Living in the Spirit

September 19, 2023

Scripture Reading: Psalm 114
When Israel went out from Egypt,
   the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
Judah became God’s sanctuary,
   Israel his dominion.

The sea looked and fled;
   Jordan turned back.
The mountains skipped like rams,
   the hills like lambs.

Why is it, O sea, that you flee?
   O Jordan, that you turn back?
O mountains, that you skip like rams?
   O hills, like lambs?

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
   at the presence of the God of Jacob,
who turns the rock into a pool of water,
   the flint into a spring of water.

Some stories just require the poet’s touch. The escape from Egypt is one of them. That may be true of our south-of-the-border neighbors who are caught in such desperation all they can think about is leaving. Most of us do not have a clue what that feels like. Oklahoma was one of the states that answered the Texas Governor’s call to send National Guard troops to guard the border between Texas and Mexico. When they came back, I heard very few reports of what they experienced, except one soldier saying on the news that he saw desperate people trying to survive. Perhaps what we need is more witnesses and less hyperbole.

Prayer: Lord, guide our leaders as they struggle to find the right responses to the plight of our neighbors trying to flee oppression. 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.