Reflection Day 73
Deuteronomy 25-27; Psalm 61; Luke 1
“So will I always sing the praise of your Name, and day by day I will fulfill my vows.”
--------------- (Psalm 61)
Deuteronomy 26: 16-19 is crystal clear, the Israelite’s covenant with God requires a mutuality of effort between God and His people to bring about the peace and wellbeing of all nations. The gifts of life that God has provided through his beneficence must be recognized for what they are - gifts that have been given to the chosen who must then assume the responsibility for the well-being of others - the Levites, the aliens and the orphans. No wealth hoarding allowed! The 1% must intentionally share with the 99%. Moses lays down the law when he says, “This very day the Lord your God is commanding you to observe these statutes and ordinances…Today you have obtained the Lord’s agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes and his ordinances, and to obey him.” (Deut 26:16-17)
We cannot claim a true stake as God’s chosen people without taking on the role of bringing that God and His gifts to all the people.
The psalmist understands the difficulty of this business of being accountable to God – how challenging it is to keep our hearts and pockets open to others, not hoarding, defiling, and in other ways excluding and harming others through our unfortunate tendency to live a life of selfishness and greed. He writes, “Hear my cry, O God: listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call you, when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I; for you are my refuge a strong, tower against the enemy.” (Psalm 61) How many times a day do we cry out in the same way, correcting a selfish motivation; a harsh word; a nasty piece of gossip? “Please God, let me be better than this,” we pray. “Help me to rise above these feelings of superiority and my need for “more.”
Jesus brings this eternal struggle of self vs. other to a head as he strides into the temple, driving out those who were selling things there. “Get out,” he says. This is a place to honor God, not your pocketbooks. In immediate prelude this bold act, Jesus’ anger mounts and he mourns Jerusalem saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed the days will come, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognized the time of your visitation from God. “(Luke 19:41-44)
Harsh words that should bring us to attention and remind us as we enter this first week of Passiontide how through our Lenten journey we must die as well if we are to emerge from the darkness into the light on Easter Day.
The Rev. Deacon Clelia P. Garrity, LCSW; St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Delray Beach, FL
Deuteronomy 25-27; Psalm 61; Luke 1
“So will I always sing the praise of your Name, and day by day I will fulfill my vows.”
--------------- (Psalm 61)
Deuteronomy 26: 16-19 is crystal clear, the Israelite’s covenant with God requires a mutuality of effort between God and His people to bring about the peace and wellbeing of all nations. The gifts of life that God has provided through his beneficence must be recognized for what they are - gifts that have been given to the chosen who must then assume the responsibility for the well-being of others - the Levites, the aliens and the orphans. No wealth hoarding allowed! The 1% must intentionally share with the 99%. Moses lays down the law when he says, “This very day the Lord your God is commanding you to observe these statutes and ordinances…Today you have obtained the Lord’s agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes and his ordinances, and to obey him.” (Deut 26:16-17)
We cannot claim a true stake as God’s chosen people without taking on the role of bringing that God and His gifts to all the people.
The psalmist understands the difficulty of this business of being accountable to God – how challenging it is to keep our hearts and pockets open to others, not hoarding, defiling, and in other ways excluding and harming others through our unfortunate tendency to live a life of selfishness and greed. He writes, “Hear my cry, O God: listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call you, when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I; for you are my refuge a strong, tower against the enemy.” (Psalm 61) How many times a day do we cry out in the same way, correcting a selfish motivation; a harsh word; a nasty piece of gossip? “Please God, let me be better than this,” we pray. “Help me to rise above these feelings of superiority and my need for “more.”
Jesus brings this eternal struggle of self vs. other to a head as he strides into the temple, driving out those who were selling things there. “Get out,” he says. This is a place to honor God, not your pocketbooks. In immediate prelude this bold act, Jesus’ anger mounts and he mourns Jerusalem saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Indeed the days will come, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognized the time of your visitation from God. “(Luke 19:41-44)
Harsh words that should bring us to attention and remind us as we enter this first week of Passiontide how through our Lenten journey we must die as well if we are to emerge from the darkness into the light on Easter Day.
The Rev. Deacon Clelia P. Garrity, LCSW; St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Delray Beach, FL
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