e-vo for week of March 16

Dearest e-votees-

I hope and pray that your time of being more focused spiritually during Lent—whether through Lenten disciplines or not—is blessed. This time of 40 days (46 if you fold back in the Sundays which are not counted as they are “little Easters”) is one where we might spend some time being reflective and introspective and penitential and perhaps even remorseful. We may wonder about our lives and particularly how we have or have not allowed God to be the healing and guiding presence that God should be. May we be encouraged by the words of this Sunday (the 2nd Sunday of Lent)‘s appointed psalm.

Peace,
Karl

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1 I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.

Psalm 121, NRSV

This psalm is labeled in scripture as a song of ascents. It is a song that people would have sang while making pilgrimage to Jerusalem which is located at an elevation above the surrounding territory (hence the going down to Jericho in the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30). As people were making their way up the city to bring their praises and their offerings their eyes would be set upward. This looking up for provision and deliverance and salvation is much like the people in the wilderness casting their gaze on the bronze serpent (see Numbers 21:4-9). Jesus tells Nicodemus in our appointed gospel text of John 3:1-17 that the Son of Man must be lifted up just as the serpent was. Jesus connects the cross with the provision and deliverance and salvation from that bronze snake that came to be known as Nehushtan (see 2 Kings 18:1-5).

This song of ascents, Psalm 121, is one of my favorites for bedside at the hospital or during a funeral or on the way to the graveside. Our hope and our help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. God is watching over us. God is ever vigilant and ever caring. The Lord keeps us. Our times are in God’s hands. Our comings and our goings are in God’s hands.

This should not be mistaken as an understanding that everything that happens to us is straight from God’s hands. This doesn’t mean that God caused the earthquake and tsunami and nuclear threats that are plaguing Japan right now. We don’t necessarily read into tragedies the judgment of God. Those who read into the AIDS crisis or hurricane Katrina or 9-11 judgment meted out directly by God have a much different confidence in their ability to determine divine causation than I. The shameful protests from groups at military funerals proclaiming God’s judgment are way too simplistic and absolutely heartless. The faith statement is that God is with us in our comings and goings. I believe God comes to be with us during our broken and hurting times. I believe Lent is about Jesus coming and being with us during our times of soul searching—the 40 days in the desert were as much for us as for him I believe. Jesus being raised up on the cross is a powerful symbol of how much God hurts when our sins get the best of us. Jesus making arrangements for John and Mary and for the repentant thief and praying for those who nailed him to the cross speak volumes about God’s intent for us all—whether faithful since youth or converted at the very last moment or not even interested in things of faith. God is watching over our going outs and our coming ins.

We will all die. God doesn’t spare us from that pain. We will all have tragedies befall us. God doesn’t spare us from that pain. We will all have fallen moments where all we can do is look up and plead for God to save us. God doesn’t spare us from that pain.

God came and died. God did not avoid that pain. God had tragedies befall God particularly betrayal and denial and the cross. God did not avoid that pain. God had a time of desperate pleading in the garden of Gethsemane. God did not avoid that pain.

We are saved because God has come into the world. God has become one of us fully. God has done what was required. God is our help. God is our hope. God is our salvation. God is keeping us.


God, help us know that you are with us today—in our going outs and our coming ins. Help us know that nothing we experience is beyond your compassion, your experience and your saving power. Keep our lives. Help us yield them to you for that safekeeping. Use us as agents of your compassion and your salvation in a world that can be so cold and self-serving. Send us to wash feet and dry tears and offer hope. Amen.