Living in the Spirit
August 15, 2018
Scripture Reading: Psalm 111
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever. –Psalm 111:10
While visiting a friend attending college in Austin, Texas many years ago, I toured a museum either on the campus or it near it while she was in class. Rounding a corner in one of the ancient history sections, I came face-to-face with a monstrous effigy set in an outdoor scene that was five or six times my height and nearly as wide as it was tall. It was one great stone with eyes and mouth carved to make a face. It may have had a nose I do not remember. I screamed very loudly and jumped back in fear. Quickly getting my wits about me I looked around to see who heard or saw me and was relieved to see no one near or anyone coming to investigate. The effigy was no doubt created to bring about the same fearful response I had among its worshippers. The concept of humans desiring something greater than themselves to have some control over the world is present in the origins of history. Such entities brought people together in a shared sense of fear or reverence or awe depending on their understanding of the god. In my tradition Abram, later to be renamed Abraham, was the first to recognize one God of all not hewn by human hands.
My mother shared God as an entity to be revered and held in awe. I think part of that was from her understanding of the devil from her childhood. She shared once that she would run as fast as she could to the outhouse at night. Having been taught in church that the devil would get her if she ever sinned, she envisioned the devil grabbing her legs and pulling her into hell if she didn’t run fast enough. I always wondered what horrible sin she thought she had done to deserve such treatment. She later grew up in the understanding of the God of Love in whose image all of us are made who was and is more awesome than any evil.
I thus have never experienced God as the source of wrath but One who restores to wholeness those who are broken in any sense of the word. I hope I never lose the sense of the unmeasurable depth and breadth and mercy of God’s grace and love that is beyond all imagination. We are not alone.
Prayer:
Lo! the hosts of evil round us
scorn the Christ, assail his ways!
From the fears that long have bound us
free our hearts to faith and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the living of these days,
for the living of these days*. Amen
*Verse 2 of God of Grace and God of Glory by Harry Emerson Fosdick see at https://hymnary.org/text/god_of_grace_and_god_of_glory