Psalm 119:9-16
Lent 5 - Year B
Why learn laws? Well, they track our errors and make it possible to learn from them. Laws can be a source of pleasure as we remember and don't repeat a mistake.
For the same reason a next law will be in order — a new lesson is already being learned.
Just as importantly, we can learn that we learned the wrong lesson when we made a previous law. This makes it possible to modify or repeal a mis-learned law.
So let’s not get all rote about law. While legalists have a tendency to teach to the law and to make new laws to expand prior law qua law, life experience will eventually win through. Even as laws are still expanding, we live toward the turning of the law when law is delightfully deconstructed back to the basics of Love (creation and all neighbors) – against which there is no law.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/03/psalm-1199-16.html
Psalm 119:9-16 or Psalm 126
How can young people keep their way pure?
They can't.
Even hedged in by a law within their heart there come times of weeping. After all, we are made in the image of god's who weep and repent.
So we sometimes wait for perspective that will allow the presence of shouts of joy for coming home again for the first time.
What are the great things G*O*D has done alongside us? Commitment with our whole hearts to one another - a gift beyond our own self. Learning the distinction between wisdom accumulated over the years and idolatry of tradition beat into the present over the years. Affirmation of great things surfacing within ordinary things.
We can reap where we have not sown. Joy in the morning still is present after the tears of the evening. So we keep on.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/march2004.html
Psalm 119:9-16 or Psalm 51:1-12
We cry out for mercy. When asked about a consequence of receiving same it is so easy to start bargaining, talking about works that one will do in response. You give me mercy and I'll do whatever you say. Give me mercy and I'll hedge myself round with the law so I will never have to ask for mercy again.
The more difficult route is to receive mercy and humbly ask for more. This presumes that there is not a static juridical balance point for blind justice. Receiving mercy is to live boldly again, not to hide away in respectability. Receiving mercy is to pass mercy on, not handy one-liner proverbs or aphorisms. Receiving mercy is to see one's secret heart, to know creation is good, and to experience the spirit of the law. Yes, to be law-observant or dutiful is a minor virtue. To live mercy is the better part of virtue.
On this last point check out the whole Charles Wesley Hymn based on Psalm 116 or hear a shortened version with music at CyberHymnal.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/april2006.html
119:9-16 or Psalm 51:1-12
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33
G*D: "I have glorified, I will glorify; I have been who I have been, I will be who I will be." And so the bookends are in place.
Self: "I am beloved." And so the content is in place.
Now comes the living with new covenants, steadfast love, abundant mercy, clean hearts, joyful salvation, and a willing spirit. Thrown into these qualities that open us to an expansive future are those elements that narrow us down: strayless commandments, sinless statutes, reverent submission (with cries and tears), and learned obedience.
As we go along there will be requests to take folks to Jesus. What will you show these inquiring hearts and minds first, second, third, finally? Will you start with something from the expanding list or the narrowing list, and why? Will it depend on the nature of the searcher and begin with where they are (if looking for more, start with the expansive), or begin with where they are not (if looking for more, start with the narrower)? Both have their appeal and effectiveness, but they are probably both equally incapable of being turned into a technology to be applied universally.
Will you start with where you are instead of where the questioner is? Here the questions of application may be even more difficult.
Finally, will any of this impact the kind of life you are going to live (which may have an impact on what kind of death you will have)?
- - -
someone is coming to dinner
they wish to see what makes me tick
that of course cannot be seen
it must be planted and replanted
grow unseen and burst dark bonds
a fruit here and there and everywhere
may yet appear in miracle and mystery
fed and encouraged
some choose to dive
into the dark
of a miracle self
invested as fallow seed
until tears of pain
waken it to bloom
a bloom of thunder
echoing from the past
awakening a future
with morning glories
twining upward
drawing beauty with them
here today gone tonight
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html