Episode 27: Psalm 118:14-29

Translation: NRSVue

3 Questions:

What word, phrase or image strikes you in this text?

Toward what is God calling you in this text?

How are you rejoicing?

Additional texts:

Acts 5:27-32

Psalm 150

Revelation 1:4-8

John 20:19-31

Transcript

00:02:47.68
Nathan Pile
Christ is risen.

00:02:50.13
Kevin Shock
Christ has risen indeed, hallelujah.

00:02:52.72
Nathan Pile
Hallelujah. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Tend. It is after Easter and Kevin and I are just excited to be with you in this season of new life.

00:03:07.05
Nathan Pile
So um today.

00:03:10.79
Kevin Shock
In this new season of life, I don't often think of it that way, but thank you, Nathan.

00:03:17.04
Nathan Pile
All right. All right. um

00:03:22.21
Kevin Shock
Well, I mean I mean, we think of new seasons of life like at the new year, after a birthday, something like that. But yeah, I mean, you're right. Easter isn't, it's not just a new season of the church. It's a new season of life for all of us.

00:03:35.42
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Yeah.

00:03:36.55
Kevin Shock
Let's go with it.

00:03:38.33
Nathan Pile
Well, and, and I guess for me, I was just out romping around in the woods. And so I'm starting to see things break through the ground too. And so I, I did, I did intend the dual meaning that I was experiencing, but I did not name that.

00:03:46.33
Kevin Shock
ah Yeah. Yeah.

00:03:52.97
Nathan Pile
I did not articulate that in my, in my greeting this morning. So, um, but yeah, so, um, Yeah, we're looking at Psalm 118, verses 14 through 29. Kevin and I are going to read it through the ah New Revised Standard Version, updated edition.

00:04:14.89
Nathan Pile
So, NRSVUE. As we... um as we Read that. We're going to look at three questions. Two of them should be familiar to you. What word, phrase, or image strikes you in this text?

00:04:30.35
Nathan Pile
Toward what is God calling you in this text? And how are you rejoicing is our third question this week, Kevin.

00:04:42.01
Kevin Shock
Yeah, here's some information about your hosts. We are men married to women in financially stable households, white, firmly in middle age, college and seminary educated.

00:04:53.53
Kevin Shock
We work in the Lutheran Church and were born and raised in Western Pennsylvania. All of this affects how we read scripture and discuss it, but none of this makes us better able to read and discuss scripture than anyone else.

00:05:06.33
Kevin Shock
We believe that the wisdom of scripture is the whole community's compiled interpretation for life with God and one another. So we want to know what you hear and think from your life experience.

00:05:18.90
Kevin Shock
Okay, reading from Psalm 118, verses 14 through 29. verse fourteen through twenty nine The Lord is my strength and my might. He has become my salvation.

00:05:31.42
Kevin Shock
There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord.

00:05:46.10
Kevin Shock
The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord.

00:05:57.20
Kevin Shock
The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing.

00:06:08.24
Kevin Shock
It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we beseech you, O Lord. O Lord, we beseech you, give us success.

00:06:20.24
Kevin Shock
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festival procession with branches up to the horns of the altar.

00:06:33.69
Kevin Shock
You are my God, and I will give thanks to you. You are my God, I will extol you. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures for forever.

00:06:47.20
Kevin Shock
If you are meeting with a group, You can pause the podcast now and engage the questions on your own. ah Nathan, what word, phrase, or image strikes you in this text?

00:07:23.92
Nathan Pile
It's not one word um or phrase, though the word, the valiantly stuff definitely got me thinking on this way.

00:07:34.80
Nathan Pile
the I think the thing that's fascinating about this is,

00:07:41.07
Nathan Pile
is how um a couple thousand years ago, this author writes about giving praise to God.

00:07:52.74
Nathan Pile
and And it's not foreign to me, but the things that they celebrate aren't the things that we would celebrate.

00:08:04.65
Nathan Pile
or the things that we would say about the celebration. So we don't so like, we still give thanks and praise to God today. And coming off of Easter, we would have just had, hopefully, um, you had ah an experience in the space where you gathered for worship.

00:08:23.31
Nathan Pile
Um, that there was lots of glorious ways of giving thanks and praise, lots of music, lots of, um, um, you know, maybe there was instruments people played, bells or trumpets or, some of those pieces.

00:08:41.47
Nathan Pile
But the words here of the psalmist are not the words of our hymnody today, which again, makes complete sense because it's a couple thousand years apart, but we don't kind of, we don't celebrate,

00:09:00.01
Nathan Pile
um

00:09:03.29
Nathan Pile
the gate of the Lord today. If we did, it it's would be weird.

00:09:13.65
Nathan Pile
It would just be weird. it was it it like People would be like, what are we celebrating? And so i'm I'm I'm blown away by the thanks and praise of the psalmist. But I think what drew my attention to it today was that though there are some some key phrases in this, if as you were listening, you you my guess would be your ears perked up when you heard things like, the stone that the builders rejected became a cornerstone.

00:09:40.14
Nathan Pile
And this is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. And blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. All things that we've used in some of our hymnody and or our liturgy.

00:09:52.91
Nathan Pile
But the rest of this is not language that we use in our glad songs um ah to God. And so um so I'm just struck by...

00:10:08.93
Nathan Pile
how different praise is over the generations, I guess. Does that make sense?

00:10:17.43
Kevin Shock
Yeah, it makes sense. Sure.

00:10:19.45
Nathan Pile
Like, I because I'm I'm thinking about, like, not in Lutheran churches. Like, Lutheran churches, we have a lot of older hymnody, but even the older hymnody, like... like if we're singing something from 500 years ago written by Martin Luther, we're still kind of like, oh, this is an old hymn, right?

00:10:36.40
Nathan Pile
um Like this is hymnody that's 3,000, 4,000, 5,000 years old, you know, kind of like this is when you're in the Old Testament, it's much older.

00:10:49.58
Nathan Pile
And so that part of it is ah it just interesting to me.

00:10:55.68
Kevin Shock
Hmm. Yeah. Well, I mean, it makes sense that, uh, people would praise God for different things and in different ways, uh, in that much difference in time, I guess now that you've brought that up, it it's, um, it it also feels noteworthy to me that, that this is still now granted it's translated, but, um,

00:11:22.01
Kevin Shock
that these are still concepts that we can understand at least in some point. I mean, given that much given that much separation between us and the people who would have written the Psalms, yeah.

