Psalm Meditation 655
Epiphany
January 6, 2013

Psalm 115
1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.
2 Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?"
3 Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
5 They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
6 They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.
7 They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; they make no sound in their throats.
8 Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them.
9 O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.
12 The LORD has been mindful of us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron;
13 he will bless those who fear the LORD, both small and great.
14 May the LORD give you increase, both you and your children.
15 May you be blessed by the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
16 The heavens are the LORD's heavens, but the earth he has given to human beings.
17 The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any that go down into silence.
18 But we will bless the LORD from this time on and forevermore. Praise the LORD!
(NRSV)

To be idolatrous is to put a thing in the place of God. That thing is given ultimate significance and authority in the life of the person caught up in the worship of this idol. There are folks who pursue wealth as if it had the power to save them for eternity. There are folks who pursue power as if it could give them all they want out of life. These things are not simply a means to an end, they are the end, the sole purpose for one’s existence. There is a certain sense of satisfaction in getting more of whatever it is that drives one’s life.

It is more satisfying to us to trust in God, to see God as present and active in every aspect of our lives. God is not a thing of which we can get more and more and thus become satisfied. God is one who wants to be in relationship with us and with whom we want to be in relationship. The blessings that come our way are a by-product of the relationship we have with God and not the reason we are in the relationship. We do get some benefit out of every relationship we enter. If we don’t get some benefit we leave the relationship. The best relationships are a fulfilling mix of giving and receiving together.

A comment I have both heard and experienced in relation to early video games is that no one ever won, the levels just got harder and faster until the gamer finally gave up. The computer always wins. In an idolatrous relationship, the idol is the one who wins. A person gives more and more and it goes faster and faster. In the end there is no real payoff. In our relationship with God, we have a sense of mutuality, we know that we are giving something and getting something in return. We may even have the sense that God is the one being shortchanged in our relationship. In a relationship with God it is not about winning and losing it is about being in the presence of God.

December 31, 2012

Psalm Meditation 654
First Sunday After Christmas
December 30, 2012

Psalm 85
1 Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.
2 You forgave the iniquity of your people; you pardoned all their sin. (Selah)
3 You withdrew all your wrath; you turned from your hot anger.
4 Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us.
5 Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations?
6 Will you not revive us again, so that your people may rejoice in you?
7 Show us your steadfast love, O LORD, and grant us your salvation.
8 Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
9 Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky.
12 The LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.
13 Righteousness will go before him, and will make a path for his steps.
(NRSV)

God speaks peace to those who are faithful, whose hearts turn to God. That raised the question as to which comes first, inner peace or world peace. Today, I am inclined to believe that inner peace has to come first. Once we put away our inclination toward satisfying our own needs and wants before we consider the needs and wants of others we will find an inner peace and contentment that will make a more universal peace possible. This is the kind of peace that God speaks to the hearts of faithful people in countless ways and in a wide variety of places.

There is also the peace that is lack of war; a peace that is usually ordered from the top down. The Pax Romana, The Roman Peace, came about when the Romans had conquered all the people who surrounded them and enforced a lack of war among the folks over whom they ruled. This peace is full of discontent as folks struggle under the restraints forced upon them by the very folks who had taken their freedom.

Inner peace, a sense of contentment and a willingness to share what we have with others, leads us into ever deepening relationships with God and others. External peace, an absence of conflict, is often enforced by top down power structures that lead to conflicts as we struggle to gain or regain our own power and control.

The peace that God offers brings us to a sense of wholeness within ourselves and our communities. It takes effort to achieve and maintain a sense of peace within ourselves. It is an ongoing process of tuning our hearts to God, opening ourselves to the hurts and hopes of others and giving and receiving with gratitude and grace.

December 24, 2012

Psalm Meditation 653
Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 23, 2012

Psalm 55
1 Give ear to my prayer, O God; do not hide yourself from my supplication.
2 Attend to me, and answer me; I am troubled in my complaint. I am distraught
3 by the noise of the enemy, because of the clamor of the wicked. For they bring trouble upon me, and in anger they cherish enmity against me.
4 My heart is in anguish within me, the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
5 Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.
6 And I say, "O that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest;
7 truly, I would flee far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; (Selah)
8 I would hurry to find a shelter for myself from the raging wind and tempest."
9 Confuse, O Lord, confound their speech; for I see violence and strife in the city.
10 Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it;
11 ruin is in its midst; oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace.
12 It is not enemies who taunt me— I could bear that; it is not adversaries who deal insolently with me— I could hide from them.
13 But it is you, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend,
14 with whom I kept pleasant company; we walked in the house of God with the throng.
15 Let death come upon them; let them go down alive to Sheol; for evil is in their homes and in their hearts.
16 But I call upon God, and the LORD will save me.
17 Evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he will hear my voice.
18 He will redeem me unharmed from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me.
19 God, who is enthroned from of old, (Selah) will hear, and will humble them— because they do not change, and do not fear God.
20 My companion laid hands on a friend and violated a covenant with me
21 with speech smoother than butter, but with a heart set on war; with words that were softer than oil, but in fact were drawn swords.
22 Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
23 But you, O God, will cast them down into the lowest pit; the bloodthirsty and treacherous shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.
(NRSV)

I used the phrase ‘unspeakable evil’ to describe recent events. At some point it dawned on me that the concept in the phrase may be a part of the problem, and has been since the time of the psalms. When we refuse to speak of evil, it has free reign in our hearts and lives. When we refuse to acknowledge the possibility that we, that I, have the capacity for evil, we find and make ways to justify our own actions so that others can be blamed. As long as we can find a way to see ourselves as not guilty we can justify thoughts and actions beyond what would otherwise be our limits. We blame guns, we blame a violent, impersonalized society, we blame the behavior and thinking of others. We rarely include ourselves among the guilty and complicit in perpetuating evil.

The psalmist blames this current evil on outside forces. At the same time, the psalmist is aware that evil is as close as worship companions. Evil does not visit; it lives with and within us. We can inflict evil on outsiders by depersonalizing them. We can inflict evil on our companions because we know where they are vulnerable. We can inflict evil on ourselves by denying our capacity for evil.

As we place ourselves in the hands of God for protection, it is important to place our whole selves into God’s hands. Even as we are injured by the actions of adversaries and companions, we do well to give God our own capacity for violence and evil. As we give ourselves to God we can be sustained, saved and healed in God’s presence.

December 17, 2012

Psalm Meditation 652
Third Sunday of Advent
December 16, 2012

Psalm 25
1 To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in you I trust; do not let me be put to shame; do not let my enemies exult over me.
3 Do not let those who wait for you be put to shame; let them be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long.
6 Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for your goodness' sake, O LORD!
8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
10 All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
11 For your name's sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great.
12 Who are they that fear the LORD? He will teach them the way that they should choose.
13 They will abide in prosperity, and their children shall possess the land.
14 The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes his covenant known to them.
15 My eyes are ever toward the LORD, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.
16 Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.
17 Relieve the troubles of my heart, and bring me out of my distress.
18 Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.
19 Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me.
20 O guard my life, and deliver me; do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.
22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all its troubles.
(NRSV)

For whose benefit do we ask God to forget our sins and shower us with steadfast love? It is certainly not a reminder needed by God. It is a part of who God is to love us beyond our deserving and to forgive us when we wander or run away from the ways of God. It must be out of our own insecurities and our leaning toward projecting ourselves on to God. It is part of our human nature to expect others to think and act in ways similar to our own. So we ask God to forget our sins and to remember to shower us with love because our habit toward others is the opposite.

