Dan Piraro wraps another secular big idea..this time in breakfast food. No scriptural foundation for the phrase itself, but people of faith will no doubt see the irony, if not theology, in yet another Piraro strip.
He calls on us to allow HIM to penetrate every cell of our beings. That’s what I heard the Spirit reminding in today’s psalm:
Psalm 16:8-9 8 I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.
Heart. Soul. Body. 
What more is there to me than my heart, soul and body where the Lord God insists He reside in order that my life be joyfully lived and loved as He lived and loved.
My worship experience yesterday on Resurrection Sunday offered, amongst other things, a ‘duh’ reminder of God’s steadfast invitation to penetrate every cell of our beings.
I attended worship with what I would describe as surface-level Christians – two non-worshiping-doubt-the-whole-resurrection-thing-but-believe-in-God young people who’s experience with God has been far from penetrating or pierced; but instead once landed on the surface through baptism stayed at that level unattended and not grown and resembled nothing close to a whole heart-soul-body connection with God that both the psalm and Sunday’s liturgy describe.
Both were touched by the fulness of the worship and the invitation to encounter the Holy One in one way or another; either in the music (with many variations offered), the incense (both during the processions, the Gospel reading and the Eucharistic Prayer), the vestments (a variety in both style and color), the bread and wine, the hand to hand pax. Both connected with our triune God at a deeper level than either anticipated or had before. Every ‘sense’ of their beings were attended to in ways they first identified as ‘bells and whistles,’ pomp and circumstance, ritual. We talked about the service afterwards and when asked about all the bells and whistles,
I found myself answering that it was all intentional – that sacramental worship is designed from the floor up to glorify God with every cell of the church’s being. I went on to say our liturgy holds within it a whole-y-ness, if you will , a divinely holy and humanely wholly work-of-the-people that worships God and at the same time invites God into every cell of our own being in one way or another. Sight, sound, taste, smell, touch – all of our senses awakened to Him.
And while I am unsure the explanation I offered to the surface-level believers about the bells and whistles would pass the smell test in any divinity course in Liturgics, I don’t think I was wrong.
End of the day? It’s a mystery – a holy mystery and I can’t think of any other liturgy that incorporates that mystery into worship so beautifully and intentionally that anyone present will taste, touch, feel, hear or see God on deeper level than when they entered the worship.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.
Amen.
“Cut! Let’s do it again.”
If this were a scene from a movie, it is right here where I see the director stepping in to make all the difference in the world for how this scene will be played out and what message will be conveyed to the future audience. And I also sense that if this were a movie scene, it would be the Holy Spirit as director both in the writing but also in the reading – the one who steps in to give me – any reader for that matter – a moment to pause – Cut! Read that again! – in order to hear what the Spirit was saying today.
So, the Holy Spirit as the director of a scene destined to speak to generations upon generations of Jesus’ co-eternity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. That’s what I heard after stopping and rereading.
This is how I imagine the scene unfolded. The director says to Jesus, after a first take:
“Let’s do that again. Remember these two lines shouldn’t be strung together without a pause. The first part is almost a mumble – just a private moment between you, God and the Holy Spirit, and the second part…well that is an out loud proclamation. So, Jesus, listen…it goes something like this; you say Why does this generation ask for a sign? almost as an aside and look not into the eyes of the other guys, but either upward or downward. Then, Jesus, take a moment and pause and with a pleasing yet determined veneer, look to the Pharisees and with energy and volume, exasperation even, you say Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation. Okay? Got that? Two parts to this dialogue. Two audiences. Now let’s try again.”
I suppose there is something that the Holy Spirit director knows that Jesus doesn’t even know, or at the least is aware of right then and there. In that moment it seems to me that the Spirit knows what needs to be revealed about God – the big picture – the Spirit knows what needs to be ‘in the movie’ for generations upon generations to know the co-eternity of Jesus with God.
This one little “aside” line said correctly – read correctly, actually – reveals that truth. It reveals a self-knowing via the deep sigh in his spirit that he, Jesus, has seen this before and knows how other generations – past, present, or future, need signs, not. Simply put, Jesus was there at the beginning and had seen other generations enough to compare and contrast.