00:11:26.01
Nathan Pile
Oh, sure.

00:11:34.16
Nathan Pile
Yeah. I guess I was thinking of more modern hymns and or even songs that we sing at camp sometimes. And the...

00:11:46.48
Nathan Pile
the like we talk about like in our, in, in those more contemporary Christian songs, it it feels a little bit more like we talk about our experience with God and the ways that we, the ways that we have that. And, and this, this is, this, it it it is different. It has a different feel to it.

00:12:10.55
Nathan Pile
Um, but it also, um,

00:12:16.48
Nathan Pile
yeah Well, I don't want dig any more deeply at this point than than to say that it's that it is different. it It's communicating a different, I don't want to different relationship with God.

00:12:29.83
Nathan Pile
I think they're both, they both communicate a relationship with God. But the psalmist is, is...

00:12:40.64
Nathan Pile
you know Again, Psalms tend to be connected to David, um that they get written down in that time. And so it makes sense that they might be celebrating victories of battles won because David did lead Israel through some battles.

00:12:58.77
Nathan Pile
And so so some of the hymn hymnody, the Psalms of that time would have had battle language to it.

00:12:59.56
Kevin Shock
Sure. Hmm.

00:13:07.96
Nathan Pile
um But like words like valiantly, those are more complex complex words than what I typically see in modern Christian songs. and And that's nothing against modern Christian songs.

00:13:25.81
Nathan Pile
And it's nothing against older, you know, Old Testament songs. there's There's just a difference to them. and And maybe this is where my judgment does come in a little bit.

00:13:39.66
Nathan Pile
This feels a little, it's about it's about God saving them in war, which in and of itself feels a little um shallow.

00:13:51.63
Nathan Pile
However, this the the verses does seem to go a little deeper um in that relationship with God.

00:14:02.60
Nathan Pile
what God has done and accomplished. Whereas in today's hymnody, or not, I don't want say hymnody, I want to today's contemporary Christian music, it and we don't, we're we're not talking about battles won necessarily, um but we're much more talking about our relationship with God.

00:14:21.51
Nathan Pile
and And sometimes that brings about um less focus on God's action in our relationship, if that makes sense.

00:14:33.87
Kevin Shock
Mmhm Yeah. Yeah. um

00:14:40.19
Kevin Shock
Well, but there's probably a lot to unpack, uh, both from what, what the Psalmist is saying and what we're thinking. I, because something for me is that this, this does sound, I mean, I, you for, with hesitation for, um, um, making anyone angry with my opinion.

00:15:01.88
Kevin Shock
Uh, I, there are elements of modern praise music that I do not like.

00:15:06.96
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:15:07.51
Kevin Shock
And, and, You need, I mean, you named it, it is, it, it, it's not across the board. Um, but it's me language. It's what comes across as self-centered language.

00:15:24.11
Kevin Shock
Um, you know, do this for me. Do that like, like, and this, this is, well, you even said, you know, talking about my experience, that's an element of modern praise music.

00:15:34.95
Kevin Shock
um There is some we language here in the Psalm, but I do think the other thing that I sometimes struggle with in the Psalm is I language.

00:15:46.26
Kevin Shock
um

00:15:46.92
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:15:48.05
Kevin Shock
And, and, and it's not that like, I do think, I do think that, God attends to our prayers ah if we are even just praying for ourselves, but certainly if we are praying for ourselves in the midst of others.

00:16:04.80
Kevin Shock
I, For me, though, this is a communal liturgical song. The psalm is.

00:16:11.61
Nathan Pile
Yeah, hmmm

00:16:13.04
Kevin Shock
So I that's I think that's why it rubs me the wrong way. Because I don't... um I think I think because if you're writing... communal song, hymns, psalms um for use in the assembly to talk about your own experience is to um exclude someone else's experience.

00:16:42.17
Kevin Shock
and um And I guess as I look through this now,

00:16:49.33
Kevin Shock
it it it's Maybe it's vague enough that it doesn't, um you know. Well, yeah there yeah, there are a couple of things that I guess I just I kind of shudder at. And maybe I, maybe that's something that I need to get over.

00:17:05.26
Kevin Shock
um

00:17:08.62
Kevin Shock
I think that um whenever the Psalms in yeah ah include war language, that's bothersome to me.

00:17:22.16
Kevin Shock
um And I recognize that that's a part of, that's a part of the people's history. That's a part of the nation's history that God has given victory to them.

00:17:33.86
Kevin Shock
um

00:17:36.29
Nathan Pile
Well, but that would be a trend that we don't see anymore, right?

00:17:36.58
Kevin Shock
I also,

00:17:38.85
Nathan Pile
Most of our songs don't...

00:17:39.62
Kevin Shock
oh

00:17:42.59
Nathan Pile
Most of our liturgical song, but like most of our liturgical song doesn't talk about

00:17:42.69
Kevin Shock
well, it's,

00:17:49.36
Nathan Pile
war and and victory in war.

00:17:50.83
Kevin Shock
no but No, but Nathan, no, but our liturgical song is, first of all, our liturgical song has its own, is it um ah to put it in modern terms, we have our own playlist in the Lutheran Church.

00:18:09.41
Kevin Shock
And there are songs that are war-based,

00:18:09.69
Nathan Pile
Sure.

00:18:13.10
Kevin Shock
war war-based that we have excluded from our most recent hymnals. Not a ton, but um I mean, I think in our most recent hymnal, we still have the battle hymn of the Republic, maybe.

00:18:32.52
Kevin Shock
I'm not sure, but we don't, I don't, yeah, I don't have it. Oh no, I do have it right in front of me. Hold on. um We have a section in the back called national songs.

00:18:42.04
Nathan Pile
We do have the national songs. Yeah.

00:18:44.74
Kevin Shock
And ah well, I'm just curious what's in there now. I mean, one thing, because this is, yeah, we do have the Battle Hymn of the Republic, but it's called Mine Eyes, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory.

00:18:54.82
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:18:55.26
Kevin Shock
It's not by the but the more um popular name. ah God Bless Our Native Land, which um that's that's actually to the tune of God Bless the Queen, King.

00:19:15.00
Kevin Shock
Oh Canada is in our hymnal.

00:19:22.22
Kevin Shock
Which, cool. ah Both in English and French, just one verse. um

00:19:32.28
Kevin Shock
I don't know what we have taken out. So the, my favorite national song, maybe my the only national song I like, This Is My Song, ah is the first one in our, in that section.

