Psalm 16

Easter Vigil - Years A, B, C
Easter 2 - Year A
Proper 8 (13) - Year C
Proper 28 (33) - Year B


“The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.”–NRSV


Hear this word from John Wesley’s Directions for Renewing our Covenant with God, Third Edition, 1784.

Christ hath many services to be done, some are more easy and honourable, others more difficult and disgraceful: some are suitable to our inclinations and interests, others are contrary to both: in some we may please Christ and please ourselves, as when he requires us to feed, and cloath ourselves, to provide things honest for our own maintenance, yea, and there are some Spiritual duties that are more pleasing than others; as to rejoice in the Lord, to be blessing and praising of God, to be feeding ourselves with the delights and comforts of Religion; these are the sweet works of a Christian. But then there are other works, wherein we cannot please Christ, but by denying ourselves, as giving and lending, bearing and forbearing, reproving men for their sins, withdrawing from their company, witnessing against their wickedness, confessing Christ and his Name, when it will cost us shame and reproach; sailing against the wind, swimming against the tide, steering contrary to the time; parting with our ease, our liberties, and accommodations for the Name of our Lord Jesus.

Do you find these boundaries to be pleasant for you?

- - - - - - -

 

desperately seeking G*D
we search old haunts
apply old creeds
looking in all the old places

 

blundering with old swords
charging new cannon
with old canon
charging backward

 

honorable folly
is folly still
honor the past
by not repeating it

 

As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience

 



 

"The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places." NRSV

Hear this word from John Wesley's Directions for Renewing our Covenant with God, Third Edition, 1784.

"Christ hath many services to be done, some are more easy and honourable, others more difficult and disgraceful: some are suitable to our inclinations and interests, others are contrary to both; in some we may please Christ and please ourselves, as when he requires us to feed, and clothe ourselves, to provide things honest for our own maintenance, yea, and there are some Spiritual duties that are more pleasing than others; as to rejoice in the Lord, to be blessing and praising of God, to be feeding ourselves with the delights and comforts of Religion; these are the sweet works of a Christian. But then there are other works, wherein we cannot please Christ, but by denying ourselves, as giving and lending, bearing and forbearing, reproving men for their sins, withdrawing from their company, witnessing against their wickedness, confessing Christ and his Name, when it will cost us shame and reproach: sailing against the wind, swimming against the tide, steering contrary to the times; parting with our ease, our liberties, and accommodations for the Name of our Lord Jesus."

Do you find these boundaries to be pleasant for you?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/november2003.html

 


 

Ahh, when boundary lines fall in pleasant places! What fullness of joy!

This, of course, means that we have some understanding that such lines have not always fallen so.

A question is whether or not fullness of joy is yet possible when we find ourselves in dry places. Seemingly this is difficult to do. We beg for food and water in the desert and for cups of anticipated suffering to be removed.

What will we do when our agenda is not being met? when we are not getting our way? when our wisdom seems to count for naught? Will we proceed directly to open-eyed joy without passing blind despair?

The process here is not to shut our eyes in the midst of pain for ourselves or others. As the old spiritual has it, keep your eye on the prize. Wow, a prize is in sight. At least it is still in sight. That's a good carrot to keep joy in the tank and keep us from running on empty.

Now, what prize has caught your eye? World Peace? US out of Iraq? Getting through the next week? AIDS/HIV victims? Feeding tubes? Tsunami stations? Understanding Psalm 16? Social Security security? Theocracy? Personal Peace?

Wesley (Blogger)
From http://www.reverendfun.com/ comes this cartoon that we are using in this week's bulletin. No there is no good reason.

Browse and see what strikes your eye.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/april2005.html

 


 

Psalm 16 or Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20

In days of trouble we remember having come through previous years of trouble.

In any day, troubled or not, we are able to choose which past we will focus on and which promise we will hitch our star to.

Whether the boundary lines of life have fallen in pleasant places or not, we are able to receive counsel, to rejoice, and rest in assurance.

Given all this, we gain perspective to fulfill the prophetic role. There will be deepening troubles. Days of trouble will multiply into years and decades of trouble. We know this because we can simply project forward the outcome of our behaviors in the world and interactions between one another.

Prophets do less griping about this than others because that very same perspective allows us to see the promises that are available by simply changing our present behaviors and interactions. Not that this is some magic slot-machine where we put in our money and reap a bounty, but consequences are modified as we modify our connections and further modified as we are encouraged by our first incremental shifts to continue going on to wholeness.

