Living in the Spirit
August 28, 2018
Scripture Reading: 1 Kings 8:(1, 6, 10-11), 22-30, 41-43
‘Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name —for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm—when a foreigner comes and prays towards this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling-place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so that they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built. –1 Kings 8:41-43
Someone recently asked where in the Bible is the support for the idea that priest should not marry. My response was that Paul talked about it being better not to marry but there was nothing wrong with marriage. He may have been referring to the difficulties in having a family and being an itinerate preacher. Some point out that Jesus was never married but we really do not know that for sure. We know that Peter was married because Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. I know of no other reference to the marital status of Jesus or any of his other disciples. Jewish priests are cited as being married and having children in several places.
It is interesting to me that various religious group do place much emphasis on rather tenuous practices and ideas from the Bible and totally ignore or even dispute some practices and ideas that have overwhelming support from Genesis through Revelation. The most apparent of those are loving one another and welcoming the stranger. Solomon receives instruction in our scriptures today about welcoming the stranger.
Much of the world is struggling to deal with a massive refugee crisis to which we may have contributed in some areas by engaging in war and in others by not working hard enough to stabilize our neighbors’ homelands. If drug lords did not have a market for their product they would not be entering our country to sell drugs on our streets. If businesses did not profit from being able to pay undocumented aliens less than citizens or documented immigrants, the undocumented would not be crossing our borders.
That said, the history of our country’s success has been driven in part by the contributions of strangers who became neighbors and combined their diverse skills and knowledge to create this progressive society. We are not perfect. There remains a lot to improve but we need to recognize good comes from those two basic Biblical teaching of loving one another and welcoming the stranger.
Prayer: Lord, open opportunities to practice our skills in loving one another and welcoming the stranger until we get them both right. Amen.