Psalm Meditation 791
Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time
August 16, 2015

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)

It is easy to believe that when we disagree on a definition or characteristic of God we must be talking about completely different divinities. Since you and I do not agree, we must be worshipping two separate holy ones. And of course, since you are wrong, yours is a small g god while mine is a capital G God. When all of the heavenly beings meet together, mine is the one who leads the group and scolds all the others for their faults and failings in acting less than divinely.

What if there is only one God and our various faiths and religions are multiple ways of understanding what it means to be divine. In the story of the blind folks meeting an elephant for the first time, each describes the elephant as if the whole of the animal is the same as the part each is touching. The elephant is described as a snake, a tree, a rope and a wall. Each is accurate as far as it goes. Even as we gather the various descriptions into a single conception, we miss some of the important parts of what it is to be an elephant. We misunderstand and misconstrue the glory, majesty and immensity of God when we believe that we can describe all that it means to be God in a single set of experiences.

Despite our differences we do well to follow the words the psalmist uses to summarize the will of God for the divine council and for us: “Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” As our definition of who God is differs, we will also differ on fits some of these categories of those for whom justice is lacking. And so we echo the psalmist as we join in praying: “Rise up, O God, judge the earth; for all the nations belong to you!”

August 10, 2015
LCM