Psalm 25:1-10

Year C - Advent ¹ or Needed Change ¹

November 29, 2015

Psalm 25:1-10

“Steadfast love” is paralleled with both ”mercy” and “faithfulness”. This parallelism brings mercy and faithfulness together as a reflective pair.

A basic question about the quality of steadfast love is clarified when we are heard to ask, “Do I trust mercy to be my basic response to the actions of others?” Like it is clarified by the question, “Do I trust I will be treated mercifully when I have gone astray?”

If both or either response is, “No”, there is more work to be done on loving G*D and loving Neighb*r as Y*urself.

If both responses are, “Yes”, there is more work to be done on loving G*D and loving Neighb*r as Y*urself.

These are paths never traveled once. Like establishing habits, we trace them again and again as we enter new territory. It might be said that we must trace them again and again if we are to enter new territory.

A part of the reason we need to retrace them is that we are walking in partnership with G*D and one another. This is different than establishing a new personal habit in 21 days. It means that each of us walking together on a path are walking together, not marching, and we need to find out again what steadfast love means in each new context.

No amount of warning or promise will see us through all the adjustments needed to walk together over the long haul. Behind both warning and promise is something deeper than surface behavior and morality. That something deeper is sometimes called “steadfast love” or “mercy” or “faithfulness”. These go way beyond accumulating stars for our golden crown or being scared straight. They exemplify a creative partnership working to be better together.