Prior to Praising

Monday of the 4th Week of Lent

Psalm 30 
(paul inwood composition of the psalm)

I will praise you Lord

You have rescued me

I will praise you Lord…for your Mercy

I will praise you Lord

You have rescued me

I. Will. Praise. You. Lord.

There is something about this musical setting of Psalm 30

There is something about the music

That conveys the repetitive and predictive nature of the subject

I don’t mean the praising

And I don’t mean the Mercy that gives cause for the praise

It is still Lent

So I’m thinking about all that keeps giving cause for the Mercy…

I keep needing rescue!

One of the things the Psalm speaks to is this

Going down

Going down into the pit

…What are my pits?

Lately, for me, it has been the temptation to cynicism and a kind of chic despair

The Holy Spirit

Working through spittle and clay

Through neighbors and friends

Through sickness and health

Through infants and great grand parents

Through mountains, beaches, and waves

Through it all

God relentlessly works to rescue me from myself

On the bright side

If I keep needing rescue

That does mean that I keep getting rescued

Maybe I am getting good at being rescued

Maybe ready to be on the ‘rescuing’ end of things…surely;)

Not Today

Thursday of the 3^rd Week of Lent

Jeremiah 7:23-28

Psalm 95

If today you hear God's voice, 

Harden not your heart.

In Jeremiah today we hear

Listen to my voice

And

Walk in my ways

But there is a stubborn hardness of heart

The people can’t hear

They are stopped in their tracks

“This is the nation 
that does not listen 
to the voice of the Lord, its God, 
or take correction. 

Faithfulness  has disappeared;

the word itself is banished from their speech”

LET IT NOT BE SO TODAY

And in Psalm 95

The psalmist prays for receptiveness

Bowing and kneeling are signs of an open heart

Oh, that today

I would hear God’s voice

It is 4 in the afternoon

It is getting late

I best listen attentively before this day passes me by

I have yet the opportunity to take a few steps

to walk in God’s pathway

LET IT BE SO TODAY

A Different Point of View

4th Sunday of Lent

John 4:5-42

The Woman at the Well
(an exercise in first person character preaching)

You just heard it…

Or did you?

Perhaps you’ve just heard what you have been trained to hear…

Filling in all the gaps in the story with what you’ve been taught since you started coloring pictures of me at the well in Sunday school

Brain-washing that’s what it is…

It has taken over your Christian imagination!!!

So how about you try real hard to listen as I set a few things straight

First of all…

I would go to that well in the scorching heat ANYDAY

Over having to cross paths with those judgy, prissy, self-righteous hippocrites!  And you might be just as bad…whose to say.

See…what they saw in me…

Was an easy convenient place to heap a ton of lies…

and saunter off with their nudge-nudge-wink-winks

Well…I finally say…go ahead

if that’s what it takes for you to feel good about yourselves

…piss on you

And this husband thing…

There isn’t some big sexual scandal here…

But juicy gossip is so very tantalizing!!!

The 1^st two…

Before I was 18

Divorced me

…got impatient when I didn’t conceive right away…

CRUEL…that’s what they were…

But they talked it up around town that I burnt the dinner night after night…look at me…

does it look like I miss any good meals!

Then Josiah

The love of my life

Laughter, and music, joy…

And then I was pregnant.  What a different time it was around the well then…

OH how quickly things can change

The accident…Josiah was a builder

A roof fell on him…It was an accident
that's what they say
he died

I was so possessed by grief
didn’t even notice the labor pains…
Couldn't feel anything but grief
just a few hours she lived…that’s all.

Then the rumors began in earnest

I must be cursed…

I get it from 1^st century folks

But NOT you all!
You should know better

Things went from bad to worse

Jeremiah

Philip

It was a blurr…grief…two years…blurr blurr…grief blurr

Ever been there?

Then I slowly got myself back together…

And YES…I’m a concubine…he’s a good man…a Greek

Travels through twice a year on business…

really its nice…perfect really

I feel safe…I feel quite free actually

I know I don’t look so good on paper

But…really…that’s a problem for you…not me

And so I keep to myself…

I’m too tired to fight for a place at the morning well

It’s my life…I come to the well at noon

It works for me

SO  YES

I was shocked when this Jesus man talked to me and asked me for a drink…

It just doesn’t happen

Jewish man…Samaritain woman

On so so many levels…it just doesn’t happen

And YES…I was a bit sassy

I’m a little gun shy with men…there was no one around

I thought…hey, I can dish it out…its my defense mechanism

And…when he started talking all weird and creepy

I was only half listening…

But then…

I thought…this could be fun…engage this man

And then…

when He spoke my story

I knew…I knew

This guy is different

but I was so frazzled so confused

So uncomfortable

You know what I mean???

I just changed the subject…about places of worship

As if that is what would interest this man???

But this man stayed with me…

Followed my lead…giving me time to come to myself

And then he put his hands on my face

He held my face…oh so tenderly

He did, he touched me, I know it doesn’t say it in the text…

But…think of who wrote it???

My face

He Held it

As a treasure

The men returned

They were caught off guard and couldn’t hold back their snide gazes

But I didn’t care

HE didn’t care

They couldn’t break the moment…truth and life…

…can’t break that

I went

Called the community

I must have changed

Because…

They listened to me!

And, they too went in search of him.

And what I learned later

Just drove the ball outta the park

Guess where he had just been?

With that

Well-known, squeaky clean, high and mighty Nicodemus

And this Jesus didn’t go seeking him out like he did me

It was Nicodemus doing the seeking

Go figure…He seeks him out and then he doesn’t listen.

He’s probably still sitting there in his lazy-boy…

Contemplating meaning…praying over words…feeling all important.

Word on the street is that Jesus

Sought me out

From his point of view I was a kind of Divine Appointment…

You wanna know  something?

…he never talked to anyone as long as he talked to me!!!

I’m really someone! 

And when you’re someone

you can’t help but go and tell everyone all about it!!!

Sources:

Reta Halteman Finger, “Man Meets Woman at a Well – John 4:1-42

“The Samaritain Woman Tale Revisited” http://sallysjourney.typepad.com/emerging_feminist/2009/03/the-samaritan-womans-tale-revisited-john-4.html