The first thing I did this morning was check the MLGW website to see how many people were still without power. I looked out my window and saw the trees - many with fallen branches and limbs, the rest still fully covered in ice. It’s impossible to be a Memphian right now and not feel the intensity of this moment. My mind wandered to the Psalms of Kabbalat Shabbat, because one of the main themes of these ancient words is the power of nature.
The heavens shall be glad and the earth rejoice, the sea in its fullness roar (Psalm 96:11)
Let the sea and all within it thunder (Psalm 98:7)
The voice of Adonai is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, Adonai, over the mighty waters. (Psalm 29:3)
With these words, particularly this week, we enter into Shabbat experiencing the powerful, dangerous and destructive component of nature. Our Kabbalat Shabbat liturgy highlights the power of nature in significant ways, attributing them to God's might. But for me, that imagery and language is hard to digest in this moment. Especially now, with so much damage done to homes and so many of us without heat and power, we are acutely aware that this glory of God’s isn’t what we’d like to have in our lives and in our city at the moment.
I am heading into Shabbat caught in this tension, wanting to imagine a God that is powerful and does miraculous things in this world, but also experiencing the vulnerability of our existence. I saw many people posting on facebook: “Powerless.” In the face of the damage done, in sitting in cold homes, in wondering when life will be restored, it’s so easy to feel Powerless. It’s so easy to feel that we have no agency and that we are left to feel the aftermath of God’s Power.
But I am given just a bit of strength from the very last line of the six psalms that comprise Kabbalat Shabbat: Adonai oz l’amo yiten, Adonai yivarech et amo va shalom Adonai will grant strength to God’s people; Adonai will bless them with peace.
God’s Power took down trees and brought ice and sleet; God’s Power took down power lines, leaving so many without heat. But God’s Power, hopefully, can also give us strength. I hope that God’s Power can be channeled through us, granting us peace, offering us warmth, and endowing us with the fortitude to ride out the storm.
I pray this is a Shabbat Shalom for all of us, a Shabbat of warmth and peace, a Shabbat of comfort.
