Author: lakewooducc

They say that a lot more gets done if you don’t care who gets the credit. In the New Testament we are told to give without expecting anything in return. That means not even expecting to be thanked. I don’t think that idea goes over very well. Many organizations, including the church, spend a lot of effort recognizing and thanking workers and volunteers. There are gifts and notes and plaques and lunches and parties and all kinds of ways that people are thanked for their efforts especially if they are volunteers. Then there are the big thank you’s like naming a building after a big donor and things like that. The fact is that most people expect to be recognized for their contributions and want to be thanked.

In Psalm 22 the writer tells of extolling God to the dead, to posterity, to future generations, to the those yet unborn, to all the families and nations of the earth. The people have been delivered, kept safe, been accompanied through affliction, and the poor have been fed. How has this happened? Who is responsible? The writer celebrates that, “God has done it.” God has done all these things and more. The writer takes no credit for anything. The writer gives no credit to any other source. Everything good and needed is attributed to God. God is the source. God sustains life. God makes it possible to live each day. God gets people through difficulties and problems. God. So the Psalm celebrates, “God has done it.”

I am wondering how things would be different if we took that attitude: If we focused on giving credit to God? What would it be like if we were continually thanking God? What if we were celebrating that each day is a gift from God? What if we praised God for everything that gets accomplished? After all, God is the source. What if we put the focus on God? The sub text here is: What if we put the focus, the gratitude, the appreciation, and the recognition on God and not on us, not on others, not on this one or that one or this organization or that committee, but on God? I think this would eliminate a lot of selfishness and self centeredness. I think it would free us from our insatiable egos that want to be fed acknowledgment and gratitude and recognition and praise. I think it would contribute to our life as other-centered servants and relieve us of all kinds of petty hurt and strife and disappointment. “God has done it.” Try having that for a motto, an affirmation, a response, especially when you are thanked for something. “God has done it.” By taking this approach, I think a lot more would get done and the world would be better for it.

Prayer
We work and strive and exert ourselves and sometimes forget that everything we do is because of what we have been given. We have been given life, and love, and opportunity, and resources. We are only able to live our days because of what has been and is being done for us. May we always remember, “God has done it!” Not only will this bring us greater joy, but it will make the world a better place for everyone. Amen.

Note: Speaking of “God has done it,” Mary Stokes of our congregation celebrates three years of being cancer-free today. Thank God!

Archbishop Oscar Romero served in El Salvador. He spoke out against injustice, poverty, assassinations, and torture. Ironically, this led to his assassination. He was shot on March 24, 1980 while celebrating mass at a small chapel in a hospital. Romero and many in the church in El Salvador suffered for their solidarity with the poor. They spoke out against economic injustice and violent repression.

One way that Romero expressed his commitment to the poor was by the way he spoke of those who were poor. The typical word used is los pobres, “the poor.” Instead of this term, Romero spoke of the poor using the reference los empobrecidos, “those made poor.” He felt that those who lived with almost nothing did so because they had no opportunity under the system of government and under the economic system to be anything but poor. So they were victims of outside systems over which they had no influence or control. They were not poor because they were lazy and unwilling to work. They were made poor; they did not choose to be poor. They were part of a society that designated their place and gave them no option. These are the very people, those made poor, that Jesus stood in solidarity with in his day. And he was killed for it, too.

Romero and Jesus were both fulfilling the commitment of God that is announced in Psalm 22: “The poor shall eat and be satisfied.” Throughout the Bible, we are shown God’s commitment to those who are made poor. We see God’s solidarity with those who are on the bottom of the pile, those without. Jesus and Romero were committed to living out of God’s intentions for those who are made poor. It is hard to imagine that something so seemingly charitable could lead to death. But to confront poverty honestly is to confront political systems, economic systems, power systems, and greed as well as to challenge racism, classism, sexism, and ageism to start. Poverty exists because some at the top of the economic ladder benefit from it. If there was no economic advantage to keeping people poor, there would be no poverty. But we must remember, there is a cost and not just to those who are made poor. There is a cost to society at large, to safety, and to our moral integrity. Really, there is a cost to the lives of all people. May God’s vision of food for the poor inspire us to stop making people poor.

Prayer
We know that life can be difficult and that many people in this country and in this world are made poor. We do not want to be part of the systems that create poverty. We do not want to be made poor. Help us to have the creativity and courage to confront this affront to the Divine intention for the human family. Help us to celebrate Earth’s abundance and to eliminate poverty from the face of this beautiful globe. Amen.

Michelangelo’s Pieta, ensconced in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, is one of the most well-known sculptures of human history. The figure of Mary with the crucified Jesus draped over her lap emerging from the white Carrara marble is iconic. The contours of Jesus’ body blend with the folds of Mary’s dress. We see the face of Mary as she may have looked after the birth of Jesus and the visitation by the shepherds when we are told that, “Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.” [Luke 2:19] While neither the face of Mary nor Jesus look distraught in the sculpture, the mass of marble exudes grief. It weeps.

In Psalm 22 we are told that God does not “despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted.” God is undaunted by grief. God does not avoid suffering. God embraces us in our human pain and misery.

In a church in San Cristobal, Mexico, there is a compelling visual representation of the God depicted in the psalm, the very psalm that Jesus quotes from the cross. Just down the right transept of the church, nested in a niche, is a statue of wood, a pieta: a seated figure draped with the body of the crucified Jesus. The statue is painted wood, so we see evidence of Jesus’ wounds and blood. The seated figure is adorned in gold gilt with a halo of three flames. But the seated figure supporting the body of Jesus is not his mother. It is an old, weathered, bearded male figure. God. God holds the body of the dead crucified Jesus.

While in general I do not personally resonate to gender specific language or imagery for God, this sculpture is captivating. It is beautiful. It conveys the grief of God. It is a wonderful image of love between father and child. It is an image of extreme tenderness not usually associated with masculinity. It extends a role traditionally reserved for women to a male figure. It evokes our common human capacity for compassion. It also looks as if God is presenting this body to the viewer as evidence, as if to say, “Look what you have done.”

When I think of God not turning away from human agony, pain, and sin, that statue comes to mind for me. It shows the compassion and mercy of God. I only have one blurry picture of the statue, taken in the dark church while a service was in progress and I was trying to be discreet. The statue is well worth seeing. I encourage you to make the journey to San Cristobal to see it and the other amazing treasures of that southern Mexican city. You will not be disappointed!

Prayer
We pray that we may have the compassion, the empathy, and the mercy of God. May we forgive one another all the hurt, pain, misery, and affliction that we cause to each other and embrace our sisters and brothers with love and peace. May we treat each and every person as if he or she was Jesus. Amen.