Life Abundant And Honest Talk With God - October 20, 2010

Daily Lectionary Readings for October 20, 2010
Psalm 32
Micah 3:9-4:5
Revelation 8:1-13
Luke 10:17-24

Psalm 32
Sin.  It's front and center in this passage and as such one might imagine it's a kind of gloomy bit of Scripture.  Not so much.  In fact, discussion of sin, especially confession of sin, as is the case in Psalm 32 is freeing, liberating and joyful. 
"While I kept silence, my body wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.'
and you forgave the guilt of my sin. (vs.4 and 5)
We sin.  We live with it.  It weights upon us and takes a physical, mental and spiritual toll.  And it's not a secret to God.  Whether we take it up with God, God is aware of it and our feelings of dislocation in relation to God grow, in large part because of our focusing of resources on carrying a burden we need not carry.  God knows we sin.  God knows we will confess a sin today and commit more shortly after we've finished our confession.  This is not a call to be dismissive of our sinfulness - we want to strive to follow Christ and to live within God's plan and God's will more faithfully - but it is a call to recognize that our life will have more possibility of being the life abundant Scripture talks about if we aren't devoting ourselves to covering our sinfulness.  In acknowledging our sin before God there is forgiveness, there is a lifting of the heaviness that weighs us down, there is the experience of God's grace, there are better possibilities for the future.

Micah 3:9 - 4:5
"Its rulers give judgments for a bribe,
its priests teach for a price,
its prophets give oracles for money;
yet they lean upon the Lord and say,
'Surely the Lord is with us!'
Therefore because of you Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the house a wooded height."
Micah is covering similar ground to the Psalmist.  The relationship between God and the rulers, priests and prophets is out of joint, it is dislocated.  The proclaim, "Surely God is with us", while at the same time continuing, unrepentant, in behavior that moves them away from God.  God is indeed with us, but habitual sinful behavior on our part clouds are ability to hear God's voice and to respond with any degree of faithfulness.  We are willfully disobedient and yet, somehow, desirous of God's blessing.  It is asking ourselves to pull off a feat of comparmentalization that is really beyond our ability to maintain.