Psalm 27
Lent 2 - Year C
Where does one turn for a source of comfort and safety when external or internal threats arise? The Psalmist finds their confidence in a context of beauty and inquiry (v. 4).
These gifts of seeking beyond and beneath the surface for context and process lifts a weary or tortured head. Ongoing inquiry and instances of beauty set an openness to actually hear a response to a plea for perspective and plan to move forward.
To see ourselves as fundamentally beloved takes more than being a reflection of who others see us to be (too often as a slave or extension of them). With beauty and inquiry we find our own will and way. Even in the face of violence we can see the goodness of what we mean by “G*D” and our own participation in a larger creation.
We hear of “waiting for the Lord” through “strength” and “courage” (v 14). There is not more strength needed for nor received from an engagement with “beauty” and “inquiry”. Likewise, courage is not found in pulled bootstraps, but in simply following a crack of hope revealed by “inquiry” and “beauty” still present in an oppressive setting. Waiting is not passivity, but active openness to inquiry beyond our certainty or other-definition of self and appreciation of moments or extended experiences of beauty emerging from beneath fear, like grass growing through cement.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/02/psalm-27.html
"Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and the are breathing out violence. // I believe that I shall see the goodness...." (vs 12-13x, NRSV)
Patience, strength, and courage come at the interface between the fear and the seeing of something different. There is a great dynamism between verses 12 and 13 that is only indicated by a stanza change.
What is it that goes on in your life between the fear and the hope? Is that usually a moment or a much longer time? Do you have a strategy for the shift or is it yet a mystery?
Which stanza do you find operating in you today? Is it the fear pleading or the goodness believing? Are you ready for that to shift? Our experience is that it does shift that there is another dynamic space between the end of the psalm and its beginning. What are you doing to assist the shift or live in the middle of it?
I always find it mysterious and amazing how transformation goes on in the silence of space between stanzas in life. May your space, this day, bear much good fruit and ground you in the more.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/march2004.html
"Waiting for the Lord" can be a passive waiting for something to happen or a spring-loaded readiness to act at a kairos moment ripe for intervention. A key question is, "What is meant by 'living in the house of the Lord'?"
Is this a readiness and willingness to praise and sacrifice? Is this a readiness and willingness to prophecy justice? If it is a bothness, which takes precedence when both are present - we suggest prophecy trumps praise (reference John Wesley's sermon "On Zeal").
Here we see waiting as an active state. Living in the house of the Lord is to live in the image of the Lord - a creator and a co-creator and a re-creator - a lover, if you will. This progression is where we find risk, partnership, and mercy - three important qualities that define the beauty of the Lord, of creation, of ourselves.
- - -
my light
shining down the future's broadening way
pointing to fulcrum spots today
where the past might be moved
from fate to fortune
my salvation
putting a hand out
taking a hand in hand
joining lives
revealing goodness
my strength
stable
resilience
fearless
confidence
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
To "behold beauty" and "inquire" are almost enough to fill all the days of my life. We sometimes make that specific to our experience base and limit a beautiful life to G*D and our inquiry to a religious setting. These specifics are examples, not limits.
We look to having our beholding and inquiring fulfilled. So we move from verse 4 to verse 7 and yearn for grace and answers. We don't usually find these as ultimates and so we turn to verse 11 for teaching and leading onward and onward and onward from beautiful question to beautiful question.
In this teaching and leading, whether during a Lenten season or not, we are able to conclude that we will "live as if" goodness in this life were avail-able and action-able. Our active living through the seasons of life will demonstrate courage to both wait and "live as if".