Sounding Gough

yeah, right.

I can only laugh at myself for my ambition to try and post so often right as summer was ramping up. I really must of forgotten how little time was left after managing so many details and ironing out so many glitches. I've gotten really good at making quick decisions. Not bad for someone who tests as a P in the Myers-Briggs personality test.
Any time I do have left I like to spend with Alexander. He's been a trooper but this transition has worn on him. He has seen us less and has noticed. Now that Staff orientation week is complete we will have more consistency.
As for blogging, I'll fit it in here and there.

Daily readings for Friday, June 5, 2009

• Morning: Psalms 88; 148
• First Reading : Deuteronomy 26:1-11
• Second Reading : 2 Corinthians 8:16-24
• Gospel : Luke 18:9-14
• Evening: Psalms 6; 20

This daily lectionary blogging really forces me to stop and read scripture. It's great but I'd be lying if I said I don't have moments of regret. Press on!  I also realized it is weird to post about the previous day. So I'm attempting to change my schedule some. I like to write at night and so I will get ahead of the lectionary.  Having said that, I am not posting on Sunday's readings.  I may occasionally post a sermon on those readings, but not weekly.

Also, my posts are not a Bible Studay but a reflection.

I read these texts and think about what we give to God. Psalm 88 is unique in that it is a lament. Other Psalms have laments but often finish the lament praising God and turnign to some hope in God.  This psalm does not do that. I like that.  Sometimes we feel this way, we question God, get angry at God. We give God our authentic and honest hearts. Often, when we do that we or someone who hears our laments feels the need to defend God against our emotions or to tell us not to feel that way. WHen the psalmist sometimes unleashes but then turns around with a "But God is good" it doesn't always feel honest. We are supposed to think that but we don't always.  Sometimes we feel and even think that there is no God there.  This Psalm is honest, as hopeless as it sounds. SOmetimes we feel hopeless and it isn't fixed immediately by our prayers or by praising God. We are left to wait in it and experience excruciating things.
The psalmist allows us to be honest. God allows us to be honest and here is an example that we can give to God our cries, our emotions, our hopelessness. Somehow in giving this to God we may hear Christ's cry from the cross, "Why God, have you forsaken me?"  and know that we are not alone.

God wants what's authentice. Whether our first fruits, tithes, or our prayers God wants it to be from our hearts motivated by love for God and a desire to know God and know God's love more fully.

Daily readings for Thursday, June 4, 2009

• Morning: Psalms 143; 147:12-20
• First Reading : Deuteronomy 16:18-20, 17:14-20
• Second Reading : 2 Corinthians 8:1-16
• Gospel : Luke 18:1-8
• Evening: Psalms 81; 116

What stood out yesterday about these passages was the concept of justice. God is just. In fact, God's justice is much more extreme than human justice because God's righteousness is beyond what we can achieve. 
Yet we always try to justify things. War, torture, inequitable economy, etc.  It's all a fallacy before god and in light of God's justice and love.  We forget that God's justice is born out of love. It is a love that is the same for every one of us. God's love for the tortured is the same as God's love for the torturer, for the rich as for the poor.
We often do not love those we justify hurting, punishing, using, or even killing.  I know I try to justify how I spend my money without love or a thought for those who are dying from hunger. 
God's justice, God's love, convicts us all.
Grace is always the answer but it does not erase justice. It does not mean we stop attempting to live in a way that is just for all. But it does mean we can do so knowing, even though we fall short, we are still loved more than we can ever imagine.