If 99 people give us compliments and one person gives us complaint and criticism, most of us will remember the one who had something critical to say. Since that is our own process, we will expect God to react the same way. God is not like us. God encourages and prods us to move toward being like God in many ways, including being quick to forgive and ready to love folks. God forgives and loves, not because we deserve it, rather because God chooses to forgive and love.

As we take refuge in God, put ourselves more often and more closely in the presence of God, we discover that we are becoming more and more like God. We find ourselves willing to forgive and love those who don’t ask for or deserve that kind of treatment from us. We will get mistreated and folks will take advantage of us and we will continue to choose love and forgiveness because that is who we are becoming and who God always is. And God relieves the troubles of our hearts and brings us out of our distress whether the reality of our situation changes or not.

December 10, 2012

Psalm Meditation 651
Second Sunday of Advent
December 9, 2012

Psalm 144
1 Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;
2 my rock and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues the peoples under me.
3 O LORD, what are human beings that you regard them, or mortals that you think of them?
4 They are like a breath; their days are like a passing shadow.
5 Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down; touch the mountains so that they smoke.
6 Make the lightning flash and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them.
7 Stretch out your hand from on high; set me free and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hand of aliens,
8 whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false.
9 I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,
10 the one who gives victory to kings, who rescues his servant David.
11 Rescue me from the cruel sword, and deliver me from the hand of aliens, whose mouths speak lies, and whose right hands are false.
12 May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown, our daughters like corner pillars, cut for the building of a palace.
13 May our barns be filled, with produce of every kind; may our sheep increase by thousands, by tens of thousands in our fields,
14 and may our cattle be heavy with young. May there be no breach in the walls, no exile, and no cry of distress in our streets.
15 Happy are the people to whom such blessings fall; happy are the people whose God is the LORD.
(NRSV)

Early in ministry I was advised to pick the battles in which I was willing to die and to fight them to the death. It is a helpful reminder that not every battle is worth fighting, and that the ones worth fighting are the ones in which I am willing to give my all. I have also discovered that some battles that seemed of great importance at the beginning are not nearly as important as they seemed once the first blood has been drawn. Battle imagery makes a useful metaphor.

While the psalmist may be preparing for an actual battle with swords and real blood, we can use the battle imagery as a way of thinking about the conflicts in our lives. If this were a physical battle would I be as invested in fighting and winning as I am in a battle of wits and words? If I actually lost my life in this would it have been worth it? Am I really interested in this issue or do I like to win? Am I in this battle at the direction of God or is it an interesting distraction? These and other questions are important as we choose our battles.

Whether our battles are physical or metaphoric, it is good to know that God is with us. In some battles God gives us the strength to stand and fight, in others God gives us the sense to turn and walk away. The important part is to know that God is with us. Whether we win or lose, we are in the presence of God who loves us and blesses us in countless ways.

December 3, 2012

Psalm Meditation 650
First Sunday of Advent
December 2, 2012

Psalm 114
1 When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah became God's sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.
5 Why is it, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.
(NRSV)

Attitude makes a lot of difference in perception. To watch the sea and river disappear from their usual spots and to watch mountains and hills rock and sway like leaping animals would be pretty scary in normal circumstances. It would be reason to be afraid for one’s life in normal circumstances. These do not seem to be normal circumstances for the psalmist. When seen from a vantage point of rejoicing and trust in the presence of God, this whole scene is a party rather than a cataclysmic event.

From one side of an event it is a great tragedy while the other side sees it as a cause for celebration. At any sporting event the fans of the losing team will see this as a terrible thing while the fans of the winners will be celebrating the outcome. In the next meeting the result may be the opposite, but for now the winners rejoice and the losers bemoan their fate. For the psalmist, God is great beyond measure and the response of the earth is to tremble and leap in celebration of the greatness of God.

There certainly are psalms in which the reaction to events is terror as the waters roll and the earth shakes. In this instance the psalmist sees rolling, jumping and trembling as a good thing, a rejoicing in the presence of God. When we are able to see God as a present partner in our lives we can more easily find ways to rejoice in a given situation. It is not the situation itself that leads us to rejoice, it is the presence of God in the situation that makes it possible to find something good in the midst of any and all parts of our lives.

November 26, 2012

Psalm Meditation 649
Reign of Christ Sunday
November 25, 2012

Psalm 84
1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts!
2 My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
3 Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King and my God.
4 Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. Selah
5 Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6 As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.
7 They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion.
8 O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah
9 Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed.
10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness.
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; he bestows favor and honor. No good thing does the LORD withhold from those who walk uprightly.
12 O LORD of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.
(NRSV)

I have been taught that hospitality is a gift God gives to some people. The rest of us can welcome folks into our houses but folks with the gift of hospitality can welcome folks into their homes. Even the most unwelcome guest can be made to feel at home by those who have the gift of hospitality. God has the gift of hospitality and offers it freely to all who enter God’s presence. Yes, there are those who can short-circuit God’s gift of hospitality and make us feel less than welcome in God’s house, however it is the intent of God that all will feel welcome.

The psalmist has certainly felt the spirit of welcome in the house of God and has seen how other creatures live out their sense of home in God’s presence with nests and families within the Temple. The psalmist notes too that the welcome is so broad that the anticipation of arriving at the Temple can lift the hearts of those making the journey, which in turn lifts the appearance of the whole land.

The welcome that God offers is so thrilling and life altering that the psalmist would rather be on the periphery of God’s presence than be fully included in the worship of any other deity. There is something fulfilling and gratifying about being in the presence of God, a sense of peace and wholeness that comes from being in a relationship built on trust and honor.

November 19, 2012

Psalm Meditation 648
Twenty fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
November 18, 2012

Psalm 54
1 Save me, O God, by your name, and vindicate me by your might.
2 Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.
3 For the insolent have risen against me, the ruthless seek my life; they do not set God before them. (Selah)
4 But surely, God is my helper; the LORD is the upholder of my life.
5 He will repay my enemies for their evil. In your faithfulness, put an end to them.
6 With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you; I will give thanks to your name, O LORD, for it is good.
7 For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.
(NRSV)

Not all of our enemies are intentional and certainly they are not all human. The most pressing enemy for many of us is circumstance. We find ourselves in the midst of situations that threaten to crush our spirits without a single person who has set themselves against us. If we do have a person or group on whom to focus as the enemy, it is likely that they did not set themselves the task of destroying our lives. This does not mean they are not the enemy; it means that their destruction will not change our lives any more than our destruction would have changed theirs.

In the midst of these situations God offers us comfort and strength to stand in the face of all that stands against us. In some cases, the very awareness of the presence of God gives us a calm assurance even though nothing around us has changed. In other instances, the presence of God, through the people of God, dissipates the evil forces arrayed against us. It is not the vengeance that is satisfying, it is the calming assurance of the presence of God. The power of our enemies is broken as we rest in the arms of God.

