hard hearts – The Noontimes

Psalm 80: Prayer for a Persecuted People

Psalm 80: Prayer for a Persecuted People

Good Friday, March 29, 2024

Today we remember the passion of Christ who suffered in order that we might be free to know God fully. Today we pray for all those who are persecuted. And we pray that we see the many small ways in which we judge and persecute others.

Restore us, O LORD of hosts; let your face shine upon us, and we will be saved.

Persecution often follows us when we answer God’s call to act as God’s disciples, when we carry truth to people who do not want to see it. When we witness to an injustice, we want to rely on God’s wisdom, strengthen our resolve with Scripture – a manifestation of Christ among us, and rest in prayer with the Spirit.

Several years ago when I struggled with a particularly challenging set of circumstances, I left the student dining hall to go to my classroom where I might find some quiet. I had to prepare a report I knew would displease our leaders in that it spoke to a truth they did not want to hear. In the hush of that noontime, I flipped open the Bible that always lies near my desk and the pages fell open to Psalm 80, a prayer for those living through persecution. Had I come across an immediate answer to my prayer?

The opening lines call for help and restoration, and are followed by an image of the vine brought out of Egypt, an allegory familiar to the prophets Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Hosea and Micah. Jesus uses this symbolic tale to describe his relationship with us: he is the vine, we are the branches (John 15:1-17). He sustains and nourishes; we are the fruit of Christ’s labor and love in us.

Anyone familiar with vineyard work knows that each winter the vines are cut back drastically in order that the plant become stronger and the fruit more dense and fine. Father Richard Veras writes that our hearts are encrusted and that Jesus must break through that crust in order to soften our hearts. “This crust is a barrier between him and the heart, and he will never respect or politely tolerate any such barriers”. Veras uses the examples of the Samaritan Woman at the well and Pontius Pilate to make his point. “The Samaritan woman’s barrier was doubt that true love and friendship could exist. Pilate’s barrier was power and position”. Jesus prunes their hearts and gives them the opportunity to do what is right. They have the option to choose.

And so do we. Each day. In every encounter with each person we encounter. Do we withdraw to hide within a structure of deceit and authority, or do we call for help and pruning? Do we turn away from the Creator, Savior, and Keeper, or do we ask for redemption?

Restore us, O LORD of hosts; let your face shine upon us, and we will be saved.

If we spend time with this psalm today, we might find our own prayer for the times when we are persecuted in Christ’s name.

Images from: https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-news/when-harvest-grapes-and-apples-home and https://www.heartlight.org/gallery/5798.html

Adapted from a reflection written on March 13, 2007.

Cameron, Peter John. “Meditation of the Day.” MAGNIFICAT. 3.13 (2007). Print.

March 29, 2024

allegory, Fr. Richard Veras, God’s help, God’s vineyard, hard hearts, John 15:1-17, persecution, Pontius Pilate, the Samaritan Woman, the vine and branches

Zechariah 7: Diamond Hardness

Zechariah 7: Diamond Hardness

Tuesday, December 13, 2022

Scattered in a whirlwind and living in an unfamiliar, desolate land, they are not heard by the Lord of hosts when they call on his name. They refused to listen. They turned stubborn backs and stopped up their ears. They plotted evil and oppressed those who lived on the fringes and those who were unaccepted. They isolated, they divided, they did not show compassion or kindness toward each other. With all of this constant turning away, they have turned their hearts to such stoniness that they are now diamond hard. Only God can call them back. Only God can soften these people. Only God knows their true names.

Zechariah writes to those who have returned from exile and who should remember and understand how they came to be living in a hostile land. He encourages those who return to open their hearts, to soften their hearts, to give their hearts over to God.

The people who first heard this prophecy believed that they had suffered more, longer and harder than any of the other faithful before them. Zechariah offers hope to these people and to us. He encourages us to cease putting off tending to our relationship with God. He urges us to clean our temple selves, and to ready ourselves for the coming of one who will save. We do this best by forming and building community. We do this best by showing compassion and kindness to one another.

When we are in the throes of a struggle, the one thing that will lift us, open us, soften us is our choice to place ourselves in our opponents’ shoes. In doing this, we step out of ourselves and open our cold hearts to God and to others. We risk being hurt, we risk losing our safety spot. Yet we risk the total loss of self we stay encamped in our own interior tending to ourselves as our hearts turn harder each day. Eventually we turn into the hardest of materials – the cold glitter of diamonds.

When you fasted and mourned . . . was it really for me that you fasted?

We have a clear choice before us. We may either turn a pleasant land into a desert, or we may open our hearts to the possibility of divinity. What do we choose today? Diamond hardness, or the gentle, patient wisdom of God?

Images from: https://secretangelps911.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/hearts-of-stone/ and https://www.pinterest.com/dan330/hearts-in-nature/

A favorite from November 14, 2009.

December 13, 2022

community, exile, God’s wisdom, hard hearts

Psalm 94: Our Interior Law – Part IV

Second Sunday in Lent, February 28, 2021

Psalm 94

Our Interior Law – Part IV

Blessed the one you instruct, O Lord.

We ask for wisdom so that we might discern your law that lives within each of us.

Blessed the one whom you instruct, O Lord, whom by your law you teach, giving them rest from evil days. Blessed the one you instruct, O Lord.

We look for peace in our turbulent days so that we must rest with you as we move through our days.

For the Lord will not cast off God’s people, nor abandon God’s inheritance; but judgment will be with justice, and all the upright of heart will follow it. Blessed the one you instruct, O Lord.

We look for integrity and uprightness so that we might live out the Gospel as Jesus teaches us.

When I say, “My foot is slipping,” your mercy, O Lord, sustains me; when cares abound within me, your comfort gladdens my soul. Blessed the one you instruct, O Lord.

We look for compassion and forgiveness so that we might live the love the Spirit inspires in each of us.

Blessed the one you instruct, O Lord.

We tap into our interior law, knowing that it always leads us in the best direction, understanding that it flourishes at the best of God’s time, and believing that it nourishes and sustains each of us and all of us.

Blessed the one you instruct, O Lord.

Jesus says, “Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?” They answered him, “Twelve.” “When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up?” They answered him, “Seven.” He said to them, “Do you still not understand?” (Mark 8:17-21)

God’s love is far greater than we can imagine and far more durable than we can believe. And this is God’s law of love. There is always love in abundance . . . forever. Blessed are those who see and hear. Blessed are those who allow God to soften hearts. Blessed are those who believe that God’s law lives within.

Blessed the one you instruct, O Lord.

Image from: http://shareaverse.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/comfort-3/psalm-94-18-19/

February 28, 2021

compassion, forgiveness, God’s love, hard hearts, integrity, Law of Love, mercy, peace, uprightness, wisdom

Tag: hard hearts

Psalm 80: Prayer for a Persecuted People

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Zechariah 7: Diamond Hardness

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Psalm 94: Our Interior Law – Part IV

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