Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13)
Proper 24 (29) - Year A
Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13) or Psalm 99
G*D - lover of justice, has established equity. And our participation in matters of justice, as a partner of G*D, is what?
G*D made the heavens. To participate in equity is a heavenly endeavor.
G*D will judge people with equity. Our choice is to cause the need for this judgment or to participate in equalizing, evening out, salaries of CEOs with cleanup crews. When CEOs get tax breaks and cleanup crews have their less than living wages cut and we sit on the sidelines -- we let G*D down, we let our neighbors down, we let ourselves down. Time to stand up and and claim G*D's equity.
You say you weren't faced with this decision today? Look again. Until this inequity is changed we are complicit in its extension. We simply turned our face, held up our newspaper, as we rode the el past the tenements. To ride with EL is to re-turn our face, repent of our self-imposed ignorance, and intentionally use equity as our perspective on life.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/october2005.html
Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13) or Psalm 99
Exodus 32:12-23 or Isaiah 45:1-7
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Matthew 22:15-22
Here's the deal G*D .... "Let me know who's with me"; "Show me your glory."
To which G*D says, "Nope." G*D claims all corners -- to make "weal and woe," to be "forgiving and avenging." There will be no bargains struck.
Here's the deal Jesus .... "Do we pay taxes?"
To which Jesus says, "Good try, but nope. Your perception that a question can be composed to both prove your own worth and to diminish your own responsibility will never come 'round right. It will fall of its own weight."
In spending so much time in trying to trap a perceived opponent, there is not sufficient time to get ourselves out of effectively colluding with the oppressors we are in bed with. In this day and age American religious find themselves battling each other and thus avoiding the realities that they are colluding with their own elected oppressors who balk not at preemptive war and keeping insurance from children and everything in between. For another look at this, check out Frank Rich's column, <a href="http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18554.htm"> The 'Good Germans' Among Us.</a>
- - -
to set out to trap another
is the surest way to be caught
steering god the way of our ammunition
in thus getting caught
in our own attempt to trap another
we are set up for Jesus' jujitsu theology
when our trap's premise
is exposed we fly head over heels
bowing before our previous blind spot
now comes the revelation
malice's short-run effectiveness
will ever reveal its long-run fallacy
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
[Yahweh] is coming to judge the earth; [Yahweh] will judge the world with saving justice and the nations with fairness. (NJB)
To envision this as a reality in process is to begin to change our sense of interaction with issues of justice and fairness.
We either acknowledge that such judgment is already underway and so it is a major influence in our actions, or we see such judgment as not applying yet and so we can get away with one more injustice or one more unfairness.
In my viewing of the American war-rumoring scene I can only conclude that we are using the judgment language about going to war against Iraq and justifying it any way we can as a blind spot. We have no sense of balance regarding the damage we have already done with economic sanctions and the damage we yet intend to do with regime change. We have positioned ourselves so there is no face-saving way to avoid war and dividing the United Nations. How diabolical we have been and we consider ourselves to be on the plus side of judgment, pulling G*D along with us.
This Psalm is a paean to G*D's saving power, evidenced in the past, and a call to participate in that by singing a new song (living a new way) ready for the justice yet to come for today's living. May we regret the consequences of our plans aforehand and change them accordingly. (Unfortunately for you and me, this applies to us individually as well as nationally. This is not just something we get to yell at others without taking it to heart ourselves.)
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/october2002.html