When we can thank God for being present in the ugliest, most painful situation, we discover that some of the sting is gone. Things around us may or may not change. Our hearts are changed as we are touched by the presence of God in all the ways God is made known to us. We mourn our losses and we give God thanks for being with us. We stand in triumph over the situations that have assailed us.

November 12, 2012

Psalm Meditation 647
Twenty fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
November 11, 2012

Psalm 24
1 The earth is the LORD's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it;
2 for he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.
3 Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?
4 Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully.
5 They will receive blessing from the LORD, and vindication from the God of their salvation.
6 Such is the company of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. (Selah)
7 Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.
8 Who is the King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors! that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. (Selah)
(NRSV)

There always seem to be those who, when gifts are being given out, know that they deserve to get one. They have gone through all the right motions, said all the right things and been in all the right places at the right times. What they don’t seem to get is that gifts are given rather than earned. A gift is not a reward for putting up with the desires and demands of another. A gift is something given out of the goodness of the giver’s heart. It is true that every action has a cost and a promise, which means we are aware that there will be a pay off for being in a relationship. If we are in the relationship in order to receive the gifts that are a part of that promise, it will be a very unfulfilling relationship.

There are those who are in a relationship with God only for what they feel they can get out of it. The sole reason for any action or inaction on their part is to earn their place in heaven. It is not nearly so much about cultivating a fulfilling relationship with God as it is about getting the perks of that relationship without actually having to invest too much of themselves. They seem to end up disappointed in both the relationships and the gifts.

The real gift of a relationship with God, is the relationship itself. A phrase the Christian mystics use is, ‘wasting time with God.’ It is not a bad thing, it is simply being together with God, no agenda, no time frame, no reason other than to be together with God. To be able to add other people who are also interested in spending time with God is an added benefit to the relationship. Those who enjoy the presence of God for the sheer joy of being together find that they receive countless blessings and a sense of wholeness. The gifts God gives are not usually things we can hold in our hands. God’s gifts are not usually things that can be held at all. The gifts of God touch us and change us as they pass by us and through us.

November 5, 2012

Psalm Meditation 646
Twenty third Sunday of Ordinary Time All Saints Sunday
November 4, 2012

Psalm 143
1 Hear my prayer, O LORD; give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness; answer me in your righteousness.
2 Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.
3 For the enemy has pursued me, crushing my life to the ground, making me sit in darkness like those long dead.
4 Therefore my spirit faints within me; my heart within me is appalled.
5 I remember the days of old, I think about all your deeds, I meditate on the works of your hands.
6 I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. (Selah)
7 Answer me quickly, O LORD; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me, or I shall be like those who go down to the Pit.
8 Let me hear of your steadfast love in the morning, for in you I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.
9 Save me, O LORD, from my enemies; I have fled to you for refuge.
10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.
11 For your name's sake, O LORD, preserve my life. In your righteousness bring me out of trouble.
12 In your steadfast love cut off my enemies, and destroy all my adversaries, for I am your servant.
(NRSV)

For those who are held as hostages or prisoners, one of the important distinctions between them is the sense of hope or meaning they are able to maintain during their captivity. The folks who hold onto something fare much better than those who lapse into a sense of helplessness, hopelessness and worthlessness. The psalmist begins to feel the crushing weight of this situation and cries out to God for deliverance. The awareness that there is one on whom we can lean, lightens the burden considerably. When we can call on one who is both outside the current situation and bigger than the current situation we have found a source of comfort and deliverance.

The comfort comes in knowing that we are not alone. When forced by circumstance to bear a burden alone, the solitariness adds to the weight as negative thoughts compound on each other. Sharing a burden makes it lighter. Having a companion as we bear a burden makes the whole situation brighter as we bear it together. As we work together the better we are able to solve the problems that come with our burdens. The crushing weight is eased by the presence of another.

The deliverance comes from knowing that we are not wholly defined by what is going on around us. We are more than our problems and difficulties. We are more than the burdens we bear. We are more than the negatives heaped on us by the people and events that would weigh us down. In the presence of God we remember that we are people of sacred worth, loved by God and by those whose lives are intertwined with ours. We are higher and deeper and broader than any momentary affliction that weighs us down.

The psalmist is burdened by the weight of an adversary and calls on God for comfort. We are reminded that we are not the first to face enemies and adversities and will not likely be the last. We do well to join the psalmist in putting ourselves into the hands of God for companionship and deliverance.

October 29, 2012

Psalm Meditation 645
Twenty Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 28, 2012

Psalm 113
1 Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD; praise the name of the LORD.
2 Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time on and forevermore.
3 From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the LORD is to be praised.
4 The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high,
6 who looks far down on the heavens and the earth?
7 He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
8 to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people.
9 He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD!
(NRSV)

While many take comfort in our God as one who will reverse the fortunes of people, I believe that God will equalize the fortunes of people. In a reversal, those who are rich will become poor while the poor will become rich. It doesn’t solve or change anything. In a great equalization the rich and poor will find themselves on equal footing with each other. The first and last will be one and the same. The best way to do that is to make a circle, in which each point is both first and last.

God lifts up the poor from the dust and ashes to sit with the royalty. The poor do not replace the royals, they join them. God is interested in groups and individuals having equal access to God and to each other. The best way to do that is through equality rather than reversal. Those who currently enjoy the advantages of royalty will not be removed, they will be joined by those whom God will lift up to the level of royalty.

I understand that one of the reasons we call God Father is to begin that great equalization. If we are each a child of God then no one can use parentage as an advantage over anyone. As the playing field is leveled, as we recognize the familial bonds that hold us together, we have no reason to withhold resources from one another. As we realize the relationships God has in mind for us, we lift our lives in praise.

October 22, 2012

Psalm Meditation 644
Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 21, 2012

Psalm 83
1 O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God!
2 Even now your enemies are in tumult; those who hate you have raised their heads.
3 They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against those you protect.
4 They say, "Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more."
5 They conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant—
6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites,
7 Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assyria also has joined them; they are the strong arm of the children of Lot. (Selah)
9 Do to them as you did to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the Wadi Kishon,
10 who were destroyed at En-dor, who became dung for the ground.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,
12 who said, "Let us take the pastures of God for our own possession."
13 O my God, make them like whirling dust, like chaff before the wind.
14 As fire consumes the forest, as the flame sets the mountains ablaze,
15 so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your hurricane.
16 Fill their faces with shame, so that they may seek your name, O LORD.
17 Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace.
18 Let them know that you alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth.
(NRSV)

While I believe that God answers prayer, I also believe that God has the sense not to answer every prayer by jumping up and doing what we have asked. There are times in which God uses our prayers to teach us about ourselves and to remind us how God works in peoples’ lives. We are very aware that God does not fix things, to make them the way we want them to be. God is more likely to be with us as we live into a situation than to make it the way we wish it were. God is more likely to suffer with us, through the way things are than to make things the way we want them to be. God is more likely to change our hearts than to change the folks around us.

This doesn’t alter the fact that we want our enemies destroyed and that we want God to do it for us. God is happy to hear the needs and wants of our hearts in our prayers. It gives God the opportunity to show us what it means to follow after God’s own heart. God may also open our minds to a new strategy for dealing with our enemies. We may discover ways to protect ourselves, find effective ways to apply the force we have against our enemies, or we may find that we have found a way to turn enemies into allies in some way.

