Moses spoke to the people, saying: “This day the LORD, your God, commands you to observe these statutes and decrees. Be careful, then, to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Moses tells us this:
Be careful, then …
Dt. 26:17
Be careful of what? Does Moses mean be careful like, ”Don’t fall down the steps!”. Or does he mean be careful like, “Hold tenderly to love in your life.”?
In this passage from Deuteronomy, Moses goes on to say one of my favorite biblical phrases:
… today the LORD is making this agreement with you: you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you…
Dt. 26:18
Since the 17th century, the word “peculiar” has taken on the meaning of “odd” or “unusual”. But the original sense comes from the Latin peculiarismeaning “of private property”
Moses is reminding us that we belong to God and God to us in a covenant similar to, but far exceeding, the mutuality of a marriage.
So we should “be careful”, full of care, in appreciation for this infinite love.
When Catherine McAuley instructed her sisters in the practice of caring for the sick, she told them always to use great tenderness…
In our Gospel, Jesus tells us how to take this exquisite care of our precious relationship with God:
But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for God makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. … Be compassionate as your Heavenly Father is compassionate.
Matthew 5: 44-48
So, let’s be careful of love today when we find this precious God in our sisters and brothers and in all God’s Creation. “great tenderness in all things…”
Poetry: Tenderness – Rumi
When inward tenderness finds the secret hurt, pain itself will crack the rock and Ah! let the soul emerge.
Today, in Mercy, our readings could be so reassuring about the power of our prayer, except …..
How often have you prayed for something that you didn’t get?
In our reading from the Book of Esther, Esther certainly puts everything she has into her prayer for deliverance:
Queen Esther – By Jean-François Portaels
She lay prostrate upon the ground, together with her handmaids, from morning until evening, and said: “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you. Help me, who am alone and have no help but you, for I am taking my life in my hand.
The passage, in isolation from the rest of the Book, might lead us to conclude that Esther’s prayer is simply about her asking for, and receiving, what she wants from God. It’s about much more.
Esther, like Christ, is in a position to save her people. She must risk her life to do so. She is praying for the courage to do God’s will, to look past her own comfort and become an agent of grace in her circumstances.
Now that’s some kind of prayer!
Prayer can be like looking in a mirror. All we see reflected back is our own need and desire. We don’t pray honestly and openly enough to let God open a door in the mirror – a door into God’s own will and hope for us.
That’s the door Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel.
What we ASK is not just for something we want, but rather to know God’s heart.
What we SEEK is not our own satisfaction, but the grace to embrace God’s mysterious energy in our lives no matter how it comes to us.
What we KNOCK for and desire to be opened to us is deeper love and fuller relationship with our loving God.
Sometimes, the problem with prayer is that we think it’s like asking our rich uncle for a permanent loan. It’s only when we comprehend that prayer is a relationship that the RECEIVE, FIND, and OPENED parts become real for us.
I walk the earth, soft from yesterday’s long rain. Mists ascend like incense under my indulgent footfalls. Birdsongs thin themselves between the early light; chanting, contrapuntal, in the well-laved trees.
Nothing grey is left now in the wide sky. Rinsed in light it spreads to dry in sere, blue wind.
Momentarily, earth is wholly God’s; deep, true colors fall to it, rich, unshadowed. Your Word, Creator, WaterGod, has penetrated. It returns to You in crystal images from a finally uncomplicated world.
As if within a lucent globe I hold You still, in perfect, silent love, clear, inexplicable like sunlit rain.
Music: two offerings today. One is old-time revival. The other is classic beauty. Enjoy.
Prayer Is the Key to Heaven – Alan Brewster
Music: Overture from Esther – George Frideric Handel
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, one line from our readings hit me like a lightening bolt:
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time.
Jonah 3:1
Yes, it’s the truth! God will keep coming back again and again to encourage us to hear the true message for our lives.
Our Gospel gives us a hint about how resistant we sometimes are to do this deep listening:
This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.
Luke 11:29
What is the sign of Jonah anyway?
To put it simply, it is the witness of the Resurrection – that overarching event that changed everything for believers. For just as Jonah was able to return from certain death in the whale’s belly, so Christ conquered death and rose to new life, promising us the same power.
This is the central, life-changing belief for Christians. It should make a difference in how we live.