00:19:41.20
Nathan Pile
hmm

00:19:45.26
Kevin Shock
And that recognizes, oh God of all the nations. And I love the way that that text

00:19:48.71
Nathan Pile
hmm

00:19:52.42
Kevin Shock
um is, reflects that we feel strongly about our nation and the beautiful things in it and the great things that have happened in it and for it.

00:20:06.50
Kevin Shock
um But other people also feel the same way about their nations. I mean, I love that that tone.

00:20:13.14
Nathan Pile
That recognizes that truth. Yeah.

00:20:15.27
Kevin Shock
Yeah, yeah. We do have... um I can't remember. Oh, Beautiful for Spacious Skies.

00:20:24.53
Kevin Shock
ah may Maybe we just call that America um popularly. That's God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

00:20:35.50
Kevin Shock
um The Right Hand of God. I'm not, That looks to be a Oh, in these Caribbean lands is an optional stanza.

00:20:47.81
Kevin Shock
Yeah, I'm not sure what that is. ah oh text and music copyright 1981 by the Caribbean Conference of Churches. Interesting. I mean, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas are a part of our denomination.

00:21:03.90
Nathan Pile
Mm-hmm.

00:21:05.50
Kevin Shock
um Before you, Lord, we bow. but it's The text was written by Francis Scott Key, so I'm not sure what that is. Yeah, anyway. um But I think of things like Onward Christian Soldiers.

00:21:23.90
Kevin Shock
I mean, that's war imagery for sure. um That's not in our hymnal anymore. um And I also think that, so maybe not in our hymns,

00:21:35.89
Kevin Shock
But boy, do I see a lot of co-opting of biblical texts to talk about the American experience.

00:21:43.25
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:21:43.57
Kevin Shock
um blessed

00:21:44.61
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:21:45.74
Kevin Shock
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

00:21:47.93
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:21:49.40
Kevin Shock
I, ah which is a direct reference to Israel um and is is taken, i can't even remember what part of scripture, it's what part of Hebrew scripture it's taken from,

00:22:02.24
Kevin Shock
um it's a blessing Blessing comes from living in the way of the Lord. That's what I mean that's what it's it's intended.

00:22:11.37
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:22:11.82
Kevin Shock
But every day when I drive to the office, I pass a house on Old 220 south of Milesburg that has that has a big banner across the front porch, and it has been there for years.

00:22:24.69
Kevin Shock
It's been there for 20, 25 years probably, that has that verse on it with the American flag waving behind the verse.

00:22:33.29
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:22:34.63
Kevin Shock
And I'm I'm like, you know, this is not, it's just, it's taken out of context. It's so anyway, um I'm rambling now, but I, yeah, I, there's, there's a tension for me in the Psalms of this is my experience and, um and I'm kind of generalizing my experience for everybody.

00:22:49.70
Nathan Pile
Hmm. Hmm.

00:23:03.00
Kevin Shock
Now, of course, we're also taking Psalms that were written for a specific time and place and purpose and reading them through our own lens. So that is also something that's going on.

00:23:11.29
Nathan Pile
Sure.

00:23:13.48
Kevin Shock
um Yeah. And I also think that maybe the I language, as I look at it more closely, it's it's not bad here in the Psalm. It's just something that makes me, it it just makes me shudder a little bit.

00:23:28.56
Kevin Shock
I think that's always been a thing for me. Yeah. yeah

00:23:34.53
Nathan Pile
Well, and, and um, I think listening to you talk, the thing that this brings up for me or reminds me is that all song, all praise that we give to God can have, no matter its time or place, can have its, can become too individualistic.

00:24:01.52
Nathan Pile
It can become more about us than it is about the God of which we sing to celebrate.

00:24:08.63
Kevin Shock
Hmm. Hmm. There you go.

00:24:10.87
Nathan Pile
um um And

00:24:19.10
Nathan Pile
and that that it is contextual. So there's something that's going on in in the psalmist's time and writes about that would have meaning that we don't get today.

00:24:23.60
Kevin Shock
Right.

00:24:31.10
Nathan Pile
And there would be things that we could be writing about that people 3,000 years from now will be like ah like, I think the best thing that we could hope would be that as you said earlier, like a good hymn might still be sung 3,000 years from now.

00:24:31.11
Kevin Shock
Right.

00:24:50.59
Nathan Pile
And so it still has divine truths in it that still speak to people. That would make it a good hymn. when it becomes so contextualized that it, that it loses, that it loses its, because the context has changed, the hymn doesn't, isn't, you know, worth singing anymore.

00:24:59.22
Kevin Shock
Yes.

00:25:13.69
Nathan Pile
Um, you know, that would be a thing that, and that would, and, and we've done that obviously through the, through these thousands of years, things have gone away because they just didn't fit anymore.

00:25:25.88
Nathan Pile
Um, but, but this has been an interesting kind of conversation of, of reminding me that it, that it's not just today that the, that our focus in our hymnody can become just about, or that, that can become,

00:25:26.26
Kevin Shock
Sure.

00:25:42.83
Nathan Pile
um about me and my relationship with God in the writing of that hymn. That looking back, there is eye statements in today's psalm that also do that.

00:25:57.89
Nathan Pile
So, yeah. So um I don't think we ever got to you, Kevin. What word, phrase, or image struck you about this passage?

00:26:06.99
Kevin Shock
No, I'll go quickly though.

00:26:08.02
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:26:08.51
Kevin Shock
I, the, the whole, this whole conversation of the last 20 minutes has been, uh, I mean, I think it's something that's good to unpack and, and, and that remembering that our praise is, um but something I think we have trouble with that.

00:26:11.28
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:26:26.79
Kevin Shock
God is the, ah God is the, uh, both the object and the subject of our praise.

00:26:33.03
Nathan Pile
Yes. Yeah.

00:26:34.69
Kevin Shock
Our praise is directed towards God, but it should always be about what God is doing, not what I am doing.

00:26:40.38
Nathan Pile
Right.

00:26:40.58
Kevin Shock
ah I will lift up my hands and praise you is not a praise song. It's a it's a declaration that you are going to praise God, but you're not yet praising God. um

00:26:51.60
Nathan Pile
oh

00:26:52.30
Kevin Shock
Okay, that was a little snarky, but i but that is if if the subject is I, it's more about your action than God's action.