I suspect prophets and poets are perceived as gripers because having to shift patterns is never easy and it is always easier to dismiss the one who calls for such as a malcontent. Our identity is shaped by the negative advertising against us by the power resisting choice. But we couldn't be true to the gift we have been given if we clammed up simply because someone didn't care for the message and threatened any such messenger.

So, externally we hearken back to better days in order to project forward better days. Internally we listen carefully to promises not yet seen and choose for them in all their yet insubstantiality.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/june2004.html

 


 

Psalm 16 or Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20

Those of old plowed through waters of chaos. They laid down straight rows of guidance, boundaries pleasing to our desires. When we think of power we see it in days of yore and yearn for its doubling and tripling in our time and place.

If it is power we see in the past, what do we envision for the future?

If looking for a future qualitatively and quantitatively better than what has been, why would we think that repeating the events and tools of the past will get us to arrive at a different place? While thankful that we have come thus far, even by some rather nefarious methods, we might yet begin to risk moving into a preferred future through radical revisioning of the tools and direction of our daily work.

- - -

desperately seeking G*D
we search old haunts
apply old creeds
looking in all the old places

blundering with old swords
charging new cannon
with old canon
charging backward

honorable folly
is folly still
honor the past
by not repeating it

- - -

as Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote:

Half a league half a league
Half a league onward
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade
Charge for the guns' he said
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldiers knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turned in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot & shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

- - -

Deborah (Reader) said...
When reading "The Charge of the Light Brigade" below, I was struck by images of lemmings going over cliffs. Why do we condemn lemmings (or sheep) for mindlessly following a leader to their destruction but glorify and honor soldiers who do it in war?

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html


 

Psalm 16
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
I Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31

Joy is not in what is currently going on, but in participation with a vision of a Peaceable Preferred Future always before us. [Look at "Peaceable Kingdom", an early American painting by Edward Hicks, and wonder about what changes are needed to update it.]

This is a loose translation of a phrase from Acts 2:25, "I saw the Lord always before me." It was from this that David affirmed, "therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh shall live in hope."

The word "Lord" is fraught with overtones. It does not mean one thing to all people. So it is important to figure out what one means by the old language of "Lord" when using it and begin to use the meaning (even if it is a more awkward phrase that does not run trippingly off the tongue, thus rejoicing it on one level) rather than the shorthand.

Here it would seem we are speaking of a particular vision. Peter casts it in terms of escaping Hades, but we might well speak of it in a positive way by referring to some aspect of what might loosely be called "Paradise" or a preferred future come on earth.

What vision would you hold before yourself to stimulate joy?

- - -

in your presence is joy
summarizing
every love song and hymn
uniting
secular and sacred music
challenging
every separation we construct
reducing
our specifics to generalities
expanding
lovers into love
concretizing
love into lovers
binding
joy to presence

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html


 

Psalm 16 or 1 Samuel 2:1-10
1 Samuel 1:4-20 or Daniel 12:1-3
Hebrews 10:11-25
Mark 13:1-8

Look! What a large Enemy!
It will take a trebuchet to do in this large an enemy. One smooth river stone or five stand no chance

Look! What a large Temple!
Nothing could ever bring down such stability. No number of armies with the biggest siege engines could prevail here.

What fantasies we conjure as we face fears and attempt to continue our present course. In both cases we exaggerate our situations. We are at one and the same time too weak and too strong.

Take a second and third look. G*D as rock is an interesting image. G*D enlarges on the way from sling to forehead, becoming irresistible. G*D reduces so temple walls can be stepped over and be no barrier, becoming approachable. G*D as rock is no static image, but is as transformable as any Living reality.

- - -

lead me astray
please
from solid falsehoods
told with volume enough
to fool all the people all the time

lies that grow
rumor so seemingly so
plausible to irresistible
small lie masquerading
as big truth

lead me astray
from popular memes
so believable everywhere
and all too repeated
in sanctuary space

having connected with god
our least fears
are projected large
upon innocent
children and strangers

of all sadness
this grieves most
unquestioning
big lies hold sway
in holy space

resolution
a willingness
to be provoked
to love
not lie

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html


 

Trust that I am on a path of life leads to a fullness of joy.

Within this trust we have a perspective that lets us see the various boundary lines of life and to affirm them as necessary, that we have no life apart from them.

This backward look from verse 11 to 6 to 2 shapes us to find instruction in the night, whether that be a Jesus night in a tomb, a Nicodemus night of befuddlement, or a Thomas night of desire for an experience of resurrection. All of us look for our hearts to be strangely warmed that we might find our forgiveness before ever we act (even though we are called to act as though forgiveness has already come before our reception of it).