By our Lenten repentance, we can be like Jonah, grasping the second chance God always gives us to respond to our life circumstances with faith, hope, and love.
I would bet there is something in your life right now that is calling you to such a response. Someplace in your life, you may be caught in a bit of a “whale’s belly 🐳” about some issue, am I right?
God makes us ask ourselves questions most often when He intends to resolve them. He gives us needs that He alone can satisfy, and awakens capacities that He means to fulfill. Any perplexity is liable to be a spiritual gestation, leading to a new birth and a mystical regeneration.
Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas
Today’s readings remind us that we already have the glorious sign of the Resurrection to inspire us to leap from that dark “belly” into God’s hope for us!
Poetry: WE ARE JONAH – Rabbi Rachel Barenblat
In Rabbi Eliezer’s vision Jonah entered the whale’s mouth as we enter a synagogue. Light streamed in through its eyes. Jonah approached the bimah, the whale’s head. Show me wonders, he said, as though his own life weren’t a miracle.
The whale obliged, swimming down to the foundation stone, the navel of creation fixed deep beneath the land. Tsk tsk, chided the fish: you’re beneath God’s temple — you should pray.
Prayer requires stillness. Running away had always been so easy. Sitting silent in self-judgement — forget it! But waves only churn the surface. In the deep beneath the deep Jonah was wholly present.
We all flee from uncomfortable conversations the drip of a hospital IV the truths we don’t want to own the work we don’t want to do. Now we’re in the belly of the whale, someplace deep and strange.
God calls us to awareness: to stand our ground in the place where we are, to do the work which needs doing. To bring kindness and mercy even to those who are unlike us. Are we listening?
Music: a fun song “In the Belly of Whale” – The Newsboys
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, as I pray with today’s readings, I ask myself two questions:
“What has God’s Word accomplished in me?” “What does God’s Word yet want to accomplish in me?”
If you’re like me, you’re always thinking about what you haven’t done, still must do, wish you had done.
Let’s just STOP that and, instead, praise our gracious God for the good accomplished through our lives. I know every one of you reading this blog is an amazingly good person. God has already done beautiful things in you and through you. Thank God. Give God the glory.
Let’s consciously pray for one another today as today’s Gospel encourages us:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Poetry: My Psalm – Renee Yann, RSM
May my life be its own psalm of praise to You. Within its melody, my whole being bows to you in gratitude. You chose to breathe your soul into me, to warm my name in your cupped hands, to wind your Divine Heart into the notes of my life. Thank You.
My years have unfolded like flowers,
slowly warming to your grace.
The petals of my years have each been kissed by You.
Whether in joy or sorrow,
silence or song, seen or unseen,
You have been with me.
Thank You.
You loved the child I once was and You played within me. You loved the young girl who walked toward your call along the precious, winding path of mercy. You loved the woman I became, over and over, as I learned to find You hiding in the world. Thank You.
Now, as years deepen and with them, our comfort in each other's love, let my trust also deepen. Let my faith reflect You, like the face of a well-polished rock, fully turned to your steadfast Light, fully afire in your Abiding. Thank You.
Music: My Tribute ( To God Be the Glory)
How can I say thanks For the things You have done for me? Things so undeserved, Yet You gave to prove Your love for me; The voices of a million angels Could not express my gratitude. All that I am and ever hope to be, I owe it all to Thee.
To God be the glory, To God be the glory, To God be the glory For the things He has done.
With His blood He has saved me, With His power He has raised me; To God be the glory For the things He has done.
Just let me live my life, Let it pleasing, Lord to Thee, And if I gain any praise, Let it go to Calvary.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our reading from Romans tells us:
The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.
How is the Word of God near us, with us?
Certainly, our sincere study and prayer with scripture is one way. Sitting quietly with scriptural passages, letting them speak to us, and inviting them to inform our lives is a life-giving discipline.
Sometimes, we might choose just one word or phrase from a beloved reading, turning it over and over, gently in our prayer. How has this precious word informed our lives, inspired us, called us, comforted us? How is it speaking to us in this moment?
As we move more deeply into the “words” of scripture, we move closer to theWord – the Incarnate God. John writes:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
John 1:1
Today in our prayer, we might recommit ourselves to a deepening love of scripture, of the Word given to us there.
