Living in the Spirit
September 28, 2016

Scripture Reading: Psalm 137

How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
   if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
   above my highest joy. –Psalm 137:4-6

Exile—how can our hearts sing when ripped away from home? Taunted—dependent on strangers for good or for bad, how are we to know the difference? Used—working only to survive for one more day so our children can survive for one more day.

Today, refugees stream across borders around the world escaping from death, searching for life. They leave intolerable, unsustainable situations and enter a vast unknown. The children of Abraham knew the reality of loss and fear when taken into captivity over 2,500 years ago. The children of Abraham today are both the refugees and those called to welcome the stranger. It is our faith heritage.

How do we welcome strangers, share hospitality when we fear them? How do we get past our prejudices and see others as the children of God we are called to love? How do we tell them in word and deed they are strangers no more?

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face;
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace*.

Prayer: God of Mercy, refocus or actions and attitudes toward your way of seeing all your children. Enable our loving the stranger. Amen.

*Chorus to Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus by Helen Howarth Lemmel see at https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/645

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.