Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Epiphany 2 - Year B
Proper 4 (9) - Year B
Proper 18 (23) - Year C
A part of the fear and wonder of life is the way in which we are shaped and reshaped by transformations of mind and responses to circumstances. We are knit together and periodically are unraveled and reknit—practically snake-like or snail-like.
Even if a frame is known, what is surprising is the geometric fashion in which it scales.
Imagine if you will coming to a last thought of G*D. Might it be related to a first word? Let it be . . . . I am still with you. If “it is good” is a first word and If “steadfast love” is a last word, might “blessed” or “beloved” be a connecting word? If so what might keep us from hearing that for ourselves and hearing it for others until they are able to hear it for themselves? Wrestling with our resistance and our attraction to this procession helps clarify darkness into light.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/09/psalm-1391-6-13-18.html
Even before a word is on my tongue or I am seen under a fig tree in my everydayness or I dream - my word is heard, my presence called forth, and my dream fulfilled.
So we envision G*D before the fact and after the fact. This can lead to a misunderstanding that our days are purposed and set. It is easier and more accurate to simply acknowledge that everything is connected to everything, so, of course, there is a connection of our present with our past and with our future. This connection is not, however, determinative.
A more fruitful approach is an appreciation of vastness, of beauty. To see beyond our usual constraints to a multivalent call - always echoing and always changing - that can be lived out in so many different ways, is to participate in drawing heaven to earth through every vehicle available. To see deep within each opportunity its connection with our life and a connection with other lives, is to discern what is already there and what may yet be present if nurtured and beckoned forth.
Yes, known and search by G*D, I, in turn, investigate G*D's presence. Together, not even the sands can measure up to life's possibilities.
Here is another take on YHVH [CURRENTLY MISSING] you might appreciate.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html
For so many marvels I thank you;
a wonder am I, and all your works are wonders.
You knew me through and through,
my being held no secrets from you,
when I was being formed in secret,
textured in the depths of the earth.
[Ps. 139:14-15, NJB]
A wonder am I! A wonder are you!
Both of us textured in the depths!
At root we are connected. Rejoice and build on that image.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/january2003.html
Conventions have a way of bringing out the least in people. It is as though folks think that they are opaque to the Holy that searches and knows them through and through. This is true in terms of political conventions or any convention. Whether political or not, "an established technique, practice, or device" stands between ourselves and the complexity of realities around us. It is a way in which we can avoid questions and appeal to the lowest common denominator - that which everyone knows and thus no one knows.
So what conventions do these psalms bring to us. There is the convention of an all-knowing God who sees through us and rewards with water to prosper us for getting in line with God's never-changing way and penalizes us with an ill-wind for being out of line same.
What conventions are you propagating; what conventions are you rebutting? Here is one of the better wrestlings with cliches, even though there are some grammaticals in its transcription.
May we all do better in our wrestling with the conventions around us that hem us in and keep us from recognizing larger choices to be made.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/september2004.html
The end of verse 18 - "I come to the end--I am still with you" and "I awake--I am still with you" is reflective of the creation story. It is evening (end), it is morning (awake), it is good (still with you).
Somehow or other, this comes to be felt a privileged position that would allow us to dismiss other parts of creation--also still with G*D. So the Psalm continues on to perfect hatred, rather than wholistic pleasure. Somehow or other, this hatred is supposed to confirm that one is with G*D. How fundamentalistic, how certain, regardless of the religious tradition one is in.
Now comes the tricky part, to be satisfied with each evening and morning. May this participation in the evolutionary process gentle us. No matter the evolutionary path, we are still with G*D so we might as well start enjoying the journey rather than cutting it off at some arbitrary creedal point, or other. History (evening) is in the making. The forming days (morning) can already be had. Both, as dichotomous as they appear--are still with G*D.
How do we not prejudge the days yet forming, though not yet existing, and simply say "Thanks" and "Welcome"?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/january2006.html
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
John 1:43-51
With tingling ears we have searched and searched for something that will not disappoint. We have searched inside ourselves and found the house of Eli still alive and well. We have lowered our expectations of everything and everywhere, it is all like Nazareth - unacceptable as a starting place.
A big place we searched was the law but we found it didn't reflect a Law of Justice very well. We could follow it forever and never find it brought us to a beneficial place, only a place bounded by Eli's sons waiting for a loophole to be found.
