Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c

Proper 24 (29) - Year B


"What a wildly wonderful world...." The Message

Check out Louis Armstrong's Wonderful World.

Maybe GOD didn't just rest on the seventh day, but allowed lyrics to ebb and flow and then took one breath ("bigger than a circus tent") and the eighth day was sung. If you have the time here is an interesting tangent to the psalm.

Can you imagine not just cycling through seven days, but going on and on? We would lose some tradition and attributed meaning, but we would also gain an expectation beyond anything so far because wildly wonderful creations of love do go on and on.

Wouldn't it be something if Daniel's days turned out to be less filled with turmoil and apocalypse and instead we had a day of lullabies and a day of blues and a day of symphonies and a day of rap and a day of silence, all to express love.

Learning love in so many different ways would open us up to taking our part in the choir, sitting on a telephone wire, some singing high and some singing low. Check out Bill Staines song at A Place in the Choir.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/october2003.html

 


 

Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c or Psalm 91:9-16
Job 38:1-7, (34-41) or Isaiah 53:4-12
Hebrews 5:1-10
Mark 10:35-45

Job is berated for not knowing that which came before humankind (Genesis 1 version) or for not having paid attention to what came after humankind (Genesis 2 version). Unfortunately to berate that made in one's image is to recognize one's own limitation. G*D simply has no adequate response to the reality stated in Isaiah, "It was the willingness of the Lord to crush with pain." There is no amount of fancy dancing and holy intimidation that will get G*D off the hook.

Likewise is it in community. There is nothing that will get James and John off the hook of looking for an inappropriate edge -- we will trap Jesus from the inside, he can't refuse our request; a Pharisee's trapping request, perhaps, but not ours.

Both G*D and the disciples need to hear again, "It is not to be so among us. Whomever desires honor must live it, day in and day out."

- - -

yea, we are able
affirms our affirmation
that we are images
able to imitate
that which we imagine

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html


 

There is much to be grateful for. Go ahead, continue counting the ways.

Had Job and James and John (and even myself and yourself at times) played in the garden of Psalm 104 (no matter how a lection committee cuts it up), there wouldn't be this striving against a personal sense of injustice and entitlement in quite the same way. As we continue standing up for others and volunteering to take a back seat, at times, we will do so with more grace, alacrity, and compassion for ourselves and others.

My yoga teachers have consistently let me know that a result of the discipline is a moving gracefully through the day as well as in the moment of practice. I suspect the psalmist of being a yoga instructor.

Consider the wind as you proceed through whatever is left of the day. Its flow is shaped by what it meets and its power shapes all that it touches, a bit at a time. May your flow and power be graceful and creative this day.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html