00:26:54.20
Nathan Pile
yeah

00:26:57.45
Nathan Pile
Sure.

00:27:00.56
Kevin Shock
ah Just...

00:27:00.65
Nathan Pile
Right.

00:27:01.45
Kevin Shock
in a, in a very grammatical understanding. Okay. Anyway. Uh, yeah, my, um,

00:27:06.45
Nathan Pile
No, it's good. that's good we Unfortunately, we have lots of camp songs so that are like this. Yeah.

00:27:11.93
Kevin Shock
yeah. And, and again, it's not like, I don't think that it's necessarily teaching young people or older people, horrible theology, but I think it does have to be balanced.

00:27:12.69
Nathan Pile
you know

00:27:22.06
Nathan Pile
yeah

00:27:23.00
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

00:27:24.22
Nathan Pile
Yep, yep

00:27:24.71
Kevin Shock
Right, right. I mean, I will call upon the Lord. That's ah that's a very popular camp song ah that comes, by the way, directly from the Psalms.

00:27:29.72
Nathan Pile
It is.

00:27:33.35
Nathan Pile
Right.

00:27:33.40
Kevin Shock
ah So...

00:27:35.16
Nathan Pile
Well, and one that doesn't come from the Psalms, I want to praise you, Lord. like Like when I sing it, when when somebody picks it and we sing it at camp, I'm always like, um why don't we just praise the Lord?

00:27:48.10
Nathan Pile
Like, why do why do we have to sing about that we want to praise the Lord?

00:27:48.36
Kevin Shock
One, two, yeah, yeah.

00:27:53.03
Nathan Pile
Like, it doesn't make any sense to me. Like, let's just praise the Lord.

00:27:56.96
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Well, anywho, anywho.

00:27:59.46
Nathan Pile
Yeah. So thank you for the conversation, but let's get back to the topic

00:28:00.18
Kevin Shock
um

00:28:04.30
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Okay. All right. All right. ah the The phrase um that intrigues me here is verse 20, this is the gate of the Lord, but it doesn't say what the this is referring to.

00:28:16.39
Kevin Shock
And so I'm just, I'm curious about that.

00:28:17.02
Nathan Pile
Hmm. Hmm.

00:28:19.13
Kevin Shock
um Before it, we have opened to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. Is that a reference to the temple?

00:28:30.66
Kevin Shock
Is it a reference to um this Psalm itself? Is it, um I don't know what it's a reference to, so I'm um I'm just curious. I don't have any answers for it.

00:28:42.36
Kevin Shock
It just, it kept it caught my attention and piques my interest to know what, um does the psalmist have something in mind specifically, or is this, is it intentionally vague because the psalmist is um still learning what the gate of the Lord is? I don't know. Yeah. Yeah.

00:29:05.33
Nathan Pile
The, and I'm going to make this statement, not because I am fully um aware of all of the history, But one of the things that is talked about in the Holy City is that there were gates that brought you into the entrance of Jerusalem to where the temple was at, right?

00:29:26.49
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:29:27.49
Nathan Pile
There was 12 gates because that's where the 12 tribes would enter by their their gate, essentially.

00:29:28.12
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:29:37.14
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:29:37.74
Nathan Pile
um So there there is meaning to gates in the tradition of in the Jewish tradition. But again, I'm with you. I don't really have any clear sense of what these gates are. Like it wasn't that they had fences everywhere or gates everywhere. Like gate would have been a rare, would have been a rare thing in that day.

00:30:09.61
Nathan Pile
Like to have the extra connection money, capital, and or labor to make a gate and fence to section yourself off from everybody else, um that would have been really... It but would have been it would been a rare thing.

00:30:30.53
Nathan Pile
People wouldn't have had the the funds to do it.

00:30:31.18
Kevin Shock
yeah

00:30:33.38
Nathan Pile
And so, um though it what must have happened enough that people had some sense of... the gate of the Lord, the gates of righteousness, ah there there it is some way to access those pieces, or to access God or access the right way of living.

00:30:56.11
Nathan Pile
So,

00:30:56.51
Kevin Shock
Yeah. um I, well, I went and looked at another, while you were talking, went and looked at another translation just to see. I was curious because the NET has a ton of notes with it.

00:31:10.24
Kevin Shock
NRSVUE does not.

00:31:10.49
Nathan Pile
Mmm. Mmm.

00:31:12.24
Kevin Shock
um And it doesn't actually have a note for 20, but it has a note for 19.

00:31:13.03
Nathan Pile
Mmm.

00:31:16.62
Kevin Shock
They translate 19 instead of open for me, the gates of righteousness, open for me, the gates of the just King's temple.

00:31:25.46
Kevin Shock
And says, the footnote there says that the Hebrew is the gates of justice or the gates of righteousness as the NRSV translates it. um and But then it says the gates of the Lord's temple are referred to here as verse 20 makes clear.

00:31:43.42
Kevin Shock
Okay, this is this is the gate of the Lord. They are called gates of justice because they are the entrance to the just king's palace. And this has been specified in the translation for clarity.

00:31:55.75
Kevin Shock
Okay. um Yeah. All right. Well, like so still it piqued my interest.

00:32:04.33
Nathan Pile
Yeah, no, no.

00:32:05.55
Kevin Shock
ah

00:32:06.18
Nathan Pile
I wouldn't, like, as you were reading it, I was also struck by

00:32:06.62
Kevin Shock
um

00:32:11.30
Nathan Pile
what is this gate? So, so we had a similar question there, but I was already way down the rabbit hole of praise.

00:32:13.81
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Because the...

00:32:18.76
Nathan Pile
So that's where I stayed.

00:32:20.26
Kevin Shock
Well, and I think I think Gates for the people of this time are a specific physical attribute of a palace, a land, ah a territory.

00:32:28.06
Nathan Pile
Yeah. no

00:32:32.52
Kevin Shock
um but ah But I think that we in our modern age tend to talk about Gates more metaphorically.

00:32:44.56
Nathan Pile
Yes. Yeah.

00:32:46.39
Kevin Shock
I mean, we might talk about doors less metaphorically, but gates, I feel like.

00:32:46.66
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:32:52.81
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

00:32:53.95
Nathan Pile
Well, and I'm trying to even think about what would be

00:32:59.01
Nathan Pile
ah gate today or what might be what a gate represented back then. So that like every time we've talked about gate or the things that you've looked up is in reference to a king's gate.