John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
The Spirit had me hearing and seeing and knowing the whole God-picture this morning – God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That’s it…but, a pretty big idea that I am grateful to be reminded of. Good job, Holy Spirit. Now – back to the movie…
He is twisting that which is holy into something dark and purposeless. He is a Champion of Darkness. – Captain Starbuck to the crew of the Pequod
What does vengeance look like? I recently watched the 1956 Gregory Peck version of Moby Dick. Now there’s a story about vengeance! Starbuck’s line, quoted above, is what I understand about vengeance and the two associated words, revenge and avenge.
Captain Ahab puts the Pequod on a mission of revenge (seeking to avenge what he considered a criminal act against him), satisfying his lust for vengeance, bringing death and destruction to all but shipmate Ishamel, as prophesied. Some might consider Melville’s novel the definitive guide to actions spurred by vengeance.
Does vengeance and the family of words akin to it look and mean something different when the Spirit is the author?
Psalm 94:1-2 NRS Psalm 94:1 O LORD, you God of vengeance, you God of vengeance, shine forth! 2 Rise up, O judge of the earth; give to the proud what they deserve!
God of vengeance? Hmm, yes and no. It seems the Spirit uses often and interchangeably the above mentioned family of like-but-unlike words to describe God or God’s actions: vengeance, revenge, avenge. Point is, when I come across any of them in Scripture I am unable to read past them without pausing to say to the Spirit, “Really?”.
I have some recollection that Melville had written Moby Dick based upon one of the psalms so when I encountered today’s with the opening, God of vengeance, I guessed that this might be the Moby Dick psalm (it isn’t; read Psalm 18).
The pause took me down my proverbial theological bunny trail. I thought about how the words we use to describe God and to know God, (theology) and the words that are used by the Spirit to REVEAL God are
God of vengeance? A God of revenge? A God who avenges? Yes. Yes. Yes. A God of distance? A God of forgiveness? Yes. Yes.
Both-and, all of the above, whether we like it or not, whether we understand it or not, and whether or not on our own journeys we experience God in all the ways He is revealed.
This reflection is based on the Gospel reading from Luke today:
41 ¶ Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. 43 When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. 44 Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” 49 He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he said to them. 51 Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 ¶ And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.
I’m not his mother, but I did have a connection with a young boy whose wisdom beyond his years was apparent and touched me, profoundly. I encountered him in the most unlikely place – on my morning commute. There was something about his demeanor – something in his eyes and his gait that caused me to notice him as he strode past my driveway on what appeared to be a morning exercise routine. That alone, brought him to my attention. A young boy – no more than 10 – striding? And every week day morning there he was as I exited the drive – a stand out amongst the variety of adults walking my street, often in pairs , frequently with a dog. But he walked alone with a determined look on his face and an energy in is step that revealed some purpose beyond exercise. I wanted to know him – know what it was that made him tick – know what he was thinking about and why this particular morning routine.
As far as I could tell he never noticed me – our eyes never met – but there was something that pulled me in and made me want to know his story. I thought about him a lot as the daily encounters passed into months, then into two years. I shared my wonderment and curiosity of him with a friend in an attempt to talk out a story – his story. And I wrote about him in some theological reflection work. I knew there was something very special about him.
One evening I was watching television and was stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the young boy featured on a network game show. There he was – one of three young people competing for prize money in a question and answer game. He stood erect with the steely-eyed focus I had come to know so well – a focus and determination and sense of purpose beyond his years.
He doesn’t smile, but it is not an unhappiness that is perceived. Rather, a settledesness, if you will – a comfort-in-his-own-skin-beyond-his-years focus is what I saw. He knows himself and that sort of presence in a young boy is nothing short of engaging and inviting. A person – a total stranger – wants to know what this young boy knows, or is at least what it is he is thinking about.
Watching him compete – and win – the mystery of who he was and what made him tick was revealed a bit. I guessed that he was just a wonder boy – a genius braniac, perhaps an idot savant, even. But that didn’t quite compute because he didn’t look like the misfit ‘nerd’ such genius children sometimes do. He was athletic, quite boyishly attractive and cute, and age appropriately dressed. He looked like a boy other boys and girls his age would want as his friend. Dare I say, even popular? He looked like he would be one of the ‘popular’ kids at school.
Not long after that game show aired, I realized he wasn’t on my radar screen any longer. I didn’t see him on the morning walks anymore. But I didn’t stop thinking about him. I surmised that he had had his fifteen minutes of fame and was now in a different space. Perhaps the walks had been in preparation for the game show appearance. Perhaps the focus I read on his face was his way of ‘studying’ and preparing for that moment.
