Reflection on Psalm 90, given at the National Worship Conference 2021 (ELCIC/Anglican Church in Canada)
In our liturgical tradition, each year we cycle through themes of anticipation, celebration, discovery, lament, grief, renewal and growth. Each year we are guided again by the orbit of a divine narrative that pulls us in, holds us together and directs our path in familiar rhythms and seasons that at the same time feel unique, different and specific. We’ve been here before, and yet are here for the first time. “A thousand years in your sight are as yesterday.”
This liturgical energy circulates around seasons where God breaks in to creation and humanity in disruptive, tangible, messy, and often confusing ways with words of hope and life. Do not be afraid—Immanuel. He is not dead, he is alive. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. In these seasons, the fabric between humanity and divine is thin, and we discover again the height, breadth and depth of grace gifted by the One of eternity, the One beyond time.
As we make our way again around these stories, colours, symbols and songs that echo with both the strength and hope of generations before us and our dreams and prayers for the generations that come after us, we discover themes that parallel our own experiences—and the fabric between humanity and divine becomes thin. We find that we are not alone in our seasons of anticipation, celebration, lament, pain, renewal and growth. The One who was before time IS. The One who promises TO BE in the future IS today. The One who ALWAYS HAS BEEN…IS AGAIN. The fabric between humanity and divine is thin.
Like the patterns of day and night, of fall, winter, spring and summer, of cold and warm and of life and death, the liturgical rhythm invites us to fold the now and the not yet together…to see today through the lens of yesterday and tomorrow…to look for hints of creation and resurrection in what looks at first like decay and destruction. The fabric between humanity and divine is thin. “Before time itself began, you are God…eternal.”