Irreverently Reverend

  Ordinary Time Then Job answered the Lord and said: 2  “I know that you can do all things,     and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3  ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,     things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4  ‘Hear, and I will speak;     I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ 5  I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,     but now my eye sees you; 6  therefore I despise myself,     and repent in dust and ashes.”   And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.  11  Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him i...

  Ordinary Time Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,  2  but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night.  3   That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither — whatever they do prospers.  4  Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.  5  Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.  6  For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction. (NIV)             My midterm, I think it was, for medieval Latin in my Master of Arts program was to translate this psalm.   I was so thrilled; it’s short, it’s a bit repetitive, it doesn’t have any ridicul...

  Ordinary Time 15  Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise,  16  making the most of the time, because the days are evil.  17  So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.  18  Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit,  19  as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts,  20  giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ . (NRSV)               A friend of mine introduced me to the song “Joy” in college, playing it on a CD in her well-worn Honda Fit while the sun slid down behind the railroad tracks.   I didn’t get it—didn’t like it, at first.   The lyrics are jarringly at odds with the chord progression and the whole thing felt right at the edge...

  Ordinary Time 4  But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”  5  And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.”  6  And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again.  7  And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.”  8  And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.   (ESV)             An article in the Los Angeles Times from 2019 named the fact that “self-ca...