I forgot about the young boy.
And then, just this last year, there he was again. Not on the walks, not on the television, but on the big screen co-starring with two well-known actors in a blockbuster movie. I learned that his game show appearance had caught the eye of a casting director. “Caught the eye” – he had eyes to catch.
So the story I had constructed about him wasn’t ended at the game show – that wasn’t his final bow – that wasn’t his motivation for the walks, that wasn’t what he was about. He wasn’t just a genius kid – popular or not – he was – he is – so much more than that. A wisdom beyond his years that got air time first on a game show, and then on the big screen. So was this it? Had he finally stepped into the life that he had been called to step into? Was he now in Hollywood? Was Hollywood what he was called to? Were his walks, his focus, and the wisdom beyond his years to land there?
Just this past week the young boy was back – back to the striding, back to his hometown, back to his routine that so engaged me three years ago. I saw him each weekday morning on the same route – alone, focused, an intentional gait and facial expression that conveyed yet his youth and wisdom.
The gospel story in today’s reading of boy Jesus who had stayed back in Jerusalem unbeknownst to Mary and Joseph and hence become ‘known’ to the temple worshipers for the wisdom beyond his years reminded me of this boy and my encounter with him. Jesus had his fifteen minutes in the temple. He became known. But it wasn’t the time for him to step fully into the call on him. He was yet a boy. And so, he returned to his hometown, his childhood. There was to be more to this young boy Jesus’ story. The world would know him someday and be touched by the mystery of him and his call. But it would unfold as God intended, and in God’s time. Jesus was to grow into his call even though the gift, the purpose, the wisdom which resided within him at birth was not to be manifested or known until adulthood.
I suppose where I link these two stories is here: we may be born with wisdom beyond our years and some of us may even have childhood experiences (fifteen minutes?) that reveal that wisdom to others before we have reached adulthood, but at the end of the day, the process of growing INTO that wisdom and call is as important as the manifestation of it in adulthood. Childhood – growing up – process – the means to the end is the only way to reach the intended end, to live into our call as the one who gave it to us purposed to all of His creation. In God’s time.
So, this is what I opened up the Word with this morning – very first reading of the day…
Psalm 50:1-2 The mighty one, God the LORD, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. 2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth.
And within an hour I was taking this picture at the peak of my morning hike in Zion National Park:
Love it when the dots connect like that…just love it!
Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights! 2 Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host! 3 Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars! 4 Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! 5 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created. 6 He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed. 7 Praise the LORD from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps, 8 fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command! 9 Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! 10 Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds! 11 Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! 12 Young men and women alike, old and young together! 13 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven. 14 He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the LORD! Psalm 148
How is it I have never seen or heard anyone speak of the similarity between this second to last praise psalm of the Psalter to the beloved children’s book, Good Night Moon? It is no wonder that the little book has soothed, charmed, assured, wee ones to sleep for over 50 years, so similar is its cadence and content to Psalm 148.
This Holy Spirit moment came early this morning as I began the third selection of today’s lectionary (Ps 93, 96 * 148, 150; Baruch 4:21-29; Galatians 3:15-22; Luke 1:67-80) . Duh! I am reminded that all great stories, myths, literature, movies, legends, poetry, art, come from THE great story – the one God, our Father wrote and that we know as Scripture. 
And ALL the Scripture sent us – over time, through creation, through humankind and their particular experiences with God, through culture, context, language, the moon, the stars, through the birth, life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus – all of it births all stories, myths, literature, movies, legends, poetry, and art. THE great story permeates every cell of our beings from the physical matter of the universe to the phrasing in a children’s book that points us to Him.
Scripture has a cadence and content – a truth – to soothe, charm, assure, enliven and enlighten us morning, noon, and night forever and ever.
Praise God! Praise Him!
A colleague gave me this image a while back: Chaos organizes around righteousness. And he offered up the image of dear ‘ol Pig Pen following after his buddies, dust ball of ‘chaos’ always right there at his foot. As each Peanuts character apparently represents different chapters, different seasons, if you will, of our lives, this colleague had come to see Pig Pen as the chaos chapter that eventually and ultimately organizes – joins – gathers – around righteousness, his friend, Charlie Brown. 
