Psalm Meditation 746
World Communion Sunday
October 5, 2014
Psalm 61
1 Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.
2 From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I;
3 for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.
4 Let me abide in your tent forever, find refuge under the shelter of your wings. Selah
5 For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.
6 Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations!
7 May he be enthroned forever before God; appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him!
8 So I will always sing praises to your name, as I pay my vows day after day.
(NRSV)
Some of the traits we inherit come through our DNA. Other traits come from the example that is set for us by the people around whom we grow up. Some folks learn the lessons of violence and abuse, some learn that wealth and power trump all other attributes, some learn the habits of serving others, just to name a few. As we are raised in one environment or another we learn to live as life is modeled for us. In many cases we learn how to act and in some cases we learn how we do not want to be when we grow up.
The psalmist is able to celebrate having been raised among folks whose example led to a relationship with God, even in this particular time of trial. We don’t know the details, we only know that the psalmist feels pushed to the end of the earth, to the outer reaches of where human life exists. At this edge of the world the psalmist knows that God is present and is able to lead from here to a place of strength and stability. In many instances simply knowing that we are in the presence of God makes a situation seem less daunting even as the danger remains the same.
Abiding in God’s tent, sheltering under the wings of God, we find a security that is not available any other place. There is great comfort in knowing we are not alone in any time and place. To know that we are in the presence of God is greater comfort still. As we experience ourselves in the presence of God we join our hearts and voices with the psalmist, “I will always sing praises to your name...”
September 29, 2014
LCM
Monday, September 29, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
Psalm Meditation 745
Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 28, 2014
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)
There are folks of whom I have been afraid at various times in my life: parents of some of my friends, teachers and professors, bosses, colleagues, church members and total strangers. In many of these cases I have overcome the initial fear and made lasting relationships with these folks. In others I found out too late that there were interesting aspects to these people that would have made for great relationships, if only I had made the effort to overcome my fears. All that to say that it is time for us to stop being afraid of God by the usual definition of fear.
I have had folks tell me their concerns while also saying it is too small a thing to bring to God in prayer. My relationship with these people is such that they can let me know what troubles them even as they are afraid to bother God with such a small thing. I don’t remember saying to them, ‘yes, that is a small thing and I wonder why you even bothered me with it.’ I am more likely to quote John Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist movement, “If it is worth worrying about, it is worth praying about.” The love God has for us extends to the most trivial of our concerns for our lives and the lives of those around us.
A better understanding of ’The fear of the LORD’ is to be in awe, to be amazed that one who is responsible for such works of honor and majesty also wants to have a personal relationship with each of us. This kind of fear draws us in and puts us at ease calming many of the other fears that we bring with us into the presence of God. It is as if the most famous person you would ever want to meet asks to spend time with you alone. It is intimidating and exhilarating all in the same moment. God wants to be invited into our circle. When we open ourselves to God we find that we open ourselves to wisdom and understanding, as well as to people and experiences beyond our current expectations.
September 22, 2014
LCM
Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 28, 2014
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)
There are folks of whom I have been afraid at various times in my life: parents of some of my friends, teachers and professors, bosses, colleagues, church members and total strangers. In many of these cases I have overcome the initial fear and made lasting relationships with these folks. In others I found out too late that there were interesting aspects to these people that would have made for great relationships, if only I had made the effort to overcome my fears. All that to say that it is time for us to stop being afraid of God by the usual definition of fear.
I have had folks tell me their concerns while also saying it is too small a thing to bring to God in prayer. My relationship with these people is such that they can let me know what troubles them even as they are afraid to bother God with such a small thing. I don’t remember saying to them, ‘yes, that is a small thing and I wonder why you even bothered me with it.’ I am more likely to quote John Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist movement, “If it is worth worrying about, it is worth praying about.” The love God has for us extends to the most trivial of our concerns for our lives and the lives of those around us.
A better understanding of ’The fear of the LORD’ is to be in awe, to be amazed that one who is responsible for such works of honor and majesty also wants to have a personal relationship with each of us. This kind of fear draws us in and puts us at ease calming many of the other fears that we bring with us into the presence of God. It is as if the most famous person you would ever want to meet asks to spend time with you alone. It is intimidating and exhilarating all in the same moment. God wants to be invited into our circle. When we open ourselves to God we find that we open ourselves to wisdom and understanding, as well as to people and experiences beyond our current expectations.
September 22, 2014
LCM
Monday, September 15, 2014
Psalm Meditation 744
Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 21, 2014
Psalm 40
1 I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.
4 Happy are those who make the LORD their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.
5 You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.
6 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
7 Then I said, “Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
9 I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation;
see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD.
10 I have not hidden your saving help within my heart, I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
11 Do not, O LORD, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever.
12 For evils have encompassed me without number; my iniquities have overtaken me, until I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me.
14 Let all those be put to shame and confusion who seek to snatch away my life; let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire my hurt.
