I am preaching this week and the topic is “Home” (Where we find home and how we can help to create home for others); consequently, home is on my mind. As we move from disorientation to new orientation in the Psalms, I am consumed by the thought of what a new orientation of home would be and how this new orientation may relate to our work on the Psalms.
My first thoughts veer towards the prodigal son, wondering what home must have looked like for him when he first set his eyes upon it in the distance after being away for so long. Along with the prodigal son, I think of my own experience of returning home after leaving college. It was certainly different: the way I related to my parents and my place in the community.
Does this have anything to do with our new orientation to the Psalms? Maybe. I guess what it points out to me is that things will be different when we return to the Psalms this time. Perhaps the laws that Chris talked about the first couple of weeks won’t be seen as preordained or nonnegotiable because of our experience with how the laws of God so often get bent or broken. The questions that arise for me are: What will I do in response to seeing that these laws won’t be strictly enforced? Will I break them? Will I dismiss them? Will I attempt to uphold them? Does not enforcing them or allowing Hell to be my motivation for not breaking them, mean that these laws are useless?
Let me know what you think…