He reflected upon my life over the past few years, noting how that proverbial dust ball looked to have been following me around – at least to others. What he saw was something different. He named all the ‘characters’ in my story and suggested many were like Pig Pens – folks who continued to live in the chaos, not trusting God, making decisions not grounded in truth, light, authenticity – faith. Well, that was his somewhat rather harsh, if not biased observation, but essentially what he suggested was that all those dust balls of chaos that surrounded me would go away when righteousness stepped up – if Charlie Brown made a stand and called the chaos into order. My friend suggested I might be that person in this season, in this little piece of my story and journey.
I’m not sure. But the idea that chaos does organize, gathers, around righteousness – well that is just one big, Holy Spirit-given truth that hasn’t left my heart and mind since I was first blessed to hear it from my colleague.
And there it erupted during today’s readings, which begin below. When I was editing the below entry, I felt I needed to introduce the idea that I was speaking about – so that is why you have read, first, my introduction. Chaos gathers around righteousness. Now on to today’s reflection: 🙂
Baruch 4:37 37 Look, your children are coming, whom you sent away; they are coming, gathered from east and west, at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.
Chaos organizes, chaos gathers, at the foot of righteousness. Think of the creation story – how God organized the heavens, the earth. Brought the thunder under control, as He did the seas. Of Noah and the flood and all those who gathered on the ark. Think of the period of exile, referred to in today’s lectionary reading* selection from Baruch – called to ‘gather’ – to come together at the word of righteousness. Recall Jesus’ birth in a manger and who gathered and around whom. Then there is the Prodigal story. Think of the cross – those huddled – gathered – at the foot of the cross. Chaos organizes around righteousness.
Gathering. That is what many of us are doing this time of year. At the foot of what are we gathering? Around whom and with whom? A Christmas Tree? A meal? Traditional outings? Holiday party? Cup of coffee? Friends? Family? Believers? Worship service? Strangers? Care facilities? Shelters? Church? Are we not able to gather with others? Are we alone?
No matter how that is answered, as Psalm 46 reminds me, 7 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge so that all the chaos that might look to be present in an Advent Season organized around traditions, parties, trees, meals, worship, family, friends, and gatherings that do not include all those we love – our Lord of hosts, our Abba Father, is with us evermore.
Chaos gathers at the foot of righteousness. This is what I heard, again, today from the Spirit. And I am blessed to be reminded of this truth as parts of my life continue to look like and feel like chaos while other parts hint at organizing around righteousness in some very small part due to God’s continuing faith in me.
I didn’t get far into to today’s lectionary readings before again being paused in the Psalter. I prayed before reading for a more open heart – a broader lens, if you will, and less focus on my immediate situation. Then I hit these verses from Psalm 52,
3 You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. Selah 4 You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue. 5 But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah 6 The righteous will see, and fear, and will laugh at the evildoer, saying, 7 “See the one who would not take refuge in God, but trusted in abundant riches, and sought refuge in wealth!”
and I realize – again – something we all surely know: Scripture – God’s Word cuts myriad ways, but it will cut and pierce. God’s Word can be thrown by you as a weapon and back at you as a near fatal blow at any given moment. God’s Word is a living, breathing, new and old, contemporary yet archaic, animate yet inanimate, door and wall, window and ceiling, wound and salve. Complete, final and yet eternal and ever-breathing.
I have never really liked this psalm or the many other Davidic psalms that focus on enemies and conjure a dividing line between US and THEM. I don’t like the psalms that call on God to destroy enemies, indeed demand that God step up and take care of ‘them’ and speak so self-righteously of the expected and deserved divine judgment for the enemy.
But as much as I don’t like them, I read them because I know God has something to say to me – to you – to all He seeks in ‘them thar words.’ I find it sometimes taking years of reciting, reading over, ignoring, and getting through before the Holy Spirit touches down and opens up such a psalm to my heart and mind, as it did this morning.
These particular words have been used by others to describe me – well, not exactly ‘me’ but who some think I am. The folks who have used these words to describe me operate from a biblical framework that doesn’t allow much breathing room for interpretation – their framework doesn’t look like much of a broad place but a carefully designed and delineated box that holds God’s world and kingdom together and apart – clear lines, very clear lines in this biblical framework.
And so psalms such as this one and either-or-based scripture casts me – an outsider – easily into enemy camp (sidebar: isn’t that an interesting word choice, CAST – like a character in a play. For this reflection it is the appropriate, if not perfectly providential word – I have been CAST as the enemy). I am understood symbolically, not as who I am, uniquely made by Him.
