Speak the Word

Beloved of God,

There are a few big things coming up in the life of the church next week.

On Tuesday, 9/21 at 6:45 pm the Deacons will be hosting an open forum to present their recommendation on Article I (Statement of Faith) of the church bylaws. They are asking that folks who would like to give feedback or hear that recommendation be present at WRBC that evening.
On Friday, 9/24 at 12:00 pm we will be hosting a luncheon for our senior adults. Lisa Larson will be leading a conversation about the scope of a prospective senior ministry, and input from our seniors will be especially important. You can RSVP for lunch by either emailing Lisa or by calling the church office at 505.672.9764. 


    Our Scripture reading for Sunday is Psalm 1, which has helped me rethink the way I read the Bible. This is one of those times where the English translation cleans up the text with good intention only to soften the image we are meant to have. The NIV tells us that blessing comes to the one who “meditates” on the law day and night, but that’s not quite the picture here. 
    You likely will have seen pictures or videos of faithful Jewish folks attending to their prayers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. In fact that wall even has a nickname, the “Wailing Wall”, because of the way the folks gathered there will speak fervently and earnestly their prayers and readings from Scripture. 
    This image is closer to the word we have here for meditate. It’s not a word for a detached and thoughtful repose, but for a moaning, a growling, a muttering through God’s law. The expectation is that we would read God’s word aloud, hearing ourselves as we do. I’m reminded of my first semester in college where I took a class on philosophical ethics. We were reading works by Kant, Hume, and Nietzsche. Much of it was difficult for me to comprehend. I found myself studying in the student union building because in order to understand what I was reading, I had to hear myself read it. I needed that extra point of contact with the text to fully grasp what was written. I had to read with as many parts of my mind and attention open to the text as possible.
    What if we read Scripture like that regularly? What if we were to adopt a discipline where we don’t hurry through a passage so we can get to the “valuable” work of mining it for meaning, and instead looked and listened to it patiently and deliberately? What might we hear that we hadn’t seen before? If you want to try this out, Psalm 1 is a perfect passage with which to give it a whirl.

Please join me this week in praying for:

• An end to this pandemic.
  
• Doctors, nurses, PA’s, paramedics, and others working to keep us all well.
  
• Those of us who have lost someone in recent days, and are carrying deep grief.
  
• Those among us who are hurt or sick in body, mind, or spirit.
  
• First responders who confront emergencies in our homes, our highway, our towns, and our wildlands.
  
• Those who are feeling especially tired or worn; that the Holy Spirit would bring rest and refreshment that nothing else can.
  
• Refugees, particularly those from Afghanistan, who are having to resettle and begin a life far from everything they have known.
  
• Wisdom, which seems so often in great need and excruciatingly short supply.
  
• Patience, for those moments when our own wisdom or the wisdom of others fails.
  
• Each other (please contact [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).
  

You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world,


Marshall