15 Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”
16 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the LORD!”
17 As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.
(NRSV)
One of the difficulties of an individualistic view of religion is that we tend to jump into things with lots of enthusiasm but without focus and refinement. When the psalmist writes about having spoken of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness, it begins in the great congregation. In the congregation, in the midst of others who have had their own experience and their own encounter with God, a word of witness can be turned from an enthusiastic rant into a compelling and captivating word for those who have yet to have a personal experience with God. The folks in the congregation offer a person who has just had an encounter with the living God a place to gush about their experience without scaring away someone who neither knows nor understands what the witness has gone through.
A willing ear and a guiding hand from one who has had their own encounter with God can help drain some of the wide eyed recklessness out of the story so that the power of the experience remains. To have a person or group make the time to help us practice, edit and refine the words of our witness takes us from scary ‘buttonhole evangelists’ to powerful witnesses to the love God has for each and all of us. The great congregation helps make each of us stronger as we push, pull, lift and lower together.
The collective wisdom of years, decades and centuries of experience of and encounters with the living God make the great congregation an excellent group of which to be a part. The accountability of the group keeps us from holding our relationship with God so close that we become as Gollum holding his ‘precious’ in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is in the mix of the great congregation that we “seek you, rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the LORD!””
September 15, 2014
LCM
Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 21, 2014
Psalm 40
1 I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.
4 Happy are those who make the LORD their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.
5 You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.
6 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
7 Then I said, “Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
9 I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation;
see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD.
10 I have not hidden your saving help within my heart, I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
11 Do not, O LORD, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever.
12 For evils have encompassed me without number; my iniquities have overtaken me, until I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me; O LORD, make haste to help me.
14 Let all those be put to shame and confusion who seek to snatch away my life; let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who desire my hurt.
15 Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”
16 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the LORD!”
17 As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.
(NRSV)
One of the difficulties of an individualistic view of religion is that we tend to jump into things with lots of enthusiasm but without focus and refinement. When the psalmist writes about having spoken of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness, it begins in the great congregation. In the congregation, in the midst of others who have had their own experience and their own encounter with God, a word of witness can be turned from an enthusiastic rant into a compelling and captivating word for those who have yet to have a personal experience with God. The folks in the congregation offer a person who has just had an encounter with the living God a place to gush about their experience without scaring away someone who neither knows nor understands what the witness has gone through.
A willing ear and a guiding hand from one who has had their own encounter with God can help drain some of the wide eyed recklessness out of the story so that the power of the experience remains. To have a person or group make the time to help us practice, edit and refine the words of our witness takes us from scary ‘buttonhole evangelists’ to powerful witnesses to the love God has for each and all of us. The great congregation helps make each of us stronger as we push, pull, lift and lower together.
The collective wisdom of years, decades and centuries of experience of and encounters with the living God make the great congregation an excellent group of which to be a part. The accountability of the group keeps us from holding our relationship with God so close that we become as Gollum holding his ‘precious’ in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is in the mix of the great congregation that we “seek you, rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the LORD!””
September 15, 2014
LCM
Monday, September 8, 2014
Psalm Meditation 743
Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 14, 2014
Psalm 90
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You turn us back to dust, and say, “Turn back, you mortals.”
4 For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning;
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
7 For we are consumed by your anger; by your wrath we are overwhelmed.
8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; our years come to an end like a sigh.
10 The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger? Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
12 So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.
13 Turn, O LORD! How long? Have compassion on your servants!
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil.
16 Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands—O prosper the work of our hands!
(NRSV)
There is no way we can define who God is without using comparison. The only things to which we can compare God are things with which we are already familiar. For the psalmist, the most powerful person known would have been the king. Since the king was one to nurse grudges, to hold folks accountable for the smallest slight and to withhold favor for the littlest of reasons, there was no reason to think that God would treat us any other way. It is easy to imagine God sitting at a table with papers scattered across it, each one a catalog of the sins of a person or group who needed to be taught a lesson.
God is seen as angry, wrathful and judgmental, needing to be appeased for each little sin we have committed. When wars and disasters eat away at our population we assume that God is angry and that we need to do something to get back in God’s good graces. When we don’t figure out the right things to do to get back into God’s good graces, the anger hangs over us until we die. At worst it can even mean that a whole people dies out due to God’s wrathful vengeance.
At some point, it dawned on people that God is not as mean spirited as kings can be. Someone noticed that while a king would have had everyone killed, God continues to be present with us. Perhaps the love of God is even more steadfast than we can imagine. Perhaps God loves us more deeply than we can comprehend. Perhaps God can be angry with us because of the deep and abiding love God has for us. While there are still folks who believe that misfortune and calamity are caused by God there are many more who believe that in the midst of every part of life, good and bad, God is with us, loving us with a depth and breadth beyond our ability to comprehend.
