His righteousness has He openly shown in the sight of the nations.

Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You judge the peoples with equity and guide all the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. Psalm 67:3–5

They were terrified, but the angel said, ‘Do not be afraid. Look, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by all the peoples. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. Luke 2:10-11

Let the rivers clap their hands, and let the hills ring out with joy before the LORD, when He comes to judge the earth. In righteousness shall He judge the world and the peoples with equity. Psalm 98

So I turned to NT Wright this morning to read about righteousness, because for some reason we are to rejoice over it, unlike how I felt as a little naughty girl when my mom would warn, “Just wait until your father gets home,” and I would pace back and forth in front of the big living room window, peering nervously down the street, waiting for his black VW beetle to round the bend to mete out my well-deserved judgment.

“Paul saw that the Jewish problem of God’s righteousness (if the creator of the world is Israel’s covenant God, why is Israel still oppressed?) had been answered in a new and striking way in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The answer had, in fact, forced a restatement of the question, demonstrating as it did the universal sinfulness of Jews as well as pagans.  The gospel, Paul declares, proves that God is in the right despite appearances: he has kept covenant with Abraham, has dealt properly with sin, has acted and will act without partiality, and upholds all those who cast themselves, helpless, on his mercy.”

And Wright says that both Augustine and Luther veered off the gospel path, and made righteousness more of a thing we did, piling good deeds on one side of the scale to make up for all of our wickedness on the other side.

And the key word is “helpless” as we throw ourselves upon His mercy. “And sometimes,” Wright adds, “this complex meaning explains the occasional instances when the Septuagint uses dikaiosynē to translate not sedeq and its cognates but other roots such as hesed (grace, covenant mercy).”

He is the One who completed the Law, His grace, His mercy. It is not I, less I should ever boast or for even a moment judge or begrudge another.

And now that sin has been dealt with properly, we can rejoice, because all is being made right. Even the rivers clap their hands and the hills ring out with joy.

And the stars. This morning when I stepped outside into the almost-freezing fresh morning, the stars overhead were so brilliant that they too seemed to be laughing. Not unkindly, but nevertheless, with perspective. The battle has been won.

Love has triumphed.

Oh the deep, deep love of Jesus
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free

Do not be afraid. Look, I bring you news of great joy,

a joy to be shared by all the peoples.

Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide all the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. Psalm 67:3–5

Let the sea make a noise and all that is in it, the lands and those who dwell therein. Let the rivers clap their hands, and let the hills ring out with joy before the LORD, when He comes to judge the earth. In righteousness shall He judge the world and the peoples with equity. Psalm 98

I have a very tender sort of weepy inwardly and sometimes outwardly sort of heart. I ache. Which feels incongruous with the Rejoice I say again Rejoice mandate under which I live.

For instance, it feels like a punch in the stomach whenever I hear God Bless America. Because somehow I instinctively take it to mean…over and above all of those other peoples out there.  And I weep. At the hardheartedness of those I love.

Actually the most joyous moments of a very full Christmas was Christmas Eve after all of carol-singing and candle-lighting services and it was almost still in front of the fireplace stacked with a huge stash of wood.

Cameron came over with a friend and I gave the hungry men leftovers, and then Wali drove down from Phoenix and he was wiped-out, hadn’t eaten all day hungry too, and I found something for him too, and Nicole and Manuel were here and Charly and Markus had finished their secret preparations and Cameron pulled out his guitar and Alan distributed drums and miscellaneous treasures from the percussion bag that magically convert all into musicians. Well, except for me.

And they sang and played and sang some more through all of everyone’s heart songlists. And sometimes we had to look up the words with google and it was one of those belly-full-to-the-brim moments.

And Ehab is from Palestine, and he is a broken-hearted people from an occupied land. He is kind and gentle and strong. And broken-hearted.

And once again, His word met me this morning as I ached yet again in the early darkness. And the thing about the Rejoice, I say it again rejoice mandate is that it was written from prison. And the very next line is Remember the LORD is coming soon. Soonish. In the big scheme of things.

And let the rivers clap their hands, and let the hills ring out with joy before the LORD. And Judgment Day is not to be feared, because He has already paid the price and broken the power of sin. And Judgment Day is not to be feared because He judges with righteousness. Wrong will be made right. He shall judge the world and the peoples with equity.

