Lent Lectio: Psalm 31:9-16
April 22, 2011
Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in distress.
Tears blur my eyes.
My body and soul are withering away.
I am dying from grief;
my years are shortened by sadness.
Sin has drained my strength;
I am wasting away from within.
I am scorned by all my enemies
and despised by my neighbors—
even my friends are afraid to come near me.
When they see me on the street,
they run the other way.
I am ignored as if I were dead,
as if I were a broken pot.
I have heard the many rumors about me,
and I am surrounded by terror.
My enemies conspire against me,
plotting to take my life.
But I am trusting you, O Lord,
saying, “You are my God!”
My future is in your hands.
Rescue me from those who hunt me down relentlessly.
Let your favor shine on your servant.
In your unfailing love, rescue me.
________
This week. This very week.
I look out the window and see a neighbor’s house surrounded by three police officers. Their guns are drawn and they’re motionless. It’s hard to believe I’m seeing what I’m seeing, and I’m as frozen in place as the officers. Eventually our neighbor comes out looking like a ghost of herself. She’s pacing on the front porch, smoking and occasionally wrapping both arms around herself as though looking for comfort. The next day I discover that the grown son of our neighbors (allegedly) committed a crime that same day and that there was a felony warrant on him. He allegedly fled the scene with a gun in hand and was threatening suicide. Police had reason to suspect he was at his parents’. If the allegation against him is true it’s the kind of crime that often carries a lifelong stigma with it. The kind that parents would never forget. The kind that would keep parents up in the night and make them wonder, “Where did we go wrong?”
“Piece of shit who needs to be tortured slowly to death.”
“Hang him.”
“I thought this dirtbag was going to do us all a favor and kill himself.”
These comments, among many others, were posted in our local newspaper beneath the article reporting on the alleged crime after the suspect turned himself in. I am praying that the parents don’t ever read them.
The following day I’m in my yard when I hear screams from another neighbor’s house: “Get off me! Get off me! Get off me! David! Jody! Help! Please!” I yell to Jody to call 911, to report screams and cries for help coming from the house in question. I then run to the front door and start banging on it as loudly as possible, shouting my neighbor’s name. She comes to the door with blood on her arms and shirt. Moments later a man comes to the door with blood pouring down his face. She gives her version; he gives his. Police arrive and the man is taken away, later to be charged with assault. Our neighbor is a gentle (and probably naive) woman, trying to make a living and raising two kids alone. She already had a restraining order against the man.
This morning I tell Jody, “I don’t want to believe this, but think this is just the tip of the iceberg. I think there’s more pain within 100 yards of us that I care to know about.”
But these two houses are much, much closer than 100 yards, and we know the names of those who inhabit them. They are neighbors in distress, whose eyes are blurred with tears, whose bodies and souls are withering away, whose years are shortened by sadness. They live at this moment in the lament of the psalmist.
Will I scorn? Will I despise? Will I be afraid to come near? Will I ignore? Will I regard them as broken pots — useless? Will I spread rumors? Or will I draw near and reflect the unfailing love of God? We are praying for resurrection and asking again what it means to be sent like Jesus, what it means to pitch our tent with others in this neighborhood.
Lent Lectio: Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29
April 15, 2011
Psalm 118
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Let Israel say: “His love endures forever.”
19 Open for me the gates of the righteous; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
20 This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter.
21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation.
22 The stone the builders rejected ?has become the cornerstone;
23 the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 The LORD has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad.
25 LORD, save us! LORD, grant us success!
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you.
27 The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine on us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you.
29 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
————————————————————
There is something good in a place where there was nothing
It is his love.
I now have something for which to give thanks. Something empty just got filled up.
I can walk through gates because they have been opened up by you, Lord.
I have salvation because you have answered me.
Even when I and others reject you, you have this way and presence where everything else ends up resting upon you—there you are holding it up.
My eyes have something to marvel at, because you have done something great.
I have something to rejoice in, because you have brought to pass what I have been hoping for all this time. Today. You made it happen today.
Blessing happens around you whether I am coming or going. It has its way of rubbing off on me.
You exist and I get the benefit of being shined upon.
This makes me want to celebrate.
Oh Lord, your love draws me in and helps me see that all that I have in this world is a result of something that you have done, or even simpler: your presence.
Your love is the thing that holds my life together and upon which all my dreams rest.
Your love cannot be contained by what I see or experience—-it lasts forever.
I give you my praise—and it is enough; even though if we were to measure my praise against your love there would be no comparison.
Lent Lectio: Psalm 130, A Song of Ascents
April 8, 2011
Psalm 130
A Song of Ascents.
Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD.
Lord, hear my voice!
Let Your ears be attentive
To the voice of my supplications.
If You, LORD, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with You,
That You may be feared.
I wait for the LORD, my soul does wait,
And in His word do I hope.
My soul waits for the Lord
More than the watchmen for the morning;
Indeed, more than the watchmen for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the LORD;
For with the LORD there is lovingkindness,
And with Him is abundant redemption.
And He will redeem Israel
From all his iniquities.
_____________________________________________
the cadence of this song
resonates with an intensity
like a porthole witnessing my own inertia
because this world often leaves me
tattered
edges fraying
in the dark depths
yet as my heart cries out
I find myself stirred to such sudden
awareness of an Undefiled Attention
that stokes my flame
entangled as it has become with
I-Will-Be-Who-I-Will-Be
so-much-so that even in my darkest crevices
I can become deliciously abuzz with
the conundrum of fear and forgiveness
the enigma of Divine Intervention
as hope rests her delicate hand upon my shoulder
beckoning for me to evermore savor redemption
amid the echoing hush of wilderness awe
thus I find myself
watching and waiting
for each new day
and new mercies
whose touch enflames my heart
and whose fingers entwine with my own
summoning me to ascend to sanctuary
singing at their side
a wondrous song of deliverance
+O Lord, though the apple tree fade and the vineyard fail; though storms surge or the heavens dry up; redeem us with Your Presence and be with us on our way to gather with You-Who-Walks-Among-Us, because our lips – our tongues – they thirst for Living Water as we await Your Word like watchmen on the walls just before sunrise. Amen+
Lent Lectio: Psalm 23
April 1, 2011
Psalm 23
A psalm of David.
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
It is verse three that catches my eye and my breath.
He refreshes my soul. (Or, he restores my soul).
The winter of life must become spring. Our soul does transition – at some point, usually long after we would wish – from the bleakness and desolation of winter into the hope of the new buds of spring.
He refreshes my soul.
I can be sure of that relationship with the God who shepherds me.
He restores my soul.
I do not restore my own soul, I cannot refresh my own inner self. God acts; I am the subject of the sentence and of God.
He
restores
my
soul.