Psalm 114
Easter Vigil/Evening - Years A, B, C
Proper 19 (24) - Year A
In looking back at events of power and loss of life, the Psalmist most remembers what was experienced as G*D's presence changing things.
This helps put the Exodus passage in perspective and to keep us from celebrating overmuch the body count of our enemies.
This is an encouraging word. Where are the blocks in moving to freedom these days? Well, a way is being prepared through that block. You are asked to participate - raise your arms, raise your voice, raise your prayers, raise your energy, raise your resources.
Could it be as simple as voting? Could it be as difficult as being a candidate?
Focus this day on the presence of G*D, fear and terror then are seen for the shams they are.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/september2002.html
Psalm 114 or Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21 or Psalm 103:(1-7), 8-13
I, G*D, have shown mercy, but you have not passed it on. (How can this possibly be countered by anything other than annihilation?)
G*D remembers we are dust, a wide, wide, steadfast love comes from this memory. Knowing the frailty and weakness of another can bring forth compassion. (Apparently there is no a reason to give up on anyone, no matter what the pain they have caused.)
G*D transforms. A river is dammed. A sea is split. A mountain quakes. (Hurricanes happen.)
G*D transforms. Rocks and flint become pools and springs. (Cities become swamps.)
G*D transforms. Egypt was blessed by Joseph to make it through lean years. (Surprising sources of help are already present.)
G*D transforms. Slaves were made of of Joseph's line. (Are transformations only for our immediate benefit?)
G*D transforms. Slave-masters drown. Former slaves walk dry-shod. (The high are brought low, the lowly raised.)
When does G*D cease transforming?
Where do we place the limits of what is transformation by G*D and what is not?
Right! Still at it, I see.
Now, as G*D's partners, what will we transform?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/september2005.html
Psalm 114 or Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21 or Psalm 103:1-13
Exodus 14:19-31 or Genesis 50:15-21
Romans 14:1-12
Matthew 18:21-35
Welcome those who are differently oriented in faith. Paul uses Sabbath and Eating Rituals as examples of how those who condense the week into one Sabbath and those who spread it through the week might both do so as an honor to G*D. Likewise with those who honor G*D through their choice of food.
Unfortunately these differences are described as "weaknesses" (as see through the eyes of someone making a choice they think everyone ought to hew to now). Seemingly both could be seen as sources of honor and weakness. An example of bothness gone awry is found in Jesus' story when asked about a persistence of forgiveness. Here the honoring of G*D gives way to entitlement for self.
When a servant is still received (forgiven) in respect to their weakness, this same servant does not participate in such a welcoming when faced with another in a respectively "weak" position.
How radical is my welcoming? - who is included in it?
- - -
transgressions removed ahead
a welcome road sign
hope for myself rises
to return to
an original blessing of good
disgust that it might be
for every Jane and Jack
or my favorite enemy
rises even quicker
and quick as a wink
my special welcome sign
becomes a road closed detour
onto winding rutted paths
leading 70x7 times back to this marker
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
Morning will soon be breaking. The vigil is close to an end. Saturday is nearly Sunday.
What might be expected now that the spell of specialness has been broken. A new path where not was seen? A new impossibility of hard-as-flint rock in a dry and thirsty land becoming a pool of water for a dry tongue in a dry body. Out of nowhere, an empty tomb fills to overflowing and rolling every stone away, reshaping them into a multitude of cornerstones and keystones and just lovely little stones in their own right.
Is this a forced conversion to meet a soon to rise sun, because physics will out? Has our slow movement borne fruit? How long is the half-life vigil effect. By Sunday night this will probably have to be revisited.
For now, rock to water seems sufficient to hold and gaze softly upon. More questions will come, but, for now, a breath in, a brief hold, and release. And again. May we soon breathe together.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/04/psalm-114-vigil.html
Just hours ago we used this same Psalm during a Vigil. Then we hinted at a new symbol that stands between the Edenic rivers in Genesis 2 and a river of life in Revelation 22—a river flowing forth from what was thought to be an empty tomb. I haven’t found a graphic for this and don’t have that gift. Anyone out there able to try to put into visual form the mystery of tomb silence and river gliding on?
Moving from rock to water pooled for us to live by still seems a valuable image and another way of asking whether our heart is more open this evening. Are you less stony and more limpid?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/04/psalm-114-easter-evening.html
When viewing your last 10 years, can you make a similar review of the positives without mentioning the tension of being caught between a rock and a hard place with no good option, helpless to decide which way to commit suicide, or the difficulty out of which came some unexpected providential event?
This Psalm is very much on message regarding the effect of the Presence of G*D—a blessing. Regardless of what the point of contention, we are reminded that it shall pass and the remainder will nourish many.
Of course, sometimes we have to use a multi-generational view to find such a providence. In the meantime, many will have gone the way and be no more. Hopefully they were able to die with some assurance that the little they were able to do to make a change will have been added to many other little choices that coalesced into an opportunity for their great-grandchildren to actually make it into a more open space.
Read and analyze your spirit seismometer. Test your study with a prediction of the next tremblor. Refine your next prediction on the basis of your result. Finally your prediction and a prophecy of mercy need to have a conversation. If what you are testing for doesn’t include a shaking of the foundations of an injustice, you are probably wasting your time.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/09/psalm-114.html