God is not deaf to our prayers. God hears them with an ear toward wholeness, for us and for those around us. God wants us to experience and express the bitterness, rage and vindictiveness that are in our hearts against those we count as enemies. God wants us to trust and know that there is power beyond our own in every situation. God wants to redeem us from our suffering, not by taking it away but by showing us that we are not alone.

October 15, 2012

Psalm Meditation 643
Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 14, 2012

Psalm 53
1 Fools say in their hearts, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they commit abominable acts; there is no one who does good.
2 God looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God.
3 They have all fallen away, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.
4 Have they no knowledge, those evildoers, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and do not call upon God?
5 There they shall be in great terror, in terror such as has not been. For God will scatter the bones of the ungodly; they will be put to shame, for God has rejected them.
6 O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion! When God restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.
(NRSV)

Somewhere between no God at all and the God of great terror is the God I know. Though we are sure that we have a complete picture of who God is for us and for others, we are probably mistaken. Our understanding of God is colored by our pre-conceived notions of who and what we believe God to be. God is likely so much bigger than our ability to understand, that we can fit all the statements about who God is throughout human history into the reality of God and still have room for new ideas about God.

God is bigger and broader than our ability to comprehend. If we could definitively categorize who God is and what God does in a given situation, we would have a God that is way too small to meet us where we are. Our concept of God is always tempered by what we bring into God’s presence. When we come angry, our God is angry and out to get all who dare to disagree with even the smallest of divine decrees. When we come to God seeking peace we discover a God who gives us comfort and the energy to bring peace to others despite the obstacles. It is the same God, it is who we are that determines what part of God we see.

Because we tend to find that which we seek, our picture of God will be tempered by who we are and what we bring into our relationship with God. The anger of God is a part of God, the peace and comfort of God are a part of God. I am most comfortable with the God of relationships, who brings what we need at any given time into our life together. Love and comfort, as well as anger and judgment are just a few of the characteristics God brings into the relationship with us. What we feel from God, what we find in God will be tempered by who we are and what we bring to the relationship at any given moment.

October 8, 2012

Psalm Meditation 642
Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
October 7, 2012

Psalm 23
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name's sake.
4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long.
(NRSV)

As a child I asked my dad why this psalm would say that the Lord is my shepherd and then say that I do not want that relationship. As gently as he did just about everything, he explained that it did not meant that I did not want the Lord as my shepherd, it meant that I had everything I would ever need. Once I understood that part I was ready to ask God for all the ‘stuff’ I ever wanted. It turns out that the psalmist does not have that in mind either.

With the Lord as my shepherd I find myself content with where I am and what I have. I may continue to strive for more and better in various aspects of my life. If, however, I never achieve anything and continue to have the Lord as my shepherd I will have a sense of contentment that folks who strive for and achieve all the other desires of their hearts, except having the Lord as their shepherd, I will probably have a richer life than they.

Given the choice between having all the stuff one would ever want, except a relationship with God, and having it the other way around, it seems one would be far better off with a relationship. Add in a relationship or two with loving people and the sense of contentment far eclipses that of anyone who has all the ‘stuff’ they have ever thought they needed for any reason.

October 1, 2012

Psalm Meditation 641
Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 30, 2012

Psalm 142
1 With my voice I cry to the Lord; with my voice I make supplication to the Lord.
2 I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him.
3 When my spirit is faint, you know my way. In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me.
4 Look on my right hand and see— there is no one who takes notice of me; no refuge remains to me; no one cares for me.
5 I cry to you, O Lord; I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living."
6 Give heed to my cry, for I am brought very low. Save me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.
7 Bring me out of prison, so that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me. (NRSV)

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could simply walk away from our troubles, come back later and find that everything is resolved to our liking? Sadly, it doesn’t happen that way. There are places, people and processes that allow us the opportunity to step back and see our lives from a different perspective, if only for a moment. This refuge does not take our problems away. It offers us a bit of shelter from the storms of life as they rage around us.

The psalmist looks around and sees no one who cares. This doesn’t mean that there is no one; it means there is a momentary inability to see the folks who do care. This doesn’t mean they aren’t there. I wish I were naïve enough to believe that everyone has a way to feel safe and sheltered in time of trial, however I know that is not the case. For those who are reading this, it is my hope that we are aware that God and the people of God are available as a source of refuge for us.

God is with us in all times and places. We may not feel that presence, we may not be comforted by that presence, however God is with us as a source of refuge and strength in times of trial and trouble. As we are able to feel that presence as a source of help and hope we are able to join the psalmist in giving thanks to God for all the ways we are touched by God and the people of God.

September 24, 2012

Psalm Meditation 640
Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 23, 2012

Psalm 112
1 Praise the LORD! Happy are those who fear the LORD, who greatly delight in his commandments.
2 Their descendants will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever.
4 They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright; they are gracious, merciful, and righteous.
5 It is well with those who deal generously and lend, who conduct their affairs with justice.
6 For the righteous will never be moved; they will be remembered forever.
7 They are not afraid of evil tidings; their hearts are firm, secure in the LORD.
8 Their hearts are steady, they will not be afraid; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.
9 They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor; their righteousness endures forever; their horn is exalted in honor.
10 The wicked see it and are angry; they gnash their teeth and melt away; the desire of the wicked comes to nothing.
(NRSV)

Our family has been dealing with the tragic death of our four month old granddaughter this week so it may seem surprising that the verse that jumps out of this psalm is, “Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever.” We have discovered the rich blessing of friends and family, and how the two categories blend together and overlap in so many ways. Folks have stood with us and held us up in surprising and humbling ways. The offers of help and support from all sides has been an overwhelming display of the wealth and riches we possess in family and friends.

For years I have known that the richest of blessings available to anyone is the wealth that comes to us as we build relationships with each other and with God. This past week I have experienced this richest of blessings in countless ways. “If there is anything I can do, let me know” has been said and experienced in so many ways and from such a wide variety of people. Prayers beyond count have been raised in support of our family by those we know and by those we will never know. Many wish they could actually do something, not being content to simply pray and perhaps not being aware of what a difficult and helpful task it is to lift up another to God in prayer. It seems so simple and is such a deep and profound help and support to us all. I am guessing it seems such a light burden because so many are joined in task of holding us up to God. The web of relationships formed as our families have drawn together is an astounding testament to the wealth and riches we hold in the relationships of which we are a part.

Thank you for the giving and receiving of the richness and wealth of the relationships of which you are a part in this part of our lives, as well as in the rest of the triumphs and tragedies of our lives and your own. One of the letters of condolence reminded us that out of the compassion and support we have received will also flow a depth of compassion toward others at some future time in our lives.

September 17, 2012

Psalm Meditation 639
Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 16, 2012

Psalm 82
1 God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
2 "How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? (Selah)
3 Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."
5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk around in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I say, "You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you;
7 nevertheless, you shall die like mortals, and fall like any prince."
8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth; for all the nations belong to you!
(NRSV)

When things go badly for someone else, we know that they did something to deserve it. The homeless, the unemployed, the chronic poor all did something to get themselves in this position. This thought process means we don’t really have to do anything for these people because they are already receiving justice, reaping the consequences of their actions and being visited by the sins of the previous generations who taught them all the bad habits.

