15 March 2006

We continue with more about the "othering of self" as part of what Walter Brueggemann writes about "The Covenanted Self.

This assumption of the covenanting of the self with the self is evident at least in some texts in which the self converses with the self. Thus in the familiar opening of Psalm 103, the speaker says, "Bless the Lord, O my (soul)." Thus the self issues an imperative invitation to the self. And in the parable of Luke 12:16-20, Jesus has the rich man address himself by saying, "I will say to my soul (psyche), 'Soul, you have ample good laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry'" (v.19).

Last evening in our confirmation class we were talking about prayer and at first it sounded like prayer had an element of simple "self talk." For example, if a person is frightened and prayers for courage, in the praying of the prayer, that person can become encouraged to face whatever the source of the fear or scare. Can this be a part of this covenanting "of the self with the self" that we hear in the above passage? But in prayer, this is not merely self talk - we are talking to our God. Then again, when I pray to God, I am listening to the prayer as it is spoken silently or aloud. The audience, you could say, is my self. The audience can be all the voices that attempt to move me this way or that way. The prayer then is one voice taking the lead. At the same time I say that, this voice is not always the voice that wins the day. I may want to draw up all my "soul" into a faithful journey during this day, but that voice is not the one that is followed....and yet it continues to issue forth itself in the prayers of my life.

Connection: How many voices within your self come out during the day? Obviously there may be the one that comes in prayer like "make me a instrument of your Peace, O Lord," and yet, at the first opportunity to be a peace maker, what voice do we let run us? How many times during the day can you hear or see this attempt at covenanting of the self with the self?

O God, we come to you and lift up our lives and call on you to give us direction and vision and a sense of worth as we move through the avenues of this day. As we pray, let the words of our prayers direct us so that our lives reflect the vision within our prayers. Amen.