of product? Did some in your party bring too much product with them?”

Imagine a product, she said, that washes your hair, conditions your scalp, washes your face, takes away dryness, and can be used on armpits and feet, too. “One product does it all. I think that is a Synod School version of verse 2 of Psalm 133. That level of product — wouldn’t it be amazing to have one product in a single container? That would be the equivalent of people getting along.”

“God has made you product, in every single situation — no matter how broken, miserable and awful,” she told those in worship. “You have the product of God’s goodness within you. God has given you the power to dispense it and spritz it wherever you are.”

Psalm 133 carries the title “The Blessedness of Unity,” and yet “there is another reality,” Dickinson said. “My heart goes out to everyone who is not experiencing unity.”

With fighting raging in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza, “is Psalm 133 pie in the sky? It’s kind of problematic,” Dickinson said, and there are many lament psalms at hand when we need them.

The third verse of Psalm 133 — comparing unity to the dew of Hermon which falls on the mountains of Zion — is also a bit weird, she said. Then she urged those in worship to hang in there and imagine themselves in their favorite spot in nature during their favorite season of the year. “That is mountaintop stuff,” she said. “It reminds the psalmist of when people are dwelling in unity.”

But what do we do when they aren’t? Is the psalmist naïve?

“I say, not so fast, grumpypants,” she said. “It speaks to our separation. It gives us a little piece of manna for times when things aren’t going so great, when we are feeling isolated and miserable from not getting along. Psalm 133 says unity is a real thing in community. It is not a pipedream. Not only is it possible, it’s also to be valued.”

“Maybe that wires our brain for the next time when things are so dysfunctional.”

“Don’t give up too soon,” Dickinson urged. “The world needs us and that kind of manna. Right now, in the midst of misery, is especially when it’s needed.”

Before Dickinson’s sermon, Katie Estes prepared the children to help with the reading of a hymn based on Psalm 133, “O Look and Wonder.”

“Sometimes we have to sit and be quiet in church, but not tonight,” Estes told the children, spreading them out to help lead the Scripture reading. “It’s our responsibility to help everyone hear the word of God better tonight.”

She ran through some stomping, clapping, snapping and looking with wonder motions the children employed while the lyrics for “O Look and Wonder” were being spoken.

“Thank you,” Dickinson said, “for the blessing of communal worship tonight.”

Synod School, which is celebrating its 70^th anniversary this year, runs through Friday.