Psalm for Sunday 19 June 2022

 Psalm 69.10-20, 30-33     

Now I humbled my soul with fasting,

         and they reviled me. 

And I wore sackcloth as my clothing,

         and I became to them a byword. 

They speak against me, they who sit in the city gates, 

       while the drunkards make songs about me. 

Yet I make my prayer to you, the Wisdom of the Ages.

         At a favorable time, 

       God, in the wealth of your faithful love, answer me, 

       With your certain salvation. 

Rescue me from the mire, 

       and let me not sink;

       let me be delivered from my enemies 

       and from the deep waters. 

Let not the flood waters overwhelm me, 

Let not the Deep swallow me up;

         let not the Pit close its mouth over me. 

Answer me, Gracious God, for your faithful love is good;

       according to the wealth of your maternal love, turn to me. 

Do not hide your face from your slave, for I am in distress; 

hurry to answer me. 

Draw near to my soul and redeem her, 

       on account of my enemies, deliver me. 

Indeed, you know of my reviling, and my shame and my disgrace;

         all my adversaries are before you.

Reviling has broken my heart, and I am despair.

 I looked for consolation, but there was none;

       And for comforters and I found none. 

I will praise the name of God with song;

       I will magnify her with thanksgiving. 

This will please the Creator of All more than an ox

       or a bull with horns and hooves.

Let the oppressed see it and be glad;

       you who seek God, let your hearts flourish.

For the Faithful God hears the needy, 

and those who belong to her and are imprisoned,

       she does not despise. 

Let the heavens and earth praise her, 

       the seas and everything that moves in them. 

                As translated in Gafney, Wilda C.  A Woman’s Lectionary for the Whole Church.

                                          (NY: Church Publishing, 2021)  228-229.

Today’s take on Psalm 69.10-21, 30-33

I make my prayer to the One Who Hears, rescue your middle masses

let us not sink to oblivion while

rich leftists and their rightist doppelgängers

egomaniacal politicians red and blue

covertly consort in greed, entitlement, power mongering

demand loyalty, forsake accountability and fail

in conscience and consciousness.  No one is disposable.

 

I make my prayer to the One Who Hears, recover your middle masses 

shield our ears from

outsized shouts of egregious excess

magnified by media moguls breaking whatever news

titillates and pads their pockets

drowning in the deep

middle masses cries.             No one is disposable.

I make my prayer to the One Who Hears, unify your middle masses

escaping schemes from left and right

quench the flares they launch among us 

spark our distaste for red herring suits

          abortion, immigration, education   .…   all

hatched to mislead and distract 

middle masses cries. No one is disposable.

I make my prayer to the One Who Hears, raise your middle masses

10,000 feet above the 2 face world

unleash our tongues to sing a tale

big enough for all to breath and be

in and of, with and through 

the One Who hears and consecrates

your middle masses lives. No one is disposable.

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Have a listen to Walter Brueggemann's "Prophetic Imagination.... great stuff! 

Hebrew Testament text for Sunday 21 July 2019

Amos 8:1-12

This is what the Lord God showed me-- a basket of summer fruit. He said, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the Lord said to me,

"The end has come upon my people Israel;

I will never again pass them by.

The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,"

says the Lord God;

"the dead bodies shall be many,

cast out in every place. Be silent!"

Hear this, you that trample on the needy,

and bring to ruin the poor of the land,

saying, "When will the new moon be over

so that we may sell grain;

and the sabbath,

so that we may offer wheat for sale?

We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,

and practice deceit with false balances,

buying the poor for silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals, 

and selling the sweepings of the wheat."

The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

Shall not the land tremble on this account,

and everyone mourn who lives in it,

and all of it rise like the Nile,

and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?

On that day, says the Lord God,

I will make the sun go down at noon, 

and darken the earth in broad daylight.

I will turn your feasts into mourning,

and all your songs into lamentation;

I will bring sackcloth on all loins,

and baldness on every head;

I will make it like the mourning for an only son,

and the end of it like a bitter day.

The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,

when I will send a famine on the land;

not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words of the Lord.

They shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,

but they shall not find it.

Reflection         We are not a single story. We are complex people living in a world drawn in ten thousand shades of grey. There are as many stories as there are people to tell them. When we reduce ourselves and one another to a single story, “Americans are… Republicans are…. Democrats are… Mexicans are… Jews are…Christians are… Moslems are… millennials are… women are… conservatives are… progressives are… we undermine the dignity of every person. 

Increasingly we find ourselves in situations where we are cast in a single story. If you mention something about healthcare, you are one of ‘those people.’ If you say something about abortion, you are one of ‘those people.’ If you utter the word border, ‘you are one of ‘those people.’ And conversation stops. The moment we experience our dignity being despoiled by being cast into a singular group story, we become defensive and either put up a fight or dig into silence. 

How many of you have been with a group of neighbors, parents or coworkers when the subject of immigration comes up and immediately the air is thick with tension as the group divides beneath two banners - are you one of us or are you one of them? In that instant the dignity of every person present is lost. We are not a single story but we have stopped listening to one another’s stories. We have lost the civil ground that enables us to listen and learn from one another.

Today we find ourselves embroiled in a social, political and religious context that is stealing our dignity and undermining our humanity. We feel angry and inclined to either attack or slip into silent retreat, neither of which sets the stage for us to restore dignity to ourselves and one another. Should we continue this pattern there is only one outcome and the prophet Amos says it well.

The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,

when I will send a famine on the land;

not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,

but of hearing the words of the Lord.

They shall wander from sea to sea,

and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,

but they shall not find it.

Like the National Forest on red alert for fire danger it is as if we are waiting for the merest spark to insult and ignite us. Our minds close and our hearts harden as we anticipate affront and assume opposition. How dare we claim to be people who believe all beings are created in the image and likeness of God, who affirm God’s presence and action among us and intend to do mercy for our neighbors and strangers if we cannot open our minds and hearts to listen to one another’s complex personal stories?

On Sunday I will invite members and friends of Church of the Apostles into a structured process that I am calling,”For God’s Sake, Listen.” Borrowing a program from Facing History, Facing Ourselves we will create a safe environment in which to strengthen our listening and discussion skills and help us engage controversial topics.  We all have complex stories and all of our stories matter. 

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