In all of today’s readings the principal characters are sitting in the midst of shift. David has fled Jerusalem and must listen to the taints of those who have a long grievance. He listens, for the word of God might even be found here. Is there a corrective he needs to hear?, he wonders out loud.
Paul concludes his attempt at setting his case before the Jews of Jerusalem and only barely averts a flogging as he awaits his rights as a Roman citizen. He has failed to make any inroad that will change the outcome of his visit to the city. Paul is not good at waiting.
Jesus sets up the entry into Jerusalem having just told his followers his arrest, death and rising is coming. Then he enters to the triumphant calls of the crowd but we know and he seems to have known this moment of entering in an old world kingly manner is but a foreshadowing of a very different outcome.
They simply remind us there are times we are not in control of what is ahead of us. There are times the best we can do is be and place our being inside God’s judgment and hope. There are harsh times when this is the only rest we can give ourselves and it is unclear where we will hear anything that can be clearly distinguished as a word from God or a tolerable outcome. And yet we wait actively if we can. We see the small changing or consistent movements of life and wonder, where now is God in this?
That wondering can become prayer. It is the kind of prayer that is more about yielding over the moment than controlling the moment. It does not make a sign of everything but looks patiently to see if there is a sign beneath the ordinary where we might touch God’s will. It is not so much logical as it is intuitive. It is like a slow walk through the unknown. And if we are blessed it will become patience and trust and hope and thus faith.
Such moments come to us all. Will we be able then to be, to sit, to listen?
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