Psalm 37:1-9
Proper 22 (27) - Year C
Psalm 37:1-9 or Psalm 137
How do we pursue a journey to awareness of the presence of G*D in the face of our present situation demanding our attention be limited to it? When captured by Babylon, Capitalism, Preemptive War, Drugs, Sex, Niceness, Comfort, or Whatever -- how do we sing a different song that releases accumulated hatred? How do we sing Dylan's It Ain't Me, Babe to those who and that which would claim our soul?
A sense of detachment/assurance works wonders in this setting. We don't fret at what might be done to us, we don't become envious and do the same to others. All of this (me and my situation) will soon fade. This leaves a clearer vision of the possibility of doing good in the midst of subversions of a blessed creation.
So we engage patience and walk away from wrath. We participate in creative acts of parabolic living and active non-violence. We do this in regard to both ourselves and others.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/october2004.html
Psalm 37:1-9 or Psalm 137
"Weep!" or "Don't fret!"
Here we have a basic difference in response to life's circumstance when it goes awry (i.e., doesn't go our way).
We each seem to have a proclivity toward one or the other of these responses. Knowing which is yours can help you play toward or against type. It is not that knowing your tendency commits you to it, but that knowing it can free you to choose against it.
When you lament, lament. Wail it out and smash those children to bits.
When you refuse to lament, refuse. Wait it out and let G*D's anger decide to cut off those children.
Imagine using this formula on World Communion Sunday. Will you lament the lack of unity and find ways to do away with all who would follow a different sacramental rubric? Will you gloss over the differences and let G*D sort them out at some future time? Does it make a difference to you or G*D if you choose one response or the other?
- - -
rivers bring life
we find we are sitting alongside
a river that has taken our lives
and worse
mocks us
that we might sing of another river
one well and truly lost to us
how could we sing
of living water alongside
dehydrated water
further desiccating
a tree without healing leaves
without doing so
with a sawdust tongue
but we could mutter
under our arid breath
"we won't take it anymore"
and turn our vision of escape
into a program of revenge
and so we will
or will we