Pentecost +19 Sunday – C2

Pentecost +19 Sunday – C2

Years C
Psalm 137 or Psalm 37:1-9

"Weep!" or "Don't fret!"

Here we have a basic difference in response to life's circumstance when it goes awry (i.e., doesn't go our way).

We each seem to have a proclivity toward one or the other of these responses. Knowing which is yours can help you play toward or against type. It is not that knowing your tendency commits you to it, but that knowing it can free you to choose against it.

When you lament, lament. Wail it out and smash those children to bits.

When you refuse to lament, refuse. Wait it out and let G*D's anger decide to cut off those children.

Imagine using this formula on World Communion Sunday. Will you lament the lack of unity and find ways to do away with all who would follow a different sacramental rubric? Will you gloss over the differences and let G*D sort them out at some future time? Does it make a difference to you or G*D if you choose one response or the other?

= = = = = = =

rivers bring life
we find we are sitting alongside
a river that has taken our lives
and worse
mocks us
that we might sing of another river
one well and truly lost to us

how could we sing
of living water alongside
dehydrated water
further desiccating
a tree without healing leaves
without doing so
with a sawdust tongue

but we could mutter
under our arid breath
"we won't take it anymore"
and turn our vision of escape
into a program of revenge
and so we will
or will we