In his book, “The Bible Makes Sense”, Walter Bruggemann says this:
The Bible is not an “object” for us to study but a partner with whom we may dialogue. It is usual in our modern world to regard any “thing” as an object that will yield its secrets to us if we are diligent and discerning. And certainly this is true of a book that is finished, printed, bound, and that we can buy, sell, shelve, and carry in a briefcase or place on a coffee table…[But] reading the Bible requires that we abandon the subject-object way of perceiving things… [If we do,] the text will continue to contain surprises for us, and conversely we discover that not only do we interpret the text but we in turn are interpreted by the text… We may analyze, but we must also listen and expect to be addressed.
Poetry: God – by Khalil Gibran
In the ancient days, when the first quiver of speech came to my lips, I ascended the holy mountain and spoke unto God, saying, 'Master, I am thy slave. Thy hidden will is my law and I shall obey thee for ever more.'
But God made no answer, and like a mighty tempest passed away.
And after a thousand years I ascended the holy mountain and again spoke unto God, saying, 'Creator, I am thy creation. Out of clay hast thou fashioned me and to thee I owe mine all.'
And God made no answer, but like a thousand swift wings passed away.
And after a thousand years I climbed the holy mountain and spoke unto God again, saying, 'Father, I am thy son. In pity and love thou hast given me birth, and through love and worship I shall inherit thy kingdom.'
And God made no answer, and like the mist that veils the distant hills he passed away.
And after a thousand years I climbed the sacred mountain and again spoke unto God, saying, 'My God, my aim and my fulfilment; I am thy yesterday and thou art my tomorrow. I am thy root in the earth and thou art my flower in the sky, and together we grow before the face of the sun.'
Then God leaned over me, and in my ears whispered words of sweetness, and even as the sea that enfoldeth a brook that runneth down to her, he enfolded me.
And when I descended to the valleys and the plains, God was there also.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Isaiah continues his advice begun in yesterday’s reading. When he finishes the list of things we should and should not do, Isaiah tells us how God will respond:
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; Then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. God will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails. The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake, and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up ~
Isaiah 58: 8-12
Oh, who can resist these glorious Isaiahan lines. It’s a beautiful picture, isn’t it? To imagine it offers us great encouragement as we limp out of winter toward a spring horizon.
Each of our readings today carries a sense of shaking off old and lifeless ways to stretch toward a new promise.
The psalmist asks for God’s help in that stretching.
Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.
Psalm 86:11
As I thought about “stretching” in prayer this morning, an image came to me of an experience some of you might share. After my knee replacement, I had to learn to streeeeetch my old ligaments around the new implant. It wasn’t exactly “hell” to do so, but it was at least the edge of purgatory! My perseverance paid off though when I began to walk freely and painlessly.
Stretching into the depths of God also takes a full measure of willpower and HOPE. We can hear these pleas in the rest of Psalm 86:
Incline your ear, O LORD; answer me, for I am afflicted and poor. Keep my life, for I am devoted to you; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for to you I call all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
They say that rehabbing from knee replacement surgery is a lot easier if you have exercised and kept in fair shape beforehand. In our Gospel, dear Matthew does a total , full-hearted stretch — one that he must have been preparing for all his life. Otherwise, how could he have been so immediately responsive to Christ’s unexpected invitation?
Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
Luke 5:27
Visualizing this scene, we can almost see Matthew not only get up — but his spirit actually jump up at the amazing invitation of God!
Lent is a time for us to do some jumping into grace — so many invitations come to us in this season’s beautiful scriptures and rituals. So many inspirations to grow come to us in our changing seasons! Let’s not be so distracted by our daily un-importances that we miss the call to streeeetch!
Poetry: St. Matthew by John Keble – this is a section of the poem which reflects on today’s Gospel passage.Matthew is the “meek publican” of the second stanza below. Amid all the clamor of the world around him, Keble’s Matthew has a clear eye and heart for Christ. John Keble, (1792 – 1866) was an English churchman and poet, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement. Keble College, Oxford, was named after him.
There are in this loud stunning tide Of human care and crime, With whom the melodies abide Of th' everlasting chime; Who carry music in their heart Through dusky lane and wrangling mart, Plying their daily task with busier feet, Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat.
