Psalm 80:1-7

Advent 4 - Year C


Psalm 80:1-7 or Luke 1:47-55

I'll be called blessed. (Lk 1:48)

Come to save us. (Ps80:2)

Do you sense that you are already blessed and that blessing will be made visible to others?

Do you sense that there is still some action that needs to be completed before our blessing can be acknowledged?

This is a significant branching on a decision tree. It is almost as if they belong to different species.

Do you flip-flop back and forth between these two? Are they pretty equally balanced, canceling each other out? Is one of these definitely more prominent than the other?

How do you see others in your family, your congregation, your nation? Are you part of the majority around you or do you bring an alternative perspective?

My sense is that Mary's response comes from the prophetic tradition and the Psalmist is here reflecting the priestly approach. I don't want to push this very far, but it might be interesting to chart how your day and week go. Where have you found yourself between these polarities? Were there similarities of experience that might match up to your living out of blessing or saving language?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/december2003.html

 


 

Psalm 80:1-7 or Luke 1:47-55

"Let your face shine." (Psalm 80:3&7)

God "looked with favor." (Luke 1:48)

Whether or corporate or individual there is a looked for light of openness at the end of our tunnels.

When all we see the reality of our frailty and hunger that seems to darken every horizon we strain toward - comes a smile, a token.

Just like when very thirsty it is best not to guzzle, so when darkened it is often helpful to first find a glow before glory.

While we can look back to Moses' face shining too brightly and favors one could do without (a pregnancy here, a crucifixion there), we would do well to first look for the spots already glowing, before they break into full streaming light.

We look for the beginning stages of great reversals that we might nurture them along.

For some reason all this leads me to explore separating peace and justice. While there is a connection and an influence back and forth they are not best seen as flip sides of a coin but two different realities. Justice looks to the restoration of community and Peace to the creativity of an individual. Hence, peace has to do with presence, with shining faces, and justice with showing favor.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/december2003.html

 


 

Psalm 80:1-7
Luke 1:46b-55

Merciful restoration in the face of all that has gone wrong is a dream worth chasing. Ahaz is not the only one who won't ask for either mercy of restoration. The proud of thought, the enthroned powerful, the simply rich, and more rely on their wealth, strength, and entitlement. And, in one way or another, that includes me. And you?

Even our prayers, ever so humble they may be and well-crafted to our need, are embued with unacknowledged and denied anger. Crocodile tears of false sorrow cleanse not even shallow scrapes, much less deep wounds. Our fears lead us to scorning the least source of hope, words and actions from good samaritans or regular, run-of-the-mill aliens.

Merciful restoration is measured the same way every good is, by strength beyond our strength to continue, a lifting of darkness by small lights of kindness, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, releasing the imprisoned, taking in the exiled, etc.

Merciful restoration is not yet present. We wait. We yearn, We walk toward.

= = = = = = =

magnificent soul
rejoicing spirit

ancestral promises
echo within

beauty buds
generosity blossoms

and then
anger surfaces

petty prayers
tears aplenty

slightest mars
entirely disfigure

where soul
when spirit

neighbors scorn
enemies triumph

promises emptied
faces collapse

where mercy
when restoration

lowly favors
enthroned shepherds

enough magnificence
restore mercy

merciful restoration
obsession enough

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html