Fourth Sunday after Epiphany - C2

Years C
Psalm 71:1-6

When in a ticklish situation it is helpful to find a focus of foundation that can re-center our vision of where we are and what is going on. When such a focus returns it is amazing what options are still open.

Here the Psalmist understands that life around her is very tenuous. Boxed in and threatened, what is there to hold on to? There is no historical precedence to fall back on for consolation and plan to move on. There is no expectation of change no matter how persuasive might be a rhetorical speech of smoke and mirrors, trying to distract us from a potential opening for change.

Paying attention to the present, particularly, seems to hold no direction that might bear fruit. So, wherever one looks, there is nothing but a hope against hope.

What is left is miracle and wonder. This is both a diminution of G*D and an expansion. Whatever gap is left, is G*D. G*D is beyond prediction and repetition of previous encounters.

Settling in to there being no option, all of a sudden there is. And praise flows as Butch and Sundance jump again.

= = = = = = =

Listen up god
I'm looking for refuge
a fortress, a safe haven
I'm looking for a structure
within which I might be secure

even though that's what I'm looking for
I am open to a surprise rescue
one not predicated on the past
or an extension of the present

my tendency is to see how
you have operated with me before
and look for that again

if not that then what I hope for
a comfort and winning new move

finally its just us, let's go