Psalm 50:1-6
"Transfiguration" - Year B
To use only the first six verses plays well with the transfiguration imagery and moves us from G*D the creator into a transfigured G*D the judge. Other than that it is an unhelpful truncation of the Psalm. If the transfiguration to judge doesn't indicate what is being judged or what the judgment is, we have only one of those old transformer toys - now its one thing, now its another. Without the storyline and only having the end points, there isn't much sense to be had.
So how does the issue of "thanksgiving" enter into transfiguration? This is a key word in the Psalm. The transfiguration is to reveal the importance of thanksgiving. Yes, this is thanksgiving beyond the building of holy huts on a hill.
The good blindly follow the rules. The wicked use the rules to their own advantage.
In both cases G*D says there is more to this transfiguration business than getting a handle on some set of rules, even if G*D initiated at some prior point. The point is living thankfully.
Thankful living moves us beyond the rules and keeps us true to them when using them. Thankful living is a path of rescue and salvation.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/march2003.html
Compare verse 3, "Our God comes and does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, and a mighty tempest all around him" with the presence from the cloud in the Transfiguration scene which is not silent about "belovedness".
What connection do you see between a devouring tempest and a beloved child?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/february2006.html
Psalm 50:1-6
2 Kings 2:1-12
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Mark 9:2-9
A whirlwind - horses of fire, a chariot of fire - fire before and tempest around. These images call to let light shine out of darkness. They hearken back to the energy of creation - and let there be light (as though that were an easy, instantaneous event leaving no cosmological trace over time). There is judgment in these images, there is death and inheritance. We find here markers of transition from one generation to the next and a separation of the past from the future. All-in-all, blind violence is very much present.
Listen for another light, perhaps an energy saving compact fluorescent rather than a strobing spotlight, with the mystery of a floating cloud rather than a known tempestuous whirlwind. This comes with a message different than separation and doubling, different than judging and perishing. A message here is that of belovedness that can bridge the gap between what has been and what might yet be.
If we were to compare it with what might otherwise have been the pericopes of the seventh Sunday after Epiphany:
Isaiah 43:18-25
Psalm 41
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Mark 2:1-12
we find a new thing springing forth. A whirlwind of fire becomes a whirlwind of mutual care as a roof is blown off that a paralytic, one already judged and found wanting, might find a healing of forgiveness and walk forth. A way will be found in the wilderness that is as refreshing as a river in a desert. There is an opening up, not a closing down to one transitional moment - every moment of opening leads us onward and reveals the Yes of life. We find a life to be a first or next installment of Life, not a final culmination. We don't need to build more houses to separate us, but an opening of the houses already present that belovedness might enter and go forth.
- - -
a double portion of spirit
so cries the religious capitalist
making a profit off the prophet
to build more and bigger
dwellings to be franchised
of course this is intended for good
the veiled, the perishing
will be left behind
those who work hard
and persevere will triumph
equally true is the way
this keeps us separated
one profiteer from another
claiming a quadruple spirit
or a hundredfold
eventually we return
no prophetic profit
only a gentle quiet
a light-dimming cloud
murmuring a beloved lullaby
- - -
Thomas (Reader) said...
re: Isaiah 43:18-25, Psalm 41, 2 Corinthians 1:18-22, Mark 2:1-12
... We find a life to be a first or next installment of Life, not a final culmination. We don't need to build more houses to separate us, but an opening of the houses already present that belovedness might enter and go forth.
perhaps
we do need
to build more houses
for those
who do not even have as much,
that they may know
appropriate separation
(boundaries, shelter, privacy)
and at the same time
invite those
whose houses have become prisons
to turn from their barred prison window
and walk through
the door
that has always been open
(wisdom, compassion, love)|
what is this belovedness
in the presence/context of which
both the whirlwind
and the quiet lullaby
find home?
Wesley (Blogger) said...
Yep. I do appreciate your ability to see the more that yet needs to be said. I might have gotten to this in another year.
I am reminded of an op-ed piece in today's NY Times that can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/12/opinion/12mon4.html?th&emc=th
though you may need to a free signup to read it. Being a Yeats fan, I enjoyed it.
The closing was "Yeats, who grew up feeling "sort of ecstasy at the contemplation of ruin," did not just welcome whatever new order his rough beast was ushering in. He believed the only way it could plausibly be spoken of was in the form of a question."
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
Psalm 50:1-6 and Psalm 41
Zion, perfection of beauty, is filled with those who consider the poor from the perspective of G*D. G*D does not keep silence about such injustice and neither do citizens of Zion.
This is a workable image, but there is still work to be done regarding sacrifice and recompense. I suppose there is an understandable amount of knee-jerk response to having been injured that desires to injure back. It is hard to imagine how poor those who cause poverty are – while having plenty of resources they are poor stewards and participants in a larger creation oriented toward the common good. It is probably also understandable how we would want to see ourselves, poor in so many ways, still part of a favored, separate but faithful group. When looked at with perspective, though, this attempt at forcing our way into an in-group, betrays the image in which we have been made – that was willing to live with such as ourselves as an image. This may be the place for the old line about not belonging to any club that would have me as a member.
Perhaps it is enough to simply end at the beginning: Zion, perfection of beauty, is filled with those who consider the poor from the perspective of G*D and do not keep silence about injustice. Welcome citizen.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html
Out of beauty, G*D is evident. Think hoarfrost where a mere degree of difference reveals that which was there all along - living water.
Those who bring thanksgiving are beauty personified. Be personified.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/02/psalm-50.html