Living in the Spirit
October 18, 2016

Scripture Reading: Joel 2:23-32

You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,    and praise the name of the Lord your God,    who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,    and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other. And my people shall never again    be put to shame. –Joel 2:26-27

I confess I do not have an easy working relationship with the Book of Revelation for a lot of reasons, but I learned to glean positive thoughts from it over time from a good teacher. One such idea are words similar to the ones written in Joel. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals, He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself with be with them; .. (Revelation 21:3) The word translated home here is actually the word tabernacle which is a tent. I rather like the thought of God living among us.

Has God become so far removed from us that we lose a sense of God’s presence? What difference would it make in our lives if God were our next door neighbor? It would be great in times of trouble. God most likely would share a storm shelter or allow us to run an extension cord to an outdoor plug if our electricity were off. Is this how we perceive God now?

It occurs to me that God longs to be a part of every aspect of our lives. For that to happen, we must recognize God’s presence continually. A lot of hate speak spews through our airways in the midst of a, particularly ugly election year. How much of that is going to continue after the election? What does a God who is love think of hate speak or actual hate actions? How does God feel about our wasting the talents invested in us on unproductive interactions that result in gridlock or worse? I wonder at times if God has not taken the tent out of the package yet because our growth in love as the source of a better world is not ready for God living next door.

Prayer: Lord, if ever we have needed you we need you now*. Forgive us for getting caught up in fear of change, fear of strangers, fear of loving the other. Embolden us to pitch our tents among all your children so that we can find you. Amen.

*See Hymn I Need Thee Every Hour lyrics by Annie Sherwood Hawks with chorus by Robert Lowry see at https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/371

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.