MICAH 6.8

Twenty—First Sunday in Ordinary Time — Proper Sixteen — Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost August 21, 2022 A Liturgy For Worship And Meditation Song I Was There To Hear Your Borning Cry (Click Here For Music) Author: John Ylvisaker, 1985 (1937-2017) Borning Cry: John Ylvisaker, 1985 (1937-2017) "I was there to hear your borning cry, I'll be there when you are old. I rejoiced the day you were baptized, to see your life unfold. I was there when you were but a child, with a faith to suit you well; In a blaze of light you wandered off to find where demons dwell." "When you heard the wonder of the Word I was there to cheer you on; You were raised to praise the living Lord, to whom you now belong. If you find someone to share your time and you join your hearts as one, I'll be there to make your verses rhyme from dusk 'till rising sun." In the middle ages of your life, not too old, no longer young, I'll be there to guide you through the night, complete what I've begun. When the evening gently closes in, and you shut your weary eyes, I'll be there as I have always been with just one more surprise." "I was there to hear your borning cry, I'll be there when you are old. I rejoiced the day you were baptized, to see your life unfold." Prayer God of power and justice, like Jeremiah you weep over those who wander from you turn aside to other gods, and enter into chaos and destruction. By your tears and through your mercy, teach us your ways and write them on our hearts so that we may follow faithfully the path you show us. Amen. —https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/ Jeremiah 1:4-10 1:4 Now the word of God came to me saying, 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." 1:6 Then I said, "Ah, my God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." 1:7 But God said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you. 1:8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says God." 1:9 Then the God put out his hand and touched my mouth; and said to me, "Now I have put my words in your mouth. 1:10 See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." It is unfortunate that this text has been used as a word of when life begins. Thus, the anti-abortion movement has pointed to this text as to claim that abortion is killing a human life from the moment of conception. All when an understanding of the context and the literary genre provides a understanding of these words of Jeremiah that has nothing to do with human gestation, when life begins, or other right winged "evangelical" misuses of the text. Jeremiah is in a place of needing to authenticate his role as a prophet of the Hebrew God. His credentials of being called, anointed, and placed in the ministry of a prophet were to be found is how he understands his relationship to God and God's way of being spiritually connected to those called to be a prophet. What Jeremiah expresses in this text is his own inner sense of how God and he are joined in this call, preparation, and role as prophet. God feels so close, so intimate, that it is as if God has a relationship with him even before he was conceived. And, the affinity he feels with God goes beyond a surface level relationship. No, Jerimiah senses that God knows him through and through, from the womb and his purpose in life. While the consecration of Jeremiah to the role and work of prophet seems to be something before his birth, the call to ministry is sensed as being so deep and natural that it had to occur as part of God's universal plan for creation. But, to make in inward experience an outward and visible reality, Jeremiah claims that God touched his lips. Concerned about his ability to fulfill God's plan, he cites his youthfulness. Yet, God is One who uses whom God pleases to do the work of God's realm. As God's "anointed" one,"the Messiah" in Hebrew, has not his own message, but the very words of God implanted within him. God's words will call for justice within the people and convict those who worship other gods. He is the instrument of God's ending one chapter of history and beginning a new chapter, a chapter of overthrowing and building up once more. Society and culture are to become what God created them to be. God's will, will be done—"on earth as it is in heaven." Psalm 71:1-6 71:1 In you, O God, I take refuge; let me never be put to shame. 71:2 In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me and save me. 71:3 Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. 71:4 Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel. 71:5 For you, O God, are my hope, my trust, O God, from my youth. 71:6 Upon you I have leaned from my birth; it was you who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you. Here again the words of the psalmist make it clear that the community's connectedness to their God is one that started at birth and nurtured from birth. Placing God's presence and bringing a fetus to birth is not a common understanding of the people in the time of the psalmists writing of poetry and song. The message here is that because we know God so well and have experienced God's help in the past God is a sure and constant source of rescue. Taking refuge in God is what would come naturally to the people, especially in times when threat of harm loomed large. Or, on a personal level—if indeed this is a psalm of David—a place of protection and shelter when foes of the realm arise. The point is clearly expressed. God can be trusted to take care of God's people in times of strife and unrest. And, that such a God should be continually praised. Hebrews 12:18-29 12:18 You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, 12:19 and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. 