In our preaching and worship classes we are instructe that part of our call is to embody the Word.
That will be easy tonight in vespers.
As a fitting beginning to the new semester, as a fitting end to two of the hardest years of my life, as a fitting celebration to passing today's District Committee on Ordained Ministry interview, I get to read Psalm 30 from the Message translation.
Those who have journeyed with me in this time know just how fitting these words are:
I give you all the credit, God --
you got me out of that mess,
you didn't let my foes gloat.
God, my God, I yelled for help
and you put me together.
God, you pulled me out of the grave,
gave me another chance at life
when I was down and out.
All you saints! Sing your hearts out to God!
Thank God to God's face!
God gets angry once in a while, but across
a lifetime there is only love.
The nights of crying your eyes out
give way to days of laughter.
When things were going great
I crowed: "I've got it made.
I'm God's favorite.
God made me king of the mountain."
The you looked the other way
and I fell to pieces.
I called out to you, God;
I laid my case before you:
"Can you sell me for a profit when I'm dead?
auction me off at a cemetery yard sale?
When I'm 'dust to dust' my songs
and stories of you won't sell.
So listen! and be kind!
Help me out of this!
You did it: you changed wild lament
into whirling dance;
You ripped off my black mourning band
and decked me with wildflowers.
I'm about to burst with song;
I can't keep quiet about you.
God, my God,
I can't thank you enough.
That's me, whirling in dance with wildflowers in my hair. But, my favorite verse is this: "across a lifetime, there is only love."
Thanks be to God.
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3 comments:
You know, when I was in seminary I kept getting corrected for using the word "embody". They kept telling me to use the word incarnate. It made me nuts-- I think, feel, know, believe that to emBody the word is to use our own flesh as part of the story. Now, I teach preaching classes to Conference Lay Speakers and one of the first things I tell them is that their body is the most important tool they have as they communicate the word. Yeah, a good mind and nice words are a plus, but the message is also in the ways that our bodies communicate the Word. I might even go so far as to say that we need to enflesh the message.
I am so glad that someone, somewhere is speaking my language!
Glad you passed, Karen. And glad that psalm 30 were words to guide you and sustain you this past Vespers!
Wow,I have never read that psalm that way. And how meaningful to come on that day.
I can totally see you dancing with wildflowers.
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