Advent

November 23, 2022

Scripture Reading: Psalm 122

I was glad when they said to me,
   ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’
Our feet are standing
   within your gates, O Jerusalem.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
   ‘May they prosper who love you.
Peace be within your walls,
   and security within your towers.’
For the sake of my relatives and friends
   I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
   I will seek your good. –Psalm 22:1-2, 6-9

I loved singing the first verse of this Psalm as a child. At vacation Bible school, when the teacher called for us, we would run from the playground, line up in a straight row, and march into the building singing I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ repeatedly until we all were in the building. We then said the pledge of allegiance to the US flag, the Christian flag, and the Bible. We learned Bible stories from a felt board and memorized a new scripture each day. I still must carefully read some scriptures in worship because my memory from the King James version and the NRSV Bible now used in my church do battle in my head while I read. The twenty-third Psalm is the hardest. That one-room building had been the school my father attended during the week and a church on Sunday. It was no longer used as a school shortly after the depression. I was five years old when it closed as a church. It is a hay barn now, but it served its purpose well and has never lost its usefulness.

Fast forward seventy years, I volunteered in the nursery during church last Sunday. Two sweet toddlers played with toy animals on the floor. Later an infant arrived and was placed in a walker festooned with stuffed toys attached on all sides. The older children attend the first part of worship through the Children’s sermon where they hear a story and have a prayer with the congregation and then join the little ones to share in reading a book, having a snack, and doing arts and crafts. They were seamlessly led to help one another share their snacks and art supplies and clean up spilled water while learning to love their neighbor as they loved themselves. I was the visitor. These children knew what to do and where things were stored and felt just as safe and welcomed as I did seventy years ago. Culture changes but God’s love never wavers.

Prayer: Lord, help us maintain a beloved community, not just inside the walls of our churches but throughout the world where all children can thrive as they become the persons you created them to be. Amen.

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.