Psalm 146
Proper 5 (10) - Year C
Proper 18 (23) - Year
B
Proper 21(16) - Year C
Proper 26 (31) - Year B
Proper 27 (32) - Year B
Undifferentiated trust is a place of miracles.
In usual life we limit what can be trusted. Is it health, a significant other, a certain amount of resources, our own perceptions?
As Jacob found out—here is nothing in particular that can be trusted. As a competitive trickster (by nature and nurture) Jacob proved untrustworthy to his immediate family. In the extended family he was tricked. Even G*D wouldn’t stand still, but wrestled him. He didn’t so much prevail as persevere.
The mystery of a grounded G*D with a background of an escalator of angels or Jacob entering “nothing” across the river from his brother who was also evidently wrestling with self and G*D, leads to a trust in life that is larger than trusting self, others, or even cosmic justice. “Praise” in this Psalm might be an alternate spelling for “persevere”. Try it, see how this might allow a clearer vision than our too easy take that praise is hip-hip-hurrah.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/06/psalm-146.html
Listen again to the listing of the beatitudes and woes --
You are blest by hope in G*D who
made - heaven, earth, sea
keeps - faith
executes - justice
gives food - hungry
sets free - prisoners
opens - eyes
lifts up - bowed down
watches over - strangers
upholds - orphan & widowruins - wicked
9/10th require building good, 1/10th brings down
How is it with your life? What 10th is constructing a commonwealth? What 10th is deconstructing?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/september2003.html
A daily mantra is needed to clear our eyes from the big lies, told often enough that we lose our ability to be affronted by their evident stupidity or silliness.
Here is a good mantra:
"G*D loves good people, protects strangers, takes the side of orphans and widows,
but makes short work of the wicked."
Say this six times upon arising, five times at mid-morning, four times at noon, three times at siesta-time, twice at the evening meal, and once at bedtime. This pattern will help many.
There are others, though, for whom it needs to build during the day. They are encouraged to say it once upon arising, twice at mid-morning, thrice at noon, four times before siesta, five times at supper/dinner, and six times at bedtime.
One clears the cobwebs of the night and the other prepares one for transformative dreams. Use the pattern that fits you.
Which ever you use, may you be strengthened to not let the bastards grind you down. So laugh loud with every pseudo authoritative sounding phrase such as "nihil illigitami carborundum" or "non illegitimi carborundum est" or "illegitimi non carborundum."
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/november2003.html
This hymn reminds me of Mother Mary's Magnificat. By extension, Hannah comes also to mind along with prophets of all ages who are freed by the boundary crossing words of the wisdom writers.
When I put together the advent of Advent with Mary, I am reminded of an online resource of Advent Devotions from the Wisconsin United Methodists for Social Action. Marianne Cotter has a week with Mary.
You can print out the devotional in all its glory for your own use or that part of the church you are with by going to the WUMFSA site and clicking on Advent Meditation . The Advent to Epiphany devotional can also be read there on a daily basis, if that works better for you.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/november2003.html
Psalm 146 or Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16
Happy Birthday to me! These Psalms remind me of an important vision in my own life the summer between High School and College. This was a time of very loose ends (and for someone who is constitutionally drawn to loose ends as a good thing it was even more than I could handle). Suffice it here to say this was a time of confusion, uncertainty, fear, depression, and at wit's end.
Into the midst of all this and more came a visit by a presence I then identified as Roy, director of a camp where I had just been a counsellor. This avatar brought a clear message that cut through all the rest of the junk of my life - "You will always be cared for."
These six words bring back to me the assurance of these Psalms. These six words have carried me through more difficulties and allowed me to take more risks than I then could even begin to imagine. May these Psalms bring back to you those moments of assurance that have seen you through. In remembering, may you, too, have a new birth through your own Assurance Day. (can't you just imagine what Hallmark would do to this holiday!)
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/september2004.html
Psalm 146 or Psalm 30
Where is the breath of life? That needs to be our orientation. To put one's trust in any given source presumes that it will continue to be a source of inspiration.
Those who are able to help liberate in one direction often find themselves caught enslaving several other directions. Some are good at giving food to the hungry and not so good at freeing prisoners. Some can uphold an orphan and turn their back on someone bowed down.
This is part of a gift of community we find it difficult to deal with. We set up generic leaders who aren't able to handle some particulars and are not able to delegate. This results in gaps in our common good.
So it is important to identify who has the breath of life in a particular direction and to follow them and to follow someone else when another breath is needed. Blessings upon your discernment.
- - -
so if I kick off this mortal coil
and leave my praise
to my dust
will it?
what pride I
continue to exhibit
as though my praise
could be left behind
well were it so
and my dust
praised forth
what then?
for one thing
morning
time to hang up
sackcloth
so caught in weeping
so ignorant of joy
my mourning must be peeled
away from my need
arise sackcloth
dance dust
expand soul
silence anger
weeping may linger
joy may tarry
prosperity may plead
dust may profit
- - -
Anonymous (Reader) said...
Ah Wesley, you have it
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html
Psalm 146 or Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16
Dwelling in the shadow of one most high is problematic. Our proclivity is to presume that means the one casting the shadow is all that much closer to the source of light and therefore has some inborn right to overshadow our casting a shadow to reveal G*D's presence in relationship to our being. Being in another's shadow undefines who we are.
Being shadowed is here taken as being in a safe place. Unfortunately it is so safe that we become passive. We have need of some direct light, even if it leads us into risky places beyond our seed stage. To come from under the shadow of the soil that has incubated us is to face the possibility of drought. Without this risk, however, the beautiful flower and fruit within us might never be seen or tasted.