Restoration will take place.

 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

And He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21:3-5

This is the point of all of this, the gold-gilt angels and felt-on-wood Nativity scenes and scented candles and almost-eaten boxes of chocolates. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.

Joy to the world.

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.

A planting of the LORD.

Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You judge the peoples with equity and guide all nations upon the earth. Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You. Psalm 67:3–5

I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:10-11

I woke up this morning, oddly enough, with a song on my lips: His name be praised in all the earth.

So today’s Call to Prayer did not surprise me one bit. Let the peoples praise You, O God. Let all the peoples praise You.

Because my prayer these days is immediate and full obedience to Him who dwells within. And I am a little embarrassed to say that as I stood in front of my Aunt Carol’s bookcase crammed full of amazing books, the same Aunt Carol who was head librarian of New York City libraries and sent each one of her nephews and nieces the most thoughtful and perfect book every birthday and every Christmas, and I learned how to read on my fifth birthday because my mom read Little Bear over and over and over again until all those little black marks suddenly made sense, that I only took three books. And I am embarrassed to say that one of them was not a signed leather-bound first edition; I actually pulled off Eat, Pray, Love for my trip home. I hate admitting trendiness. Especially late trendiness. And of course there was no opportunity for light reading on Jim’s and my adventure to Tucson, and yet somehow I know God wants me to read this book. So I am reading it. And gaining fresh insight into eternity being planted in the human heart and He faithfully guiding all nations of the earth. And yes, I confess to being in the middle of my Eat, Pray, Love year like everyone joked about, but I am still in India praying.

Although I still hesitate long and hard before praying for people in Fry’s parking lot, even though there was lots of Spirit-prodding as I watched a nice man limp by, holding just a tan plastic bag with red lettering exactly the shape of a whiskey bottle and nothing else. But I hung with Nicole when she prayed for another nice man in a wheelchair with arthritis who has twenty-four grandchildren and one of them was with him, putting noodles in the shopping cart.  

But Sunday a guy with a baseball cap and funny beard ran across the room to prophecy over me, he said, because my face was shining with joy and that I am entering a time of producing much fruit because my roots are planted deep. And he stretched out his arms to show how very heavy the branches would be laden. And that all would gather round to rest in my shade because I am full of peace. And that so many would be welcomed into my home and into my life, to eat of the fruit.

Which reminds me of the planting of my feet appropriately with toes pointed in during the seven hours of silent and still meditation. And somehow the seven hours left me thirsty for more silence, more being led by still waters. And the priest had given me a slip of paper to mediate on, Blessed are the poor in spirit. May I be poor in spirit. Be still. Breathe in, Breathe out.

And I just rode my bike up Sentential Mountain. Way slow, but fairly steady. (Yes, those are adjectives describing me, and not adverbs, how I rode.) And as I rested before the way too fast descent, I considered Tucson sprawling out in all directions, under its little dust cloud. And I was ever aware of people cannot see the whole scope of God's work from beginning to end.  Not at all. But let me praise His name. His name be praised in all the earth.

And yes, I am just noticing all of the planting words. Promises. It seems so long ago but really only two days ago, that I was staring at a promise that seemed could not possibly come true: Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering their sheaves.

With all the peoples.

Back to the Basics

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide all nations upon the earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.  Psalm 67:3–5

A teacher of the law knew better than anyone else that the Samaritan had bad theology.  And Jesus knew that he knew it.  And He himself told the Samaritan woman, You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.  But that didn’t, and doesn’t matter.  

What does matter is mercy. 

We get off track sometimes by the second question, “Who is my neighbor?”, but the story starts with the first question, “What must I do to receive eternal life?” The answer to the second question is, “the one who showed mercy,” and the answer to the first question is “Go and do likewise.”

This is not a one shot theological point.  We are all familiar with Micah 6:8: He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.   But do we remember it?  

We forget that For God so loved the world.  We forget that He is not willing that any should perish.  We forget that somehow, in ways that are a mystery to us, that He guides all nations upon the earth.  But one day, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is LORD.  No purpose of His will be thwarted.

Let all the peoples praise Him.  And let me show mercy.  To each and every people.  He is the One who will judge with equity.  Not I.