Category: Prayers

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.

Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my! Well, it’s almost that bad in Psalm 22. There are numerous references to animals in the psalm. There is mention of lions, bulls, dogs, oxen, and a worm. Quite a menagerie! Scholars tell us that animals were used as imagery for demonic forces in ancient near eastern writing. The animal references in the psalm are certainly all negative and threatening:

Strong bulls open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion
Dogs are all around me
Deliver my life from the power of the dog
Save me from the mouth of the lion
From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me

All of these images suggest the threat of harm and attack. The animals show us the wild, uncontrollable, fearsome power of evil. They instill fear. There is nothing of the peaceable kingdom in this psalm.

And finally, there is mention of the lowly worm: “But I am a worm and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people.” While this animal reference does not suggest fear, it is an image of degradation. It is certainly negative.

In some passages in the Bible, even in the psalms, animals are used to convey the nobility of creation and the incredible diversity of life. They show us how we are to praise God by being fully ourselves. But in Psalm 22, as well as in other biblical references, animals are used to express negative sentiments.

I am wondering about the connection between these negative images and the theology of creation. Do the negative animal images help to support a “man against nature” outlook? A fundamental antagonism between humanity and the natural world? There is a strong tradition within Christianity that supports seeing nature as something to be subdued, to be controlled, to be tamed. Nature is here to be used/used up by humanity to serve human ends.

There is also a tradition of creation care and environmental sensitivity that has been present throughout Christian history. This theology draws upon positive images of nature and the interdependent web of creation that is also referenced in the Bible. Church leaders, theologians, and teachers going back to the earliest streams of Christianity advocate for the care of creation, and for coming to know God through the natural world.

As for our view of ecology and care of the environment today, here again, we exert our freedom to choose. We have two diverging paths within our tradition, both based on the Bible. It is up to us which we will embrace. Personally, I cannot integrate the abuse of creation into my personal Christian belief system and into my faith. I associate the abuse and sullying of the environment with selfishness, immediate gratification, greed, arrogance, over consumption, lack of self discipline, disrespectful behavior, laziness, individualism, and apathy. These are all character traits that I consider negative and at odds with the way of Jesus that is the heart of the Christian life. I associate caring for the earth with self discipline, service, concern for others, respect, generosity, self control, making the extra effort, valuing the well being of the whole, compassion, justice, and respect. These are traits that I feel are consistent with the life and teachings of Jesus. So, for me, I try to exercise the freedom of my faith by caring for the earth and making choices that protect and nurture the earth as the tangible self-disclosure of God.

Prayer
May we cherish the earth and its beauty. May we disentangle ourselves from the sin of anthropocentrism and appreciate the interconnectedness of earth, creation, and all life. As we seek our proper place in the vast web that sustains us, may we find our wholeness and healing. Amen.

Note: As I was writing this, the neighbor’s new puppy came outside to romp in the yard. Talk about disarming any fear you may have of animals (or of evil for that matter)!

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is how Psalm 22 begins. These words may be more familiar to us from the crucifixion story. In the reflection yesterday, we talked about God being a natural part of our lives. What about this extreme plea of abandonment? This is a terrified cry of abandonment.

However natural it may be for us to have God as part of our reality, we can also understand separation from God. There are times when we do not feel close to God. We once had a church member who told me that every time she came to church, she saw the light. It was there every Sunday. Then, she stopped seeing the light. And stopped coming to church. There are those moments, those seasons, those times of life, when things shift. We may feel further away from God, or sense God’s absence. We may have this experience at a time of severe pain and grief: A time we feel most in need of divine love and comfort. Yet even mystics of old who devoted their lives to prayer tell of the “dark night of the soul.” This is the experiencing of the absence of the divine. So we see that sensing God’s absence is also a common experience of the spiritual life.

While Psalm 22 is ultimately a celebration of God’s steadfast love and deliverance which brings humanity through affliction and struggle, the beginning of the psalm also acknowledges the pain of feeling abandoned by God. Yet even from the pit of abandonment, terrified, scorned, despised, mocked, ridiculed, threatened and on death’s door, the writer declares, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” And just who is the writer addressing? To whom is this plea directed? My God. Even from the place of separation, abandonment, and forsakenness, the psalm pleads to God. That very act, those very words, “My God, my God,” undermine the absence. They de-stabilize the abandonment. Faith, however tenuous, persists.

When we are feeling far from God, separated from our spiritual selves, abandoned by God, our continued prayers to God will help to create the new reality of experiencing God’s abiding presence once more.

Prayer
May we continue to pray to God even when we are not sure of God’s presence. May we trust God with our most honest feelings and needs. May we share our truth with God and with one another even in the face of extreme doubt and confusion. May we not be afraid of the depth of our human experience. To live abundantly is to live deeply as Jesus did. Amen.

