Psalm 22:23-31

Lent 2 - Year B


Forsaken and Hopeful. Here we are again find ourselves in life's polarities.

Not knowing what is coming our way we apply the gift of praise in the moment. We will note a new relationship within the gathered community. We will see that where we felt forsaken there has always been mercy offered and where we have experienced the miseries of life there has always been someone to listen. We will find the excluded hungry are now gathered in to have enough and be satisfied. Those we least expected to be invited, those no-good pagans, are also a part of a new community gathered out of the pains and divisions of life.

All of this leads us to rejoice beyond ourselves and our time. We anticipate our work now will bear much good fruit in generations to come. The excluded of tomorrow will be born into the creation-long process of entering into G*D's joy. As we do our work to welcome all, we will be modeling for our descendants the amazing gift of hospitality that they will expand upon in their time.

This is very important work - to recognize our forsakenness in the moment and to live a hope beyond tomorrow.

- - -

E. J. (Reader)

I just want to say thank you for giving me something to think about. You'd be surprised how difficult it is to have that happen sometimes.

thanks...

Oh, and my hope for now and tomorrow is knowing that God is with me, even when I don't feel like he is.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/march2003.html

 


 

Praise of G*D is given for actions of release, freedom, and care for the poor, the earth, the dead. Praise is never devoid of specific actions. Praise is not just praise, but praise comes in response to care-full behaviors.

In this light, praise is not just oral praise based on intellectual constructs or emotional/personality typologies, but also has a healthy dose of emulating behavior. If G*D is to be praised for matters of deliverance, are we not called to participate in deliverance of others and creation from the bondages they find themselves in? Our highest praise, then, is an imitation of G*D's intentions and actions.

So, praise well by your choices to be a partner in releasing the memory of folks gone by, forgiving the lives of people right now, and setting up a deliverance of those yet to be present. As we participate in these actions we exponentially increase the quality and quantity of praise.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/march2006.html

 


 

Psalm 22:23-31
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38 or Mark 9:2-9

Last week the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness where he was tempted by Satan. Here, halfway through Mark's Gospel, Jesus again recognizes the presence of Satan in his own inner circle. In the wilderness or at home there is a temptation. Does the Spirit only lead to wilderness temptation without also leading to homeland temptation?

Most starkly put, the temptation is to be what you are not, to be ashamed of what you are not. We can put that off on G*D by claiming G*D is not what G*D ought to be. Again we are ashamed to be in the company of a G*D that doesn't get it.

It doesn't matter what the promise - of enough descendants to fill a starry, starry night, a heart that lives forever, being reckoned "in" by an alternative standard - there are those moments when we agree to get a descendant by any means, when we relinquish the responsibility of feeding the poor, or stumble over hope. Somewhere along the way we do not keep our eye on a prize and we are shamed or we shift that to shaming someone else.

Perhaps a key for us is the openness of Jesus' understanding of himself. It is this open affirmation that keeps shame at bay when it is being misused and turned into blame rather than reformation or transformation.

Sociopaths and saviors seem to not be ashamed. For the rest of us it is a marker that needs to be noted in order for us to join Jesus in living and speaking openly.

- - -

All
Shame
Has
A
Mercy
Ending
Denial

Openness
Penetrates
Entire
Need
Networks
Energizing
Sacred
Seasons

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html


 

Verse 29 brings an interesting contrast between translations.

"To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him." (NRSV)

"All the power-mongers are before him – worshiping!
All the poor and powerless, too – worshiping!
Along with those who never got it together – worshiping!" (The Message)

"All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship:
all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him:
and none can keep alive his own soul." (KJV)

"All who are rich and have more than enough
will bow down to you, Lord.
Even those who are dying and almost in the grave
will come and bow down." (CEV)

I'm not enough of a Hebrew scholar to discriminate between these and so I'll just let them talk to one another for awhile more.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

 


 

The Message recounts verse 29:

All the power-mongers are before him—worshiping!
All the poor and powerless, too—worshiping!
Along with those who never got it together!—worshiping!

Before and after baptism, before and after conversion, before and after maturity or power – we continue. Whether glorifying or afflicted, whether praising or poor, whether far or near – we have continuity, persistence, and new possibilities.

Lent, as a journey toward deeper discipleship or lived hope, brings with it a necessity to reflect on how we have been living, are living, and desire to live. In this reflection we find ourselves both diminished and passed by as well as anointed and testing/preparing. In all of this we find we’re going to “serve somebody “[Dylan]. May your service, your worship, your engagement with life bless each stage of your living.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/02/psalm-2223-31.html