12:20 (For they could not endure the order that was given, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned to death." 12:21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I tremble with fear.") 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 12:23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 12:25 See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven! 12:26 At that time God's voice shook the earth; but now God has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven." 12:27 This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what is shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 12:28 Therefore, since we are receiving a Kin-Dom that cannot be shaken, let us give thanks, by which we offer to God an acceptable worship with reverence and awe; 12:29 for indeed our God is a consuming fire. — Jerusalem stood as the sacramental place of living in God and God's way. There within the gates of Zion are all the heavenly host and first born. While the ark of the covenant had served in this way, it would seem that the ark no longer being present the same significance is then located in Jerusalem. And, the dynamics of holiness still exist. Like the ark being such a holy presence of God that merely touching it as a mere mortal would result in death. We recall the story of when David was relocating the ark to Jerusalem. How along the way, the ark was tilted due to the terrain and those who carried it from a safe distance bearing up the rods to which the ark was lain. Being concerned for the ark's falling, he reached out and touched it—to express how holy the ark was—the touch being sleight, he immediately died. In teaching about the holiness of God, Most Holy, it is expressed that no human is able to be in the direct presence of God with the consequence of dying. This we find also the 6th chapter of Isaiah, where he experienced the full presence of God in the temple. Surely Isaiah would die because he is a human person with unclean lips and such would be overcome with God's holiness. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews recounts the events that we read about in the Hebrew Bible and interprets them according to the new covenant established by God in and through the anointed one—"the Messiah"—Jesus. It reinforces events that the people are familiar with: the destruction of Jericho, the destruction of the temple by the Babylonians, the earthquake noted to be an occurance at the crucifixon of Jesus—all events of earth being shaken. It is being shakened by God who is the creator and redeemer of earth and all therein. The point being made is that what God accomplished in his chosen one—Jesus—is far great and more profound that anything that came before it. And, that covenant newly made is to be honored and claimed as God's way because the Kin-Dom in which life is lived is now established so fixed and certain that it will never be shakened. The realm of God is not a Kin-Dom that is perishable or able to succumb to destruction. Therefore, trust in God and trust in God's realm. Luke 13:10-17 13:10 Now he was teachng in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 13:11 And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. 13:12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." 13:13 When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 13:14 But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day." 13:15 But the Jesus answered him and said, "You hypocrites! t9Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? 13:16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Sarah and Abraham whom Evil bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" 13:17 When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing. For eighteen years she was disabled. She was unable to stand up straight. She was "bent over". There was a spirit that was causing the disability. Jesus called her to come to him, and touching her she immediately was healed. She was not "bent over" and she stood straight up. Now while the writer(s) of the gospel according to Luke employs this text3 as an argument of how non-kosher Jesus is as this was done on the Sabbath. The healing of the woman was seen as being work and the commandment makes it clear: no work is to be done on the Sabbath—at least to the understanding of those who complained about Jesus. Nonetheless, I chose to take the story of Jesus healing the "bent over" woman and unpack it in and of its own parameters. The "bent over" person was a woman, a woman with a spirit that was causing the disability. What can we see in this woman? A fitting analogy is that of Sisyphus. But instead of impossibly pushing the boulder up the mountain, the boulder is laid fiex and firm upon their back. Who would not be "bent over." Being a woman in this world, especially in the culture within the scope of the story and the culture we now know that was been our country since the beginning of empirical status. What burden do women carry with and within them due to the misogyny and cultural bias of women being a second class citizen. All the accessability to the resources that would make life better being compromised by male dominance. