Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45
Proper 20 (25) - Year A
Can we be thankful, be Pentecostal (telling the wonders of G*D to all), be alert to new experiences of G*D's presence, be alive to wonder - without falling prey to the entitlement that turns every wonder to "my" advantage rather than "our" advantage?
Is this the song that is being sung nationally in the United States of America these days - remembering only the parts of our history that are to our benefit. When looked at through this lens we can sense the danger of unbridled jingoism.
My hope is that we can disconnect the first part of the reading from the second part so they don't reinforce one another but shed light on one another.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/september2002.html
Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45 or Psalm 145:1-8
When the longest working workers finally figured out that "others" who worked the shortest were getting the same as themselves, their breath was sucked from them as if they had been hit in the solar plexus. It dawned on them that they had just been first-lasted. It was as if Psalm 105:44 had been used against them: "God gave 'them' the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the wealth of the peoples."
Whether real or not, what was felt is the equivalent of a loss. The ratio that keeps me entitled to have bragging rights that night had just been re-calibrated. I can't be the one to buy the drinks because all could have their own bottle.
After doing the work in the vineyard of extolling and praising G*D all the day long, we find, when we turn to our neighbor, we have praise-fatigue. We've spent so much energy "loving" G*D so much that there isn't any left to rejoice with a neighbor who has received more than anyone might have reasonably expected. Our very praise gets in the way of our fellowship. How ironic. How sad and pitiful we are.
So, recognizing this limitation we have, might we find ourselves being better union members. Whether we belong to the union known as AFL or CIO or CHURCH, may we refuse to go to work/praise without those left to fend for themselves. The difficulty with the first workers didn't begin with their recognition of equal pay at the end of the day, but the avoidance of solidarity in the matter of a right-to-work/praise at the beginning of the day.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/september2005.html
Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45 or Psalm 145:1-8
Exodus 16:2-15 or Jonah 3:10-4:11
Philippians 1:21-30
Matthew 20:1-16
Sitting on the shore of a great lake, with a state forest behind, it is easy to note that the context of our viewing/participating in life affects much. Here it is easy to note that when the Israelites of old heard G*D was coming they turned toward the wilderness. From whence else might G*D come? Everything else is too close to the usual sources of our complaining - inconveniences that don't match our projected desires.
For the preacher types it might be worth an intentional relocation of your reflection/writing/preparation time to meet G*D in your nearest wilderness. Yes, that might be a city as wide as Ninevah.
Jesus' story of a landlord hiring city folk to work a day or an hour brings together the rural and urban at a point of tension - the harvesting and consuming of food. At this point it is easy to find a dissatisfaction with life and a need to turn toward that strange wilderness of generosity beyond comprehension. Doesn't real generosity challenge all the structures we have put up around ourselves? In doing such we are again faced with a survival question - to protect ourselves from economic wildness do we need to give up radical generosity that comes with G*D from that same wilderness we have turned away from?
- - -
from the white breakers
methodically rolling on shore
to the indigo line
of the wide horizon
a circle wider than a rainbow
wraps a circle
around my eyes
there is no room
for personal ipod sounds
as giga-billions of rock washings
bring more sand to shore
slowing a stride to a stroll
until a next step
is taken in silence
with sight and sound
rhythmically cared for
doors to a wilderness within
crack open a bit
and with attention elsewhere
being a dance
to give themselves away
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
Were a hurricane, typhoon, or exodus bearing down upon you what would be your first choice to carry with you. Particularly given the recent news about Lehman Brothers and AIG you might want gold and jewels for the journey. They could be used to buy food and water.
Forgetting geography for the moment and where one might travel to from Egypt without a desert wilderness experience, gold and jewels might be a good choice. As it was and is an extra tuckerbag or bota might come in handier.
Thank goodness G*D is a covenant rememberer. Such a steadfast lover becomes a much needed deus ex machina.
What are you remembering these days? Might your own convoluted life become "a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty"? Remember well that you might actually be an integral part to deal with an intractable problem that later generations will laud as the improbable strikes again. Remember, in these earlier times when the nature of improbability was less well understood, it was not appreciated that any event that is infinitely improbable will, by definition, occur almost immediately.1
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_09_01_archive.html
Thank goodness for selective memory. Here we have a memory of the end results of some very difficult times. The psalm would have to be four times longer were the circumstances leading to such positive outcomes to be reported.
As you look back on previous haunting experiences, is your focus on the difficult moments or the final way through?
A psalm could be constructed to only cry out for a difficulty faced. It would start a new category of a complaint psalm. Even laments have a turn or action involved that begins to redeem a time of difficulty. A question is whether complaint only would be valuable. In like manner, we might ask whether a psalm of rejoicing only has value.
As with most of life it is the moments of transition that are key. Hopefully you can learn from past transitions and can see the beginning of a next transition even as the difficulty of the moment continues.
I doubt that we will get around selective memory and intentional revision, but it is helpful, from time to time, to look at what we are remembering and how that shapes where we head. This past week gave opportunity to do that regarding a national event - September 11, 2001 - that we cover-up with the short-hand 9/11 used to remember the difficulty without ever having to find the better way through.
This might be a good time to do another timeline of how long you think you have been working this time. What might a transition be that would get you out of a complaint oriented approach to working or hungering?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/09/psalm-1051-6-27-45.html