September 8, 2014
LCM
Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 14, 2014
Psalm 90
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
3 You turn us back to dust, and say, “Turn back, you mortals.”
4 For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night.
5 You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning;
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.
7 For we are consumed by your anger; by your wrath we are overwhelmed.
8 You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
9 For all our days pass away under your wrath; our years come to an end like a sigh.
10 The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong;
even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.
11 Who considers the power of your anger? Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.
12 So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.
13 Turn, O LORD! How long? Have compassion on your servants!
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil.
16 Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.
17 Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands—O prosper the work of our hands!
(NRSV)
There is no way we can define who God is without using comparison. The only things to which we can compare God are things with which we are already familiar. For the psalmist, the most powerful person known would have been the king. Since the king was one to nurse grudges, to hold folks accountable for the smallest slight and to withhold favor for the littlest of reasons, there was no reason to think that God would treat us any other way. It is easy to imagine God sitting at a table with papers scattered across it, each one a catalog of the sins of a person or group who needed to be taught a lesson.
God is seen as angry, wrathful and judgmental, needing to be appeased for each little sin we have committed. When wars and disasters eat away at our population we assume that God is angry and that we need to do something to get back in God’s good graces. When we don’t figure out the right things to do to get back into God’s good graces, the anger hangs over us until we die. At worst it can even mean that a whole people dies out due to God’s wrathful vengeance.
At some point, it dawned on people that God is not as mean spirited as kings can be. Someone noticed that while a king would have had everyone killed, God continues to be present with us. Perhaps the love of God is even more steadfast than we can imagine. Perhaps God loves us more deeply than we can comprehend. Perhaps God can be angry with us because of the deep and abiding love God has for us. While there are still folks who believe that misfortune and calamity are caused by God there are many more who believe that in the midst of every part of life, good and bad, God is with us, loving us with a depth and breadth beyond our ability to comprehend.
September 8, 2014
LCM
Monday, September 1, 2014
Psalm Meditation 742
Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 7, 2014
Psalm 11
1 In the LORD I take refuge; how can you say to me, “Flee like a bird to the mountains;
2 for look, the wicked bend the bow, they have fitted their arrow to the string, to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart.
3 If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
4 The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his gaze examines humankind.
5 The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, and his soul hates the lover of violence.
6 On the wicked he will rain coals of fire and sulfur; a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the LORD is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.
(NRSV)
When confronted with disaster the easy choice is to run away, to allow our fears to take control and get us out of the situation in which we find ourselves. In many of these cases getting out of the situation is also the wisest course of action. It makes sense to get out so that we can be safe, so that we can survive to face the rebuilding that comes after any kind of disaster. Flight, running away, is one of our natural defenses against any kind of danger.
There are folks who have cultivated another reaction to disaster. They make the effort to run toward danger in order to help any who may not have the wherewithal to get out on their own. In many cases these folks are people of faith. Some have faith in their particular skills and training, some have faith in the power of community, and some faith in God. It may be a mix of two or more of these that moves a person to rush into a dangerous situation instead of running away. It is a recognition that danger and disaster is not the last word in any situation.
God is present in the folks who run toward disaster in order to offer help. Whether that is anywhere in the helper’s awareness or not, God is present in the lives and works of those who offer themselves to others in the face of disaster. God loves righteous deeds and is present in all the places where righteousness happens. Some of the folks, those tuned to the presence of God in their lives and the lives of others, will see God at work in this and every situation.
September 1, 2014
LCM
Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 7, 2014
Psalm 11
1 In the LORD I take refuge; how can you say to me, “Flee like a bird to the mountains;
2 for look, the wicked bend the bow, they have fitted their arrow to the string, to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart.
3 If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
4 The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his gaze examines humankind.
5 The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, and his soul hates the lover of violence.
6 On the wicked he will rain coals of fire and sulfur; a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the LORD is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.
(NRSV)
When confronted with disaster the easy choice is to run away, to allow our fears to take control and get us out of the situation in which we find ourselves. In many of these cases getting out of the situation is also the wisest course of action. It makes sense to get out so that we can be safe, so that we can survive to face the rebuilding that comes after any kind of disaster. Flight, running away, is one of our natural defenses against any kind of danger.
There are folks who have cultivated another reaction to disaster. They make the effort to run toward danger in order to help any who may not have the wherewithal to get out on their own. In many cases these folks are people of faith. Some have faith in their particular skills and training, some have faith in the power of community, and some faith in God. It may be a mix of two or more of these that moves a person to rush into a dangerous situation instead of running away. It is a recognition that danger and disaster is not the last word in any situation.
God is present in the folks who run toward disaster in order to offer help. Whether that is anywhere in the helper’s awareness or not, God is present in the lives and works of those who offer themselves to others in the face of disaster. God loves righteous deeds and is present in all the places where righteousness happens. Some of the folks, those tuned to the presence of God in their lives and the lives of others, will see God at work in this and every situation.
September 1, 2014
LCM
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