Psalm 124
Proper 16 (21) - Year A
Proper 21 (26) - Year
B
Imaginative speculation is more than fun.
Conventional metaphors for coming through danger abound here.
So why is it important to pile image upon image? I suppose a sense of relief could be large enough that the singer needs to express many different layers of danger and danger diffused. How many different threats and defeats have progressives of any kind felt in recent days? Can we sing this song before seeing a light at the end of the tunnel?
Yes, we can. We can remember creation and extrapolate that freedom is intended to come to fruition. Hear this Psalm echoed in other scriptures like Colossians 3:15b-17 - Cultivate thankfulness [Creation is for you]. Let the presence of GOD/Jesus abound in your life [Creation is for you]. In the midst of every event Sophia/Wisdom composes a song [Creation is for you]. Every step of the way, for good and for ill, give thanks [Creation is for you].
This song is based on having forgotten the intention of Creation and then remembering it in the midst of a dark night. The inbreaking speed of light squared dramatically bursts through the energy/material boundary and caged birds sing again.
May you know again this day, "Creation is for you."
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/august2002.html
What metaphor do you use to describe the fact that you are still with us?
There are so many things that can go wrong. Some of it our own stupidity (intentional and involuntary). Some of it is sent our way by others (intentional and not). Some of it is just plain old s... (spelled that way to get around various filters).
How do you describe the presence of G*D with you? Do you use nature images as this psalm or electronic based on where you are located when this gets to you? Do you mostly connect the name of the Lord with past coming-throughs, present mercies, future promises?
Try a half-dozen verses to communicate the cause of your presence and engagement in life today.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/september2003.html
Psalm 124 or Psalm 138
Good old Lord. The one that was bound to our side. Or was it us bound to Lord's side? Either way -- what a team! What a symbiosis!
Lord provides protection and we provide praise. Hard to imagine a better scenario. We get to avoid responsibility, except for coming up with sufficient tribute, and get green pastures and an "arrogant soul" (alt. trans. 138:3) on top of this.
What is your speculation regarding what would happen should this relationship loosen up? That is sort of where we are today in the realm of religious understanding as we wrestle with one another about whether we return to bondage of past relationships or are loosed to recommit to one another and all in a new manner.
What would it mean to not escape, but to simply be in the presence of steadfast presence, both Lord's and ours?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/august2005.html
Psalm 124 or Psalm 138
Exodus 1:8-2:10 or Isaiah 51:1-6
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20
There are many gifts. In the Moses story there are folks who have the gifts of disobedience, secrecy, complicity, adventure, subversion from within, etc.
In the Jesus story there are gifts of Baptist John, Elijah, Jeremiah, and other prophets that help to define who Jesus is and isn't.
Likewise there are gifts in each of our lives as we interact with those closest to us, those we yet name enemy, those whose challenge and/or support feed us to become more than we currently are.
There is no one else's story to tell but our own. So the disciples were told not to tell the gift of Jesus, for that was for him to reveal. So no one else will tell the secret of who you are, it is yours to reveal and this is a good time to reveal it.
Are you someone whose gift of compassion will not allow you to go along with the dicta of society? Are you a gift willing to give birth to something new even in the face of overwhelming evidence that such is not desired? Are you willing to be practical enough to let go of your child and gift it another space where it might yet grow, knowing your own space is too risky for it? Are you gifted to reach out to the forbidden and make it your own? Are you willing to participate in the irony of life that flourishes within your own unironic life?
- - -
how shrewd we are
as we look around
to the dangers
and opportunities
to enhance our power
our very shrewdness
turns all too readily
to ruthlessness
we only perceive
as extra shrewd
being so shrewd
we fail to find
the irony in ruthlessness
that destroys
its beginning shrewdness
somehow it is never our fault
that what we have set in motion
will come back to haunt us
through the very structures
of our elite electedness
we move from "us"
who are fearful
to restrictions
that fall apart
at the next "I"
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html
Psalm 124 or Psalm 19:7-14
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 or Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50
We have, all of us, been sold. We have sold ourselves and those dear to us. Pottage is that cheap. We have sold the children into the hands of boredom and violence. Our willingness to sell is that great. We have sold our enemies to death and hurried them on their way that we might get our bargain.
In our buying and selling of self and others we lose track of where deeds of power reside - outside of market economies. When we see a deed of power beyond our control we get jealous and covetous. It is so easy to forget that whoever is not against us is for us and when a deed of power is accomplished, no mater to whom it is directed or through whom it comes, we are benefited.
- - -
anyone sick
anyone anyone
its time for a day off
we will wander
and it will save our soul
a multitude of sins
will be blessed
and grown from[* With thanks to Ferris Buhller]
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
If Charlie were not on our side [remember when] we would have sunk.
If Mabel were not on our side [remember when] we would have sunk.
If G*D were not on our side [remember when] we would have sunk.
If Mom were not on our side [remember when] we would have sunk.
If Jesus were not on our side [remember when] we would have sunk.
Who else would you add into this list?
Sometimes our thanks is creation-wide. Sometimes it is very specifically located. Either way, when we experience being lifted up it feels as though we were a bird escaped from a cage. A new horizon is before us.
In all of this we find ourselves unable to say "thanks" to G*D without also expressing it to Charlie. Likewise, we can't say thanks to Mabel without including Jesus. May your thanks always bind together new relationships.
If we are to love both G*D and Neighbor, we are to thank both Neighbor and G*D.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html
The issue is "help". What help and whose help is effective in which circumstances?
Can we help ourselves? How are your bootstraps these days?
Can we help one another? G*D and G*D's people help those who cannot help themselves?
Can we help helping? Imagine who will say, "My help had your name." Some days it will be you who say that and some days it will be said to you. "Who was that masked man?" G*D, you, another? In help it really is one for all and all for one.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html
If . . . , it would have been enough. [Dayenu]
An upbeat way of engaging the vagarities of life.
Another snare is broken, we have escaped more than 15 times. Sing it again.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/08/psalm-124.html
It is so easy to feel the world is against us. Evidence piles on evidence that this is a dangerous place. No wonder we focus on original sin and displace a dangerous outside situation to be our self-image of sinner worm.
Then, when we sneak by some particular difficulty, we return to the outside and claim some external force intervened (having claimed our evil nature, we can’t blatantly turn around and claim we conquered). Hooray for G*D who left us alone long enough to feel endangered and then came back to be acclaimed.
For the moment consider your weakness and G*D’s strength.
Having duly considered, what happens if weakness and strength were more closely aligned with all parts of the system within which we find ourselves? You have weaknesses, you have strength. G*D has weaknesses (why else would periodic repentance be self-reported?) as well as strengths.
Now, re-write this Psalm in light of a deeper partnership.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/09/psalm-124.html
Here is a link to a paraphrase of Psalm 124 in light of the dread of the day. The comment is recommended to you as well, but the the particular focus here is found by scrolling down to the paraphrase by Jim Taylor.
http://edges.canadahomepage.net/2014/08/20/1831/
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/08/psalm-124.html