Week 1 | Sunday, June 5, 2022
Psalm 104:25-35
1 | begin
Find a place to sit in silence for a few minutes where you will not be disturbed. When you are ready, close your eyes or gently look toward the floor or ground.
Take 2 or 3 slow, deep breaths in and out.
Breathe through your belly at a comfortable pace. As you breathe in, be aware of God’s presence with you. As you breathe out, be aware of your presence with God. You may use a word or phrase if that helps, like “love” as you inhale and “beloved” as you exhale.
Continue this breathing prayer for a minute or two.
When you are ready to end the prayer, take 1 slow, deep breath in and out as your “Amen.”
2 | explore
Journal on your own about your experiences or share your stories with a group:
Describe a time when you tried to gain more independence for yourself. What happened? What did you do? How did you feel?
Now describe a time when you tried to build a relationship with someone. What happened? What did you do? How did you feel?
What do your stories show you about independence, relationships, and yourself? What do you value most: independence or relationships? Why?
3 | read
Read Psalm 104. Then read verses 25-35 again.
4 | reflect
For those of us immersed in the individualistic culture of the U.S., it can be easy to believe that who we are is defined by separation from others. Identity seems to revolve around being different from everyone else, standing out, being your own person.
But when being ourselves hinges upon independence and separation, we can build walls around ourselves that shut others out. We can also fail to recognize the countless ways our lives are enmeshed in the lives of others.
The COVID-19 pandemic of the last two years has dispelled any illusion that relationships are not fundamental to our lives. Being forced to stay apart from one another and to take health precautions when we are together has exposed how much we need one another.
Even so, after two years of disruption to the social and ecological connections that define us, it may feel difficult to figure out how to reconnect with other people, with ourselves, and with God. The distance may seem too wide, the lack of momentum too pronounced, the catch-up list too long.
The truth is that the pandemic has changed us. And reconnecting is likely to change us still.
But relationships can also be what ground us as we venture through this messy season. Instead of subscribing to the myth that we don’t need anyone else or that we are alone, we can draw upon the connections that are already there, already sustaining us, to find our way toward reconnection and renewal.
The psalm for this Sunday, Psalm 104, offers a helpful place to start. It celebrates God’s creative work in forming the earth and giving life to its creatures. What sets this psalm apart from the first creation story in Genesis 1 is how it zooms in on relationships that sustain creation. Like a nature photographer with a camera, the psalmist names the “springs” that “give drink to every wild animal” and the “trees” where “the birds build their nests” (vv. 10-11, 16-17, NRSVUE). Each creature depends upon other parts of creation in order to survive, and in God’s creation, creatures find the support they need to live another day. Scene after scene builds a portrait of a web of connections that give life to creation. Interwoven within and among every strand of this web in the psalm is God, who is close enough to “[touch] the mountains” and for the “ground” to feel God’s “spirit,” or breath, as the word suggests in Hebrew (vv. 32, 30).
We human beings are participants in this web too. Though social and economic structures in the U.S. often obscure this truth, we can feel it in something as simple as breathing. Every moment of our lives is defined by our connection to this planet’s air. It becomes part of our bodies as we inhale and then exits our bodies to rejoin the gas particles filling the atmosphere with every exhale. Like every other living creature, we also “die and return to [our] dust,” as the psalm says (v. 29), when our union with the air ends.
This week as you navigate situations of separation and reconnection, what threads in the web of relationships that shape your life might you lean on? How might connections renew you during this season?
5 | respond
Journal on your own or talk with a group about these questions:
1. How are you feeling at this point in the COVID-19 pandemic? How have you changed?
2. What has reconnecting been like for you? Refreshing? Difficult? Scary? Joyful?
3. What stands out to you in Psalm 104? If you were the nature photographer for this psalm, what shots of God’s creative work would you try to capture?
4. Where do you see God’s presence in this psalm? Where do you witness God’s presence in your life and community right now?
5. What is one part of your life where you would like to cultivate renewal? How might relationships help ground and renew you?
6 | practice
Take a few minutes this week to do one of these activities:
Nature Photo Shoot
Go on a nature walk and take photos of connections that you see in creation
Breath Practice
Do the breath prayer in this lesson or another mindful breathing practice
Credits
Image of “Social Distancing” is by Elizabeth McDaniel on the Unsplash website
Image of “Web” is by Shannon Potter on the Unsplash website
Image of “Sky” is by Maddison McMurrin on the Unsplash website
Image of “Camera” is by Tiard Schulz on the Unsplash website
Image of “Words” is by Brett Jordan on the Unsplash website
Header image of “Grass” is by Philipp Lublasser on the Unsplash website
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The scripture reading comes from the Revised Common Lectionary lessons for Pentecost Sunday in Year C, which can be found at the Episcopal Church Lectionary Page here