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are words intented to exclude women. Especially with new legislation that takes away the right of a female person to choose how to care for her body and her life. The radical right extremists have taken their perceived sense of ethics—a smoke screen around the actual need to be in control—have excused the dignity and rights of a people based on gender. Women are the intentional targets of misogyny. The word of women is not taken seriously in the same way the word of a man is respected—even when that word comes from men who have a history of sexism, sexual assault, and sexual abuse. Women who call such men on the carpet to take responsibility for the equality of all are not only not respected but are subject to criticism and dismissive inclusion. This is a major problem in our nation and it seems like it is only going to get worse—legislation barring same gender relationships and marriage. No wonder the woman is "bent over". And the spirit that is causing the disability is evil. It is evil and it is the men who make life and fulfillment more difficult for women. It is past the time for something to be done on a large scale. There is no way in the way of Jesus than the way of equality. Women will only be healed when rich, white, power hungry, control oriented men get out of the way. God's realm and the Kin-Dom of just peace is the very thing that is being ignored and actually fought against. Jesus touched her and she stood up straight. We need the touch of God upon us that we—males—may become allies and advocates for women's rights and find ourselves in places of eqiuity and equality. Prayer Living God, you formed us in the womb and appointed us to be prophets to the nations. Stretch out your hand to cure our infirmity and dispel our fear, that we may know the freedom of serving you in Christ and proclaim the wonders you have done. Amen. —https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/ Prayer Of Intercession We praise your abiding guidance, O God, for you sent us Jesus, our Teacher and Messiah, to model for us the way of love for the whole universe. We offer these prayers of love on behalf of ourselves and our neighbors, on behalf of your creation and our fellow creatures. —https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/ We pray for the church: the people coming to worship, the people worshipping elsewhere or at home, the people who follow in the inner sense of what is good and what is not. O God, in your compassion and mercy, hear our prayer. We pray for the world: may all nations and people come together, cooperating in taking care of your Earth, bringing an end to warfare and violence, find ways to negotiate peace and justice. O God, in your compassion and mercy, hear our prayer. We pray for those who suffer and in times of loss: may their always be times 0f hope, may there be care that shares the pain and brings comfort, may there we assurance that you are the Great Physician who is always with us and sharing our experience. O God, in your compassion and mercy, hear our prayer. We pray for those are leaders of nations: may a wisdom of truth be known and direct the decisions that are made, may the well-being of the common good be always in mind and action, may the way that those who are different be transformed undoing the dynamic of "we and they", may there not be enemies or scapegoats, and may there be acceptance of the diversity that enriches life. O God, in your compassion and mercy, hear our prayer. We pray for those who have died: may their presence with all the saints of glory we reason for more praise to You, may the memory of them be a means of keeping them in heart and mind, may the memories that bring pain and the suffering of unresolved issues be embrace in the possibility of reconciliation and healing. O God, in your compassion and mercy, hear our prayer. Loving God, open our ears to hear your word and draw us closer to you, that the whole world may be one with you as you are one with us in your Anointed One, Jesus, our Messiah. Amen. —https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/ Prayer of Dedication Merciful God, as we pour out the wealth you have entrusted to us, the parched places are watered; as we cease our evil talk, the rising light of peace dawns in the darkness. So lead us into faithful living that your promises may unfold in us as a woman's back, long bent, unfolds at Christ's command, to the praise of your holy name. Amen. —https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/ Song Mothering God, You Gave Me Birth (Click Here For Music) Author: Julian. of Norwich; Alterer: Jean Janzen (1933-) Arranged: Tom Trenney Mothering God, you gave me birth in the bright morning of this world. Creator, source of every breath, you are my rain, my wind, my sun. Mothering Christ, you took my form, offering me your food of light, grain...of life, and grape of love, your very body for my peace. Mothering Spirit, nurturing one, in arms of patience hold me close, so that in faith I root and grow until I flower, until I know. Dismissal With Blessing Go in peace to love God and your neighbor. And may the blessing of the Holy, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, rest upon you, forevermore. Amen.