Psalm Meditation 902
Proper 21
October 1, 2017
Psalm 124
1 If it had not been the LORD who was on our side —let Israel now say—
2 if it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when our enemies attacked us,
3 then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us;
4 then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us;
5 then over us would have gone the raging waters.
6 Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
7 We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
(NRSV)
There seems to be something about human nature that enjoys, relishes, even needs an enemy. It may be another person or group of people, it may be an event like a fire or flood. Whatever it may be it serves to rally us into a unit for action against this ‘other’ who would get the better of us in some form or another. When life is going smoothly we as a group tend to drift apart into our own ways of thinking and behaving. At that point there is usually someone who will come in and stir the pot, call us to arms and get us moving in the same direction, the ‘right’ direction once again.
The word heresy concerns thoughts that go against the agreed upon thinking of the larger group. When we are not in conflict with others it is possible for the thinking of the group to broaden, expanding the definition of what is acceptable within the group. Sometimes this expansion continues to the point of dissipation. In other cases there is a conflict between those who raise a new form of orthodoxy and those who take a hard line on one view in particular. In this second case we make a new enemy of those within our broad family of thought. We may take it out on each other and we may direct our ire to a group outside our body that we believe has caused our previous cohorts to fall away.
The wonderful thing is that we are each and all children of God. We have expanded our thinking, we have narrowed our thinking. We have included a broader range of people into our circle, we have excluded those who were once part of the circle. We have called each other terrible names because of our disagreement, we have called each other terrible names because of our disagreement. (yes, we do that on both sides) Through it all, we are children of God. I imagine that God is deeply saddened by our competitive divisiveness. “Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”
September 25, 2017
LCM
Monday, September 25, 2017
Monday, September 18, 2017
Psalm Meditation 901
Proper 20
September 24, 2017
Psalm 77
1 I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, that he may hear me.
2 In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted.
3 I think of God, and I moan; I meditate, and my spirit faints. Selah
4 You keep my eyelids from closing; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
5 I consider the days of old, and remember the years of long ago.
6 I commune with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit:
7 “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?
8 Has his steadfast love ceased forever? Are his promises at an end for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah
10 And I say, “It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”
11 I will call to mind the deeds of the LORD; I will remember your wonders of old.
12 I will meditate on all your work, and muse on your mighty deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God?
14 You are the God who works wonders; you have displayed your might among the peoples.
15 With your strong arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
16 When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; the very deep trembled.
17 The clouds poured out water; the skies thundered; your arrows flashed on every side.
18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook.
19 Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen.
20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
(NRSV)
Sometimes we feel abandoned and forsaken, believing that we are the only ones who have ever felt so separated from God. And at night it seems to get worse. In the darkness hope seems to dissipate and even disappear leaving us with the worst of our feelings and options. We may cry out to God even though we know that we are out of even God’s range of hearing. The oppressive weight of negativity presses down on us and we wonder if we will ever be able to feel anything but terrible.
Somehow, sleep comes, if only for a moment. In that moment we find a different perspective, a different focus for our nighttime musings. We begin to focus on what God has done in the past. God has provided and offered redemption to people who have wandered away in search of greener pastures, easier paths, better results for lower investment. If God will choose to be with people who have made those kinds of choices, God will certainly be with us who have found ourselves in difficult, painful circumstances not entirely of our own making.
Yep, life has rough patches. And while we may get the feeling that we have been abandoned during those times, it is not the case. God is with us, waiting for us to be open to the gifts God offers to us, including the gift of presence. God sits with us, quietly accompanying us through every rough patch, through every smooth patch, through every exciting and frightening patch. God is with us, simple and complex as that.
September 18, 2017
LCM
Proper 20
September 24, 2017
Psalm 77
1 I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, that he may hear me.
2 In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted.
3 I think of God, and I moan; I meditate, and my spirit faints. Selah
4 You keep my eyelids from closing; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
5 I consider the days of old, and remember the years of long ago.
6 I commune with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit:
7 “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?
8 Has his steadfast love ceased forever? Are his promises at an end for all time?
9 Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah
10 And I say, “It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”
11 I will call to mind the deeds of the LORD; I will remember your wonders of old.
12 I will meditate on all your work, and muse on your mighty deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God?
14 You are the God who works wonders; you have displayed your might among the peoples.
15 With your strong arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph. Selah
16 When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid; the very deep trembled.
17 The clouds poured out water; the skies thundered; your arrows flashed on every side.
18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lit up the world; the earth trembled and shook.
19 Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen.
20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
(NRSV)
Sometimes we feel abandoned and forsaken, believing that we are the only ones who have ever felt so separated from God. And at night it seems to get worse. In the darkness hope seems to dissipate and even disappear leaving us with the worst of our feelings and options. We may cry out to God even though we know that we are out of even God’s range of hearing. The oppressive weight of negativity presses down on us and we wonder if we will ever be able to feel anything but terrible.
Somehow, sleep comes, if only for a moment. In that moment we find a different perspective, a different focus for our nighttime musings. We begin to focus on what God has done in the past. God has provided and offered redemption to people who have wandered away in search of greener pastures, easier paths, better results for lower investment. If God will choose to be with people who have made those kinds of choices, God will certainly be with us who have found ourselves in difficult, painful circumstances not entirely of our own making.
Yep, life has rough patches. And while we may get the feeling that we have been abandoned during those times, it is not the case. God is with us, waiting for us to be open to the gifts God offers to us, including the gift of presence. God sits with us, quietly accompanying us through every rough patch, through every smooth patch, through every exciting and frightening patch. God is with us, simple and complex as that.
September 18, 2017
LCM
Monday, September 11, 2017
Psalm Meditation 900
Proper 19
September 17, 2017
Psalm 74
1 O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.
3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.
