Before I read daily readings, I prepare myself with a grounding question: what is God? If I’m a believer, what exactly do I believe in? Some days this question pushes me so hard I doubt I believe at all. Pushing faith to doubt is an exhausting, but ultimately rewarding practice. I learned this form of faith from my Grandpa Pete. He’s often said he’s glad to be named after the disciple because he relates so well to Peter’s clumsy habit of attempting to prove his faith but which so often ends in expressions of doubt. 

I look for clues in the readings about what the writers think God is; what sort of God they refer to; and what kind of God makes the readings make the most sense. This last question is especially helpful when reading the Psalms for me – what kind of God makes the Psalms make sense?   

Most often the readings don’t say what God is. When taken together though, they usually form a daily “theme” for how to follow God. I’m surprised at how specific and challenging the theme is most days. Today is a good example. You might say today’s theme is “commitment to the cause of liberation of the poor.” Day after day, daily reading themes for how to follow God add up to paint a picture of what God is. 

Today our readings begin with the famous story of God discovering Adam and Eve breaking a rule, and their blaming each other, and then the snake for the trouble. 

Today in the Psalm we begin by acknowledging, “Out of the depth I cry to you, O God.” Psalm study often places the reader in a position to appeal and speak directly to God like this. 

In the second reading Paul makes his point quite clearly: stay the course, keep your commitment to God. He implores us to define ourselves by our values, above all our belief in God, not by earthly measures; and to work for God every day no matter the visible results. 

And finally, today’s provocative Gospel shows Jesus giving a nuanced lesson about the nature of God – it is something like a thief who intentionally breaks into a private space and is prepared ahead of time to do so. What sort of God is this? 

The simple lesson from the first reading about Eve, Adam, and the snake is that our impulse to blame each other for our genuine sins, to find a scapegoat, is a foundational mistake. The blaming impulse drives us out of a good place and away from God. Blame drives us out from a place where we make good decisions, where we are able to receive feedback, and where we easily care for each other: Eden. When we blame each other we lose Eden, the place where God walks among us as a friend. There are lots of consequences of losing God as a friend. The first and most enduring seems to be that we focus on the consequences and forget that we ever knew God at all. 

In the Psalm today our refrain is, “With God there is mercy and fullness of redemption.” The God of this Psalm to whom we cry here has the ability to keep a score, but chooses not to “mark iniquities” the implication being that we sin against this God all the time. But this God makes mercy accessible, and through that mercy allows us to learn how to love and adore this God.

In these reflections I come close to reducing God to “the poor,” or suggesting a messianic role for “the poor.” Both Marxists and theologians have raised eyebrows throughout history when making similar arguments. When challenged, Marxists and theologians both usually contextualize and clarify. This is good, because equating God to any specific group or category can be dangerously reductive. In this case, talking about “the poor” and God risks romanticizing poverty and makes actual poor people into props. 

However, we cannot ignore the constant theme of poor people’s liberation from oppression throughout scripture. Psalm study is a good way to ensure that reading God as something like “the liberating poor” remains a provocative instruction leading us to action rather than a vulgar trope. Rather than avoiding the comparison, and distancing concepts of God and poor people from each other, this Psalm study practice is a thoughtful leaning into the “God-as-poor” equation. 

As you re-read today’s Psalm 130, consider the poor people around you, or whatever oppressed people weigh most heavily and often on your mind and heart. 

Remember that you are the speaker now, speaking directly to God. 

And now, whenever you see a reference to God in the Psalm, replace it with “the poor,” and speak directly to them: 

1. With THE POOR there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O POOR PEOPLE;

POOR PEOPLE, hear my voice!

Let your ears be attentive

to my voice in supplication.

1. With THE POOR there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.

If you, O POOR PEOPLE, mark iniquities,

POOR PEOPLE, who can stand?

But with you is forgiveness,

that you may be revered.

1. With POOR PEOPLE there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.

I trust in THE POOR;

my soul trusts in the word of THE POOR.

More than sentinels wait for the dawn,

let Israel wait for THE POOR.

1. With THE POOR there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.

For with THE POOR is kindness

and with THE POOR is plenteous redemption

and THE POOR will redeem Israel

from all their iniquities.

1. With THE POOR there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.

…

Note where sins against God are now sins against the poor directly. How does that change your concept of sin? 

Note how your forgiveness and redemption from God is now coming from the poor. What does it mean to have your longing for God become a longing for poor people’s liberation? 

Note how your adoration and prayers to God are now adoration prayers to and for the poor. What do you need to do to ensure your adoration is not trite, othering, or romanticizing poverty? 

Finally, note how in order to make sense of God-as-poor, you must think of yourself as part of a society – the collective people. What does it mean that both your sins and your redemption are collective?