C-19 Reflection #34: Rebuilding the House

C-19 Reflection (#34)

Theme: Rebuilding the House

Scripture: Psalm 127 (NLT)

Unless the Lord builds a house,

    the work of the builders is wasted.

Unless the Lord protects a city,

    guarding it with sentries will do no good.

2 

It is useless for you to work so hard

    from early morning until late at night,

anxiously working for food to eat;

    for God gives rest to his loved ones.

3 

Children are a gift from the Lord;

    they are a reward from him.

4 

Children born to a young man

    are like arrows in a warrior’s hands.

5 

How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!

    He will not be put to shame when he confronts his accusers at the city gates.

Reflection:

According to the public discourse, we are now into the very early stages of reopening/getting back. Things are cautiously moving. Many voices are crying out “enough already” and if you aren’t saying it you are most certainly feeling it, even if you agree that extreme caution is an important part of the emerging new normal. We have been confined to our homes for 8 weeks, nearing the length of a whole summer. Hard to believe it is taking so long, but rebuilding some things takes more time. That said, it probably feels like a big enough pause for us as social beings and maybe too big a pause for us as economic beings. But has it been a long enough unplug and tear down in other ways that affect us deeply?

A few weeks ago, someone said to me, “During this time, if you are not reflecting on how things are going to change for you, then you are probably just not listening?” I’ve been hearing variations on this theme all along the way in the responses and ruminations of politicians, philosophers and physicians, as well as business and cultural leaders. When I connect with my professional contacts downtown in the financial district, it seems clear that certain sorts of change are unavoidable, affecting everything from business travel to organizational structure to investment strategy to team communication style to workspace geography and beyond. Not to mention education, medical care, family life, commuting, entertainment and maybe even politics. Undoubtedly church life is going to be affected in certain ways, but what about the life of the spirit? It does seem like a bit of a shame to go on a big long retreat like the one we find ourselves on presently, whether we signed up for it or not, only to come back without any fresh openings.

Of course, there are many people who resist and resent change, but Psalm 127 is an interesting place to begin to pick away at this issue because of how it assumes that all of our daily cultural, vocational and relational activity is somehow deeply connected to God’s constant involvement and provision. It makes this observation in the nervy, mysterious way that wisdom sees and says things. Simply put, if change means reconsidering how God is in the mix every day in every human aspect, then this extended and unusual opportunity to take time to notice him and consciously welcome him in to it all, including the success and failure pieces, has got to be a shift we can all get behind, pray for and celebrate.

You may have heard this saying that has been popular in Christian circles over the years: “Work as if it depends on you, pray as if it depends on God.” While we could get into longer reflection on this, the main insight of today’s Psalm seems to be that we should be actively participating in culture, work and community as if everything depends on God, day and night. Leaving prayer aside as a piously construed second rate activity purposed for isolation in the sanctuary or the prayer closet, as if worship and work aren’t combined together as one, is surely a shortcoming when it comes to the kind of spiritual imagination that the Psalmist wants to see flourish among us. As someone said, we are in the middle of one gigantic, once in a lifetime gut check that has got to implicate our everyday spirituality.

As people who are trained to listen to God’s wisdom for our own lives first, not sensing and noticing that people from all walks of life are beginning to explore the early stages of the messaging behind Psalm 127, namely bringing what we might call spiritual consideration into their deepest life and work questions, conversations and future prioritization, would also be a huge miss of not caring about the shaken up, vulnerable soul of this wounded world.

 The Psalm’s insight and invitation sets the table for a significant social and spiritual reevaluation for all of us together during this present disaster. This is a slowed down pause of a retreat of convincing proportion and everyone who is listening knows it. The Psalmist is longing for people to see God in the midst of it all and goes all in with this poetically infused invitation in order to stoke our desire for refreshingly new possibilities about the things in life that we care about most, including our loved ones, our callings and our communal welfare. Let’s pray that responding to this life - deepening invitation is a key part of the long- term rebuild and not simply a superficial aspect of the jittery early stages.

Reflection Questions:

1.      What aspect of the Psalm catches your attention?

2.      What questions and observations do you hear rising in the conversations of your friends and in the wider cultural dialogue?

3.      What area of your life do you sense God is speaking to you about, through the Psalm and through this pandemic season?