- - -
those who love me
I will deliver
in fact
I will deliver
even those who don't
when they call
these lovers and others
I will answer
I will be present
to all callers
come sweet ones
let me show you
my salvation
ready to satisfy
the longest life
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
Psalm 146 or Psalm 125
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 or Isaiah 35:4-7a
James 2:1-17
Mark 7:24-37
Raise a glass, "The rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is the maker of them all."
May your heart be strong, not just from the drink, but in appreciation of a presence of G*D that sets you free to no longer judge rich and poor, but to live justice attempted and completed.
This open-eyed justice does away with acts of favoritism, in any direction, as we recognize our neighbor as ourself. This communal approach leads to mercy received, given, and shared. Such faith is practical, beyond cant.
- - -
be opened woman from afar
be opened Jesus so near
be opened ye deaf
be opened you onlookers
be opened scoffers and praisers
let us shape one another
in G*D's image
beyond hierarchy
beyond favoritism
beyond simply beyond
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
Psalm 146 or Psalm 119:1-8
Ruth 1:1-18 or Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Hebrews 9:11-14
Mark 12:28-34
Why continue running in the same circle of people? Why leave for another circle?
Inasmuch as we have multiple options of where to be and with whom, these are on-going questions. We also have differing needs, some of which come to the fore for a time and some that wait for another occasion. Sometimes we respond with very practical considerations of income and retirement? Sometimes our emotional well-being overrides any other issue. There are times when an internal hope or conversation with G*D will move us past either or these or anything else we have previously used to decide. Always there is inertia or lack of imagination that can come into play.
Whether practical, emotional, hopeful, or habitual, we are responding to where we see the nearness of the "freedom" of G*D and whether we are a part of a freedom to invest in life, to love, here or there, this circumstance or that, these ones or those. The more basic our freedom, the easier it is to say "both" at the same time or sequentially.
- - -
moments of import
heighten all our senses
hearts hearing calls
mind's eyes seeing options
ties that bind touch our souls
such moments
come one per lifetime
and several
are present right now
for amusement and signifying
in this moment
we honor our ancestresses
Orpah and Ruth
both doing their best
in their every-day days
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
Psalm 146 or Psalm 127
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17 or 1 Kings 17:8-16
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44
When called to put in to life all we have, it is helpful to have little. We don't have to sort through tough decisions about what to save when a fire is bearing down on us or the flood waters are rising. When it is very clear that we only have this cup of flour or these two coins, we might as well offer them now rather than wait for another hand - sort of like going all in when short-stacked - it is the only reasonable decision in an uncertain world.
Our senses are heightened when everything is on the line and, at the same time, there is a blessed quietness. This combination of choice and non-choice leads to the type of living that will force action. When in this space we are open to doors we never would have considered and, if nothing else, we are a blessing to any who observe our response to a dilemma - invest where you can your reputation, resources, and hope.
- - -
a house is being built
a habitat for humanity
rises from random materials
a foundation here
a stud there
insulation blown or blanket
paint all around
a house is being built
a model of participation
sweat equity
partnering with G*D
and one another
pick your skill set
and use it well
a house is being built
its transformation
to a home
is in vain
without today's risk
sleeping with Boaz
cooking for Elijah
a house is being built
that requires
everyone's hands
to raise it up
not even G*D
does this alone
without a widow's help
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html
What is the greatest commandment?
First, don't trust political/military/industrial/educational/religious complexes to put anything but profit first (well, maybe, power - which may only be a spelling difference).
Second, trust, even if it seems impossibly distant, that the arc of creation bends toward justice and, in that trust, act as though your freedom to lift the bowed down was already mature.
Are there any more questions about these commandments than those Jesus cited?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html
"Psalm 146 is filled with the vitality of reason." [Bruggemann, Israel's Praise: Doxology against Idolatry and Ideology]. The many specific ways G*D transforms life begin to add up. If you can remember them as they are named, you are led to join in praise - it follows.
A key difficulty of today is not remembering together what we have come through. Second to it is that we have not continually translated the impetus for this Psalm into current circumstance. Where have we recently seen justice for the oppressed? If not, why praise? Where have we seen hungry folk fed? If not, why praise? Who is a prisoner that can be freed? If it is three-strikes and you are out, why praise? What orphan or widow or other silenced group has been upheld? If we don't experience it, why praise? Without connecting our experiences with longer memory we cannot make a logical jump to praise.
G*D's in charge - always? For good? All too often, seemingly not.
Too often we have to fudge our praise. Each time we do there is a greater gap between G*D and ourself. G*D doesn't praise us by watching over us and we don't experience assurance enough to praise G*D. Quite the vicious circle that even a raising from the dead can only momentarily pause.
Perhaps we need to start with whispers of praise before we can put an exclamation point to it. To aid in this you may want to remember by reading Stories of Peace and Justice and they may sensitize you to it happening in your life and a small hallelujah will begin to grow.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/06/psalm-146.html
Which of these qualities ascribed to G*D is most important to you today?
For how long has that been the case?
Do you feel a new arena beginning to open?
G*D is:
faithful forever
does justice for the oppressed
feeds the hungry
frees prisoners
opens blind eyes
lifts the fallen
honors the good
protects strangers
sides with orphans and widows
brings down powers
Which do you ascribe to or aspire to?
For how long?
What arena of life needs to be added here?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/10/psalm-146.html