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Praise
Praise the Lord! Praise God, sun and moon; praise God, all you shining stars! Praise God from the earth, you sea monsters and creatures of the depths, you fire and hail, snow and frost!
(Psalm 148:1-2 & 7-8, NRSV adapted)
What makes the T-Rex dinosaur a scientific fact and the Loch Ness monster an ancient myth?
It’s a rhetorical question, mainly. To a large extent, I believe the distinction doesn’t matter. It’s certainly not worth fighting over. It doesn’t make much difference in the daily lives of millions of people.
But the question of science vs. myth points my spirit toward something important: faith needs fiction, perhaps far more than it needs facts.
By which I mean: faith needs imagination. Wild and wondering and expansive imagination. Faith needs the unimaginable and the improbable. Faith needs awe. It needs questions that cannot be answered; it needs stories that reach beyond the limits of knowledge.
While faith might long to claim certainty, it does its best work when it claims surrender. When it gives in to hope. When it opts for unearned trust. When it lives in dreams and aspirations beyond what can be proven. When it tells stories.
Madeleine L’Engle wrote in Glimpses of Grace: “Myth is the closest approximation to truth available to the finite human being.”
Somewhere in the chasms of the oceans, there are sea monsters praising God. The Bible tells us so, although we may never know whether the psalmist was writing about a cousin of Loch Ness, a descendent of T-Rex, or a creature of the psalmist’s own imagination. The provability of the monster isn’t the point.
The point is creation’s praise for God, which is beyond imagining. In fact, creation’s praise of God is so vast and wild that it can only be told in fiction.
Prayer: Praise to you, O God, for the praises too mystical and magical for me to perceive!
cross-posted with the Daily Devotional (ucc.org)
Bad News
The spirit of the Holy One is upon me, because the One has anointed me and sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of divine favor, and the day of God’s vengeance.
(Isaiah 61:1-2, NRSV adapted)
On that holy day when the prisoners are set free, a whole lot of people will be out of a job.
Also, a whole lot of public services will be halted. Some wildfires will rage without resistance. Some streams and parks and highways will not be cleaned of litter. Some sandbags will be unfilled and unavailable for the next hurricane. All un- and under-paid tasks currently assigned to the incarcerated in our prison system.
When Isaiah’s vision is realized, what some experience as a year of God’s favor will be experienced by others as an endless day of God’s vengeance:
The oppressor will no longer be propped up by power over the discounted. The captor will lose their chains of control over the imprisoned. The mercenary will no longer be insulated by selfishness against the outcries of the brokenhearted.
That holy day of divine release will make many people very uncomfortable. Probably you, too. Probably me, too. Because even if we don’t consider ourselves to be capital “o” Oppressors, even if we have been on the heartbroken side more often than the heartbreaker side, even if we agree that the prison system is unjust, we still live and breathe and carve out comfort zones within systems of oppression.
We might not recognize the day of God’s good news. We might even, heaven forbid, lament the day as bad news in rejection of our comfort zones being transgressed.
Let the good news come mightily nonetheless.
Prayer: Teach my comfortable heart to love others’ good news, to break for others’ pain, to cry with joy at others’ release—even as much as I would do for my own.
cross-posted with the Daily Devotional (ucc.org)
Praise
Let us do what is right, with prayer and praise: We rejoice in your renewal, O Creator-- alleluia, amen --and we celebrate the labor to which we are called. We rejoice that we are not surrendered to death-- alleluia, amen --and we celebrate your name on this day. We...
Hearts
I followed Yours because it was so full of life, so strong and resolute with every pulse. Now it is silent. Mine is too. I fixed mine upon Yours so that it might flower, but now Yours has withered like grass. Must hearts always fade? Has Love's river withdrawn its...
Betrayal
When we have shouted ourselves hoarseand returned home from the parade,forgive our wavering commitment to love. When we have finished our hymnsand departed from the comforts of worship,forgive our fickle faithfulness. When we have passed the plate of breadand swept up...
Ostriches
On this Lenten way, O God of every good way we pray for all that is to come: for the path through stormy waters and for those pummeled by the storm until the path becomes clear; for the avenues toward peace and for those surrounded by warring chariots until the rage...
Choosing with Teresa of Avila
Christ has no focus no eyes no nightmare but yours but yours but yours Christ has no delight no body no distraction but yours but yours ...
Confession
I thought we made a good team You and I, Thou and Thine. It seemed we might partner to your glory Spirit and flesh, Holy and blessed. Yet here we are apart, forsaken by sin, Lover and beloved, Seeker and sought. Can we be together across our division, Creator and...
Figs
Still trying to grow, O Jesus, Gardener of Life. Still trying to heal, O Jesus, Redeemer of Dust. Still trying to serve, O Jesus, Host of the Banquet. Don't dig up this fig tree yet. Don't abandon me to my bleeding. Don't kick me out for lack of a dinner robe.
Godot
Perhaps today, something new? Perhaps today, an answer? Perhaps today, faith? Perhaps tomorrow. But today, at least, breath. Ah merciful God, yes: at least breath.
Coffee
O Most Holy, O Most Inspiring, O Most Enlivening Fount of Daily Renewal: overflow abundantly upon our dust that the stiff joints of our spirits might leap with joyful wonder, that the bleary eyes of our hearts might open to recognize you, that the dragging feet of our...