How sweet to them, in such brief rest As thronging cares afford, In thought to wander, fancy-blest, To where their gracious Lord, In vain, to win proud Pharisees, Spake, and was heard by fell disease- But not in vain, beside yon breezy lake, Bade the meek Publican his gainful seat forsake:
At once he rose, and left his gold; His treasure and his heart Transferred, where he shall safe behold Earth and her idols part; While he beside his endless store Shall sit, and floods unceasing pour Of Christ's true riches o'er all time and space, First angel of His Church, first steward of His Grace.
Nor can ye not delight to think Where He vouchsafed to eat, How the Most Holy did not shrink From touch of sinner's meat; What worldly hearts and hearts impure Went with Him through the rich man's door, That we might learn of Him lost souls to love, And view His least and worst with hope to meet above.
These gracious lines shed Gospel light On Mammon's gloomiest cells, As on some city's cheerless night The tide of sunrise swells, Till tower, and dome, and bridge-way proud Are mantled with a golden cloud, And to wise hearts this certain hope us given; “No mist that man may raise, shall hide the eye of Heaven.”
And oh! if e'en on Babel shine Such gleams of Paradise, Should not their peace be peace divine, Who day by day arise To look on clearer heavens, and scan The work of God untouch'd by man? Shame on us, who about us Babel bear, And live in Paradise, as if God was not there!
Music: Stretch Out – Gospel/Soul song by the Institutional Radio Choir
The Institutional Radio Choir was a gospel choir that recorded between 1962-2003. The choir began in 1954 at the Institutional COGIC in Brooklyn, NY, under Bishop Carl E Williams Sr. After recording an album entitled: “Well Done,” the choir backed up Shirley Caesar on her two albums, I’ll Go and My Testimony. Caesar allotted the choir’s director two songs on the album, one of which was entitled (When Trouble Comes) Stretch Out. The song went on to become a gospel standard, especially in Pentecostal circles. The choir went on to record over 20 albums, most of which charted in the Top 10 on the Gospel Billboard charts.
When troubles come and storms begin to rise Hold on and learn to stretch out Oh keep on fasting, keep on praying Hold on and learn to stretch out
When Satan get on your track And tries to turn me back I won’t worry, i won’t fret. i just stretch out Stretch out, oh stretch out
When days are dark and cloudy are my skies I hold on and learn to stretch out Oh keep on fasting, keep on believing Hold on and learn to stretch out
Cause the race isn’t given to the swift Neither is it given to the strong But to him that endureth to the end Stretch out, oh stretch out
When troubles come and storms begin to rise Hold on and learn to stretch out Oh keep on fasting keep on believing Hold on and learn to stretch out
Cause the race isn’t given to the swift Neither is it given to the strong But to him that endureth to the end Stretch out, oh stretch out
When i am lost, when i am sad Jesus is there, he’ll make me glad The Lord won’t deceive you The Lord he won’t leave you
Stretch out
Stretch out Stretch out Stretch out on his word
Stretch out Stretch out Stretch out Oh, stretch out
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings stand in stark contrast to each other.
In our first reading, we meet the two adversarial kings of the now split kingdom of Israel – so cooly named King Rehoboam and King Jeroboam. They were grasping, grabbing and trying to hold on to power over each other’s terrain. Using idols, Jeroboam tried to lure the people away from their covenanted practice of going up to Jerusalem to worship.
Our Gospel demonstrates that Jesus is a very different kind of king. His concern is for the wholeness of his people, not for the increase of his own power and standing.
Jesus summoned the disciples and said, “My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.”
Matthew 8:1-4
This morning I can’t help thinking that many of us have come a long way with Jesus too. But still we find ourselves in spells of hunger — hungers of all kinds. Jesus sees our true needs, has compassion for, and presence with us in the pangs of any human experience.
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd.
Matthew 8: 6
Let’s just sit down with Jesus today as we pray, laying out before him our deepest hungers, worries, regrets, doubts and hopes. Let’s wait for the gift of God’s beautiful and miraculous Bread – broken for each one of us.
Poetry: Gratitude – Henry Van Dyke
“Do you give thanks for this? — or that?” No, God be thanked I am not grateful In that cold, calculating way, with blessing ranked As one, two, three, and four, — that would be hateful.
I only know that every day brings good above” My poor deserving; I only feel that, in the road of Life, true Love Is leading me along and never swerving.
Whatever gifts and mercies in my lot may fall, I would not measure As worth a certain price in praise, or great or small; But take and use them all with simple pleasure.
