Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24
Proper 11 (16) - Year A
Where are you?
G*D's there, too.
Introduce yourself.
Travel on together.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/july2002.html
Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24 or Psalm 86:11-17
It is always astounding how we take the universality of G*D and narrow it down to my present situation. If G*D is going to be wherever I am, even Sheol, then I am set free to take that off my hyper-alert list.
However, a temptation is to keep G*D me-sized (even mini-me-sized). G*D may be with me in Sheol, but G*D wouldn't be with you at any time for G*D be on my side! So go the fundamentalist of any age or faith. Even prophets get into this kind of state. This temptation seems to be as universal as GOD.
So it seems to nearly always be appropriate to examine our hearts for the ways in which we have narrowed the wideness of G*D's mercy.
We pray, show me a sign of your favor, O G*D, so we who have narrowed your love into our hate might see it and be shamed and transformed by your comfort of our constricted lives and the lives of those we constrain.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/july2005.html
Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24 or Wisdom of Solomon 12:13, 16-19 or Psalm 86:11-17
Genesis 28:10-19a or Isaiah 44:6-8
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Yes, let the righteous shine -- but not at the expense of those not yet righteous or deemed never to be righteous.
We have a long-standing tendency to idealism. Somehow or other, we yearn for days to come where all choice is taken from us so we won't even consider an alternative because such might eventually, incrementally, lead us elsewhere, astray. Likewise, we dream of days of non-complicity wherein evil is externalized and we are implicitly innocent.
Truth be told, I hold invasive weed and intentional wheat in tension. Neither can be denied its present reality. So was a first garden and so a future garden already holding an unrepentant thief.
Beware enthusiastic righteousness (even G*D's) rooting out all but itself -- it is unbalanced with only one leg to stand on.
- - -
what's G*D doing
at the bottom of the ladder
while angels climb
up and down down and up
angels are a diversion
while G*D sneaks up
as imagination soars
with the ladder
angels bring not messages
from above
but store promises
with the rain
together they fertilize
our present
to bring forth much future
growing up
promises spoken
are carried on high
to baptize tomorrow
resurrect a day after
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html
Where is the presence of G*D?
It is right in the middle of wheat and weeds. It is in a hard rock pillow. It is at the farthest limits you can imagine and nearer than breath. It is as distant as Sheol and as close as a heart in the dark.
It won't take long for G*D to search our heart, for G*D is already present and has indexed every part for quick retrieval.
It won't even take something as dramatic as a parable or an extra-ordinary event. Think closer to the everyday -- G*D present in an acorn, washing dishes in the kitchen, attending a study group, chatting with a child about Iron Man on a ferry.
So take wing; settle afar. No matter the choice made, G*D is present: you are present -- so enjoy the interaction.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html
When searched and known - weed and wheat seem to be present. Being known doesn’t change the wheat/weed ratio. This combination is visible no matter what the lighting level is or the context within which it is being noticed.
When searched and tested - weed and wheat are still there. If the question is, “Is there any weed in me?”, the response most likely is, “Yep.”
One response to this is overcompensation noted in the elided verses. I loathe any semblance of weed in another. It helps take the searching off myself. Distraction of G*D is a worthy attempt at face-saving, but (see above) it is caught everytime. We can’t shift the blame and get away with it over the long-haul.
We keep wanting to change the test. So instead of wresting with our wheat/weed ratio, we find ways of turn anyone else’s ratio into a 100% conviction rate of their smallest weedy part. Somehow, we think, our perfect hatred of them will excuse our wheat/weed ratio and hide it behind the enormity of another’s wrong.
How pluck the weed from the wheat when they are so intimately bound? Perhaps working on one’s own weeds instead of another’s will offer some hope. What do you think? Will this take genetic modification?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/07/psalm-1391-12-23-24.html
Given the parable of the wheat and weeds, does G*D search us to distinguish our various parts and judge one against another? To hem us in, fore and aft, would seem to be an attempt to de-weed us.
That question is one starting point to further question a deistic formulation of a divinely controlling busy-body. How easy does the gospel lesson lie with this psalm?
It would seem to be more comfortable in relationship to the ladder image in Genesis. The ascending and descending going on wherever the ladder might be planted is indicative of it being located at all points and we just periodically notice it.
https://www.osha.gov/FedReg_osha_gif/FED20100524img13.jpg
Are angels constrained by OSHA constraints on angles?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/07/psalm-1391-12-23-24.html