From: your-daily-tripod+noreply@googlegroups.com
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2010 04:31:41 +0000
Subject: [Your Daily Tripod] Digest for
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- Let the Hills Hear Your Voice (July 19) [1 Update]
http://groups.google.com/group/your-daily-tripod/t/b6e314e2d7b3bc7f
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Topic: Let the Hills Hear Your Voice (July 19)
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/your-daily-tripod/t/b6e314e2d7b3bc7f
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From: "dxfaro@cox.net" <dxfaro@cox.net>
Date: Jul 18 07:09PM -0700
Url: http://groups.google.com/group/your-daily-tripod/msg/88d2353dc46f4ee7
Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow before God most high?
Shall I come before him with holocausts, with calves a year old? Will
the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with myriad streams of
oil? Shall I give my first-born for my crime, the fruit of my body for
the sin of my soul? You have been told, O man, what is good, and what
the LORD requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:6-8
"There is something greater." Matthew 12:41c
Piety
Dear Lord, do I want to see signed from you as the Pharisees did? I
certainly do not desire miraculous cures or great solar phenomena, but
I often find myself hoping that you will touch my own and my friends'
hearts in a very distinct way. I often desire an inner feeling of
peace, tranquility, and sweetness in which your love and goodness can
be tasted.
But you, O Lord, ask me to accept the sign of Jonas, the sign os your
death and resurrection. You want me to recognize your presence not so
much in unusual outer or inner events, but in the painful experience
of living in the belly of the sea monster. You do not take your
friends out of this world but want them to taste its bitterness with
you so that by sharing in your death they can share also in your
resurrection.
I pray that I can be faithful to you with no other sign to rely upon
than the sign of Jonah. You yourself gave me that sign, and that
should be enough.
In you, O Lord, I put my hope. Amen.
("Monday, July 23," from A Cry for Mercy: Prayers from the Genesee by
Henri J. M. Nouwen. New York: Doubleday, Image. 2002. Page 130.)
Study
We have been told over and over and over again what the Lord requires
of us. If this were just a phrase buried in a relatively small,
obscure book of the Hebrew Bible, then we might be able to plead
ignorance. But Micah is echoing the theme that is expressed throughout
the Old Testament and the invitation that Jesus continues to issue to
his followers. Psalm 50 reminds us that to the one who "goes the right
way the Lord will show the salvation of God."
There is something greater to do than offer sacrifices. God made all
things. He does not need nor require us to give those back to him. He
only wants our friendship.
How do you behave with your friends? You spend time with them. You
call them on the phone. You send them text messages (well, we can skip
that with God.) You share you life with your friends. You might even
go for a walk with your friends. With whom have you taken a walk
recently?
When we take a walk with someone, we share some special moments.
Perhaps you watched the sun rise on the beach with your spouse.
Perhaps you walked the dog with your grandchild. Perhaps you hiked a
trail with your son's Scout troop.
When we walk with someone, we say that nothing else in the world
matters more than spending this time, these minutes, with you. It is a
very intimate relationship. No words need pass between you and your
companion like the stories share on the road to Emmaus. All that is
required is spending time with them in the sample place doing the same
thing. Together.
Jesus taught his lessons while walking about Galilee and Jerusalem.
When Jesus invited the disciples to follow him, they accepted it as an
invitation to walk with him. God is looking for people like you and I
who will walk with Him. God wants us to spend some quality time with
Him. God wants us to walk in the same direction that He walks. God
wants us to care for the protection of all that he has made. God asks
very little else of us.
"Walk with me." Think back to Noah and Abraham and Micah. The price of
the covenant was simple…to walk humbly with God. When Jesus cured the
paralytic man, he commanded him to "Rise, pick up your mat, and walk."
When Jesus raised the twelve-year-old girl from the dead, his command
was "Arise" and the Gospel commented that she walked around.
When Jesus sent the disciples out on their mission, he told them only
to take a walking stick and sandals, the essential tools for someone
commanded to walk humbly with God. When Jesus appeared after the
resurrection, one of those first appearances was when he was teaching
a pair on the walk to Emmaus.
Action
Whether you are headed to Emmaus or Centerville, take a step in the
right direction. We all turn to God in times of crisis. When we face
illness. When we mourn the death of a friend. When a brother, sister,
mother or father deploys to a war zone. God can count on the pews
filling up when something bad happens. But God wants our presence
during regular ordinary days. God's presence in our life emerges from
a daily walk. That may not sound too miraculous. In fact it is pretty
mundane.
How do you approach your walk. Are you asking God to walk with you? Or
are you realizing that God is asking YOU to walk with HIM? You have
been told, my friends, what is good, and what the LORD requires of
you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly
with your God.
You have taken on the role of helper, volunteer, advocate. We don't
need daily reminders that many people in this life can perform good
without faith. In fact last week, in an exchange on Facebook, I
exchanged messages with someone who claims that faith is not needed in
order to good for each other.
He may be right. But I am glad that I live in a country in which he is
free to believe that and I am free to believe that my faith and action
go hand in hand. Our job is to work for more than just putting band-
aids on problems.
Just as Micah and Isaiah called for structural change in the
distribution of wealth and property, we are also called to work for
such structural change in our world. There is something greater here
to do. We can't stop feeding the poor. We can't stop clothing the
naked. We can't stop visiting the sick. We can't stop teaching the
young. But we also must get on with the work that Dorothy Day
characterized in her famous quote: "Our problems stem from our
acceptance of this filthy, rotten system."
Isaiah was not content with acceptance. Micah was not content with
acceptance. Jesus certainly was not content with acceptance. Let us
all join them in changing the direction in which we as individuals and
society are looking for happiness.
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