Tuesday, September 22, 2020           (today’s lectionary)
Like a stream is the king’s heart
When Ms. Ginsburg passed away last week, the political world felt like it was just up for grabs. Watching the Oscar winning movie about her life last year, I felt like I became her friend.
To do what is right and just
Is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
But now the snakes are out, all over the red and blue landscape. In two days after the news that she had died, the Democrats raised $100 million dollars for the “court fight.” And the Republicans designed a new T-shirt. “Fill that seat! Fill that seat!”
A person may think their own ways are right,
But the Lord weighs the heart.
Whoever makes a fortune by a lying tongue
Is chasing a bubble over deadly snares.
American flags are flying at half mast, and profound eulogies  for Ruth Bader Ginsburg will inspire many this week. She was such a petite woman, whose best friend among the Supreme Court justices was Antonin Scalia, that large man who often voted against her. Until Scalia died suddenly in 2016 the two of them attended operas together and shared celebrations, food, and travel. She delivered a eulogy at his funeral; I am sure that in spirit he will be attending hers. Effortlessly, or so it seemed, they transcended what Scalia called “the kneejerk stuff” to love each other.
Years ago I wrote a song with a refrain from Psalm 119.
I run in the path of your commands
For you have set my heart free.
This is my goal, not everyday accomplishment. Obedience is hard. I regularly choose forgiveness over permission. But without this goal my integrity crumbles, I stop listening to others and settle into narcissism. God becomes deaf to me.
He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor
Will himself also call and not be heard.
And not only God, but others. How many times must God remind us that we are brothers and sisters? In the third paragraph of his Meditation XVII, John Donne writes his most famous lines:
No man is an island
Entire of itself.
Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main,
And if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less …
Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, never send to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
 (Proverbs 21, Psalm 119, Luke 11, Luke 8)
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