Psalm 71:1-6
"Holy Week" Wednesday - Years A, B, C
Proper 27 (32) - Year A
A place of refuge is a staging area for a revolution.
May your place of refuge be strong enough to encourage you to stroll out naked to revel in our common humanity beyond the control of any wicked, unjust, and cruel behavior encountered.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/01/psalm-711-6.html
What happens when we shift our attention from G*D only to partnering with G*D? It might sound something like this:
Yes, G*D, we are in this together.
We bolster one another past guilt and shame.
Your expansion of love delivers me from small living and
My expansion of love rescues you from bad press.
It is good to listen to one another.
In walking and talking together we find refuge and
Provide refuge.
When the wicked would mishandle us and others
We find our solidarity finds a way through.
Holding one another in hope has gone so deep
We can imagine no time before which it was not so.
Praise for you, praise for me, praise for we.
Hopeful Refuge and Refuge of Hope
We stand together and fall together and rise together.
This is enough.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/february2004.html
Psalm 71:1-6 or Psalm 103:1-8
Righteousness is often thought of a right-ness, an only way to live.
Here we get some interesting contrasts with the way that righteousness is sometimes heard in the popular media as a judgment or how far short we fall from some ideal perfection.
Here righteousness first listens to the life situation it is interacting with. Without hearing there is no relationship, no growth. As we live into righteousness ourselves it brings with it a greater openness to incline our ears toward others, as G*D has been inclined toward us.
Further, righteousness is intimately connected with forgiveness, healing, redeeming, raising up, and bringing satisfaction. Righteousness without these qualities is rejection of the very image that has been created. Righteousness without any of these turns into a straitjacket of ideals and rules divorced from reality and growth.
In some sense righteousness brings us closer to the analog and to fuzzy logic than it does to the preciseness of the digital. Can we live this form of righteousness in a world that tends to push us toward one extreme or another?
This kind of righteousness will be seen as subversive to the powers that be and therefore put one on a suspect or enemies list. The good news is that it is worth the risk.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/august2004.html
When in a ticklish situation it is helpful to find a focus of foundation that can re-center our vision of where we are and what is going on. When such a focus returns it is amazing what options are still open.
Here the Psalmist understands that life around her is very tenuous. Boxed in and threatened, what is there to hold on to? There is no historical precedence to fall back on for consolation and plan to move on. There is no expectation of change no matter how persuasive might be a rhetorical speech of smoke and mirrors, trying to distract us from a potential opening for change.
Paying attention to the present, particularly, seems to hold no direction that might bear fruit. So, wherever one looks, there is nothing but a hope against hope.
What is left is miracle and wonder. This is both a diminution of G*D and an expansion. Whatever gap is left, is G*D. G*D is beyond prediction and repetition of previous encounters.
Settling in to there being no option, all of a sudden there is. And praise flows as Butch and Sundance jump again.
- - -
Listen up god
I'm looking for refuge
a fortress, a safe haven
I'm looking for a structure
within which I might be secureeven though that's what I'm looking for
I am open to a surprise rescue
one not predicated on the past
or an extension of the presentmy tendency is to see how
you have operated with me before
and look for that againif not that then what I hope for
a comfort and winning new movefinally its just us, let's go
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
Psalm 71:1-6 or Psalm 103:1-8
Preemptive refuge is a tempting appeal to make. It helps us never arrive at a spot of needing healing, we never get bent-over.
This refuge seems to be based on a requisite quality and/or quantity of praise. One measure of this is how much of ourselves we put into praise and calling G*D to the qualities of mercy, grace, slowness to anger, and steadfastness in love.
Or, if we don't quite make it to preemptive refuge, we expect our praise will at least cut down on the time between our need and our rescue.
- - -
come
come quickly
come quickly effectively
so we cry out
and are echoed by all
in the grasp of injustice and cruelty
so we hear others cry out
and we echo their refrain
refuge, pity, vindication
may our cry
involve our lives
beyond god's machinery
recognize
recognize now
recognize now presence
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
"Sheltering Rock" is the Hebrew behind "my rock and my fortress" and moves us away from static to dynamic imagery. This attending friend can show up in many a situation: external wars to internal aging. As a description of the Temple or an organizing principle it brings a response of thankfulness.
It is all too easy to make this psalm into a dramatic place where we go to appeal to and appease some larger entity. Consider the difference when we travel with, rather than to, a sense of refuge large enough that we are emboldened in action to proceed into the regular places of life with a sense of élan.
In the following letter to a local paper, "Sheltering Rock" is "a" type of language and "my Rock and my Fortress" is "the" talk. What do you think?
- - - - - - -
Haiti has had a literal earthquake that needs both immediate band-aids and long-term structural responses. In the United States our political lives give evidence of an invisible quake revealing faults, rifts, and gaps between families and parties. The State of the Union Address by President Obama reminded us of that in these words, "I know that all of us love this country. All of us are committed to its defense. So let's put aside the schoolyard taunts about who's tough. Let's reject the false choice between protecting our people and upholding our values. Let's leave behind the fear and division, and do what it takes to defend our nation and forge a more hopeful future...."
Whether a decision-making context (politics) is that of family, institution, community, nation, or international, a first step in dealing with our division is a sincere acknowledgment that we have a problem that has gone beyond our ability to deal with it. Without this confession, breeches between perspectives will widen.
There is a simple and manageable, though very difficult, behavior that can be used at every level of disagreement. It is a new way of talking that takes every-day and life-long practice - to change our language from the definiteness of "the" to a humbler, more flexible and realistic conversation about "a" particular when we are dealing with common issues.
Our ease at turning a given situation or perspective into universals for all times and situations can be noted by listening to conversations and our own statements. Check out how often you hear "the" talk canceling out all options and how substituting "a" opens us to the best from all sides meeting one another and moving us forward.
By putting so much emphasis upon "the", we convince ourselves that we are absolutely right, someone is to blame, and there is no good in another's question or wisdom in another's experience that would widen our perspective and deepen the value of a resolution to a common problem. I am hopeful that we haven't yet let gaps between us widen to the point where we can't yet join hands in a larger goal than point-proving.
Matters of import such as health care, energy and environment, and beneficial uses of taxes have many individual and communal aspects that need the best each of us have to offer. Though it seems too simplistic, an awareness of our language by which we address common issues, can actually be a huge step forward in effective action. I invite you to join me in the persistent work needed for deeper listening, clearer framing, and more inclusive responses to "life's persistent questions", as Guy Noir® would put it.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/01/psalm-711-6.html
Peterson's The Message translation of verse 1:
"I run for dear life to God, I'll never live to regret it."
This is probably, literally, a running in fear. But put the emphasis differently and "dear life" takes on a quality of life we claim as desireable.
What are you running for?
For dear life, away from something fearful to you, and by default your running takes you toward G*D?
For "dear life" which is sufficient in itself and is always found in G*D (you don't have to go anywhere or even toward something).
It is in this second reading in which we find our regrets fade away. If we have acted for "dear life" in the occasions we find ourself, we have life in such abundance that no regret will steal some of it back.
Yes, the Psalm goes on to put the onus of our salvation on G*D (and, of course, the blame if we don't sense it). The Psalm goes on to praise, praise, praise.
Hear again the first verse, "I run for dear life within G*D, I'll never live to regret it."
There are many paths to "dear life." May your "dear life" bring you joy.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/08/psalm-711-6.html