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We come to psalm 1 18 through the revised common election erI reading format as customary in protestant christian worship in this context, the som is an english translation And excludes the initial 13 verses. Despite the familiar

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familiarity of this format in this, in the current context, it would have been unfamiliar to the ancient Hebrew speaking lyricists who composed and sang the song similar to how the revised common dictionary represents a cultural production

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of the protestant christian tradition. Psalm 1 18 was the production of a distinct cultural ethnic group who live somewhere in southwest Asia and who expressed their religious faith in hebrew. Within this asian milieu, the psalm

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sounded something like this Evan mastro have a name hi attack Laroche, Vienna minute ago, nine. Hey to that he nice flat banana Zkm, Hossa, Adenine, nagila venice mecca, both for my english

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tamed tongue. It is hard not to fill some element of estrangement, unhinging and irregularity when reading biblical hebrew articulating, allowed this Semitic script requires contortions and positions to the lips, jaw and tongue that are

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not only alien, but can also incite an enormous amount of anxiety for english speakers believe me, I have seen the anxiety from my students After teaching biblical hebrew for 15 years, although my spanish speaking tongue

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can temper my mouth's discomfort. Reading the psalm in Hebrew forces me to realize how extraordinarily different my cultural context is from the cultural context envisioned in the psalm . For the initial hebrew speaking audience of the psalm

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notions of faith and God were first fostered by a southwest asian cultural system that viewed literary communication along a right to left trajectory, whereas for english speakers, the readers gaze moves along a left to right trajectory

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. In other words, we begin in the place where Hebrew ends are, we end in the place where Hebrew begins, This dynamic is sort of like driving a car in the UK, which for us

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in the US, is simply the wrong side of the road. Just thinking about the many times I looked left rather than right when crossing the road in London brings to mind several near death experiences in considering

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the cultural otherness of the biblical text. We turn we in turn are reminded of our own otherness to the text here. The biblical text reveals to us that its creation was the production of a particular value

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system, modes of meaning making, and cultural instincts that were exceedingly different from our own. For some of us in this world being made, the other can be an everyday lived reality, whether due to

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our skin color, culture, accent, sexuality, gender class, educational level, professional status, etcetera . Perhaps similar to the english version of the psalm . In the revised common reactionary, your authentic self

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has been made the other to yourself, by another's cultures, translating processes and a culture rating standards put into a context, not your own. You're Otherness forces you to live as a translation of someone else

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says that you become the other of another kind of other. Yet as someone else's other, you enter a process of becoming the same as them, Which in turn leads you to becoming perpetually other. 3rd

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to your authentic self. As disorienting as these lines . This line of reasoning may seem much like driving a car in the UK. two important distinctions are worth recognizing first when it comes to otherness. There

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are people who strive to do the other thing. Secondly, there are those who are the objects of an mothering process. Both positions suggest varying degrees of power, agency and liberation, and that to be

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the one doing the other ring, you become not the other, but rather the standard. As for the one being other, Your opportunities for becoming the standard diminish in this arrangement, which one holds more

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power, the one setting the standard or the one trying to become the standard. For many in our world, the former scenario has shown to be the most desired position of power that is to be the

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standard bearer Or as Psalm 1 1822 describes the head cornerstone, Laroche pena as the standard bearers. Lived . Reality is not defined by otherness, but by sameness, uniformity and homogeneity. For some, the

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transition from meeting the standard and becoming the standard may be swift and perhaps even automatic upon birth. Yet for others this transition may seem never ending, and hence unattainable. Using the psalms Agri architectural analogy of

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the headstone attaining this lead position points to a place of elite power and hence control over the entire spatial structure. The resulting space is calibrated according to what is privileged as the standard cornerstone. Here, the

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head cornerstone dictates the identity of the rest of the stones. Used to construct the building structure, the end result, It's not only the uniformity of space but also the uniformity of actions that are performed in

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it. For example, hallways prompt the movement of bodies and office spaces suggest stationary bodies. In other words, common materials not only privileged commonality of space , but also uniformity of actions, all of which

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benefit those setting the standard. Yet in Psalm 1 18 particularly versus 22 23 this system of elite power is marvelously inverted. The psalmist points to the rejected stone or the rejected other as the standard bearer for

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the constructed space. Verse 22 Massu have a name . Hey, to Laroche pena. The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. Here , the psalmist imagines a system for constructing space in

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which the rejected other serves as the head cornerstone or standard bearer by constructing the space with the rejected other as the head cornerstone. The result is inevitably a space of multiple differences. Moreover, the privilege.

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The privileged otherness in the construction of space also allows for otherness, not homogeneity to be privileged to be the privileged reality in such a space. Sameness or uniformity is not the goal, but rather a multiplicity

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of differences. A space where otherness privileges otherness. I would argue that such a space is mirrored in the architecture of the earth, where the head cornerstone is infinite otherness. Hence, privileges a life with

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infinite otherness. Just take a walk through a desert . You will find that each speck of sand is uniquely different or in a forest where plants of all kinds are living side by side. What would happen

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to our churches, seminaries and communities if the rejected other was set as the head cornerstone for teaching, learning and believing. Indeed this solemn is inviting us into a belief system in which the production of space

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privileges the rejected other to have the rejected other. As the head cornerstone Otherness becomes the standard. Not in a reductive sense, but rather in ways that allow my otherness to you, which is actually my

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uniqueness to inhabit the same space with you who is other to me. But actually is your uniqueness? Imagine the impact of creating this type of space here at Austin Seminary where the rejected other is privileged as

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the standard or as the Samos declares the head cornerstone a space where multiplicity of differences are reflected at all levels of the institution and works together to create spaces for other forms of worship, other modes of praying

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and other ways of learning about God, the world and each other. In such a space where the rejected other is privileged as the standard. What is displaced is a belief system that seeks uniformity, homogeneity

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, assimilation of which leads to concentrated forms of power , much like empire. It accepts the red rejected other because it is the rejected other. There is space for everyone, no exclusion. What would it

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mean to have spaces that encourage speaking in multiple languages , accents, cultures and modes of truth making? It's the psalmist declares such a space would be the Lord's doing and it would indeed be marvelous in our