When things go badly for us, we are not as quick to claim that we had something to do with our own predicament. When we are the ones effected, we know there must be something wrong with the system, because we did not do anything to deserve this type of treatment from the world. By the time we are in a position of weakness, that leaves us feeling helpless, hopeless and worthless, we are no longer in a position to change things in the system. We are left to languish in our situation, which is still no fault of our own.

The psalmist reminds us, that the best time to work toward justice for the poor and disenfranchised is while we have to power to act. Rather than allowing ourselves the luxury of blaming the weak and the orphan for their status, we do well to work toward a culture in which the weak and the orphan are treated with justice and fairness, even when it means we have to make a sacrifice or two in order to achieve that justice.

As children of God we do well to be the champions for those who have no power and influence in the ways of the world. God does have a heart for those who cannot defend themselves from the wiles and whims of those who use their power for personal gain. God does have a heart for those who work for justice and equity. God does have a heart for those who strive for relationships over stuff.

September 10, 2012

Psalm Meditation 638
Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 9, 2012

Psalm 52
1 Why do you boast, O mighty one, of mischief done against the godly? All day long
2 you are plotting destruction. Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
3 You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. (Selah)
4 You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
5 But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. (Selah)
6 The righteous will see, and fear, and will laugh at the evildoer, saying,
7 "See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!"
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
9 I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good.
(NRSV)

I have heard folks say, and have said it myself, “If you want to know what your priorities are, see where you spend most of your money.” Whether we like it or not, we tend to put our money toward what we think is important in our lives. Then I see verse 7 of this psalm, and realize that judging our priorities by the money we invest is placing money as a priority over God. When we can discover our priorities by how we spend our money, we have put wealth and riches in the center of our lives.

That doesn’t mean we get rid of our money and other wealth assets. It does mean we have to make a way in our lives to put God at the center of our lives. We have to find a way to determine priorities and worth that are not centered in abundant riches and wealth. For the folks of the psalmist’s day, the belief was that there was a set amount of wealth available, so the only way anyone could get rich was by taking wealth from others. While we have expanded our concept of the limits of wealth, there is a point at which we question whether a person is worth what they receive and how much help those riches could offer if given to other causes.

In all of this, it still comes down to money. How do we determine a person’s worth in the context of God and our relationship with God? It is a problem in a society that likes to know where we rate in relation to those around us. In the eyes of God we are each seen as having infinite worth. In the eyes of God there is no ranking system of faithfulness, righteousness or other categories of worth. In the eyes of God we are each unique and incomparable.

To be in the world we will likely always have a rating and ranking system in which we will be placed by ourselves and others. To be citizen’s of heaven we recognize that we are each of infinite worth and that God loves each of us as if we were the only one. In our relations with each other, as children of God we no longer use the rating systems of the world as we see each other through the eyes of God.

September 3, 2012

Psalm Meditation 637
Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 2, 2012

Psalm 22:1,16-31
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
16 For dogs are all around me; a company of evildoers encircles me. My hands and feet have shriveled;
17 I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.
19 But you, O LORD, do not be far away! O my help, come quickly to my aid!
20 Deliver my soul from the sword, my life from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion! From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.
22 I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23 You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the LORD. May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.
28 For dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.
29 To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.
30 Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord,
31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.
(NRSV)

Most of us have experienced abandonment in some form. We have been left alone too long by those we love or we have been left out of a conversation or activity even as the conversation or activity goes on around us. Whether it has been intentional or accidental, the feeling of abandonment is just as devastating. Some of us have felt abandoned by God. When that feeling comes to someone else, it is easy to assume that they have moved away from God. When it happens to me, it is not that easy. I already feel abandoned so the added burden of it being my fault can make it that much worse. In the midst of that feeling of abandonment it is more important to find out how to bring it to an end than to find out who is at fault.

In our human interactions, we may decide that it is time to move on to a different set of relationships when we feel abandoned while we are in the presence of others. We may decide there is something we can do to become more active in the life of the group. Or we may decide that we are content on the edges of this particular group. Our decision spurs us to a new set of actions in and around the life of this particular group. Whether we are successful in our strategy or not, we have taken the initiative in this interaction.

In our relationship with God we make similar decisions. We may decide that it is time to move on, that God is simply a human construct we no longer need in our lives. We may decide that we are the ones who walked away and take steps to get back into the presence of God. We may decide that we are content to be on the edge of a relationship with God. The psalmist chooses to know that God is present and that the sense of abandonment is temporary. It continues to be a real sense of abandonment even as the psalmist acknowledges the presence of God in some, currently, unknown , and real, way.

August 27, 2012

Psalm Meditation 636
Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 26, 2012

Psalm 141
1 I call upon you, O LORD; come quickly to me; give ear to my voice when I call to you.
2 Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.
3 Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.
4 Do not turn my heart to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with those who work iniquity; do not let me eat of their delicacies.
5 Let the righteous strike me; let the faithful correct me. Never let the oil of the wicked anoint my head, for my prayer is continually against their wicked deeds.
6 When they are given over to those who shall condemn them, then they shall learn that my words were pleasant.
7 Like a rock that one breaks apart and shatters on the land, so shall their bones be strewn at the mouth of Sheol.
8 But my eyes are turned toward you, O GOD, my Lord; in you I seek refuge; do not leave me defenseless.
9 Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me, and from the snares of evildoers.
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I alone escape.
(NRSV)

We find what we expect to find. When we expect to find good in people it jumps out at us in a variety of ways. When we expect to discover that we are surrounded are by bad people we will experience all sorts of evil from those around us. It might even be that two different people will experience the same person in different ways. The one looking for evil will find all the faults and flaws in a person. The one looking for good will find the redeeming qualities in that same person. The psalmist asks God for help in finding people with whom to spend time.

The psalmist does not want to learn evil attitudes, or wicked deeds from the kind of people who have those attitudes and do those deeds. It can be an interesting crowd. I don’t believe that any sane person sees their own deeds as evil. They/we find ways to justify thoughts and actions until they become normal actions and reactions. By banding together with like minded folk there is a layer of insulation between this type of normal and the way society defines normal.

The psalmist asks God for help in choosing folks whose lives are tuned to the ways of God. There is a longing to be taught how to live in the presence of God even though it is a difficult process. As in any discipline, the hard work pays off when one is called upon to live out one’s training in high stress circumstances. To keep our focus on God points us in a direction that leads to a life of fulfillment beyond that of self-centered pursuits. The presence of God in our lives gives us a place of refuge. Choosing to keep company with those who keep company with God gives us defenses against the temptations with which we are surrounded on a regular basis.

August 20, 2012

Psalm Meditation 635
Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 19, 2012

Psalm 111
1 Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
2 Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.
3 Full of honor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.
4 He has gained renown by his wonderful deeds; the LORD is gracious and merciful.
5 He provides food for those who fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant.
6 He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the heritage of the nations.
7 The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.
8 They are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
9 He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.
(NRSV)

We tend to find the things we seek. When we are looking for things that have or will go wrong, we will find them in bucketsful. When we are looking for things to go well, we will concentrate on the good things. When we are looking for reasons to blame God and others for the ill twists and turns of our lives, we discover ample cause to give God and others blame. When we are looking for reasons to give God thanks we can find all sorts of reasons. I imagine that there are as many reasons to complain as there are to praise, depending on the focus we bring to any given situation.

