Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14

Epiphany - Years A, B, C


The oppressed, facing violence in their lives, cry out, “Give the king, the premier, the president, the prime minister, the leader of any title, your justice, O G*D!” with an implication that the reception and implementation of such justice can be measured by a reduction and removal of oppression and violence.

As always, the language of our appeals needs to be simultaneously individual and communal. Should the leaders of community have the justice of G*D, they would find a way to distribute both their leadership and their justice.

It is not sufficient that one leader be just if the system around them perpetrates injustice.

A sign of a just leader is an increasingly just community with fewer and fewer needy calling and fewer and fewer weak needing pity. There is a presumption here that the gap of justice between the rich and the poor will be narrowing, not widening, and a sign of this is that those who have much will not have too much and those who have little will not have too little.

The psalm might be translated for the economic barons, middle managers, forepeople, laborers, union organizers, and religious leaders from chief priests and popes and bishops to chairpersons of altar guilds. Each one needs to see her/himself as the one to whom justice is given. Until we each understand our life as a fulcrum point of justice, the plea for justice will continue to ring out.

Justice delayed is justice denied. Justice for some is justice denied. Justice is not simply individual, but communal.

Justice is an important light to lift for us to see and to imagine the epiphany it might yet bring about in our midst.

Yes, demand justice from others, particularly those in recognized positions of leadership, but do not forget to put your own name and vocation into the list—Give me and those who are with me in my vocation your justice, O G*D!

 

As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience

 


 

Give to each justice, wholeness.
Each of us are called to engage others as if we were both poor,
extending the mercy we have received.
Then mountain tops will not be removed, but roots will filter rain.
Then the cause of the poor will not be pre-judged as lazy.
Then the seasons will bind the generation.
Then water cycles will nourish land and sea.
Then care and peace will flourish.

Of course this can all get truncated by looking to my tribe to be at the top-of-the-heap. It is always good when oppression stops unless it is stopped by self-oppression. Those who have been designated winners and losers can always try to privilege or excuse themselves and return to dividing-the-spoils.

Reclaiming a place-at-the-table is not the same as claiming a priority among the others. Magi honor others — this may that be our model for interacting between cultures and classes within cultures.

 

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/01/psalm-721-7-10-14.html

 


 

The oppressed, facing violence in their lives, cry out, "Give the king, the premier, the president, the prime minister, the leader of any title, your justice, O G*D!" with an implication that the reception and implementation of such justice can be measured by a reduction and removal of oppression and violence.

As always, the language of our appeals needs to be simultaneously individual and communal. Should the leaders of community have the justice of G*D, they would find a way to distribute both their leadership and their justice.

It is not sufficient that one leader be just if the system around them perpetrates injustice.

A sign of a just leader is an increasingly just community with fewer and fewer needy calling and fewer and fewer weak needing pity. There is a presumption here that the gap of justice between the rich and the poor will be narrowing, not widening, and a sign of this is that those who have much will not have too much and those who have little will not have too little.

The psalm might be translated for the economic barons, middle managers, forepeople, laborers, union organizers, and religious leaders from chief priests and popes and bishops to chairpersons of altar guilds. Each one needs to see themself as the one to whom justice is given. Until we each understand ourself as the fulcrum point of justice, the plea for justice will continue to ring out.

Justice delayed is justice denied. Justice for some is justice denied. Justice is not simply individual, but communal.

Justice is an important light to lift for us to see and to imagine the epiphany it might yet bring about in our midst.

Yes, demand justice from others, particularly those in recognized positions of leadership, but do not forget to put your own name and vocation into the list – Give me and those who are with me in my vocation your justice, O G*D!

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_01_01_archive.html

 


 

Is this the description of a king that would get 3 guys off their couch to go look for such a one?

More precisely, are verses 1-7 and 12-14 compelling, or is it verses 10-11?

What are you looking for: justice for others or tribute for self?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/january2005.html

 


 

It is the king’s responsibility to uphold and administer justice. It is a president’s place to do the same. Likewise for a bishop, pastor, lay leader. And for the just anybody’s not so far listed, they too have a responsibility for justice processes.

The yearning for, searching for, attempting, implementing of justice is constituent with long-term common good.

We keep short-circuiting justice with economic and political models that eventually meld together, each subverting the other through unquestioned support of the other. Soon there is no check or balance available to keep the poor from becoming poorer even as prosperity for all is available. The needy stand as sign and significance of a lack of pity, compassion, community. As oppression and violence are put into legal place to ensure economic/political power, we look to justice leaders only to find them absent.

It is not just the king that needs a reminder about the interconnected web of life and the respect and honor due each one. This is a reminder to all that justice depends on each of us to raise the questions and to risk standing with the poor and those who have no helper.

On Epiphany may we give even better gifts than gold, frankincense, and myrrh. May we offer our heart and energy to justice on behalf of manger-laid people everywhere.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/01/psalm-721-7-10-14.html

 


 

So why would you “deliver the needy” when they identify their need? To receive honor? Why would you have your heart and resources go toward the weak? To receive praise? Why would you stop oppression and violence? To receive tribute?

If you are able to avoid these limitations, why would we want to put them on G*D?

It may be as simple as:

Justice is available and achievable.
Prosperity for all is available and achievable.
Defense of one another is available and achievable.

Which part of current injustice are you called to call out and shift?
Which part of ecological harm are you called to call out and shift?
Which part of political/economic shallowness are you called to call out and shift.

Be the light. Shine it in dark corners.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/01/psalm-721-7-10-14.html