I wait and I pray...

Not long ago I shared with a friend that currently my favorite Psalm is 131:

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.  But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a child quieted at its mother's breast; like a child that is quieted is my soul.  O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and for evermore.

Walter Brueggemann, in his essential aide to praying the Psalms -The Message of the Psalms - underscores the importance of this short prayer-poem when he writes:  "The piety reflected in this psalm is directly opposed to modernity with its drive toward independence, self-sufficiency and autonomy... The myth of modernity believes that real maturity is to be free of every relationship of dependence. But... (here) it is evident that the human goal is not to be breaking away, but happy trust."

Two thoughts deserved further comment:

+ First, this is NOT simply about personal piety - although there is that dimension present - and there is nothing wrong with personal piety, yes?  Unless, of course, it becomes the whole story - and this is clearly not the case in Psalm 131. Rather, this testimony of rest and trust is offered in opposition to business as usual in politics, religion and social relationships.  The prophet Isaiah (2: 6-22) speaks of the status quo of Israel as "being proud, haughty, lifted up, arrogant and autonomous. (This, declares the prophet) leads to destruction... while the voice of the psalm offers a positive counterpart. This does not mean abdication or resignation, but the recognition of how life with God finally is."  (pp. 48-49)

+ Second, this psalm struck me as being a part of the spirituality that Reinhold Niebuhr embodied - and with good reason. Last night I started to read Charles Lamert's new book, Why Niebuhr Matters, and came across this pithy summary: 

In the middle of the 20th century, having outgrown a theological liberalism, Niebuhr challenged and rethought the nonsocialist Left in American politics. He developed a political realism that refused to sacrifice ideals to mere pragmatism, or politics to bitterness and greed. He examined the problems of morality in an immoral society and re-imagined the balance between rights and freedom for the individual and social justice for the many.

Both the Psalm and the heart of Niebuhr sound a lot like the critique being shared from the Occupy Wall Street encampment.  Writing in Friday's NYTimes, Thomas Friedman noted:

... this gets to the core of why all the anti-Wall Street groups around the globe are resonating. I was in Tahrir Square in Cairo for the fall of Hosni Mubarak and one of the most striking things to me about that demonstration was how apolitical it was. When I talked to Egyptians, it was clear that what animated their protest, first and foremost, was not a quest for democracy - although that was surely a huge factor. It was a quest for justice. Many Egyptians were convinced that they lived in a deeply unjust society where the game had been rigged by the Mubarak family and its crony capitalists. Egypt shows what happens when a country adopts free-market captialism without developing real rule of law and institutions... (and today) our own Congress is a forum for legalized bribery!

And Gary Dorrien of Union Theological Seminary puts it like this in a recent issue of the Christian Century:  "The Occupy Wall Street movement will probably not produce theories of economic democracy or policies for it. But to their immense credit, the occupiers have set off the first protest movement that responds with anything like the moral outrage that is appropriate to the situation."  (Dorrien offers a thorough and important context and critique, too @ http://christiancentury.org/article/2011-10/case-against-wall-street?print). 

So I can't help but go back to the Psalm as a gentle and prefigurative "Serenity Prayer" (check out Elizabeth Sifton's book, Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War. She is Niebuhr's daughter and offers a brilliant understanding of why and how this prayer came to pass amidst the tumult of economic depression and escalating fear and war.)

+ My heart is not lifted up: that is, I don't think too highly of my self or my own problems today...

+ Rather I trust that YOU are Lord so I don't have to try to be God: I can do my part and know that my part is sufficient.
+ And trusting that your freedom and justice and love, O Lord are the alternative we need at this moment in time - not more insider Wall Street deal-making, not more partisan bickering and certainly not more mean-spirited blathering - I will do my part.

+ I will accept what I can change - I will accept what is beyond this moment - and I will rest like a child in her mother's arms, too without giving in to either bitterness or defeat.

+ To be sure, acceptance means that I don't have all the policy prescriptions, Lord - some things are beyond me - but you have already inspired others to figure out those details. Didn't you already proclaim: "to every thing there is a season?"

So I am going to rest in the trust that as I seek you - in the face of the least of these my sisters and brothers as well as your amazing grace - I can live as a quiet presence in this all too busy and angry world:  maybe I can even live at peace with myself and creation.  God grant me that serenity...