For when we gladly eat our daily bread, we bless The Hand that feeds us; And when we tread the road of Life in cheerfulness, Our very heart-beats praise the Love that leads us.
Music: Bread of Life – rory Cooney
I myself and the bread of life. You and I are the bread life, Taken and blessed, Broken and shared by Christ that the world might live.
This bread is spirit, gift of the maker’s love, And we who share it know we can be one: A living of God in Christ.
I myself and the bread of life. You and I are the bread life, Taken and blessed, Broken and shared by Christ that the world might live.
Here is God’s kingdom given to us as food. This is our body, this is our blood: A living sign of God in Christ.
I myself and the bread of life. You and I are the bread life, Taken and blessed, Broken and shared by Christ that the world might live.
Lives broken open, stories shared aloud, Become a banquet, a shelter for the world: A living sign of God in Christ.
I myself am the bread of life. I myself am the bread of life
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings leave me wondering about what makes God tick.
In our first reading, God exacts justice for Solomon’s unfaithfulness, but God does it sort of like a prosecutor in a plea bargain.
I will deprive you of the kingdom … but not during your lifetime It is your son whom I will deprive … but I won’t take away the whole kingdom.
1 Kings 11:11-13
What’s going on with God in this reading? Well, it’s more like “What’s going on with the writer as s/he tries, retrospectively, to interpret God’s role in Israel’s history?”
The passage is much more than a report on exchanges between God and Solomon.
It is a testament to Israel’s unwavering faith that God is intimately involved in their lives. In every circumstance, the believing community returns to the fact that experience leads to God and not away from Him.
So “Solomon … had TURNED his heart to strange gods” BUT God had not turned from Solomon. Nor would God EVER turn because God has CHOSEN Israel.
In our Gospel, the Syrophoenician woman tries to get the favor of Jesus to turn toward her. And actually, Jesus sounds pretty mean and stingy about it.
Again the writer Mark is portraying, retrospectively, a significant time in Christ’s ministry. Jesus has really gone into hiding in a remote place. Apparently, he wants space to figure some things out. The story indicates that one of those things might be whether or not his ministry should embrace the Gentiles.
The persistence of this woman’s faith is a turning point for Jesus Who evolved, as we all do, in his understanding of his sacred role and meaning in the world.
These passages encourage us to constantly turn toward God Who lives our life with us. Day to day, our lives change and challenge us. But throughout, we must stay centered on our God who does not change. This sacred relationship is essential to our spiritual growth. As we become bigger in heart and soul, so does our concept of God and what God’s hope is for us.
Poetry: All this “turning” brought to mind some favorites lines from T.S. Eliot
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
(Some of my longtime followers might recognize an old story today. I like it so much that iI repeated it. Hope you don’t mind. Thanks for sticking with me.)
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings talk about how we try to “house” God.
Because God is bigger than BIG, our minds struggle. More than struggle, they actually fail, repeatedly, to define God. Yet we still try, don’t we?
We try to picture, describe, paint, quote, and interpret God. We even decide what God wants and create laws to insure God gets that.
We dilute Divinity to our human dimensions. We just can’t take it straight. We mix it and bottle it in our laws, and box it in our rituals — because we can’t manage Omnipotence.
Praying with these thoughts today, I think of my Dad. He liked an occasional jigger of really fine bourbon – savored in its unadulterated state, without water or soda – what today’s purists call “sipping whisky”.
When the doctor informed him, unfortunately in my mother’s presence, that whisky was a no-no, Dad didn’t like it. But he acquiesced. At least we thought he did.
After Dad died, my brother and I found his bottle of Kentucky bourbon wrapped in a towel in the basement dryer. You see, only Dad did the wash. Mom never liked machines.
I think Jesus would have really enjoyed my Dad as one of his original disciples. Dad liked life “straight”. His faith was simple, direct, complete and undiluted. Sitting with Jesus that Gospel day, Dad wouldn’t have washed his hands either. He would have been too busy listening to the pure, unbottled Word pouring over him.
The message I took from today’s prayer:
Be very wary of anyone who thinks they know exactly what God wants.
Let God out of the boxes I put Him in.
Invite God’s Spirit to run free through my heart.
Don’t bottle God up; don’t box God in.
Enjoy sipping God’s surprising and infinite grace.
