Tag Archives: Psalm

Lectionary Commentary: Psalm 139 1-12, 23-24

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In these verses, The reader or listener is invited to experience God and God’s personal connection to us.It is shared that God has searched, and knows God’s creation. We also are brought into the message that God is knowing of all of our ways, and we are never without God.God creates great diversity within God’s Creation. I believe that God celebrates this great diversity, including the unique experience of living with disabilities. As God both searches and knows each of us, perhaps there is a connection to the various ways in which people with disabilities search and know ourselves. As well, to be express ourselves, find solutions and accessibility, and to use our unique gifts in all areas of life: recreation, work, volunteering, ongoing learning, advocacy and spiritual development.

The United Church of Christ has a motto. God is still speaking. I could interpret this as God is communicating with all of God’s Creation.And I do believe that it is true. However, some may experience communication with God in a different sensory way, based on ability or learning style. The words of a song, colors and patterns in a painting, taste of a meal, touch from a loved one whether human or animal, smell of the morning breeze. Any of these could communicate in a different way and in the stillness of a moment, be a connection to our still speaking God

As the person experiencing Psalm 139 verse 1 through 12 and 23 through 24, what sensory experiences with God has been experienced by you? How is this reflective of various folks including those living with disabilities? Feel welcome to share in the comments section so we might engage!


Steph Niemela, MID, ordination pending call, Michigan Conference

UCCDM Lenten Devotional-Reflection for Good Friday

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This is the ninth in the UCCDM Lenten Devotional Series for 2014. This reflections comes from Rev. Peggy Davis Dunn, UCCDM Board Member and former Chair. Her bio can be found on the Board of Directors page.

Good Friday

I am poured out like water, and all my bones have fallen apart; my heart is like wax; it melts inside of me; my strength is dried up like a piece of broken pottery. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you’ve set me down in the dirt of death. Psalm 22: 14-15 CEB

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light. John 1:5 CEB

I write this reflection sitting on a couch in a room in the Walter Reed Military Hospital in Bethesda MD. About six feet away from me lies a grandson whose body was broken in a horrific car accident about 6 weeks ago. We are here this week to be with him and to give his mom some companionship and respite as she accompanies him on his journey back from the days when he was given a 5% chance of survival. His trauma has involved having both arms and both legs broken, broken ribs with internal injuries, extensive facial damage including the loss of an eye and some hopefully temporary brain injury. Parts of his body which are whole have been drawn from to repair parts of his body which are broken. His rehabilitation has involved 21 surgeries so far, and this journey will likely go on for about a year. His body will not be the same as it was before his accident.

His pain has been great and his body has been broken. His life path has been altered in a split second. The words of Psalm 22 above are apt.

But daily we see him return to the land of the living. He gains strength and capacity. He moves more steps forward than back.

Good Friday is the day when Christians reflect on the suffering of Christ on a cross outside of Jerusalem, on the willingness of Jesus to endure the suffering of crucifixion. The suffering of Christ then, and the suffering of this grandson now, are very real. But suffering is not the last word, then or now.  Suffering itself is not redemptive, on Jesus’ part, or anyone else’s. What is redemptive is the Spirit that sustains in the experience of the suffering. And the Light which shines in the Darkness even when we cannot see it. We believe, in the words of John’s gospel, that the darkness of our lives cannot extinguish the light, tho the darkness be very real, and very dark. The light is found in the darkness. In our various ways, we hold that faith.

 

UCCDM Lenten Devotional–Cornerstone

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This is the seventh in the UCCDM Lenten Devotional for 2014. It is written by Rev. Jeanne Tyler, Vice Chair of UCCDM. Her bio is on the Board of Directors page.

The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.-Psalm 118:22

I like to play with images and words. They help place me in my experience of the world.  In Psalm 118, we hear or read, verse 22, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”  Now, this is interesting. A cornerstone is a foundational stone marking the corner of a building.  It is one significant stone. Being the chief cornerstone makes it even more of a significant stone.  But, the builders rejected it. And yet, someone dragged it back and placed it well so it became the chief cornerstone. Is not this interesting and intriguing, particularly on Palm Sunday?  We know the story of Palm Sunday when Jesus enters Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and the people greet his entry with palms and shouts of Hosanna!

Who among us has not experienced rejection because of a perceived flaw? Most builders want to build an enduring building and they look for stones that match their ideals of “significant” stones. So, how is it possible for a rejected stone to become the cornerstone? How is it possible for people with disabilities to place ourselves at the cornerstone? We are often rejected. We are not good enough, we are not smart enough, we are not political enough, or we are not significant enough to become a cornerstone. What value do we offer in centering the walls of an enduring building?

We offer our humanity; judged as perhaps insignificant, yet created in the complexity and mysterious Image of God. We who cannot hide nor deny our full humanity offer our very bodies as testament to the love of God. In language of covenant, we are grateful to the creation and to Jesus who becomes the cornerstone of our faith; unexpected yet acclaimed.

Prayer  Holy One,  give us hope and grace in ourselves as we are.  It is a great paradox that the stone rejected by builders becomes the chief cornerstone.  Thank you for the diversity of creation and for times of being the chief cornerstone.  Amen.