A Word here and there...

Today, I watched my beloved Cowboys lose for the second week in a row.  Last week, I think it was a mistake to allow an injured player to talk himself back into the game.  The Cowboys success has not merely been because of Tony Romo, but because of the entire team.  Without Romo, the back-up quarterback and the rest of the team found a way to work together and score points.  I think they should have continued.

I watched them lose today because, my beloved Cowboys have developed this distressing pattern of shooting themselves in the foot.  The run, which has served them well thus far this season, just wasn't there today.  So, passing more is the logical course of action.  However, my beloved Cowboys seem to just love banging their heads against a brick wall.  SIGH.

Then, I watched the Broncos lose.  Get wallopped, actually.  It was difficult to watch.  I think that Peyton Manning is an honorable, respectful man.  There are not a lot of those kind of men out there, so I have been pulling for the Broncos, save for any conflict with the Cowboys.

The television was still on, so I ended up watching a show I never do: 60 Minutes.  One segment was about the Navy Seal who was on Team Six and wrote a book about the killing of Bin Laden.  He's in a mess of trouble, for which I disagree.  But in the segment he talks about a tiny bit in his new book.  It is a book about what he learned as a Navy Seal.  The tiny bit was the lesson of just worrying about your own 3 feet.

In his training, he was doing rock climbing on a cliff and became paralyzed.  He couldn't move.  His training person rappelled over and told him to mind his own 3 feet.  The guy was puzzled, until his trainer pointed out that all he could do was address the 3 feet in front of him, not the whole cliff face.  Armed with that bit of direction, the guy figured out his next foot and hand holds and proceeded to finish his climb.

When I heard that, I thought:  Gee, Myrtle, there is your problem.  You care about things that are not in your own 3 feet.  Needless to say, it has been a pensive evening for me.

The person staying here is Mary's husband, whose attending a conference.  Two actually.  When he came home, he came upstairs to visit.  That's a mistake.  If you are willing to talk Scripture or Confessions with me ... well ... it is hard for me to not keep you up too late.

The conversation wended around several subjects, but we did end up talking about Matthew's Jesus.  You see, I have finished the commentary.  I stopped writing about it because I have been very distressed with Matthew's Jesus.  It is not the commentary Michael Card makes about the Gospel of Matthew, but the words Jesus speaks himself.

Mary's husband had two things for me to consider.  The first was asking me about the sermon on the mount.  Well, that's where my trouble began, because my first thought in reading it was:  I know Jesus is the one giving the sermon here, but this is not a sermon I want to hear.  Where's the comfort???  Ned asked me what Matthew put in his Gospel immediately following.  What happened when Jesus came down the mountain?

The leper came to Jesus and said, "If you will, please heal me."
Jesus did.

When confronted by a sermon that appears to lean so heavily on the law, albeit it a new law which is not actually law, the response we might have is to look at our diseased flesh and ask Jesus if He will heal us.  The answer will always be the same.  Yes.

Mary's husband also suggested that I read through the commentary one more time, thinking about how a literary text's beginning is almost always connected to the ending.  Think about how Jesus the king had no authority or power and had to flee to escape death and yet at the end of the Gospel text Jesus the king had all authority and power even over death and look at how He used it to instruct His disciples.

I had just about decided to try and set aside my ... terror ... over Matthew's Jesus and start reading Luke's Jesus.  Now, I want to read the commentary on the Gospel of Matthew yet again to see if I can see the Jesus Ned talked about.

I'm typing this out on the airing porch.  Could I be addicted to that bit of sanctuary?  It is a bit nippy, to be sure, but the wild winds have died down.  I thought Amos and I could be out here for a while before frost bite set in.  The quilt I'm using out here is not quite thick enough.  I have my grandfather's Army blankets from WWII.  I bet they would keep us warmer.  Tomorrow,  I would like to dig them out.

Before coming out here, I watered all the plants in the solarium.  Amos happily lounged upon one of the twin beds in there.  My puppy dog is as besotted with the solarium as I am with the airing porch.  Anyway, any qualms I might have had about the rosemary bushes have been dispelled.  They have all new branches from my heavy pruning.  Basically, that means that I might could learn to be a better sharer of rosemary butter because I think I will be having copious amounts of rosemary all winter long.

I just love the smell of wet soil.

Sitting here, starting to think about what I learned about the magi and the idea of Jesus the king, from exile to triumph, maybe this time through the commentary will be ... better.  I am ever so thankful that Michael Card wrote his commentaries.  I am rather confident that anyone else reading the one on Matthew would be in raptures, the way I still am about Mark's Jesus.  It is just that the Gospel of Matthew is a bit difficult for this particular person.

I want to flee from it.
I want to wrap my arms around it and hang on for dear life until I no longer fear it.

Need I even mention that part of our discussion was about the Psalter?  I got to share my five Go-To Psalms that I believe would cover any situation in a pinch.  The last one, Psalm 104, I read to him.  Weird, eh?  Reading a psalm to someone whose vocation is a pastor?  I heartened myself up hearing that Word of God in my ears as I read to him.  And that was my point.  No matter what is going on in your heart or your mind or your body ... reading that Psalm is this glorious reminder that God is mighty and powerful and yet so intimately connected to all of creation.

All of creation.
All.

What are my five Go-To Psalms?

Psalm 27:  You're being assaulted on all fronts and want relief and all that desire is boiled down to just one thing: to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  Focus.  Focus on what you need in the midst of the maelstrom swirling about you.  But, hey, it's okay to also ask that God doesn't forget about rescuing you and defeating your enemies.

Psalm 42:  Why is my soul in despair?  You long for the Word of God, but your soul in is despair.  You know these good things of God to be true, but your soul is still in despair.  Well, hey, that's okay.  God gave you a prayer that lets you know that He knows that even knowing Him and all that He has done for you you can still find yourself in despair.  That's life in a fallen world.  God understands.

Psalm 51:  You're forgiven.  God doesn't need you to go out and make yourself better.  He knows you've messed up and forgives you.  Knowing, actually, that you are going to mess up, God gives you the words to pray to be renewed, to be cleansed ... to be forgiven.  To be forgiven and to know that you will be forgiven.  The promise received and the promise to come all in one.

Psalm 77:  It can happen.  You can start thinking that God has left you and that nothing is going to be okay, that He's changed.  Then, you realize that it is your upsettedness that is making you think God changed, not that He actually changed.  So, remind yourself of who He is and what He's done.  It's okay to find yourself having a wrong thought, a bad thought, just follow the plan of the prayer and replace the wrong thought with what is true.

Psalm 104:  Man!  God is powerful and mighty and cares about every facet of this world.  He cares about it and cares for it.  And so sing about it.  Sing about of all those wonderful things until the wonder dispels the darkness within and leaves you with the glorious and comprehensive reminder of just how connected God is to this world ... and likewise to you.

Seriously, it doesn't matter that you might not know what to say to someone.  God does.  And He gave us His perfect word in such abundance to speak into the ears of those who are in need.

Oh, yes, when in doubt, you can also throw in John 1:1-5.  Or read it even when you are not in doubt.  Hey, it can be that antiphon thing, that little bit you begin with and then repeat at the end.