Poetry: Hypocrisy – attributed to Omar Khayyam
If you will listen to me, I will give you some advice: [Here it is] For the love of God put not on the mantle of hypocrisy. Eternity is for all time, and this world is but an instant. Then sell not for an instant the empire of eternity.
Music:New Pharisees – Charlie Daniels Band (Lyrics below)
New Pharisees
They go walking into church every Sunday morning They the self-appointed sin patrol Well they whisper and they gossip behind the back Of anybody that they can’t control
See that girl in the choir she’s got evil desires She must be drinking from the devil’s well She’s a downright disgrace with that paint on her face She looks just like a Jezebel
And they’re running around putting everybody down What are you trying to do? You need to pick up the Book and take another look ‘Cause brother I’ve got the news for you
You know Jesus was sent with a new covenant And he even died for you New pharisees like a fatal disease Always flapping your jaws trying to live by the law
You see that boy over there with that long shaggy hair Ought to be ashamed of his self He wearing hip-hop clothes got a ring in his nose Don’t he know he going straight to hell
And then yesterday morning me and sister Johnson Were talkin’ on the party line She said that Deacon Brown was having dinner downtown Somebody seen him with a glass of wine
And you act so righteous and you look so pious You always pay your tithe But there’s a rock in your heart and a fire on your tongue And there ain’t no love in your eyes
Bad news is begotten and the devil is smiling You gossip and you criticize New pharisees like a fatal disease Always flapping your jaws trying to live by the law
Well you can’t get by the law so quit flapping your jaws New pharisees yes, you’re a lot like me
February 1, 2022 Tuesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
You have followed the story in these daily passages. Absalom rebels, designing to usurp his father’s throne. A massive battle rises between them. David, as commander-in-chief, remains behind, but gives instructions to his generals to spare Absalom’s life. Joab ignores the command, killing Absalom in a moment of vulnerability.
David is devastated.
David and Absalom – Marc Chagall (Fair Use)
I think there is no more wrenching human emotion than regret. When I ministered for nearly a decade as hospice chaplain, and later in the emergency room, I saw so much regret.
People who had waited too long to say “I’m sorry”, “I forgive you”, “Let’s start over”, “Thank you for all you did for me”, “I love you”…..
Instead, these people stood at lifeless bedsides saying things like, “I should have”, “I wish…”, “If only…”
Life is complex and sometimes difficult. We get hurt, and we hurt others — sometimes so hurt that we walk away from relationship, or stay but wall ourselves off.
We might think that what is missing in such times is love. But I think it is more likely truth. In times of painful conflict, if we can hear and speak our truth to ourselves and one another, we open the path to healing.
If you want the truth, I’ll tell you the truth. Listen to the secret sound, the real sound, which is inside you.
Kabir
That healing may demand adjustments, agreements, even a willingness to step apart in mutual respect. But if the changes emerge from shared truth, restoration and wholeness are possible.
David and Absalom never found that path because they were so absorbed in their own self-interests. Theirs was the perfect formula for regret – that fruitless stump that perpetually sticks in the heart.
Poetry: How Clear, How Lovely Bright – A.E. Houseman
How clear, how lovely bright, How beautiful to sight Those beams of morning play; How heaven laughs out with glee Where, like a bird set free, Up from the eastern sea Soars the delightful day. To-day I shall be strong, No more shall yield to wrong, Shall squander life no more; Days lost, I know not how, I shall retrieve them now; Now I shall keep the vow I never kept before.
Ensanguining the skies How heavily it dies Into the west away; Past touch and sight and sound Not further to be found, How hopeless under ground Falls the remorseful day
I remember a trauma surgeon leaving the hospital late one night after an unsuccessful effort to save a young boy who had been shot.
The doctor carried the loss so heavily as he walked into the night barely whispering to me, “I’m just going to go home and hug my kids.”
As we pray over David and Absalom today, let us examine our lives for the fractures that are still healable and act on them. Let us “hug” the life we have within and all around us. Regret is a lethal substitute.
When David Heard – Eric Whitaker ( The piece builds. Be patient. Lyrics below)
When David heard that Absalom was slain, he went up into his chamber over the gate and wept, and thus he said;
My son, my son, O Absalom my son, would God I had died for thee!
When David heard that Absalom was slain, he went up into his chamber over the gate and wept, and thus he said;
Lavish Mercy 