Living in the Spirit
Light a Candle for Children
October 13, 2014
Scripture Reading: Exodus 33:12-23
Moses said to the Lord, ‘See, you have said to me, “Bring up this people”; but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, “I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.” Now if I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways, so that I may know you and find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.’ He said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’ And he said to him, ‘If your presence will not go, do not carry us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people, unless you go with us? In this way, we shall be distinct, I and your people, from every people on the face of the earth.’ — Exodus 33:12-16
In recent years, I have become very aware of the need to recognize God’s presence in my life and in the life of the community of faith in which I participate. God’s company is not something we should take for granted. God has chosen to make God’s presence known to us. Think about how very hard it is to be fully present to another. We should never take this gift lightly.
This segment of scripture today follows the story of Moses’ receiving the tablets of the covenant on the mountain. As he carried them down the mountain he began to hear the singing and dancing of the people as they worshiped their golden calf. Moses’ anger burned and he threw the tablets to the ground and broke them. Without Moses, the people had lost faith in the presence of God. Our scripture today reflects his frustration and his angst. Was God still with them?
Ever been there? I find myself in that spot regularly as I see the dumb things we humans do to skirt real problems when in the back of our minds we know what is just and what is right. Such knowing is imbedded in our DNA. An old hymn may say it best. You may remember it in a more modern version from Godspell:
Turn back, O man, forswear thy foolish ways.
old now is earth, and none may count her days.
yet thou, her child, whose head is crowned with flame,
still wilt not hear thine inner God proclaim,
“Turn back, O man, forswear thy foolish ways.”
Earth might be fair and all men glad and wise.
age after age their tragic empires rise,
built while they dream, and in that dreaming weep:
would man but wake from out his haunted sleep,
earth might be fair and all men glad and wise.
Earth shall be fair, and all her people one:
nor till that hour shall God’s whole will be done.
Now, even now, once more from earth to sky,
peals forth in joy man’s old undaunted cry:
“Earth shall be fair and all her folk be one!”*
Oklahoma Fact: 12% of Children live in areas of concentrated poverty**
Prayer: Thank you Lord, for your presence. Write on our hearts your justice and your righteousness so that we turn around and forever be fully present to you and your will. Amen.
*Words by Clifford Bax, 1919
**http://datacenter.kidscount.org/data/tables/6795-children-living-in-areas-of-concentrated-poverty?loc=38&loct=2#detailed/2/38/false/1201,1074,880,11/any/13891,13892
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.