00:33:14.33
Nathan Pile
So ah kind of an entranceway of, of someone that's really well-to-do.

00:33:14.42
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:33:20.25
Nathan Pile
um

00:33:23.08
Nathan Pile
I guess you have those images of Hollywood and their gated mansions and that, you know, there'd be some kind of a, so that would be an image that would be maybe something similar of to ah like in today's world. Like I but I can't think of what would be a gate today that we would use to talk about the the way to gain access or, um, of the king.

00:33:50.39
Nathan Pile
That wouldn't be like, yeah.

00:33:54.74
Nathan Pile
Different context. It's just a different context today. So.

00:33:59.35
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

00:33:59.88
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:34:00.02
Kevin Shock
I, Well, it's also um made mindful. I'm mindful, too, that Jesus at one point in one of the Gospels refers to himself as the gate.

00:34:12.29
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:34:13.11
Kevin Shock
The gate for the sheep. when we When we read, well, it's usually Easter, the fourth Sunday of Easter.

00:34:15.49
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:34:20.92
Kevin Shock
ah When we're reading the Good Shepherd texts, um depending on the year.

00:34:27.98
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:34:30.28
Kevin Shock
i mean, in some places he's called the shepherd. ah but in one gospel, and I can't remember which one he's actually referred to as the gate for the sheep. um

00:34:41.94
Nathan Pile
yeah

00:34:43.06
Kevin Shock
And I think that that's, ah well, I don't want to make any assumptions. If it is John's gospel, then that also fits with Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life.

00:34:55.00
Kevin Shock
ah way He is the way by which

00:34:55.43
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:34:58.05
Nathan Pile
Needs to wait. Yeah.

00:34:59.77
Kevin Shock
by which human beings access but fullness of almighty god yeah but anyway okay so even jesus was speaking about it metaphorically

00:35:07.85
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:35:10.74
Nathan Pile
All right. Well, we're right. Yeah. All right. So we're going to do the last two questions in 25 minutes, everybody, um because we spent 35 minutes on the first question.

00:35:21.89
Kevin Shock
yeah we are sure now we spent 33 minutes on the first question because

00:35:26.02
Nathan Pile
um So we'll.

00:35:31.11
Kevin Shock
The first two minutes were fixing mic problems.

00:35:34.69
Nathan Pile
True, true. All right. So we're going to read this a second time, a second time through.

00:35:37.58
Kevin Shock
Okay.

00:35:41.70
Kevin Shock
Hmm.

00:35:42.86
Nathan Pile
um The Lord is my strength and my might. He has become my salvation. There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

00:35:55.84
Nathan Pile
The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord.

00:36:06.72
Nathan Pile
The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them. And give thanks to the Lord.

00:36:18.97
Nathan Pile
This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.

00:36:29.96
Nathan Pile
The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made.

00:36:41.84
Nathan Pile
Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we beseech you, O Lord. O Lord, we beseech you, give us success. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, and bless you from the house of the Lord.

00:36:58.64
Nathan Pile
The Lord is God, and he has given us light. Bind the festal procession with branches up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give you thanks, and I will give thanks to you.

00:37:14.61
Nathan Pile
Kevin, toward what is God calling you in this text? for he is good for his steadfast love indoors forever

00:37:26.83
Nathan Pile
Kevin, toward what is god calling you in this text

00:37:31.13
Kevin Shock
Well, something, ah I don't know if I want to go back down this rabbit hole, but something, um it's a related rabbit hole. Something that strikes me in thinking about this as I listen to it is that I ah definitely praise, I look to give praise for God's action.

00:37:51.46
Kevin Shock
And I don't think very often about I think when I think about the relationship between God and human beings, it's easy for me to see God's action.

00:38:05.16
Kevin Shock
And it's difficult for me to see

00:38:09.87
Kevin Shock
ah any good in human response to it.

00:38:15.39
Nathan Pile
Hmm. Hmm.

00:38:15.78
Kevin Shock
Like I, I, I see God's action and I see how um human beings mess it up.

00:38:25.73
Kevin Shock
And as I was listening to you read this, what had occurred to me is that this is, um at least from the psalmist's perspective, there exists a pretty harmonious a relationship between God and the people right now.

00:38:44.86
Kevin Shock
I mean, in that psalm.

00:38:47.90
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:38:48.10
Kevin Shock
ah God has son done something great. The people are thankful. They are Engaging in worship of and praise of God for the good things that God has done.

00:39:00.83
Kevin Shock
And I think that, um you know, something that Israel had that we don't as much in our current society, and there are probably good reasons and bad reasons why we don't.

00:39:17.14
Kevin Shock
um is that there was there was always a sense that the the whole nation had to be on board with worship and praise. And if the whole nation wasn't, then they would get into trouble.

00:39:30.63
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:39:31.07
Kevin Shock
Now we're focused more on individuals. um Like, you know, how do I get into heaven?

00:39:36.83
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:39:36.95
Kevin Shock
And so we don't have the same kind of communal identity that the people of the psalm would have had.

00:39:42.46
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:39:45.31
Kevin Shock
And therefore we don't have... communal religious identity, except maybe amongst the people in our particular congregation or our particular faith tradition or whatever it might be. um it it is It's pretty much individual and of individually focused.

00:40:06.10
Kevin Shock
ah And so I don't know if, I guess what this is calling me towards then is to see ah communal blessing, look for communal blessing.

00:40:17.26
Nathan Pile
Hmm. Hmm.

00:40:17.98
Kevin Shock
and and give praise for that um and i think that there are i guess an example is that i think i think it is a it is a blessing that we have abundance in this nation and then we squander it so that not everyone has a not everyone has access to it uh we hoard it which of course is an unbiblical concept um ah

00:40:50.26
Kevin Shock
and ah And then we also squander it. And so here we are still in the pretty much the richest country in the world.

00:41:01.94
Kevin Shock
um And there are tons of children who go to bed hungry every night. It doesn't like so. So that that reality makes it difficult for me to give thanks for the blessing of abundance.

00:41:19.08
Kevin Shock
if that makes sense.

00:41:20.44
Nathan Pile
Yeah, yeah. Hmm.

00:41:22.87
Kevin Shock
i I automatically want to give thanks and then go right in to teach us how to use it well. but maybe that's a But maybe that is where I need to go. I don't know. Yeah.

00:41:34.30
Kevin Shock
I think maybe I need to focus on the blessing a little more than I currently am.