Do you remember when you first became aware of God? Can you remember when you first experienced the presence of God? Can you remember before you were cognizant of a sense of the divine, the holy, the sacred? For some of us, it may be like trying to remember when we first knew that we were a girl or a boy. All I can say is that I have always known that I was a girl. I don’t remember becoming aware of that because that sense was always there.

For many, the same is true with our sense of God. It has just always been there. Maybe our ideas and images and concepts and experiences of God have changed, but the fundamental presupposition that love is at the heart of things, all is connected, and there is an “other” dimension to our life experience, these things point us to the sacred, to God. God is responsible for life and we are alive, so we are immediately connected to God, creation, and one another through the fact that we are alive. When does this connection start? When do we become aware of it?

In Psalm 22, the psalm that we will be reflecting on this week, the writer has a beautiful description of this sense of God. The writer addresses God saying, “It was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother’s breast. On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God.” [Verses 9 and 10, New Revised Standard Version] Here we see the wonderful image that God is part of us and our experience from the beginning of our lives and throughout our lives. There is no life apart from God.

This makes God a natural part of who we are. Like breathing. Or our hearts pumping blood through our bodies. It is simply part of who we are. God is part of us and cannot be separated from us, nor can we be separated from God.

Sometimes we think that our spiritual life should be something “different” from our ordinary lives. Or that our faith should give us “unusual” experiences. Or that something “special” should be going on because we are religious. It may be that faith in God is just a natural part of who we are and so is part and parcel of our daily life experience which has come to seem ordinary and expected. Religion is about helping us see and appreciate what is already there and give thanks!

So, don’t worry if you are not having some kind of special visions, or mystical occurrences in your life. That does not mean that you are not trusting God or that you do not have faith or that God is not with you. It may just mean that your faith is an integrated, natural part of who you are. As it should be!

Prayer
God, help us to affirm the gift, the sacred, the holiness, in the everyday living of our days. Our breath, our blood, our lives are manifestations of divine love. May we learn and grow in faith just as our bodies progress on life’s journey accepting the natural flow of life’s rhythms. We are held ever in the arms of divine love. Amen.

Our day to day lives are very personal. When we wake up in the morning, maybe we are thinking about the test we have to take for a class today, or the meeting at work, or visiting our neighbor in the hospital, or finding a babysitter for an evening event we need to attend, or the doctor’s appointment that afternoon, or summoning the reserve to keep looking for a job. There may be all kinds of day to day matters that occupy our thinking. I don’t think many of us wake up in the morning and have first thoughts about global warming, or gun control, or the civil war in Syria. Usually, we are thinking more personally.

In Psalm 25, the writer makes many personal references, and repeatedly uses the subject “I” and the singular “me.” Here are a few examples:

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul
. . . do not let me be put to shame
Lead me in your truth
. . . pardon my guilt
Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted
Relieve the troubles of my heart, and bring me out of my distress
O guard my life, and deliver me

The is just a sampling, but you get the idea. The psalm is very personal. It is a personal lament. But then there is the last verse:

Redeem Israel, O God,
out of all its troubles.

In this last verse, the writer makes a corporate plea: A plea for the community, for the tribe, for the people as a cultural/political/religious group. The ending sentiment is an expression of the desire for the well-being of the group, the social context.

There are insights to this last word of this psalm that we want to pay attention to. We are reminded that the well-being of the community is tied up with the well-being of the individuals in the community. When the community is healthy and characterized by justice and peace, then the individuals are likely to be better off. When the community is wracked with problems, the individuals in the community often suffer as a result. Sometimes the reasons that a community is troubled may be from the outside – the community has been attacked by an outside force or is under threat or siege in some way. The individual people in the community may then experience problems related to that outside disturbance. Sometimes the causes of problems in the community are internal. Perhaps issues such as human rights, economic justice, fairness, or other problems are hurting the community as a whole, and the individuals within the community then suffer.

The last verse of this psalm reminds us that we are not isolated individuals. We are social creatures. And our well-being is directly tied to the health and well-being of the community around us. This is why Jesus was so directly involved in matters institutional and political. He knew that for people to have good, whole, creative, flourishing lives, a healthy social context and social institutions were needed to support that kind of living. If you plant a good seed in toxic soil, it won’t grow. A healthy context is needed for growth and flourishing life. A healthy community is needed. Working for a healthy, just community nurtures our personal well-being. And fostering our health and well-being as individuals helps to create a healthy, just community. The psalm reminds us that healthy, thriving individuals and just, healthy societies go together.

Prayer
We pray for relief and deliverance from all the things that afflict us as individuals, as communities, and as a society. May we seek health and wholeness so that everyone may know the abundant life that God intends for everyone. Amen.