First Sunday after Christmas - C2

Year C

Psalm 148

. . . praise the name of the Lord . . . for . . . created . . . bound[arie]s . . . . (vss 5-6)

Just how far can this be condensed?

If "created" is but another way of saying, "current", as all boundaries ebb and flow according to new occasions and new duties they face, we might delete "created" and simply be thankful for boundaries.

If there is some legitimacy to this picking of a pattern, how thankful are we for boundaries? What do they show us about the past (we can look back in sorrow at how long some boundaries have continued - racial, economic, gender, national, sexual orientation, science, and so much more) and how they have shifted? What do they suggest about a fatalism regarding today's boundaries of war, health coverage, and various demographics? Do they help us refocus images of a future for all people?

As we run into boundary questions we not only have implications of what lies on either side of a given boundary, but those soul-searching questions from living within or upon a boundary. Holding contradictions within ourselves can drive us crazy or finally sane to recognize the boundary we thought so strong was but another passing moment.

What boundary are you exploring these days and how does your accumulated faith help you stay there long enough to learn rather than simply react?

= = = = = = =

learning about our sexuality
from the birds and bees
which are not sexual together
reveals an unhelpful boundary
of technique and function
rather than conjoined conversation
leading to deepening and widening
community of com-passion

in today's lexicon we find ourselves
straddling boundaries
as we explore and define
trans-sexual, intrasexual, intersexual
and so much more

for some this is terror producing
for some freedom
so it is with lived boundaries

other boundaries of behavior
reveal other limitations
of what it is to be a
human creation
bounded differently
than mountains and goats

rejoice in boundaries
that make naming possible
and overcoming of them a joy