Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37
Proper 26 (31) - Year A
Today we will sing verses 1 and 15 of our next hymn. We will also only pay attention to the 2nd and 10th amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Of particular concern will be commandments 4 and 6 (depending on how you count).
In these selective ways we can avoid responsibility for the whole of life or the benefit of another if it competes with my own desire. We can divide up and set one important part of life against another.
In this case the elided verses are pretty repetitious. They are also looking for G*D to take responsibility for our hard times and going back over old hurts.
What this condensation leaves us with is an image of bringing the destitute to a place filled with potential. The response looked for is a return to being stewards of current resources, not revengers of past harm.
We end with Eden revisited. Now the decision on our part of how we are going to practice stewardship in our current setting - how we are going to invite the hungry into the bounty we have and join us in a next cycle of sowing and reaping? This not a "when" question, but a "how" question.
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Magdalene (Reader) said...
I'm preaching on this psalm, and adding verses 7-9 to the mix... since I want to focus on the idea in verses 5-9, especially 9: For God satisfies the thirsty, and the hungry he fills with good things. You have touched on the precise point I want to make: in our gratitude for this steadfast love that feeds us, we, in turn, feed the world.
Thank you for this blog.
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Wesley (Blogger) said...
Magdalene -
Blessings upon your preaching. A deep upflow of steadfast love is basic. Constriction of such leads us to constriction of one another.
An additional image for me is in The Message equivalent of verse 35, which begins with "Then..." We need to see which side of the "then" we are on: a wasteland or an oasis. This is also a choice between control-over or participation-with.
Thanks for leaving a comment.
Wesley
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html
It does seem to be the case that when someone is set free that they are able to see G*D's hand in that release. That is a fairly easy connection to make.
What is more difficult is affirming the presence of G*D while still in exile, captivity, or addiction.
A question can be raised about the debt or necessity of the redeemed or released to assist others toward freedom.
If wastelands can be freshened to be a great place to live and if luscious orchards can devolve to desert - we need to know that our most recent redemption and release can be rescinded.
How do we best work on staying free?
It is not to presume there is some quality within us that deserved freedom more than someone else. It is not to operate on the basis that we will be able to accumulate much before the next economic crash and burn.
It is to know that we are in the business of life together and so to care for the freedom of others is to care for one's own. It is to build a community of common-wealth.
Let us give thanks for the goodness of G*D we have experienced. Let us so live that others will come to rejoice in such goodness.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/november2002.html
Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37 or Psalm 43
We experience desiccation. We experience water springing forth. Both are given. Our context is sometimes one and sometimes the other. Then we set about valuing one over the other, separating them from the mutual informing they can bring to each other.
Among our responses is hope in the midst of dry times and planting in the midst of fertile times.
We are certainly capable of working harder and harder to plant more and more when times are dry and then complain that our work didn't bear fruit. It shouldn't have been planted in the first place.
We are certainly capable of being so weakened or used to the dry that we fail to exert ourselves when the rains come. Hope has gotten us through and we keep hoping when it is time to put down our hope against hope and pick up a hoe.
As we travel the varieties of life, pay attention to which variety is present that we might be present to it.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/october2005.html
Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37 or Psalm 43
Joshua 3:7-17 or Micah 3:5-12
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Matthew 23:1-12
A place of honor requires stepping into a flood rush and standing still while the waters rush by, not yet calmed upstream. To bear the holy is both honorable and dangerous. When we try to disentangle these two to provide executive privilege, or any other kind of privilege, we have failed in our leadership.
To bear holiness, in ourselves and not just on our shoulders, requires entering all manner of metaphoric flood waters. We will stand in a flood that rejuvenates the land, building a part of a new delta with the few molecules of flesh and bone we have at our disposal. We will stand in a flood of prejudice, uncertainty, and fear that has rushed on for a longest time as a sign and witness it shall not always be so – though not yet seen, a cessation is on its way [and again a "nothing" has become a "something" :) ].
Still, it is time to stop by woods or flood and choose a path less traveled. It will make all the difference.
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some prophets cry peace
to a raging river
a rising tide
as though desire
for continued comfort
were sufficient
being thus out of tune
with what is coming
for fear of losing
what little purchase
we have on the bronco back
of a living G*D
our cry of peace
echoes hollowly
within a hollow people
empty of hallowing
coming change
in present living
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
G*D’s steadfast love is much needed.
Those who cause desert wastes for others to wander in are forever popping up to dismay land, water, and air. They project such wonders as eternal job creation and never-ending resources and only return wasteland for fracked fields.
Knowing how much we continue to try to hike ourselves up by our boot straps, the wanderers became desperate enough to add G*D to their escape their plight. When they finally find their way to an oasis, their rejoicing is G*D oriented. In this action they set themselves up for their next human-created disaster.
It isn’t long before the redeemed are again ripe for the plucking by earth rapers. Not being able to save ourselves, we call G*D to the the rescue one more time. At question is how many cycles of this the land can stand?
If even the Pope is going to finally acknowledge an evolutionary process, we are pushed to evaluate the effect our actions have on the on-going life on and of this planet. No more can we afford to excuse bad environmental policy in thrall to popularized economics and pseudoscience.
Steadfast love does not keep death at bay. When relied upon when our own action is needed it is like a counter-productive fix for an addict. May we rejoice at steadfast love and engage our own.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/10/psalm-1071-7-33-37.html