Sunday 7 June 2015
a wee reflection on the week ...
I was visiting a 94 year old woman who has just been fitted with a
pacemaker and is a little annoyed that the services feel she should
have a care package put in place. So someone comes to make her
dinner and she already has it in the oven. Someone gets her ready
for bed and she then gets up and watches TV till 10pm when she
then goes to bed. She appreciates a little help in the morning but
feels 7am is a little early for her when she occasionally feels like a
wee lie in. She phones her granddaughter in Ireland who takes her
shopping list from her and then organises a Tesco delivery. A quite
remarkable lady whose knees at the age of 94 are fitter than mine
and because she enjoys a good chat getting up to leave can take a
little time.
As I stood up to go I noticed an iPad next to her chair and
discovered that she not only uses it to play word games but also to
Skype her family who are dotted around the world. She was
showing it to me and said she was having problems emailing her
granddaughter as it didn’t seem to ‘send’. After a little while
exploring it and advising her on what to do (me advising anyone
about technology – though I felt I should surely and smugly know
more than a 94 year old!) I realised that she was merely trying to
email her granddaughter’s Skype address rather than email
address. So we changed that and she sent off an email saying
“Surprise! Guess who?”
Ministers and visitors will often say that they get more from a visit
than they feel they give, and that is certainly true at times. The
other day proves that you can indeed “teach a dog new tricks” if
they are open and willing and if there is a reason to learn. To be in
touch with family was a good enough reason for her.
As we settle into the usual routine and pattern of living we might be
inspired by that nonagenarian to take a wee risk in imagining
possibilities that might still lie ahead. We are never too old to learn
something new, do a different thing, even if we might require a wee
pacemaker to spark us up. Remember how old Abraham and
Sarah were, or Simeon and Anna, when they were called to do a
new thing.
Of course that’s all very well for some, but with my knees options
are fairly restricted, although I did buy a new footstool (can you still
call it a pouffe?) recently which has given me a new lease of life as
I watch the telly!
this sunday’s service
BIBLE READING: Psalm 113
New International Version (NIV)
Psalm 113
1 Praise
the LORD.[a]
Praise the LORD, you his servants;
praise the name of the LORD.
2 Let
the name of the LORD be praised,
both now and forevermore.
3 From
the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,
the name of the LORD is to be praised.
4 The
LORD is exalted over all the nations,
his glory above the heavens.
5 Who
is like the LORD our God,
the One who sits enthroned on high,
6 who
stoops down to look
on the heavens and the earth?
7 He
raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;
8 he
seats them with princes,
with the princes of his people.
9 He
settles the childless woman in her home
as a happy mother of children.
Praise the LORD.
Footnotes:
a.
Psalm 113:1 Hebrew Hallelu Yah; also in verse 9
The ‘Hallel’ Psalms (Psalms of Praise) is the name given to Psalms
113-118. They are also called “The Egyptian Hallel,” because they
were chanted in the temple while the Passover lambs were being
slain during Jewish festivals, in remembrance of the “Passover” &
Exodus from Egypt. Psalm 113 is a classic hymn of praise -perhaps we can consider it the class hymn of praise -- perfectly
embodying the form of a praise psalm: opening call to praise,
reasons for praise, closing call to praise. It begins with a triune call
to praise, which names the object of praise.
The opening call to praise
1) names whom to praise (the Lord);
2) who is to do the praising (the servants of the Lord); and again,
more specifically how to address our praise (to the name of the
Lord).
One important aspect here is the connection between praise and
being servants of the Lord. Praise is one of the ways that we can
become servants of the Lord. In the very act of praising God, we
become God’s own people. And the name of the Lord -- YHWH -is how we address our praise. This is not generic feeling good or
telling an unhearing, impersonal universe that we are grateful for
life. Our praise is to the personal and communal God of the Bible
and is not only in an act of worship but through living lives of
praise.
prayer
(based on Psalm 113)
The mother bent down and picked up her little one
nursing him, loving him, affirming him;
the father bends down and lifts his son
into his wheelchair and pushes him out
to experience the wind and the sun and the beauty that
he so often misses;
a woman bends low
because age and infirmity means she can do no other;
and the old man bends low to pick up a penny from the
pavement
in the forlorn hope that a meal could cost so little.
So, in Christ, God bends low
to tell us that we are valued
to love us towards wholeness
to raise us up to new life.
There are times we too must bend low
to enable others to rise.
Amen