Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
Epiphany 5 - Year B
Verses 5 & 6 put together what is often broken apart in today's church (probably the church in any day).
Our Lord is great, all-powerful,
his wisdom beyond all telling.
Yahweh sustains the poor,
and humbles the wicked to the ground. [NJB]
In the first we hear the praise refrain, Our G*D is an awesome G*D.
In the second we hear the involvement in social justice.
For some reason we tend to bounce back and forth between these two and set them up in antagonism to one another. The praise folks don't get the peace with justice stuff, and vice versa.
There is the transcendent G*D and the immanent G*D. The G*D beyond the stars and the G*D grounded in being. The work before us is the mystery of both/and rather than either/or. As we proceed it is important to invite in and even search out the polarity where we are more uncomfortable. This is not to abandon the gift given us in our natural inclinations, but to experience the uncomfortable humility of living and dying for all of life and not just our own.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/february2003.html
Would there were a direct correlation between my goodness and my health. A serious cold that I don't usually get has my head full and my heart empty. It has been too many days already. When is the lifting of the downtrodden, coughing, sniffling, can't sleep at night going to be a reality? A memory rather than a present experience?
And for some a depression goes on for decades. And for some dialysis goes on for years. And for some grief goes on for months. Surely hope can live. But when it comes to this one instead of some someone, a week seems plenty long enough to wait for a controllable God that will get me back on top of my game instead of up typing at this wee hour.
How do we sing in this strange land of illness, of betrayal, of limits? By humming somewhere between a bass and a baritone, outside my usual range?
Does the Lord take pleasure in those who aren't up to much hoping, much less fearing? Hope so.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/february2006.html
Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
Isaiah 40:21-31
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39
Though there is a tendency to attribute power to that which is greater, longer, wider, deeper, power that is implacable and must be bowed down to, it is important to see an on-going vitality of steadfast eternity. Time, Creation, G*D are powerful in relationship to grasshoppers, slaves, or frail (various images of humans). But to stop with that distinction is to dismiss everything in favor of some one thing.
In these passages a key dynamic is not the distance between the great and the small, but the willingness of the powerful to energize the less powerful. This might be called silly as it adds to entropy (at least in a closed system) but it might also be envisioned as the only perpetual energy mechanism there is, one that passes on energy in an open environment.
Our tendency is to look at a given cycle of rising and falling, rather than an on-going stream of life. When looking cyclically we get into law issues such as this interesting one: "(though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law)". When looking on-goingly we can see patterns of connection between our predecessors and our descendants, our selves and others, one religious, economic, or political system and another.
Here we proclaim a connection of intentional interaction between every disparate moment and rejoice in time's flow that supports us and encourages us and engages us to join the flow. Rejoice in every evidence of power coming to the faint, being received, and passed on.
- - -
haven't you heard
has your heart not known
it is not what gets stored up that counts
but what passes through
hearts get attacked
with storage blockages
they faint and fail
in need of new flow
as we pass through
we store of loose
set your heart on this choice
that others might also hear
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html
How wide a net do you need to join in healing the brokenhearted, binding up their wounds?
What resources and power do you need beyond what you already have to lift up the downtrodden, to cast the wicked to the ground?
How wide and how deep our experience of and participation in compassion are questions that are continually before us. They can get us down when we measure ourselves against compassion professionals or continually see the more that needs to be done. They are also questions that can be approached from a perspective based on how far we have come. Whether from a view of a glass half-empty or half-full, we can avoid denigrating or aggrandizing our part by joining in a company of outcasts who take pleasure in every success and are borne through every wearying worry.
The network of fingers at the end of your arm, the hook at the end of your prosthesis is a wide-enough arc for your compassion.
The energy you have is sufficient for your opportunities.
Hallelujah!
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html
Everyone is looking for a gracious G*D - at least one gracious to them, if not to their enemies.
It’s lovely to have a G*D that confirms our center of power and brings an in-group back into relationship with one another and in charge of an occupied space.
How wonderful to have a G*D who mends our every flaw.
There is nothing better than a G*D who sets a large enough context that we can use universally for ourselves and against others.
Indeed, great is our G*D - powerful and wise for smoothing our path to greatness.
While G*D is defined as a lifter of the downtrodden, it is always understood that is us (whiney Christians in America fit this model of feeling persecuted against all facts to the contrary) and never anyone else who experiences being downtrodden. Likewise, the wicked are always “them” and never “us”.
So sing and dance while G*D takes care to keep us on top.
Prosperity is in process because the unseen hand of G*D (whatever economic system is in place) is always at work.
So, keep this relationship going - fear G*D by expressing your steadfast love for the same.
Yep, praise is an easy way to get what you want.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/02/psalm-1471-11-20c.html