Psalm 67

Easter 6 - Year C
Proper 15 (20) - Year A


May G*D be gracious to us. Let all peoples praise G*D.

May G*D continue to bless us. Let all the ends of the earth revere G*D.

May the earth yield her produce. May all people everywhere hold G*D in awe.

Thoroughly plural in nature, the Psalm moves from a time of sowing to a time of harvest hoped to extend sufficiently to a next harvest. There is a sense of timelessness within time.

At the same time it gives direction from the “us” of the chosen to the “us” of others. Here time runs its usual sequence: first me, then you.

This interplay of creation’s fecund increase and human’s unequal participation in love or healing brings us to the usual paradox of praise—praise in anticipation and praise in response. Praise is not just praise but also technique to get some other goal met.

It might be helpful to question whether or not your sense of praise these days is that of anticipation to be completed or that of result accomplished and established. A hunch says, wait a bit—it won’t be long before it switches and we will need to operate out of the other mode in order to make any sense out of present circumstances.

- - - - - - -

selah music
pauses
interrupts
accentuates
makes light of
tosses aside
flouts
rejects
weighs
balances

selah praise
breaks patterns
connects across time
calls to account
completes
drives onward
keeps a beat
raises questions
brings us to all
and all to mind<

selah living
finds sabbath everywhere
harvests where it does not sow
praises in disaster
heightens paradox
looks beyond today
sounds like silence
slows a tango
speeds a polka
and rests

 

As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience

 


 

May G*D continue to bless us!

And may we continue being a blessing as we find ourselves called into and out of various ministries.

And so we move around the circle of life:

May G*D be Gracious in Blessing
G*D has graciously blessed us with equity and plenty
May G*D continue to Bless

Whether you are on the front end of yearning for blessing, in the midst of it, or closing off one cycle to leap with fear and trembling into another - may the gift of Peace bloom and grow - bloom and grow, forever.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/may2004.html

 


 

Psalm 67 or Psalm 133

How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity. Note, this is far, far different than living in uniformity.

When this is not only our intention, but our experience, we claim that G*D's graciousness and mercy are evidenced in our midst.

So, where have our intentions run awry and amok? Who is not in unity? The prophets would have us look first to the poor, the outcast, the weak, and the minority, in whatever forms those take.  Given the sweep and the specificity of their vision it is important to note both the big issues of poverty that affect everyone (including those currently rich) and the personal issues of those we have a particular affinity with.

Just as each of us have a different set of gifts to add to the common good, so each of us have a different set of sensitivities to a person or group who is left out of unity. The deal here is not to claim everyone needs a particular gift to belong or that everyone needs to be focused on the same brokenness of unity. These simply leads us back into more or less sophisticated forms of uniformity.

Interested in a good and pleasant life? It can't be done in isolation from the unity issue.

A parallel is found in the American pursuit of happiness.  If we don't care for the unity issues inherent in a common defense of all and the general welfare of all, we will miss the the mark of happiness.

- - -

To follow the unity/uniformity discussion from the Psalm comments, you may find this article by Joan Chittister to be helpful.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/august2005.html

 


 

May G*D be gracious to us. Let all the peoples praise G*D.

May G*D continue to bless us. Let all the ends of the earth revere G*D. Or...
May the earth yield her produce. May all people everywhere hold G*D in awe.

Thoroughly plural in nature, the Psalm moves from a time of sowing to a time of harvest hoped to extend sufficiently to a next harvest. There is a sense of timelessness within time.

At the same time it gives direction from the "us" of the chosen to the "us" of others. Here time runs its usual sequence: first me, then you.

This interplay of creation's fecund increase and human's unequal participation in love or healing brings us to the usual paradox of praise - praise in anticipation and praise in response. Praise is not just praise but also technique to get some other goal met.

It might be helpful to question whether or not your sense of praise these days is that of anticipation to be completed or that of result accomplished and established. A hunch says, wait a bit - it won't be long before it switches and we will need to operate out of the other mode in order to make any sense out of present circumstances.

- - -

selah music
pauses
interrupts
accentuates
makes light of
tosses aside
flouts
rejects
weighs
balances

selah praise
breaks patterns
connects across time
calls to account
completes
drives onward
keeps a beat
raises questions
brings us to all
and all to mind

selah living
finds sabbath everywhere
harvests where it does not sow
praises in disaster
heightens paradox
looks beyond today
sounds like silence
slows a tango
speeds a polka
and rests

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html


 

Psalm 67 or Psalm 133
Genesis 45:1-15 or Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Matthew 15:(10-20), 21-28

Unity as "good and pleasant" is quite an understatement. Given our starting points, to arrive at some semblance of unity (an outcome of justice) is so remarkable that it calls for a more enthusiastic response.

To arrive at some given understanding that rejection is not the last word about the meaning of life (though it is often one of the first words we encode), a sense of relief in the face of such mercy needs a conversion miracle response.

Jesus' response to the woman responding to being called a dog, after pleading for her daughter, is too sterile. It is not as though some word-game had been played out that had no real consequence. It is not as though Jesus doesn't have an epiphany here - faith comes from every angle, not just the preauthorized.

- - -

gifts and calling
irrevocable
deniable

our life
is our gift
our calling

journeying
toward wholeness
finds our denial

beyond journeying
at a stopping point
we find irrevocability

whether rued
or rejoiced
life calls

gifts once dead
remain ours
to do

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html

 


 

Indeed, if G*D can be merciful to us, to whom cannot G*D be merciful?

Let us count the ways in which we have hindered the earth from producing. If G*D can be merciful to those who do in their ancestress (being created of the clay), G*D can be merciful to many.

Oh, we always claim our care for the earth is honorable - mountain-top removals, over-fertilizing, seeing oil spill after oil spill simply as collateral damage, refusal to drive one less mile than we can, dumping hazardous waste in the poorest neighborhoods, and so much more, all have a stated best intention to trickle wealth to masses but none do it with integrity for the end result has been increasing riches in fewer hands.

Would that our reception of mercy would effect a change in our behavior. Apparently it will take more than mercy to transform our behaviors. One of the things it will take is openness to a teaching function for Spirit Holy. Another thing it will take is a consciousness that we are called to more than we have so far been up to accomplishing. Teaching "call" is an important ancillary function to expressing mercy.

In today's New York Times there is an editorial about banning burkas in Europe by Jean-François Copé, the majority leader in the French National Assembly and the mayor of Meaux. Here are two important paragraphs that we are not free to simply do what we want when we want to.

     "The permanent concealment of the face also raises the question of social interactions in our democracies. In the United States, there are very few limits on individual freedom, as exemplified by the guarantees of the First Amendment. In France, too, we are passionately attached to liberty.
     "But we also reaffirm our citizens' equality and fraternity. These values are the three inseparable components of our national motto. We are therefore constantly striving to achieve a delicate balance. Individual liberty is vital, but individuals, like communities, must accept compromises that are indispensable to living together, in the name of certain principles that are essential to the common good."

If this Psalm is not intimately connected to the common good, it loses some of its soul.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/05/psalm-67.html