Trust is one of the best sources of humor there is. So often that which is funny relies on tricks, misdirection, put-downs, finding a survival perspective. However, trust begins to see humor where there is none (perhaps it is time to go back to that old-time medicine theory of humors). Trust is a creative act. Trust leads us to a strange formula: T+GT=C. I don't know whether that can work mathematically, but it does here as Tragedy + G*D's Time = Comedy. From a Christian perspective we begin with the tragedy of crucifixion and add to it whatever is meant by "three days". This results in the comedy of resurrection.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Three tortoises, Mick, Alan and Les, decide to go on a picnic. So Mick packs the picnic basket with beer and sandwiches. The trouble is the picnic site is ten miles away so it takes them ten days to get there.

When they get there Mick unpacks the food and beer. "OK Les, Give me the bottle opener."

"I didn't bring it," says Les. "I thought you packed it."

Mick gets worried, He turns to Alan, "Did you bring the bottle opener??"

Naturally Alan didn't bring it. So they're stuck ten miles from Home without a bottle opener. Mick and Alan beg Les to go back for it, but he refuses as he says they will eat all the sandwiches.

After two hours, and after they have sworn on their tortoise Lives that they will not eat the sandwiches, he finally agrees. So Les sets off down the road at a steady pace.

Twenty days pass and he still isn't back and Mick and Alan are starving, but a promise is a promise.

Another five days and he still isn't back, but a promise is a promise. Finally they can't take it any longer so they take out a Sandwich each, and just as they are about to eat it, Les pops up from behind a rock and shouts........

"I KNEW IT!......I'M NOT GOING!"

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Lack of trust is merely funny. Trust is the humor of joy.

Alternative ending:

Later the day that Les left to get a bottle opener, Mick and Alan see Les returning in as much of a cloud of dust as he can muster.

Panting as he arrives, Les says, "Duh, we've been living so slowly too much of the past has stuck to us. I saw some folks drinking at the picnic site we passed on the way here - the caps are twist-offs! We don't need a bottle-opener. Let's feast!"

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_03_01_archive.html


 

The opening phrase from verse 8, "I am ever mindful of the LORD's presence" was frequently used for meditation within the kabbalistic tradition. As such, it is often inscribed on the Ark or at the front of the synagogue.

One can play varying traditions off against one another, even if it brings in anachronistic issues.

Imagine an earlier Temple (before the survival mechanism of synagogues) having this inscription. Would it have made a difference in the way the Temple engaged the world? What if they were present in the Anglican churches during John Wesley's time? How about in your congregation? And in your own postinia?

Would it have made any difference in the way business is done or, like mission and vision statements galore, be entirely beside the point?

To continue into the verse, imagine G*D at your right hand rather than contriving to get yourself located at G*D's right hand. Isn't having G*D at your right hand a much more empowering and exciting image! You're welcome.

With Death advising you by whispering in your left ear and G*D walking along holding your right hand, may you and your two good friends do much good this day. May you engage the social justice issues you encounter because a cord of three strands is not easily broken and you shall not be moved!

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

 


 

My job is to be protected; your job is to protect.

Kudos to the protector and all those claiming to protect.

As long as I am protected I’ll think and say what will continue the protection, because I am held by that bond.

So far that is working well, pleasantly enough for me, if not for all.

Tell me what I need to do to keep your protection and that check is in the mail.

The path of life is that of protection. In your protection is my joy; in your meting out of protection I find pleasure forever more.

- - -

And protection of life is crucial to its continuance. 
And protection of life constrains so its continuance lacks growth and meaning.
Blessings on telling one from the other and choosing well in this moment and the next.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/04/psalm-16.html

 

 

Holy Humor Sunday

“I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” (verse 8)

Ordinarily one would think that one couldn’t move because their way was blocked by something in front of them, blocking their move. Even a knight of chess that can move around corners can have a way forward blocked.

Traditionally the right hand is an offensive hand, the left being defensive. Right, sword; left, shield. What is it that is offensive but doesn’t move? Doctrine? But that is a different kind of offensive.

Theory: G*D is our right-hand plumb line, holding us true to living an image of steadfast love.

Reality: we try to be G*D’s right-hand, a pleasure forevermore, and thus not dispensable in the great Correction Day.

It is perversely funny the way we try to wheedle our way into grace.

http://www.the-cartoonist.com/gospel2/graphics/b52_1016_1022_right_hand.gif

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/04/psalm-16.html