I once read that Woody Hayes, long time Ohio State football coach, would walk out for the first practice and say to the players, “First string over here; second string over there.” With notable exceptions on both sides, he discovered that folks separated themselves pretty accurately. He noted that we live into our expectations of ourselves. The psalmist invites us to see ourselves as blessed by God. God is gracious, merciful, provident, mindful, steadfast, faithful and just. The list goes on in the psalm and in our awareness. We see God reflected in our own expectations.

My hope is that even the most negative and cynical among us can teach ourselves to live into the invitation to praise offered by the psalmist. As we look for reasons to praise God and lift up those praises we will find that we are able to see even more reasons to praise. Like walking from the darkness into the light, we discover that our vision improves with time, practice and patience. We go from squinting in pain to an ever deeper appreciation of all that is now illuminated. We tend to find the things we seek. My hope for each of us is that we will seek the things of God.

August 13, 2012

Psalm Meditation 634
Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 12, 2012

Psalm 81
1 Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob.
2 Raise a song, sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our festal day.
4 For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it a decree in Joseph, when he went out over the land of Egypt. I hear a voice I had not known:
6 "I relieved your shoulder of the burden; your hands were freed from the basket.
7 In distress you called, and I rescued you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. (Selah)
8 Hear, O my people, while I admonish you; O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
11 "But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsels.
13 O that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 Then I would quickly subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him, and their doom would last forever.
16 I would feed you with the finest of the wheat, and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you."
(NRSV)

With my Puritan/American upbringing things like verse 4 catch me off guard. God not only wants us to celebrate, it is a statute, a law, that we do it? We can get so caught up in being serious, and right, and perfect that we forget to celebrate and enjoy what life in God brings to us. I am reminded of advice from those who work in the public eye. They have discovered that the hard work is in the practice and preparation time. The hours of perfecting technique and connecting the dots from one skill to the next finally give way to the performance that is done with near reckless abandon. There comes a time when the driving motivation is celebration.

If only we would let go and celebrate we could open ourselves to the abundance God offers to us. That abundance is probably not the kinds of things you can hold in your hands; the abundance of God is so much more than anything that can be held in one’s hands. God offers things like hope and peace and a sense of abundance that goes beyond the ‘stuff’ of life. According to the psalmist, if we were to submit ourselves to God we would spend less time fretting over things that currently drive us. We would be less concerned with worldly matters and more concerned with things of God.

Our stubborn hearts, following our own counsels, have gotten us into all sorts of fights and arguments with good and bad ideas on every side. These stubborn hearts don’t lead us to God. Stubbornness doesn’t really lead anywhere, it digs in and camps out with no intention of moving for any reason. To walk in the way of God is to move somewhere, to give and take in some way that leads to more relationships than battlegrounds. To walk in the way of God gives more credence to people than theories. To walk in the way of God leads to celebration.

August 6, 2012

Psalm Meditation 633
Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 5, 2012

Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
5 Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance.
15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
19 then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
(NRSV)

Every now and then we get caught acting as if we know better than God. We jump to a conclusion about what God would want in this situation and we begin leap frogging from one conclusion to the next until we have gotten ourselves so far removed from God that we finally notice how far we have strayed from the actual ways of God. We can actually see the process happening when others do it, especially those with whom we disagree on some major or minor point of theology or practice. When we do it, we get so intent on what we are doing that we don’t look up to see whether or not God is anywhere near where we have decided God belongs.

When we do look up, assuming we will see God smiling down on us for having anticipated the next several divine moves, we discover that we are alone. When we discover where God has actually gone, and how far it is from where we expected, we crawl over to receive our punishment for wandering away from the path of God. In most cases God scoops us up into an embrace full of warmth and laughter, grateful for our attempt and entertained by our efforts to play God. Being in the presence of God restores us and renews the joy in our lives.

We do our best to pass on the knowledge and wisdom we have received by wandering off and being welcomed back into the fold of God. As we are able to mirror to others the patience we received from God we find that we are better able to return with them to the presence of God. At the same time we are teaching we find ourselves learning from those who have gone before us as well as from those who walk and work with us. In the presence of God we sing, rejoice and praise along with all those with whom we share the relationship of the deep and abiding love of God.

July 30, 2012

Psalm Meditation 632
Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 29, 2012

Psalm 21
1 In your strength the king rejoices, O Lord, and in your help how greatly he exults!
2 You have given him his heart's desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. (Selah)
3 For you meet him with rich blessings; you set a crown of fine gold on his head.
4 He asked you for life; you gave it to him— length of days forever and ever.
5 His glory is great through your help; splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
6 You bestow on him blessings forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
7 For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.
8 Your hand will find out all your enemies; your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9 You will make them like a fiery furnace when you appear. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will consume them.
10 You will destroy their offspring from the earth, and their children from among humankind.
11 If they plan evil against you, if they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
12 For you will put them to flight; you will aim at their faces with your bows.
13 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power.
(NRSV)

Most of us don’t know what it is like to be ruled by a king and we certainly don’t know what it is like to be a king. We do know what it is to be blessed and to trust in God. Some of our blessings are things we can hold in our hands, like food, water, clothing and shelter. We may not have the best of any of those, however we do realize that they are gifts from God. The best blessings are the ones we can’t hold in our hands. The psalmist puts it, “you make him glad with the joy of your presence.” The greatest blessing in any of our lives is the knowledge that God is a very real presence with us. As we realize that God is with us, we become aware that God is the source of all of our blessings and we put our trust in God more and more.

That trust can be manipulative, especially at first. We say things like, “If you loved me you would…” and we ask God to do something or give something as a test on our part. As we experience the trustworthiness of God our requests become more direct. We ask for what we want, trusting that God will hear us, even when we don’t get the response for which we asked. There may even come at time in which we simply trust, without asking, that God will provide for us.

While the destruction of enemies is pretty graphic and uncomfortable, we do well to remember that not all of our enemies are human and many of them are not external. To know that God gives us the wherewithal to face those internal enemies deepens our trust in God and broadens our ability and willingness to lift God up in our lives in such a way that others know of our relationship with God.

July 23, 2012

Psalm Meditation 631
Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time
, 2012

Psalm 140
1 Deliver me, O Lord, from evildoers; protect me from those who are violent,
2 who plan evil things in their minds and stir up wars continually.
3 They make their tongue sharp as a snake's, and under their lips is the venom of vipers. (Selah)
4 Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; protect me from the violent who have planned my downfall.
5 The arrogant have hidden a trap for me, and with cords they have spread a net, along the road they have set snares for me. (Selah)
6 I say to the Lord, "You are my God; give ear, O Lord, to the voice of my supplications."
7 O Lord, my Lord, my strong deliverer, you have covered my head in the day of battle.
8 Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked; do not further their evil plot. (Selah)
9 Those who surround me lift up their heads; let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them!
10 Let burning coals fall on them! Let them be flung into pits, no more to rise!
11 Do not let the slanderer be established in the land; let evil speedily hunt down the violent!
12 I know that the Lord maintains the cause of the needy, and executes justice for the poor.
13 Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall live in your presence.
(NRSV)

There may be those who are intentionally evil, usually caught up in some group mentality, the rest of us are accidentally evil, pursuing a goal with such single-mindedness that we fail to see the damage it does to others. We want to be delivered from evil and we want that evil destroyed no matter the source. We want to end the evil and in some cases we also want to destroy the evil doer in some form.

