Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)
Proper 25 (30) - Year B
No matter what alphabet (talk about your giveaway word - what might it mean?) you use - No matter what letter of the alphabet we use to begin a line - No matter if you keep a pattern or break it (skip a letter or two or add a final line that is not part of the scheme) - the elliptical foci continue to be G*D and Community.
Again and again we find this to be the tension points of our existence - our relationship to G*D and our relationship to others. Whether "our" G*D is "one" or "our" neighbor defines our "self", we keep coming back to these two realities.
So the ecumenical and interfaith mantra is: Let us exult, magnify, glorify, exclaim, share the experience of G*D .
Rich or poor, users of this language or that, male or female, straight or gay or bi or trans, focused on this religious tradition or another, plain or extravagantly spoken - we can't do without one another. Let us listen to the experience of one another. The lowest common denominator and the highest prime, real or imaginary numbers, plane geometry and calculated limits all bring their revelation and find their relationship one to the other. Expanding galaxies and earth's surface and atomic subdivisions; eastern and western medical modalities; memes and genes - are absolutely crucial and irrelevant.
Take comfort and refuge where you can. Consistency be damned, full speed ahead. Start this day with a new letter and see what happens - try living from the vantage point of vwx instead of abc.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/october2003.html
Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22) or Psalm 126
Job 42:1-6, 10-17 or Jeremiah 31:7-9
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52
So many cry out for mercy!
They cry here and there, directing their cry in the direction of their heritage (that which narrowly points a direction to a source of mercy). So some cry inwardly. Some to a process that may alleviate suffering, Some to Allah the Merciful, or YHWH, or Jesus. Some to some yet unknown over an invisible horizon.
Those of us who are not an ultimate source of appeal for mercy are caught in the middle. We hear the cry. We hear a response to go to the crier and carry them to the source of mercy they seek.
We are in a privileged position and need to find it in ourselves to behave honorably within such - responding to both calls with alacrity even when we are not part of the system currently at work. As a Muslim we might help a crier to the Mercy of YHWH; as a Christian, to Allah the Merciful; as a Jew to Buddha's Paths; as Wiccan, Native Person of any tradition, Atheist, Egoist, New Ageist, or whatever, to any other journey.
This position is one of friendship that goes beyond Job's friends who had their own agenda of how mercy might be engaged. We help folks move to an experience of mercy rather than convince them of some reason for their suffering.
- - -
when our cries for mercy
found their source
and we were able
to cease our weeping
we were like those
who dream without
desiring to wake
our dream mouth
was filled with laughter
connected with joy
rather than irony
seeing new sources
for rejoicing
than our previous one
to find our dream
and our awaking
so closely allied
stunned our reason
into silence
weeping became
joy seed harvested
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
Verse 2 speaks of the lowly, the humble, those for whom things aren't going well (TANAKH, NRSC, MESSAGE, respectively).
Verse 6 continues these references to the lowly, the poor, those in a tight spot.
The "lowly" translation notes this to be the equivalent of those who are dependent upon G*D. This seems to be the most helpful approach in a Wisdom Psalm. It best helps us move from the strange ascription regarding madness as a coping device to the central verse (11) teaching lowliness - a relationship with G*D that allows freedom in the midst of any of the many afflictions that come with life (19).
Evaluate whether this direct approach to freedom through the wisdom of dependence is more helpful than having to retranslate "fear" in our heads to get to holy freedom. If so, we may be able to better attend to the task of living without actual or faked crazy.
Anything in particular bringing you to the brink of madness these days? How might dependence upon creation-gifts free you to participate directly with life's afflictions rather than adding an internal layer of crazy on top of situational happenstance?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html
Affirmations are a good way to approach life. It is far better to say what you trust to be the case than to mutter about what you don’t believe. For one thing it’s simpler, fewer moving parts. To say everything that isn’t takes far more energy than to claim the little that can be be put forward.
An exception to the general rule of affirmation is affirmation based on moveable ground. This results in a sense that if you just say it forcefully enough, it is bound to be true even if it contradicts what was said just a moment ago. So it is that we are saved from every trouble. And now every trouble plus this one. Oh, and this one. No matter what the trouble, don’t complain, be radiant. G*D gets us out of every mess someone else gets us into.
This is a Psalm that could have been written by Mitt Romney. No one who runs to him to invest will lose out. Everyone who follows will prosper. What do you need to hear, that is stated. What does G*D need to hear, it is already said.
The Psalms are political/theological writing. They put forward a point of view of a plan, control, and claimed success. Unfortunately these posit more than can be known. Don’t lie through your teeth (verse 13) is a much harder standard than no profanity (same verse). Clean language does not indicate a clean heart.
Go ahead and claim G*D is in the midst of every trouble, just don’t err on the side of saying G*D is some transcendent get-out-of-jail-free card you carry up your sleeve to pull out in extremis. Make your affirmation, live it, and take the consequences that come with a still growing creation.
- - - - - - -
Note: Relatedly, this excerpt from Jim Taylor --– “If there’s a belief system operating here, it’s that I -- whoever I am -- exist separately from the world around me. The laws that apply to everyone else -- human laws or natural laws -- don’t apply to me. I transcend them.
“It’s such a universal belief that I wonder if it influences our religious faith. Almost every religion imagines its god or gods as transcendent. They live on Mount Olympus or in heaven. They don’t grow old or catch colds. They live beyond our petty limitations.
“After all, why would I want a God who is less than I am? If I can think of myself as above the realities of my world, wouldn’t any god be more so?”
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/10/psalm-341-8-19-22.html