Kingdom Building

August 14, 2019

Scripture Reading: Psalm 80:1-2, 8-19

Turn again, O God of hosts;
   look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
   the stock that your right hand planted.
They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down;
   may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.
But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,
   the one whom you made strong for yourself.
Then we will never turn back from you;
   give us life, and we will call on your name. –Psalm 80:14-18

I was reminded of the Oklahoma City Bombing when I heard about the shootings in El Paso recently. I always remember the Oklahoma City Bombing when I hear about senseless mass killings. I was not in the bombing directly and did not feel it when it shook the building where I was in an interior office. Suddenly, as if on cue all the staff sitting in the open area outside my office jumped to their feet and said “What was that?” They felt it and some heard it. As the crow flies the Murrah building was about two miles away. TVs went on in our building where they existed, and work came to a standstill. The call for blood went out immediately and as a universal donor, I left for the nearest blood bank where I found a two-block line already formed. I felt guilty as I was pulled from the back of the line and moved to the front because of my O negative blood. Today, we are burning ourselves with fire and people are being cut down.

When did we become so divided? When did we become us and them? Like the two mothers arguing over the one living child*, are we seeking a Solomon to rule that God belongs to one side or the other?

We are all children of the one living God who loves each of us and all of us and commands us to love each other. We need to let go of what divides us and seek together to find the things that bring us to oneness and invite God in God’s forgiveness of our divisiveness to nurture that oneness throughout the earth.

Prayer: Restore us, O Lord God of hosts;
   let your face shine, that we may be saved. –Psalm 80:18

*See 1 Kings 3:16-28

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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.