The temptation is always to call down the utter destruction of anything and anyone involved in bringing evil to our lives. We want the people, any weapons they used and the land from which they came all destroyed in a single stroke of violent vengeance. In some cases this thought never changes. The more personal the evil, the more likely we are to hold our ground on the desire for total destruction of the person responsible. In other cases we may soften our stance and our hope is only for the end of the evil itself while we wish for the redemption of those who brought the evil on us.

In all times and places God is with us. God is there to comfort us when we are victims, to convict us when we are the source of the evil and to bring us to relationships of wholeness that move us away from the evil in our lives. It is important to stay focused on the relationships with God and with people to keep ourselves from getting caught up in the downward spiral of justifying our evil deeds in any way. When our goal in life is to receive blessings from God we will find a way to get those blessings at any cost to others. When our goal is to form whole relationships we will focus on the people more than the stuff around us.

July 16, 2012

Psalm Meditation 630
Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 15, 2012

Psalm 110
1 The Lord says to my lord, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool."
2 The Lord sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes.
3 Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains. From the womb of the morning, like dew, your youth will come to you.
4 The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."
5 The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.
6 He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses; he will shatter heads over the wide earth.
7 He will drink from the stream by the path; therefore he will lift up his head.
(NRSV)

It is easy to be brave before a battle begins, and easier still when one will not be directly involved in the fighting. That seems to be the case here. There is no mention of ‘I’ or ‘we’ going out to battle, willingly offering our lives for the sake of the realm. While there may be no lack of soldiers going out behind those leading into battle, it does not seem that the psalmist will be one of them.

We can be quick to send others out to fight our battles. We tell our side of the story to the right person or group in just the right way that they take up arms in some form to rescue us from the evil that lies before us. We have been known to leave out parts of the story that would make us look a little less innocent or the other a little more guilty, so that others will become irate enough to charge into battle to defend our rights and honor. I know it has happened on an individual scale as well as on an international scale. We have each likely gone to battle without thinking at least once in our lives.

This does not mean that God is not with us as we go into battle. It may mean that God is not with us in the way we imagine. God may be the one who is attempting to talk us out of this battle until the moment it is joined and continually offering us ways to get out through the whole course of the conflict. In some form or another God is with us. We do well to find where and how it is that God is with us before we join so that we can be on the side and in the place where God is best found.

July 9, 2012

Psalm Meditation 629
Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 8, 2012

Psalm 80
1 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock! You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth
2 before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh. Stir up your might, and come to save us!
3 Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
4 O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people's prayers?
5 You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in full measure.
6 You make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves.
7 Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
8 You brought a vine out of Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it; it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches;
11 it sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River.
12 Why then have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
13 The boar from the forest ravages it, and all that move in the field feed on it.
14 Turn again, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and see; have regard for this vine,
15 the stock that your right hand planted.
16 They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down; may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
17 But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself.
18 Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name.
19 Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
(NRSV)

It seems to be a pretty subtle difference to distinguish between causing something and allowing it to happen, however it is also a powerful distinction. For the ancient Israelites God caused the difficulties and defeats that came as a result of the people wandering away from the path set out for them by God. When the people turned away from God the trials and tribulations they faced were due to the direct action of God in the lives of the people. God caused their enemies to attack them and then stood back and did not participate in the battle, removing any possibility of success or victory from the army of Israel.

In order to be restored to the good graces of God the people had to repent and renew their allegiance to God and the ways of God. At that point God would return and restore the fortunes and power of the people and the nation. It was a very human viewpoint. God was viewed through the same lens as any other ruler, with human temperament that had to be appeased. As our relationship with God matured, so too did our concept of God’s presence mature.

These days folks are more likely to see God as having given us the freedom to choose our course of action and to accept the consequences of those actions. God does not cause the calamities of sin so much as God allows us the freedom to act. Since every act has a cost and a promise we reap both the consequences and rewards of our actions. God continues to desire a relationship with us, especially one in which we choose to be faithful to God to the best of our ability.

July 2, 2012

Psalm Meditation 628
Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 1, 2012

Psalm 50
1 The mighty one, God the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
3 Our God comes and does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest all around him.
4 He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5 "Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!"
6 The heavens declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. (Selah)
7 "Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God.
8 Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9 I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds.
10 For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
11 I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine.
12 "If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine.
13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High.
15 Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me."
16 But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to recite my statutes, or take my covenant on your lips?
17 For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.
18 You make friends with a thief when you see one, and you keep company with adulterers.
19 "You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.
20 You sit and speak against your kin; you slander your own mother's child.
21 These things you have done and I have been silent; you thought that I was one just like yourself. But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you.
22 "Mark this, then, you who forget God, or I will tear you apart, and there will be no one to deliver.
23 Those who bring thanksgiving as their sacrifice honor me; to those who go the right way I will show the salvation of God."
(NRSV)

What does it mean to worship? Is it being there every time the doors are open and going through the motions, or is there something else? There are folks who are there for nearly every worship service offered by the congregation of which they are a part. Some of those folks are there out of a sense of obligation and some of them are there out of a sense of gratitude. There are folks who attend worship when it does not interfere with other plans. Some of those folks are there with the same motivations of obligation or gratitude. There are folks who attend worship when there is some compelling reason to attend. Some of them feel obligated and some are grateful. In each group the folks who attend out of gratitude are more likely to have actually worshipped by the time they go home.

Is the least faithful attender who is grateful a better worshipper than the one who is there for every service out of a sense of obligation? At least for that one service it is the case that gratitude is better than obligation. To participate regularly opens the possibility of a fleeting sense of gratitude, though being grateful brings a person to a deeper awareness of the relationship God offers to us and desires from us.

My personal prejudice is that it is good to be in worship nearly every week. I am not the one to whom any of us finally answers. God seems to be much more interested in how we treat others, especially those over whom we have some power, than whether we have a gold star on the weekly attendance chart in our favorite place of worship. Honest, faithful, fruitful relationships with God and others holds much more sway with God than a line of gold stars.

June 25, 2012

Psalm Meditation 627
Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time
June 24, 2012

Psalm 20
1 The Lord answer you in the day of trouble! The name of the God of Jacob protect you!
2 May he send you help from the sanctuary, and give you support from Zion.
3 May he remember all your offerings, and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices. (Selah)
4 May he grant you your heart's desire, and fulfill all your plans.
5 May we shout for joy over your victory, and in the name of our God set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.
6 Now I know that the Lord will help his anointed; he will answer him from his holy heaven with mighty victories by his right hand.
7 Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God.
8 They will collapse and fall, but we shall rise and stand upright.
9 Give victory to the king, O Lord; answer us when we call.
(NRSV)

A royal psalm is addressed to the king as a hope and reminder that he is the agent of God on earth and that as he is faithful to God, God will be faithfully present in times of need. While kings are no longer the norm for us we do need the reminder that God is with us at all times, especially in times of need. The ancients were of the mind that God was extremely sensitive to their actions; helping them when they were faithful and turning away from them when they were not. The view was based on the experience folks had with their kings in which it was important to curry favor with the king in order to receive the outcome one desired.