00:41:42.97
Kevin Shock
What about you, Nathan? Toward what is God calling you in this text?

00:41:46.17
Nathan Pile
To bind the festal processions with branches up to the horns of the altar. No, not really.

00:41:51.46
Kevin Shock
Yeah, I knew you were going to say that.

00:41:52.27
Nathan Pile
oh

00:41:54.54
Kevin Shock
No, I didn't, but...

00:41:56.92
Nathan Pile
ah Yeah, I have no idea what that means. um No, but my my piece would be very similar to to yours here in that um I have no idea. and And to be honest with you, everyone, the translations, ah their notes also, they don't have any idea what it means um because it actually has a footnote that says Hebrew uncertain.

00:42:19.67
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:42:20.65
Kevin Shock
mm-hmm.

00:42:23.06
Kevin Shock
Yeah, that's always helpful.

00:42:23.88
Nathan Pile
Yeah, always helpful. um But I'm I'm yeah I'm right with you, and so I wanted to have something to talk about other than a saying you're exactly right, Kevin.

00:42:34.31
Nathan Pile
um but But you're right on. I don't, I don't understand

00:42:42.46
Nathan Pile
our selfishness in what we have. And and and this a... this is a um common connecting point for me right now in that we have some really big problems that I see in our world that are community-based problems. community like Whole communities need to decide they're going to fix the problem together and then work to fix it.

00:43:08.16
Nathan Pile
And it's because we our society has become so individualized that that it is, it's just about me and whatever, what I want to do is what I want to do.

00:43:22.35
Nathan Pile
We've lost that community piece and and you hit the nail on the head with our Hebrew siblings had a different way of thinking about for us all to get to the goal. We all have to get there together.

00:43:39.10
Nathan Pile
Today, we think about, it well if I'm going to get there, I'm going to get me there, or I'm going to get me and my family there. um

00:43:46.09
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:43:47.09
Nathan Pile
And we don't think much beyond that. And the problem is we have some really big problems in front of us, and we have some really big blessings from God that are at our hands, but we're able we're not able I say that with a question mark.

00:44:05.19
Nathan Pile
Is it because we're not able? Is it because we're not willing to re-engage ourselves in that more communal way of thinking and of praising that calls us forward?

00:44:19.79
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

00:44:23.12
Nathan Pile
I think for me, listening to you as you were talking, I think personally, I I felt, and not that I felt like you were judging me, I was judging me.

00:44:34.83
Nathan Pile
I, I was I am

00:44:40.38
Nathan Pile
I can be a part of the giving praise from a community perspective. But then I also need to change some some aspects of the way that I'm living in the world to do that second piece, to learn how am I a good steward with that thing that God has blessed us with.

00:44:59.45
Nathan Pile
um And I think that's, if i if I were to self-examine myself, I think that's where I fall short. And I would imagine most of us fall short, is that that that second piece of giving thanks for what we have, celebrating what God has done for us and how God has blessed us.

00:45:14.50
Kevin Shock
Thank you.

00:45:19.76
Nathan Pile
um but then I think being able to live with those blessings in a way that lifts up the whole community.

00:45:33.52
Nathan Pile
Um,

00:45:38.76
Nathan Pile
yeah, because God's love is meant for all and for, for, and when I say all, I mean every nation, not, just the United States, but for all nations, for all peoples.

00:45:54.10
Nathan Pile
And so being able to, to celebrate that, I think again, in a way, um

00:46:05.27
Nathan Pile
but also being able to say, God has blessed us. How do, how do we,

00:46:16.49
Nathan Pile
um, How do we be good stewards? How do we um use that blessing in such a way that moves us as a community to somewhere richer and better?

00:46:28.50
Nathan Pile
And so, um and so I, I, named the problems and I never said what the problems were. Some of them include things like climate change and, um our technology devices that we all put in our pockets or in our purses and carry around. Um, they're causing us to lose connection with each other.

00:46:50.21
Nathan Pile
and living community, wonderful tools, but they're causing us to, they're getting, they're getting in the way of life together and, and, you know, hunger, you know, there's there's a long, there's a long list of things of, uh, that are problems out there that, that need to be community based solutions.

00:46:57.15
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

00:47:08.05
Nathan Pile
However, I am still focused on me and mine.

00:47:14.21
Nathan Pile
And so, um

00:47:18.86
Nathan Pile
some some way of being called back into community um is what I'm, as I said, it's it's ah it's a crossroads of many different conversations that are coming together for me here oh to make that statement. but But there is the way you've framed this for us and the way what I felt our praise being called to, it's that community aspect.

00:47:47.43
Nathan Pile
how do we How do we live in this way? how do we go through the gate of the Lord? um and And right living, you know, right living to me has its roots in community

00:48:05.00
Nathan Pile
because of our... because of our her Hebrew siblings um that have kind of shown and taught that way, even, even though as all human beings, we sometimes get, we lose our way and so need to be re-reminded of it.

00:48:22.37
Nathan Pile
It feels like we need to be re-reminded of that community aspect.

00:48:27.94
Nathan Pile
You know, how do we, How do we embrace each each individual for the giftedness and blessing that they are? I think that's one of the good things that has come out of individualism is that people can say, this is who I am.

00:48:42.78
Nathan Pile
And we're still practicing that in some ways. we're We're still not willing to let all people claim their identity for who they are. But I think if we can, that's, that's one of the pieces of individualism that I think is, is a good piece.

00:48:58.03
Nathan Pile
Allow everybody to be who they are um and to claim who they are and to be able to um live in their own skin and be accepted for who they are.

00:49:10.39
Nathan Pile
But then we, then from that, we also have to be able to say, now let's form community with those same people that that's, That's the reason we allow them to claim their own identity is so that then we can come together and be a stronger community.

00:49:23.80
Nathan Pile
So, yeah, I got on a soapbox there. Sorry.

00:49:30.92
Kevin Shock
Yeah, no that's that's fine. That's fine. Yeah. Yeah, like you said, a lot of conversations kind of coming at a juncture right now with this psalm.

00:49:42.91
Kevin Shock
um why don't we Why don't we read it a third time and we'll see where the conversation goes.

00:49:48.63
Nathan Pile
Yep.

00:49:50.60
Kevin Shock
From Psalm 118, The Lord is my strength and my might. He has become my salvation. There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.

00:50:01.65
Kevin Shock
The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death.

00:50:14.75
Kevin Shock
Open to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord. The righteous shall enter through it. I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.

