Psalm 65:(1-8), 9-13
Proper 10 (15) - Year A
Since we have a potential break after verse 8 or a start up at verse 9, we might wonder about who the “You” is at the beginning. If you start with verse 1 you might be tempted to claim it is G*D. If you were to hand this to someone starting at verse nine, they might think it was about them.
Try reading 9–13 as a reference to yourself.
Try reading 9–13 as a reference to yourself.
You visit the earth
and make it abundant,
enriching it greatly
by God’s stream, full of water.
You provide people with grain
because that is what you’ve decided.
Drenching the earth’s furrows,
leveling its ridges,
you soften it with rain showers;
you bless its growth.
You crown the year
with your goodness;
your paths overflow with rich food.
Even the desert pastures drip with it,
and the hills are dressed in pure joy.
The meadowlands are covered with flocks,
the valleys decked out in grain—
they shout for joy;
they break out in song!
– CEB
- Have you decided something other than to provide for the earth and people?
- What then might your decision point to?
- How’s that going for you?
- Have you recently heard a shout for joy regarding your decisions?
As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience
Psalm 65:1-13 or Psalm 119:105-112
Genesis 25:19-34 or Isaiah 55:10-13
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
What would it be like to read Paul as a frustrated parablist who simply can't get past his juridical language base?
We need a midrash cyclotron that can speed Paul and Jesus to light speed and smash them into one another. Then we might see Spirit as seed and Flesh as seed. We might understand soil as Spirit and soil as Flesh. In so doing new sparks will fly off into our lives today and we would care less about any traps of our own or others devising and simply pay more attention to a joyful heritage of a good creation and universal salvation and simply incline our hearts to both short- and long-term good at the same time.
= = = = = = =
brother wrestler
heel grabber
stew chef
lineage stealer
flock grabber
G*D wrestler
go out
anguished loneliness
to accomplish
more than you purposed
to return
a brother's embrace
even here
instead of a thorn
a sound of singing
in the myrtle
an everlasting sign
none are cut off
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html
When overwhelmed with guilt and shame and sin and fault, we find ourselves covered, forgiven, and blessed.
What a storyline. When blessed and acting out of our blessing, we are blessed. When experiencing a scarcity of blessing and acting out of that paucity, we are forgiven.
Since it takes enormous energy to go wrong forever, eventually we find a springtime in our winter. (How would someone at the equator express this seasonal image?)
We have been responded to with the marvel of saving justice. How can we do less than pass that on? How can we do less than participate in the hope of the whole wide earth? And when might we pass on and participate in these gifts if not in this moment of kairos?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/july2002.html
Psalm 65:(1-8), 9-13 or Psalm 119:105-112
According to the song, "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose". The same can be said for Obedience. We move in one direction as far as we can, testing the boundaries of freedom or obedience, and then shift direction to the other polarity.
We also do this with the models of individual and community, as well as with categories of inclusion and exclusion.
As we hold our lives in our hands and in each other's hands, we struggle for clarity of where mercy fits into judgment in models of freedom and obedience.
As you read here what model of the above pairings did you hold when 2 or 22 or 42 or 62 or 82? What rhythms have you found working in your life and lives?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/july2005.html
Since we have a potential break after verse 8 or a start up at verse 9, we might wonder about who the “You” is at the beginning. If you start with verse 1 you might be tempted to claim it is G*D. If you were to hand this to someone starting at verse nine, they might think it was about them.
Try reading 9-13 as a reference to yourself. Here is the Common English Translation:
You visit the earth
and make it abundant,
enriching it greatly
by God’s stream, full of water.
You provide people with grain
because that is what you’ve decided.
Drenching the earth’s furrows,
leveling its ridges,
you soften it with rain showers;
you bless its growth.
You crown the year
with your goodness;
your paths overflow with rich food.
Even the desert pastures drip with it,
and the hills are dressed in pure joy.
The meadowlands are covered with flocks,
the valleys decked out in grain—
they shout for joy;
they break out in song!
Have you decided something other than to provide for the earth and people?
What then might your decision point to?
How’s that going for you?
Have you recently heard a shout for joy regarding your decisions?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/07/psalm-651-8-9-13.html