Finally it is important to fall back on such basics as being trustworthy and without deceit. These are very tough roads to travel that go beyond easy, prior, answers and are continually in need of integrated responses.
Finally it becomes a question of whom we will be with at the end.
If we will be with those we are now with, what response is needed now?
If we will be with ourselves as we are now, what response is needed?
If we will be with that unknown to us, what response is now needed?
- - -
follow me
come and see
hurry on
we will come to a mirror
and see as we are seen
choices will be feasted upon
responses will be made and remade
we'll see how this looks
and that
shapes will be formed
lives hidden will be revealed
roads will open
laws will fade
hurry
pay your money
takes your chance
you are seen
you can see
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 or Psalm 1
To be known, through and through, is not just "wonderful" but "awful". Hemmed in fore and aft, gee and haw, puts us at the end of puppet strings. Knowing how wonderfully intended we are ("Good" yelled at the top of G*D's lungs for all creation to hear), we find a crevasse between such intention and our realities.
In the end we finally come to the realization that neither intention or reality determine the important things of life and one of the grandest visions of life (avoiding the trap of duality between law-abiders and wicked) comes at the end of 139:18 - "I am still with you."
In my best of times and worst of times, a tale of two MEs, G*D and I are still at it. May it be so for you.
- - -
with apologies to D.H. Lawrence
god is so nice
so awfully nice
god is the nicest person in the world.
And what's more, god is nice about being nice
about your being nice as well!
If you're not nice, god will soon make you feel it.
Abrahamists and Buddhists and Hindus and Wiccans and so on
they're all very well
but they're not really nice, you know.
They're not nice in our sense of the word, are they now?
That's why one doesn't have to take them seriously,
We must be nice to them, of course,
of course, naturally.
But it doesn't really matter what you say to them,
they don't really understand -
you can say anything to them:
be nice, you know, just nice -
but you must never take them seriously, they wouldn't understand,
just be nice, you know! Oh, fairly nice,
not too nice of course, they take advantage -
but nice enough, just nice enough
to let them feel they're not quite as nice as they might be.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
Verse 16: Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. [NRSV]
Imagine you still have "unformed substance".
This is not an easy one, so try it again: Imagine you still have "unformed substance".
Part of the difficulty of this creative pull into new being is that it is found between the many (sands) and the one (I am with you!). That which we might become when we grow up is as open as open can be (all the days) and as sharply drawn as anyone would want (days formed for me).
From this personal moment: our grandchildren, ourselves, and my mother, in the good hands of Hospice, are all beholding our unformed substance. Our days and day are as natural as can be in this day. But if we were caught here forever, how sad. The young ones would not grow in grace. We older ones would only have our alzheimic memories. And the ancient of days would have only darkness.
Imagine you still have "unformed substance". What's next? What's not possible?
- - -
Verse 16: Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. [KJV]
"Unperfect" here refers to an embryonic state in the process of being wrapped or folded together. We might be aided with an on-going appreciation of the unperfect folding and unfolding of stages whether currently in what might be called pre-life, or life, or what might be called post-life.
A blessed "unperfection" or "unformed substance" to you.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/09/psalm-1391-6-13-18.html
Hooray, G*D knows me, through and through.
Hissss, I don’t know myself, hints aren’t sufficient.
Hooray, G*D is omniscient.
Hissss, I don’t have a clue about why I am.
Hooray, G*D knit me together.
Hissss, I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Hooray, G*D is still with me.
Hooray, I am still with God.
At some point we experience a shift from Hissss to Hooray. It seems to come in unexpected times. Nathanael met this change with the image of a fig tree. Samuel had his conversion in dream-time. One older, one younger. (Both are males, but that’s standard for patriarchal source material and not a requirement.)
All of a sudden we see, with G*D’s eyes, our unformed substance and join G*D in calling it forth, saving us both, maturing us both, bringing both of us to wholeness and health. In the end there is no way to continue putting ourselves down for the presence of G*D to be seen. Like it or not, G*D also needs to see already formed and still unformed substance through our eyes. If G*D is to be glorified, so must we and all be glorified - this goes beyond a mutual admiration society.
As G*D investigates our life, let us investigate G*D’s life. This is an eternal learning and a worthy road to travel.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/01/psalm-1391-6-13-18.html