Psalm 147:12-20
There have been times when events at Calvary and the assigned text from the lectionary have been so in sync as to be prophetic but this may be the first time the assigned text predicted the weather. This morning I scraped frost like ashes off my car window and by this afternoon we’re expecting an inch of wool and while it’s not cold enough to make you sit down it is colder than I care for. My guess is that this psalm was written during a blizzard and hunkered down somewhere listening to the wind howl the psalmist thought about God. I remember driving through violent winter storms in the Midwest where I too invoked the name of the Almighty but more as a plea than praise. But maybe that misses the point of the psalm. The description of God hurling down hail and coming in bone chilling cold follows praise for strengthened gates that protect children and peace within borders filled with wheat for it is God’s word that warms the world as well to make waters flow. Maybe plea and praise is the same thing for to call on the Almighty to save is to acknowledge God’s ability to do so. However, even though I am confident in God’s ability to save I want to offer a word of advice to all you native Texans in pick up trucks if you have to drive this afternoon. Don’t.
New Year's Eve, December 31, 2009
ReplyDeleteEcclesiastes 3:1-13; Psalm 8; Revelation 21:1-6a; Matthew 25:31-46.
You jumped ahead to Sunday's Psalm. That's not a bad thing when you have to prepare a Sunday message, but I'm thinking that the RCL offerings for tomorrow fit the reflective New Year tone.
First Ecclesiastes - A Time For Everything. How often I think of these words as the years fly by. A time for everything, and a season for every activity. I am free to grow and change. My New Year's goals don't need to be what they were last year, or five years ago. It is OK that we plant and uproot, kill and heal, tear down and build up, weep and laugh, mourn and dance...
Every summer I plant a new, large tropical hibiscus in my front yard planter. All summer long I celebrate each new bloom. Yet, even as I celebrate its beauty I know that not far off is the crippling, deadly frost that will destroy it. Last year I tried to save it by transplanting it from my garden to a large pot and bringing it inside before the frost. As much as I tried, though, I couldn't save it. The plant couldn't handle the transplanting trauma, or survive without the summer sun.
And so it is with life. "I have seen the burden God has laid on man. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."
A time for everything - even a time for Texans to leave that pickup truck in the driveway.