Psalm 13
Proper 8 (13) - Year A
In the face of steadfast love there is but the moment.
To begin addressing the imponderable question of “How long?” it is helpful to return to a baby game of “How big?” — “So-o-o-o big” that becomes “How long?” — “So-o-o-o long”.
Through the depths and heights, joys and sorrows, time and yet time again, forgotten and remembered, we have this portion of “So-o-o-o long”. It is just long enough to raise a glass in toast and to raise a voice in song.
Come from mud and moving to dust we join in another chorus from St. Woodie:
So long, it’s been good to know yuh;
So long, it’s been good to know yuh;
So long, it’s been good to know yuh.
This dusty old dust is a-gettin’ my home,
And I got to be driftin’ along.
When time becomes part of steadfast love and allows alternatives, Abraham is set free from having to sacrifice. Isaac is set free from having to be sacrificed. Lovers are set free from any co-dependency. Righteous folk and thirsters after righteousness are set free from creedal restrictions on their actions. Angels are set free from having to tote sheep to high places.
Whether “So-o-o-o Long” turns out to be long or short, we have an on-going choice:
This dusty old dust is a-gettin’ my home,
I choose kindness while driftin’ along.
To begin addressing the imponderable question of “How long?” it is helpful to return to a baby game of “How big?” — “So-o-o-o big” that becomes “How long?” — “So-o-o-o long”.
So long, it’s been good to know yuh;
So long, it’s been good to know yuh.
This dusty old dust is a-gettin’ my home,
And I got to be driftin’ along.
I choose kindness while driftin’ along.
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience
I have long regretted the versification of the Bible. Oh, it does help us get to the same spot together - but at the cost of wandering through the wonder of what wasn't numbered.
Somewhere - between the beginning plea and the concluding confirmation of trust - we have missed something. This is the American TV half-hour sitcom. For 18 minutes (give or take) there is set-up and then there is 2 minutes of resolution.
What happened just before verse "5" begins with radical trust and celebration?
An invisible providence occurred? That which "sees" cannot be seen?
Can you sense an invisible providence already at work in the midst of your particular life, your testing?
Go back again to the beginning of the Psalm. Put in your particulars. What trouble have you carried long enough? What "tar baby" have you struck and been stuck to?
Without being able to glimpse the way through can you find yourself beginning to celebrate, "I'm singing at the top of my lungs, I'm so full of answered prayers." [ The Message ]
May you be so full of answered prayer (even one) that you can continue in the midst of those prayers not yet recognized as resolved.
What a wonderful blessing.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/june2002.html
Psalm 13 or Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18
There seems to be a gap between our frailty and misery and our dream of steadfast love, sometime, somewhere, putting an end to our sense of forsakenness.
Through our lifetime we entrust a whole series of idols to keep this dream alive. It's a wonderful picture, being rescued in the nick of time. It has a long heritage.
And yet our experience is that of angels with flaming swords, no rescue by going back. Exile transforms our insight and energy into rigid rules and survivalism. Even an exodus paradigm separates the tribes and the tribes from the indigenous. Internal betrayals are rife. Crucifixions keep cropping up to lay us low.
It would be helpful to practice experiencing steadfast love in the midst of all this, as our ground of being, rather than it being separated from our present, only coming later to set everything right that can't be set right without destroying its character.
If the hospitality of steadfast love is not present right now to show mercy to every experience, helpful and unhelpful, then it is very close to simply being a figment of our imagination, a bite of pickle at bedtime, a spot of spoiled cabbage only good for haunting.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/june2005.html
Psalm 13 or Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18
Genesis 22:1-14 or Jeremiah 28:5-9
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 10:40-42
Welcoming is bedrock evangelism. A first rule of thumb of expressing our discipleship is to love one another and, presuming we are expanding our "one another", its logical extension is that of hospitality.
So we need to welcome the unexpected goat or exile. It saves us from inbred craziness (slaughter of our own) and denial of our common family (if they have been away).
In so doing we will find G*D's absent face wasn't so absent after all and we are part of the generations who experience steadfast love in the midst of every wavering.
Thanks be that we are not limited to the sin of self-assurance and closed doors. Our escape from such sin is a participation in welcoming.
- - -
sit in a new house
experience its idiosyncrasies
wonder where its secrets lie
where children were hurt
what kept blessings from flowing
who was exiled here
or escaped exile
if walls talked
what shame and glory
would come forth
were its doors ever opened wide
or barricaded even more tightly
how will we interact
enough of sitting
though not enough
a start is a cup of cold water
taken through the house
sprinkled here
there and everywhere
that more cups
will be ready
when family and strangers
call
and beckon them in
before they know
their need
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html
In the face of steadfast love there is but the moment.
"How long?" can only be responded to with a variation on the old children's game, "So-o-o-o long."
Through the depths and heights, joys and sorrows, time and yet time again, forgotten and remembered, we have this portion of "So-o-o-o long". It is just long enough to raise a glass in toast and to raise a voice in song.
Come from mud and moving to dust we join in another chorus from St. Woodie:
So long, it's been good to know yuh;
So long, it's been good to know yuh;
So long, it's been good to know yuh.
This dusty old dust is a-gettin' my home,
And I got to be driftin' along.
So Abraham is set free from having to sacrifice. Isaac is set free from having to be sacrificed. Lovers of fathers and mothers and lovers are set free from their co-dependency. Righteous folk and thirsters after righteousness are set free from creedal restrictions on their actions. Angels are set free from having to tote sheep to high places.
This dusty old dust is a-getting' my home,
And I choose to be kind as I go driftin' along.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html
Are you feeling forgotten? Your cause delayed and betrayed? Your source of authority dismissed? Your social capital steadily reduced and ignored?
Well? One day more?
Enough of those and it is too much. We’ll be dead before seeing satisfaction (as though that were the most valuable of all results).
Shaken to our core we have lost our joy. What we thought was steadfast, isn’t anymore. Perimeters fail before our centers cease to hold.
This is all so real, so everyday. All that is left is that wonderfully contrarian view of hope when hope has been lost. Who knew it was still present? Well, not us, that’s for sure.
And, then, a spark is all it takes to set us aflame yet one more time. May we be that spark for one another for the journey is long and we each have our time of dark where others hold a light for us and we later return the favor.
Priest or Prophet or Poor, all are in need of a cup of water, a spark of hope, a beautiful moment. Pick your gift and apply it wherever possible as we sing together as morning stars still do.