The natural progression of such air-tight biblical interpretation of who I am, who I represent, what role I “play” – is that anyone who chooses to be in my company has chosen evil, been deceived, has chosen to take refuge not in God but in the world, generally, and my ‘apparently abundant riches,’ specifically.
Whether or not you know me personally doesn’t matter to share my wonder of what the Holy Spirit could possibly say to me this morning with all the baggage I brought to the reading – my lens fairly muddied by a predisposition to dislike this type of psalm AND recognizing immediately that the words found had been thrown at me and used by others to evince how associating with me with ushers in evil, misery and the like.
But the truth is I could easily load up my arsenal with the same words and prayer for divine judgement against these ‘enemies.’ That’s the wonder. That’s the epiphany – my God moment, today.
It is not I who has boasted, sought wealth, taken refuge in lying more than speaking the truth, but THEM. Ah! Us-Them. Does it always come down to this? I don’t think so.
And I think that is what I hear from the Spirit today. If a psalm like this one can so clearly cut both ways – can be used as a weapon by others against me AND yet if held up as a mirror to those same folks, they would see nothing but themselves – well…then I see that US-THEM is in each of us…we are at one time the righteous, at another the enemy and evil one, at one time steadfast and trusting and in the tent, at another outside of the broad place, looking for worldly success as refuge.
US-THEM – we are all given life by our Father God – who continues to put before us both mirrors and a lighted path – an open invitation, an eternal invitation to walk with Him, choose Him and continue the process of getting right before Him not as others have cast us, but as He has called us to be.
For the eternal, life giving breath of the Psalter to speak into our lives revealing God and God’s will, when I bump into one of these Ascent Psalms, I am reminded of how particular, contextual and located the Psalter can read. Where does a child, a woman, a prisoner, a homeless and hungry person find personal application in this psalm, especially when it is combined in the lectionary with the last verses of Psalm 119 which speaks to the law and affirms, amongst other things, the patriarchal nature of the ancient Hebrew society?
Psalm 128:1-6 Happy is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways. 2 You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.
Ok…I get this – yes, my happiness begins when I wake each day fearing God – not others, not what others think of me but what God thinks of me – fearing God enough to purpose my day, thoughts, actions to glorifying Him above all others….
but here’s the rub as the psalm continues
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. 4 Thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD. 5 The LORD bless you from Zion. May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. 6 May you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!
Really? Sorry, not me. If in the Psalter I found a different psalm specifically directed to the wife, woman, child mentioned here – the household of the man – then maybe a case could be made that Psalm 128 was just the psalm for the ‘guys’. But this kind of contemporary hoped-for equity in Scripture is not to be found, especially in the Hebrew scriptures.
So, what is the Spirit saying to me about this today? I suppose only this. That the truly happy person is one who fears the Lord and we know we are fearing the Lord IF…
It will be different for each of us. Happiness manifested on earth in this life will be particular and contextual. But the foundation for it, the source from which our happiness is birthed, is an eternal truth and hardly contextual. We are all to fear the Lord. We are all sought by Him – man, woman, prisoner, homeless. Fear the Lord and happiness follows.
I’ve always been offended by the phrase in the opening preamble of the Declaration of Independence, “pursuit of happiness” and today I’m getting a better understanding of why. As written, the pursuit of happiness is a right, not an outcome. Which brings me back to the psalm and personal application.
Through the lens of rights and entitlement, this psalm would make no sense to a woman, a homeless person, a prisoner or a child…none of the manifestations of happiness expressed in this psalm represent happiness to any of them – in fact, the manifestations of the psalmist’s happiness have been at the expense, one could argue, of the happiness of the others in the household.
Through the lens of Scripture, God speaks to me with this psalm and I am blessed. Pursuing happiness is not my call anymore than it is yours. Pursuing the Lord is the call. Happiness will follow and it will look different for each and every one of us. Happiness is contextual and particular, temporary, fleeting, associated with the time and circumstance in which we live.
I can’t say I have a grip yet on whether or not I am ‘happy’ or what that even looks like. I couldn’t write such a psalm today, actually. But I do now that grounding my day in the pursuit of the Lord, in purposing to glorify HIM first, His promise of happiness, the ‘desires of my heart’ as psalm 106 claims, follow.
TRINITY SEASONS 