Psalm Meditation 565
Palm Sunday
April 17, 2010

Psalm 97
1 The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!
2 Clouds and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him, and consumes his adversaries on every side.
4 His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory.
7 All worshipers of images are put to shame, those who make their boast in worthless idols; all gods bow down before him.
8 Zion hears and is glad, and the towns of Judah rejoice, because of your judgments, O God.
9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.
10 The Lord loves those who hate evil; he guards the lives of his faithful; he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
11 Light dawns for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name! (NRSV)

I had the privilege of listening to a death row defense attorney yesterday. One of her points was that folks who have a supportive community outside of prison are the ones least likely to return to prison, if they are incarcerated in the first place. Verse 10 takes on a new and deeper meaning as a result. That God guards the lives of the faithful and rescues them from the wicked does not mean that God will pluck us out of the clutches of evil, wicked people so much as it means that God, through the community of faith, will keep us from getting sucked into the downward spiral of returning evil for evil.

In 30 plus years of ministry I have come to answer the question of who did some kind of minor, easily reparable damage with the one word phrase, thosedamnkids. It seems that we have a tendency to blame the youth and children pretty quickly for any damage in and around church buildings in particular and public spaces like shops and malls in general. We have to lump the whole group into the category of thosedamnkids because we do not know their names and maybe not even their faces. We might do much better by ourselves to get to know these folks as individuals with names, faces and histories so that we are a part of a supportive community together.

The psalmist tells us that we are a particularly protected set of people because of our relationship with God and the people of God. The defense attorney tells us that as we include youth and children in the set of God’s people we benefit the youth and children, ourselves and society at large. To include them means more than simply encouraging them to become members of the church, it means getting to know them as individuals, being there with them and for them as they go through the various trials adolescence, letting them get to know us as people, peers and companions on the journey, praying with them and for them.

April 11, 2011