00:50:26.85
Kevin Shock
The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

00:50:38.17
Kevin Shock
Save us, we beseech you, O Lord. O Lord, we beseech you, give us success. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, and he has given us light.

00:50:52.18
Kevin Shock
Bind the festal processions with branches up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give thanks to you. You are my God, I will extol you. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

00:51:08.86
Kevin Shock
Nathan, how are you rejoicing?

00:51:13.71
Nathan Pile
um

00:51:19.13
Nathan Pile
As read before you read, I went back and looked at what that third question was going to be. um And the thing that stuck out to me, and and it is affected by our most recent conversation here around community pieces, one of the places, it's not the only place, one of the places that I find rejoicing is in the midst of other human beings.

00:51:45.51
Nathan Pile
um But not just in, in any group. It, it, it is communities that are, are structured in the way of God.

00:51:56.46
Nathan Pile
Um, so, uh, gatherings of, of fellow disciples, um, on the journey.

00:52:08.19
Nathan Pile
So uh, the, the

00:52:14.36
Nathan Pile
the journey of, of faith with others who are

00:52:23.54
Nathan Pile
having similar questions, who are, um seeking for God through scripture and conversation. So obviously, Kevin, I'm nurtured by our interaction on a place like this.

00:52:38.51
Nathan Pile
And so when when a question asks about how are you you rejoicing, the the I think about, well, in my mind, when I hear that word rejoicing, when does my heart leap?

00:52:39.64
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:52:52.97
Nathan Pile
um Leap for Joy. And it is in those communities where um where we are seeking together to find out what God is doing and how God is leading us.

00:53:08.35
Nathan Pile
And so um I love to sing. and give thanks. And so, yes, that's one of the ways that I rejoice and, and, and it lifts my heart and, and can inspire me for the rest of the week.

00:53:18.07
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

00:53:21.77
Nathan Pile
um Just the music that we, that I can be a part of. But I think the other piece of that rejoicing for me is when I'm in community and, And somebody makes a statement about something that they've read, um whether it be a scripture passage or, something else, but helps connect other people to God in this relationship.

00:53:43.12
Nathan Pile
There's also time of rejoicing in that for me. Um, but Again, my heart kind of leaps for joy in that conversation. And so it reminds me, it it makes me think about our Lenten studies that we've done on Tuesday nights this this Lent, um as we talked about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and and some of the um deep conversations that we've had in that space.

00:54:07.19
Nathan Pile
um It goes to conversations that you and I share, whether it's on this podcast or um when we're face to face and and chatting about life in the world.

00:54:17.90
Nathan Pile
um It's about sitting with with friends at church and and having. dialogue around, well, what does it mean to be a disciple?

00:54:28.40
Nathan Pile
how do we How do we engage better in this community where we sit and live? And so so for me, rejoicing happens and in both of those ways. Yes, sitting in in worship and and in places where we give thanks and praise and I get to sing.

00:54:43.18
Nathan Pile
Yes, that's one way that I rejoice. But the other way that I've been that I've noticed recently that I'm rejoicing is in these conversations with others who are seeking to be faithful to God's ways as we try to figure out, well, what's what's our next step?

00:55:01.85
Nathan Pile
So,

00:55:05.15
Nathan Pile
how are you rejoicing, my friend?

00:55:07.56
Kevin Shock
Not well. um

00:55:11.62
Kevin Shock
ah If I'm being honest, I mean, the thing that I think I, i what everything that you say resonates with me. um And I think that, um, Community for me is a huge part of rejoicing there. I mean, there are other ways to rejoice, ah but I'll be honest that I'm.

00:55:33.13
Kevin Shock
I'm just in a season of life where I think, you know, some of it is recovering from surgery and getting back into. Like letting my body heal, but also um having been working with some difficult situations in the church.

00:55:50.98
Kevin Shock
um I find myself, I guess, I uh I don't want to say exhausted by people, but I am exhausted by situations.

00:56:05.18
Kevin Shock
um and ah

00:56:05.20
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

00:56:08.38
Kevin Shock
And I think that I am, I've gotten in the, maybe in the habit, and it's a problem of of looking at community building

00:56:15.74
Nathan Pile
Hmm. Hmm.

00:56:20.01
Kevin Shock
even low level community building as work, um, you know, that takes time and effort and time and effort that I don't feel like I have, but this is making me think that, um, community building can also be rejoicing, um, that it can be life giving.

00:56:39.84
Kevin Shock
And I think, I think when we spend time in community that is, um, the time spent in community is draining, then our, my natural human inclination is to just avoid community.

00:56:58.39
Kevin Shock
And I think what I have to do is find community that's not draining.

00:57:03.61
Nathan Pile
Oh, absolutely. I'm with you there.

00:57:05.43
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah.

00:57:06.84
Nathan Pile
um I'm with you there.

00:57:07.44
Kevin Shock
Yeah. I, I mean, that's just the, know, um,

00:57:08.24
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Community building is work. And I think in this paradigm shift that it's that it's harder work than it was 20 years ago.

00:57:17.18
Kevin Shock
It is.

00:57:23.64
Nathan Pile
um

00:57:25.25
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:57:26.49
Nathan Pile
But it makes it important because it's foundation building. um the But the thing that you said that that really is something that at least I'm in my own head telling myself is I have to find um healthier community. I don't want to say that it's the healthiest because it's made up of human beings and we're still selfish.

00:57:50.50
Nathan Pile
But healthier communities that help me rejoice so that I'm i'm able to put the work in in places that

00:57:53.35
Kevin Shock
Sure.

00:58:01.86
Nathan Pile
where the community building takes where it's harder. And I just lived that experience last week.

00:58:10.16
Nathan Pile
And so to keep this as short as I can, I gathered with colleagues from ecumenical partners, um so outdoor ministries, which would be camps and retreat centers of the mainline Protestant denominations. We get together once a year face to face and talk about ways that we can do what we're doing within our denominational networks.

00:58:33.43
Nathan Pile
of camps, um how we can do that better across six or seven um denominations. How can we strengthen each other in that process? and And one of those pieces has been three years. We've been working on one part of our our our are gathering together as a group for three years that I've been a part of them. And it's been frustrating um

00:58:59.72
Kevin Shock
Hmm.

00:59:00.75
Nathan Pile
as I roll my eyes thinking about it. um But we, I fi- we finally got the okay together to say, now, like we've gotten to the point that we all agree, this is the next step.