The current tendency is to see God as one who loves us beyond measure, who is with us in all times and places. When we feel distant from and abandoned by God it is most often because we have failed to see God at work in our lives. God is with us. As we are faithful we are better able to identify and see the presence of God in our lives even though God is with us in all times and places.

Psalms like this one continue to be meaningful as we offer it up to God with a particular person or group in mind. As we lift up family members who are going through various trial and difficulties this psalm serves as a word of hope and comfort for us, as well as for the person in whose name we lift it up. Verses 4 and 5, “May he grant you your heart's desire, and fulfill all your plans. May we shout for joy over your victory, and in the name of our God set up our banners. May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.” are a pretty powerful prayer for those who are going through a trial of any kind. It could be a battle between our loved one and an outside force, or a battle with the inner demons that touch so many lives. Since ‘the king’ is only mentioned in the last verse it will be easy enough to substitute the name of the person or group for whom you are concerned and use this psalm as a reminder of God’s presence in your life an in theirs.

June 18, 2012

Psalm Meditation 626
Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
June 17, 2012

Psalm 139
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
7 Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,"
12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end —I am still with you.
19 O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
20 those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil!
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.
24 See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
(NRSV)

When I was in high school my mother asked me about my friends; who they were and in what kinds of activities were they involved. Specifically, she asked if any of my friends did drugs of any kind. It felt as if she were prying into every detail of my life. At some point in my life it dawned on me that she was asking all these questions out of her love for me rather than because she was out to get my friends. The change in my attitude brought about a change in my perception of her questions. God wants to know us for the same reasons, out of love for us.

At some points in our lives, it may seem that the constant presence of God is a scary and intrusive thing. We begin to wish that God would leave us alone so that we could have some privacy in our lives. We want to be able to go to God when we want or need something rather than having to deal with the constant presence of God in our lives. When we are out in the world trying new and different ways of being and behaving, it is so intrusive of God to come with us on these experiences. How can we possibly try this new thing when God is standing right there next to us?

At other times, the presence of God is a great source of comfort. As we come to recognize how much God loves us we find great comfort in the knowledge that the presence of God gives us the strength to withstand the countless temptations with which we are surrounded on a daily basis. It is certainly not the case that God does not want us to have fun and try new things in our lives. It is true that the presence of God helps us redefine what is fun and what new things are worth trying and which ones are obviously dangerous to us and the folks around us.

God continually searches us and knows us. The issue for us is to figure out or decide whether God is searching and knowing in order to judge us and find the parts which need to be judged and punished, or whether God is searching and knowing out of love for us. The answer doesn’t really make God’s presence any more or less real in our lives, it does make a difference in our perception of that presence. It helps us determine whether we allow God to lead our lives or we fight tooth and toenail with God in every time and place.

© June 11, 2012

Psalm Meditation 625
Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
June 10, 2012

Psalm 109 (selected verses)
1 Do not be silent, O God of my praise.
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me, even while I make prayer for them.
5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 They say, "Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser stand on his right.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few; may another seize his position.
9 May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit.
11 May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12 May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children.
15 Let them be before the Lord continually, and may his memory be cut off from the earth.
16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him. He did not like blessing; may it be far from him.”
20 May that be the reward of my accusers from the Lord, of those who speak evil against my life.
21 But you, O Lord my Lord, act on my behalf for your name's sake; because your steadfast love is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.
30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who would condemn them to death.
(NRSV)

How do we handle ourselves when we are falsely accused? Some of us join the psalmist in heaping everything bad thing that comes to mind on those who are wishing us ill. We stomp and rant about our innocence and humility in the face of bad things, all while hoping that God will turn the tables in such a way that our accusers receive the punishments they hoped to inflict on us. Some of us accept the accusations with humility, knowing that when we stand before God we will be vindicated. The rest of us fall somewhere in between with a mix of resentment and acceptance.

Some of us will do the same things even when we are rightly accused. Because we have rationalized our behavior into something good, we are appalled that anyone would accuse us of wrong-doing. We wrap ourselves up in self-righteous God talk and refuse to see that there is at least a kernel of truth in the accusations coming our way. We want God to protect us, not only from the big meanies out to get us, we also want protection from ourselves. Somewhere below the surface we are aware that our protests and pleas of innocence are a sham. We can only hope to be judged by a loving and forgiving God rather than by our peers.

Either way the voice and presence of God are in and around us, leading us to forgiveness for ourselves and others, as well as repentance when we are wrong and humility when we are in the right. God is with us, no matter what. Whether I am among the poor and needy, or the nasty and vindictive I can give thanks that God desires justice and harmony whether it comes now or in a long slow arc. The whys and wherefores of God’s loving presence are beyond our comprehension, nevertheless we give thanks and praise in the midst of the throng.

© June 4, 2012

Psalm Meditation 624
Trinity Sunday
June 3, 2012

Psalm 79
1 O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
2 They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the air for food, the flesh of your faithful to the wild animals of the earth.
3 They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us.
5 How long, O Lord? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealous wrath burn like fire?
6 Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation.
8 Do not remember against us the iniquities of our ancestors; let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low.
9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name's sake.
10 Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes.
11 Let the groans of the prisoners come before you; according to your great power preserve those doomed to die.
12 Return sevenfold into the bosom of our neighbors the taunts with which they taunted you, O Lord!
13 Then we your people, the flock of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever; from generation to generation we will recount your praise.
(NRSV)

I am continually amazed that professional athletes do not perform perfectly every time they are on the playing field. Why can’t a professional golfer get a hole in one every time? Why can’t a pitcher in baseball throw a strike every time and why can’t a batter get a homerun every at bat? Why can’t a soccer team score a goal each time they are in control of the ball and why can’t a goalie stop every attempt on goal? (Yes, I do know that these are impossible scenarios.) I know that professional does not mean perfect; it does not keep me from considering the possibility of perfection, even in the difficult situations in the lives of those we idolize in some form.

When the Israelites were defeated in battle they assumed that they had done something that caused Yahweh to punish them through this loss. Every inter-tribal or international conflict was really a contest between the various deities to whom folks had given their allegiance. Since our God is the most powerful, it must be our fault somehow that our God walked away leaving us to be so soundly defeated. It is our imperfections, our sins against God, being punished rather than weakness on the part of God. In this conception, it is still ultimately God’s fault when we are defeated.

As with athletes, our lives are made up of preparation, execution and evaluation. Sometimes we prepare and execute as if it all depends on us and we evaluate as if it is all in God’s hands. I wonder if God chooses sides in our contests any more than a parent chooses one child against another in family spats and squabbles. Despite our penchant for winners and losers in so many areas of our lives, God is probably somewhere in the midst of each conflict. God seems to be pointing us toward building relationships, both despite and because of our differences, with all the folks in each type of conflict in which we find ourselves. The relationships more than the heaping of sevenfold taunts will be what brings praise and glory to God.

© May 28, 2012