4 Your foes have roared within your holy place; they set up their emblems there.
5 At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers, they smashed all its carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrated the dwelling place of your name, bringing it to the ground.
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our emblems; there is no longer any prophet, and there is no one among us who knows how long.
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?
12 Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You cut openings for springs and torrents; you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the sun.
17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs, and an impious people reviles your name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals; do not forget the life of your poor forever.
20 Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause; remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.
(NRSV)
When we hit certain rough patches in our lives it feels as if the initial trauma will last forever. The searing grief and pain burn holes in our hearts and lives and we are sure that we will never feel anything but this pain for the rest of our lives. In those first few days we join the psalmist in crying out, “O God, why do you cast us off forever?” Some people curl up into their grief and never return. Most of us lift our heads, open our hearts and our eyes and we see that we are not alone, we are not abandoned.
Yes, we ache for the rest of our lives. In varying shades of grief, we are dimmed but not extinguished. In some ways we are able to use our own grief in order to touch the grief of others in ways that heal each of us. From our depths we are touched by the salvation that God carries into every situation and into every encounter. We are not set free from our burden, we are salved, healed in a way that redistributes the woundedness into a new kind of wholeness.
While it feels as if we are abandoned by God and others in times of trauma and grief, that is not the case. God is with us in every time and place. God knows, as we know, that some wounds are better left untouched in the early stages. And some scars are left numb initially. As touch becomes appropriate, and as time provides renewed sensation we are able to receive the healing touch of God, and we, “the poor and needy praise your name.”
September 11, 2017
LCM
Proper 19
September 17, 2017
Psalm 74
1 O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.
3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.
4 Your foes have roared within your holy place; they set up their emblems there.
5 At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers, they smashed all its carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrated the dwelling place of your name, bringing it to the ground.
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our emblems; there is no longer any prophet, and there is no one among us who knows how long.
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?
12 Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You cut openings for springs and torrents; you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the sun.
17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs, and an impious people reviles your name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals; do not forget the life of your poor forever.
20 Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause; remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.
(NRSV)
When we hit certain rough patches in our lives it feels as if the initial trauma will last forever. The searing grief and pain burn holes in our hearts and lives and we are sure that we will never feel anything but this pain for the rest of our lives. In those first few days we join the psalmist in crying out, “O God, why do you cast us off forever?” Some people curl up into their grief and never return. Most of us lift our heads, open our hearts and our eyes and we see that we are not alone, we are not abandoned.
Yes, we ache for the rest of our lives. In varying shades of grief, we are dimmed but not extinguished. In some ways we are able to use our own grief in order to touch the grief of others in ways that heal each of us. From our depths we are touched by the salvation that God carries into every situation and into every encounter. We are not set free from our burden, we are salved, healed in a way that redistributes the woundedness into a new kind of wholeness.
While it feels as if we are abandoned by God and others in times of trauma and grief, that is not the case. God is with us in every time and place. God knows, as we know, that some wounds are better left untouched in the early stages. And some scars are left numb initially. As touch becomes appropriate, and as time provides renewed sensation we are able to receive the healing touch of God, and we, “the poor and needy praise your name.”
September 11, 2017
LCM
Monday, September 4, 2017
Psalm Meditation 899
Proper 18
September 10, 2017
Psalm 127
1 Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain.
2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved.
3 Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons of one’s youth.
5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
(NRSV)
When the concept of immortality is based in being remembered by children, and having a legacy passed on is about having lots of sons to carry on one’s name, lots of children is important. When child mortality is a greater possibility than having children reach adulthood, lots of children is important. When the best way to get work done in the family business is to have a lot of children, lots of children is important — and necessary.
For many families the idea is to have “one or two [or three] precious children.” to make up the family unit. It is seen as good stewardship of the resources God has given us to keep from overburdening the earth and its resources by limiting the number of children a couple brings into the world. These smaller families also trust God to “build the house,” “guard the city,” and “give “sleep to his beloved.”
There are a lot of ways to trust God. There are a lot of ways to fail to trust God. Tempting as it is to see our own ways as the only ways to live out our trust in God, it does a great disservice to those around us as well as to God to judge others by our own standards. Yes, we will disagree. Yes, we will be wrong sometimes and right others. Yes, we will find ways and make ways to justify our actions through Scripture, among others. Yes, times change, and we are not always willing to change with them, which is sometimes good, sometimes not. The important thing is to trust God to the best of our ability, whether that means standing firm or moving on.
September 4, 2017
LCM
Proper 18
September 10, 2017
Psalm 127
1 Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain.
2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved.
3 Sons are indeed a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.
4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons of one’s youth.
5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
(NRSV)
When the concept of immortality is based in being remembered by children, and having a legacy passed on is about having lots of sons to carry on one’s name, lots of children is important. When child mortality is a greater possibility than having children reach adulthood, lots of children is important. When the best way to get work done in the family business is to have a lot of children, lots of children is important — and necessary.
For many families the idea is to have “one or two [or three] precious children.” to make up the family unit. It is seen as good stewardship of the resources God has given us to keep from overburdening the earth and its resources by limiting the number of children a couple brings into the world. These smaller families also trust God to “build the house,” “guard the city,” and “give “sleep to his beloved.”
There are a lot of ways to trust God. There are a lot of ways to fail to trust God. Tempting as it is to see our own ways as the only ways to live out our trust in God, it does a great disservice to those around us as well as to God to judge others by our own standards. Yes, we will disagree. Yes, we will be wrong sometimes and right others. Yes, we will find ways and make ways to justify our actions through Scripture, among others. Yes, times change, and we are not always willing to change with them, which is sometimes good, sometimes not. The important thing is to trust God to the best of our ability, whether that means standing firm or moving on.
September 4, 2017
LCM
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)