00:59:04.65
Kevin Shock
Hmm.

00:59:14.21
Nathan Pile
And so now we're ready to to to do the next step, which will end a three-year process and really,

00:59:21.40
Nathan Pile
three years that I've been a part of the process. And I have no doubt that they've talked about it probably for three to five years before I became a part of the process.

00:59:29.32
Kevin Shock
Sure.

00:59:29.65
Nathan Pile
So like, this is an eight year process of trying to put, you know, something that's not all that hard to accomplish other than we all, the the goal has been that we all need to be on the same page when we made this step together.

00:59:45.39
Nathan Pile
And so it's taken us eight years to get there. Um, And to be honest, like I was even exhausted after these three days of meetings.

00:59:56.22
Nathan Pile
Like I can celebrate that we're gonna move forward with it, but but like people said, well, how did it go?

00:59:56.23
Kevin Shock
sure

01:00:01.99
Nathan Pile
And I'm like, it was tough.

01:00:05.36
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

01:00:06.22
Nathan Pile
ah because we still were, we are still kind of wrestling with and struggling with and out loud verbally in conversation with how do we, is this really what we want to do? Is this the direction we're going to move in?

01:00:19.94
Nathan Pile
um Kind of a thing. And so,

01:00:26.24
Nathan Pile
yeah. And so this is a part of building those kinds of foundation and that kind of stuff, building that stuff together. And so being a part of networks that help feed me, so that I could be a part of this conversation with this group of people around the table so I didn't just give up and throw my hands up and say I'm out.

01:00:44.79
Nathan Pile
um Because I'm not positive we would have had we would have gotten to this point because I think other people too were frustrated. I just am a little bit more of a

01:01:00.18
Nathan Pile
Type A, keep driving.

01:01:02.73
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

01:01:03.29
Nathan Pile
person as Kevin knows to say let's get let's keep let's keep with this let's not drop this rock where i think others would have been okay to say let's put this down for a while and not keep moving forward with it um good bad or otherwise you know maybe i've made the mistake of trying to push us in this direction but we're all together still like that's the important piece to me is that we're still all together and we've decided this is the right next step so it feels like it's the right next step um

01:01:04.70
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

01:01:13.35
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

01:01:28.35
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

01:01:29.60
Nathan Pile
Um, cause we did talk about that. Maybe it's not the next right next step. Maybe it's better for us to stay together than to take this step. Um, but that we've taken the step and decided to stay together. So, so it feels like it's the right stuff, but like, but that was, it was hard work. It was hard relationship stuff. I used a lot of emotional energy,

01:01:49.85
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

01:01:49.89
Nathan Pile
over the last three years to make this happen, to to be a part of helping make this happen. I didn't make it happen myself. other Other people, it's been a ah long group, list of names that have kind of helped bring this to a close.

01:02:05.21
Nathan Pile
But I think that this is true for all of us in these community spaces, we're gonna have some of this work, but we do need to find communities that can that can help our hearts rejoice

01:02:11.85
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

01:02:18.47
Nathan Pile
this that That truth that you named seems very, very real to me. And how do we go about doing that?

01:02:27.58
Nathan Pile
So...

01:02:30.36
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah. I, yeah. I think I, um, well, I'll be honest. I, one of my, one of my, uh, critiques of society as a whole is that we are more about doing than being.

01:02:48.60
Kevin Shock
And, uh, I'll be honest that the past few months, I've just been so focused on my to-do list that I haven't been very good at being with other people or even as myself.

01:03:01.32
Kevin Shock
um And I think that that, I think rejoicing is more rooted in being than doing.

01:03:15.80
Kevin Shock
I think when we're more focused on being, we can see that all of the great things that God is doing.

01:03:22.70
Kevin Shock
I think when we're doing, we're just focused on doing.

01:03:28.36
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

01:03:31.10
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah, I think about how often i um how often I preach ah against crossing things of off our to-do list and how inept I have become at putting aside my to-do list.

01:03:48.98
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

01:03:50.00
Kevin Shock
And, and I do put it aside on certain days where I just don't do anything from it, but then I'm, but then I'm thinking about it all the time, which isn't helpful.

01:04:01.58
Nathan Pile
Well, and and I guess my question from you, um from your friend to his friend is where, what is the community where you're able to be instead of do?

01:04:14.26
Nathan Pile
And so um in this time,

01:04:15.46
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

01:04:21.07
Nathan Pile
what is, where Where is the community that you feel like you can go and be in?

01:04:27.65
Nathan Pile
Because there's always going to be, the to-do list is always going to need to be picked back up, whether whether for all of us.

01:04:31.59
Kevin Shock
Sure.

01:04:34.25
Nathan Pile
And so finding the community that helps our heart to sing, I think is ah is a part of

01:04:47.34
Nathan Pile
ah part of this journey right now.

01:04:51.88
Kevin Shock
Yep.

01:04:53.65
Nathan Pile
so

01:04:53.78
Kevin Shock
Yep. Our heart sings in community. There we are back to the Psalms. All right, Nathan, what other what other readings do we have this week that people can look at?

01:05:03.18
Nathan Pile
Additional texts for this week after um Easter. Um our first reading is going to be from the book of acts So if you're kind of you look at the first reading lesson on Sunday and you're like, what from the book of Acts?

01:05:21.00
Nathan Pile
Well, it's Easter. It's what we do. in the book of in the season of Easter, is our first reading a lot of times is from the book of Acts. And so we'll be looking at Acts chapter 5, verses 27 through 32.

01:05:33.73
Nathan Pile
Again, the God of our ancestors raised up Jesus. a Psalm 150, which would be an alternate to the reading that we've just read. um Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. You can see the um overlapping theme there.

01:05:53.59
Nathan Pile
revelations a Revelation chapter 1 verse 4 through 8. ah Jesus Christ the firstborn of the dead is coming and then the gospel this week is John chapter 20 19 through 31 beholding the wounds of the risen Christ.

01:06:12.14
Nathan Pile
As always Kevin it is ah blessing for me um to share reflections with you. it helps make my heart sing and rejoice.

01:06:25.23
Nathan Pile
And so those who are listening, as always, we are happy to hear your um your reflections.

01:06:33.65
Nathan Pile
You can share those with us on social media or on on our email. um We hope to tend our faith with you again soon. Grace to you.

01:06:42.78
Kevin Shock
And peace.