19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Psalm 34
What I came up with
After a quick calculation
Given the average age
And the three-year lectionary cycle
And the 5 weeks of the sixth chapter of John:
On average we have read/heard this part of John
The bread of life discourse 100 times
I don’t want to just come out and say that we have had enough of John 6
Because the idea of God coming to us as food…as abundance…
As oh so very near
Is so central to my own Christian understanding
The immediateness of bread
The immediateness of bread
And the intimacy of meal
Echo with truth every day for me!
I think it is true:
God says I love you much the way we do
With food, and gathering, and sharing
And it is SOOO John
When John moves the pivotal story
of the cleansing of the Temple to the beginning of his gospel
(…the other three have it as the turning point
that leads directly to the conspiracy and to the crucifixion)
When he puts it right at the beginning
He sets out his theme loud and clear
I am the Temple
But there is no bargaining going on
You want to relate to GOD?
You want to come to know him?
You are going to have to get CLOSE
The revelation is that God is so near
Touch God
Feel God
God wants to get so close that you can
taste and see
…intimately near
For John that is the incarnation
90-100 times
And my confession is that I don’t think Chapter 6 of Johns Gospel
Ever really sunk in
90 times…and, other than as an occasion to teach about the presence of Christ in the Eucharist…which is certainly worthy
I don’t remember it sinking deep into my heart
What I DO remember
What I remember deeply
Is Psalm 34
Psalm 34 is beautifully paired with John 6 over the next 3 weeks
This is the lectionary at its most brilliant!
Taste and See the Goodness of the Lord
Psalm 34…God is so close…so near…near enough to taste and see!
(click for video)
-----------
I was /visiting with my sister in law, Mary Grace, the other day
And we were laughing about how we could remember past stages in life
By the soundtrack that plays in our minds
Music has a way of putting a time-stamp on memories
So I’ve had Linda Ronstadt time
And…I hate to admit it but there was a
‘Wasting away again in Margaritaville...’ stage
About 6 years ago it was ‘Fix Me Jesus’
That was Queen Latifah from the movie Joyful Noise
And Mary Grace had similar memories…though a little more hard-rock-like
All these songs tell stories
…and what MG and I noticed was that they were all laments!
Tales of pain at times of break up
Tales of obliviousness
Of being acutely aware of brokenness and how badly we want to get whole again
And they have psalm-like qualities
...Lament psalms anyway...
There is a simple structure to Psalms of Lament
· There is the address: OOOOO GOOOOOOD
· The Lamentable situation: my life is really a hot mess and here is why
· Confession of Trust: …you have rescued us before (me and the nation Israel) bringing us out of Egypt, parting the waters for us, sustaining us in the desert. Yep, you have totally been there and I trust-trust-trust that you will do it again.
· Then it is time for the ‘ASK: Now God, this is what I want you to do…
· And the last thing is a VOW: Once you do all this God---I/we are going to throw a great party and give thanks and praise…promise
(That is the basic structure…but sometimes you might find a curse or two for the enemies thrown in)
What Mary Grace and I noticed
was how our memories went straight to the laments
nothing else…curious
Surely…In my lament times…I made vows too???
What happened…did I forget?
Why didn’t I recall circling back to that vow?
Did I forget to give credit where credit was due?
Psalm 34 is that circling back psalm
Psalm 34 remembers for us
But Why?
Why DO I forget?
Maybe…it is because God answers prayer in God’s time
… because God’s action unfolds slowly…
…God works through so many people and happenings
And maybe…just maybe…it is a little more sinful
Maybe I simply chose to think it was me!
I convince myself that it was me who dug myself out of that pit!
And that is why Psalm 34 is such a gift
It is a communal psalm of Thanksgiving
It is the follow up to a Psalm of Lament
Someone has been brought back to the community
Someone who has been separated by trauma, or imprisonment, or illness…
Is brought back…
My treatment is over!
(cancer patients often admit that the most difficult part of illness is the isolation)
My treatment is over…I need to be among you
It has been enough time since my gut-wrenching divorce.
(The statistics show that couples who have gone through a wrenching divorce
Often quit coming to church…both of them)
It has been enough time, I’m healing…I need to be among you
I’m letting go of my shame at having lost a job---
(In our culture we so often define ourselves by our work
So that to lose it shakes the very ground of our being)
I’m letting go of my shame…I need to be among you
Whatever the why of the separation…when there is a return…
I need to be among you
MEETS
We have missed you---come to the feast!
Because God says I LOVE YOU
The same way we do
With BREAD and MEAL and INTIMACY and LIFE
---------
Our text reads: Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord
But in another translation, it says:
Magnify the Lord with me
Magnify…
Magnify…That works on me
It has a bit of an edge as it hints that maybe
I have been magnifying myself or someone other than God.
And the word translated saved
…the Lord heard me and saved me from all my trouble
is often translated as rescued…which I find so vivid
Rob and I watched the movie SULLY Friday night…
It’s the story of
Captain Sully Sullenberger
Who landed united airways flight #1544 on the Hudson River
Saving all 155 passengers
I couldn’t help but think about being rescued
Being pulled out of some situation that is threatening to overcome me
A time when the next BAD decision might just do me in
And the cries go out
And RESCUE comes
Rescue comes in many ways
from a neighbor, a family member, a complete stranger…captain Sully
But that is how God works
It seems to me that we live our lives
between Lament and Thanksgiving
Psalm 34 reminds us to give our thanks to God
And to follow through on our vow
The good news
The difference
Is that
to recall…to remember
that yes God is so near that we can taste and see
to remember this
is to know that we are never alone
never abandoned…never solo…
ESPECIALLY, as the cross informs us…
Especially in our suffering
God is near…very near…
Our job, our vocation, our ministry as disciples
Is to remember
And to magnify
And to bless
Because as we do…in the very act of our thanksgiving and praise
We become rescuers
…as we read in Ephesians
We become better and better imitators of God
…fragrant imitators of God
And that…in turn is worth imitating!
…taste and see the goodness of the Lord…the goodness…of the Lord!
