Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16
Proper 21 (26) - Year C
It’s the pits when the snare of the fowler and the deadly pestilence we need rescuing from turns out to be our very self. What’s a body to do?
Well, like any good magician this conundrum is put under a gorgeous cloth and an incantation said. There, like chicks under a hen’s wing, a sense of indisputable worth returns and belovedness is known. A transformation from fear to faith occurs.
What comes forth as the winged cloth is pulled back is our self, now assured. The Universe claps with joy at this seeming miracle. And the Universe claps every time it happens. And it happens a lot.
What is the incantation? Usually there is a hefty charge for such information. But having had the cloth pulled back one more time, today I’m hopeful enough to give it away. “I honor you.”
That’s it. Try it.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/09/psalm-911-6-14-16.html
Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16 or Psalm 146
Happy Birthday to me! These Psalms remind me of an important vision in my own life the summer between High School and College. This was a time of very loose ends (and for someone who is constitutionally drawn to loose ends as a good thing it was even more than I could handle). Suffice it here to say this was a time of confusion, uncertainty, fear, depression, and at wit's end.
Into the midst of all this and more came a visit by a presence I then identified as Roy, director of a camp where I had just been a counsellor. This avatar brought a clear message that cut through all the rest of the junk of my life - "You will always be cared for."
These six words bring back to me the assurance of these Psalms. These six words have carried me through more difficulties and allowed me to take more risks than I then could even begin to imagine. May these Psalms bring back to you those moments of assurance that have seen you through. In remembering, may you, too, have a new birth through your own Assurance Day. (can't you just imagine what Hallmark would do to this holiday!)
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/september2004.html
It is helpful to not only know your "authority" (acts of increase in the world), but also your "refuge" (fleeing the world). If these get too close to one another, pride and privilege may rear their heads. In a trinitarian sort of way we need to have our authority, refuge, and contentment (to anticipate tomorrow) all playing nicely with one another and differently based.
Remember your refuge from days past.
Identify your refuge in this day.
Anticipate your refuge in the predictable future.
Within any of these there can be a base from which to do your guerrilla work. Any of these can be a temporary shelter from the consequences of having applied your authority to situations at hand.
A mystery is how we will operate in the not yet, for, here in the middle of the story, evidence of love can get shaky - as well as protection and what we might consider rescue or honor. What used to satisfy our longing for assurance falls apart as another rough beast approaches. In a current uncertainty and our longing for certainty, we are, again and again, trusting where there is no trust at hand and rising from having been treaded upon (various "Tea Party" followers may want to revamp their attempt to avoid being tread upon to what a new community would look like after this particular empire vanishes, is trodden out as a result of having been divided from within).
If a refuge is not providing a re-launching pad of better living together, it is only hedging out particular evils of our day and providing them an opportunity to regroup and come back with more of their friends. So a refuge is not comfort so much as a healing scab and re-learning that we might return to the engagement of life.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/09/psalm-911-6-14-16.html