Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19

Maundy Thursday - Years A, B, C
Proper 6 (11) - Year A


A toast: "To G*D - for blessings - thanks!"

It would be so easy to turn this generosity of G*D into our own little slot machine. Ah, G*D paid off for me.

But hear how the blessings, though experienced individually, are to be dealt with in common, in community (verses 14 & 18). Our vows, our thanks, are to be visible to all. What is your understanding of our relationship to G*D?

A clue is found in the silent section, verses 3-11. "I shall pass my life in the presence of Yahweh, in the land of the living." (verse 9, Jerusalem Bible)

To so pass one's life is to:
"Relax and rest.
GOD has showered you with blessings.
Soul, you've been rescued from death;
Eye, you've been rescued from tears;
And you, Foot, were kept from stumbling."
(The Message)

To live within and into blessings is a place of satisfaction, a place of "enough." To so live is a participation in partnership with GOD and Neighbor. As we have been discouraged and yet remained faithful and trusting and found again our courage, so we engage others in identifying their blessing. As we have found new life, we participate in opening up the land of the living to folks who have been constrained into seeing no way out for themselves.

Now how do we rest and relax as we help others come to relax and rest? Contemplating this puzzlement is fun and an opening to living in all fullness (John 10:10).

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/june2002.html

 


 

How to respond to a gift of being served? We pay the debt forward, to others.

Gifts of service put us in relationship with one another, provide a covenant framework where we are avowed to one another.

How to pay our vow for the gift of life in community? By expanding said community.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/april2004.html

 


 

Now to see our Eucharist as a Thanks Offering for the gifts of life. Usually we are rather solemn about our presentation of this celebration. Somehow we focus on the body broken rather than the offer of a cup of forgiveness. Forgiveness for even a broken body and spilt blood?

Might we image Jesus paying his vow to follow where belovedness took him by offering the gift of belovedness to others -- honoring them by caring for their feet. In someways this is the denouement. [Etymology: French dénouement, literally, untying, from Middle French desnouement, from desnouer to untie, from Old French desnoer, from des- de- + noer to tie, from Latin nodare, from nodus knot -- more at NODE -- 1: the final outcome of the main dramatic complication in a literary work]

Jesus ties a knot in the towel around him, washes, unties the knot. Jesus asks, "Do you know what I have done to you?" I have untied you from requiring service to joining in serving. Now how will that work itself out? However it works itself out, the moment has come, the thanks for being beloved has been given in the commissioning of others to so belove.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/march2005.html

 


 

Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 or Psalm 100

Consider how this hymn is the same and different than the psalm. In particular, where do you think the line, "and humbly ask for more" came from?

Methodist Hymnal 1879

C.M. Psalm cxvi

Charles Wesley

= = = = = = =

1 O THOU who, when I did complain,
  Didst all my griefs remove,
  O Saviour, do not now disdain
  My humble praise and love.

2 Since thou a pitying ear didst give,
  And hear me when I prayed,
  I'll call upon thee while I live,
  And never doubt thy aid.

3 Pale death, with all his ghastly train,
  My soul encompassed round,
  Anguish, and sin, and dread, and pain,
  On every side I found.

4 To thee, O Lord of life, I prayed,
  And did for succour flee:
  O save (in my distress I said)
  The soul that trusts in thee!

5 How good thou art! how large thy grace!
  How ready to forgive!
  The helpless thou delight'st to raise:
  And by thy love I live.

6 Then, O my soul, be never more
  With anxious thoughts distrest!
  God's bounteous love doth thee restore
  To ease, and joy, and rest.

7 My eyes no longer drowned in tears,
  My feet from falling free,
  Redeemed from death and guilty fears,
  O Lord, I'll live to thee. 

= C.M. SECOND PART

8 WHAT shall I render to my God
  For all his mercy's store?
  I'll take the gifts he hath bestowed,
  And humbly ask for more.

9 The sacred cup of saving grace
  I will with thanks receive,
  And all his promises embrace,
  And to his glory live.

10 My vows I will to his great name
    Before his people pay,
    And all I have, and all I am,
    Upon his altar lay. 

11 Thy lawful servant, Lord, I owe
    To thee whate'er is mine,
    Born in thy family below,
    And by redemption thine.

12 Thy hands created me, thy hands
    From sin have set me free,
    The mercy that hath loosed my bands
    Hath bound me fast to thee.

13 The God of all-redeeming grace
    My God I will proclaim,
    Offer the sacrifice of praise,
    And call upon his name. 

14 Praise him, ye saints, the God of love,
    Who hath my sins forgiven,
    Till, gathered to the church above,
    We sing the songs of heaven.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/june2005.html

 


 

Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19
Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14
I Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Blood and dust are signs to us. Passover and Baptism are signs to us.

They are signs of needed and continual renewal of community.

We have been enslaved (blood). We have been apart (dust).

We journey together (Passover). We cleanse each other (Baptism).

In such we receive bounty and offer our lives to increase it for others.

In such we are revived with feasting and invite others to more feasting.

We neither cast a glance behind nor peer ahead. We don't need to justify this day by remembering slavery or anticipating resurrection. This day stands within and beyond any past liberation or future death. We simply are in this moment, in this moment, and that is enough.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html

 


 

Oh how we like to be acknowledged. Because my voice has been heard, I'll go ahead to the next testing time. And woe be to the god that disappoints, that does not acknowledge me.

What is life, but one great series of trust tests? a sequence of tits for tats? when you scratch my back, I'll return the favors?

Into this reality, there eventually comes a question of what I will do with or without trust. Well? To what are you going to be true? Will you remain in relationship when the trust test falters and fails? For every 10 times you have been responded to, does the respondent receive a get-out-of-disappointment card?

Is this process translatable to what's good for the goose is good for the gander, so that you might also accumulate forgivenesses and opportunities to try trusting again?

Without falling prey to issues of abuse, what are your current boundaries of compassion and how would you contrast and compare them with previous boundaries and hoped for boundaries? In responding, don't forget to consider this from the perspective of being on both the giving and receiving end of compassion or trust.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html

 


 

Because I have G*D’s ear and G*D has my ear, I will keep our relationship going as long as I live.

And so a toast with a cup of salvation:
     Precious is life
     Blessed is death
     Freedom between
     Brings a House of Hope
     A City of Peace

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/04/psalm-1161-2-12-19.html