Tag Archives: Alone

Children of God

Living in the Spirit
November 6, 2018

Scripture Reading: Ruth 3:1-5, 4:13-17

So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When they came together, the Lord made her conceive, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin; and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him.’ Then Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and became his nurse. The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, ‘A son has been born to Naomi.’ They named him Obed; he became the father of Jesse, the father of David. –Ruth 4:13-17

I grew up with two very different sized family experiences. My mother had a very small family; my father a very large one. I had two first cousins on my mother’s side; 42 on my father’s. In both cases, there was an abiding sense of relationship that one always had someone else with whom to make their journey through life. Now I am of the older generations and nephews and nieces outnumber my generation. I must confess it is hard for me to conceive of people having no relatives at least that they know, but as an active member of a church, I now have encounter many such people. Some have simply outlived all but the most distant relatives. Others for reason known and unknown have severed ties with family members. Some just come from small families. Recently I have gained greater insight regarding families from one person recently experiencing the death of her only relative and the other a small refugee family torn away from relatives, neighbors, and friends by the ravages of war. Because of my own life experiences, it is quite hard for me to wrap my head around such aloneness.

What these experiences have reinforced in me is the wonderful knowledge that I and each of those who feel so alone are all children of God and part of a great family. We who share in this knowing must realize the ramifications of our responsibilities to our siblings inherited through our relationship with God.

Prayer: Help us accept each other as Christ accepted us; teach us as sister, brother, each person to embrace. Be present, Lord, among us and Bring us to believe: we are ourselves accepted and meant to love and live*. Amen.

*Words from Help Us Accept Each Other by Fred Kaan Hymn Online Words © 1975 Hope Publishing Company see at https://www.hopepublishing.com/find-hymns-hw/hw3521.aspx

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.

Papa, Can You Hear Me?

Living in the Spirit
July 14, 2014

 Scripture Reading: Genesis 28:10-19a

 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went towards Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’  — Genesis 28:10-15

The movie, Yentl, comes to mind when I envision Jacob alone and frightened running from the wrath his brother has for him and seeking refuge with his uncle. In Yentl, a young Jewish girl, a lover of the Torah who is not allowed to pursue it because she is female, runs from her home to become the person she knows she really is. She too was alone out under the night sky with only the light of a single candle to break the darkness. She prays in a song, Papa, can you hear me? And recognizes that the world is so much bigger now that I am alone.* While Jacob and Yentl were running for very different reasons, their experience of being alone with God was similar. In the movie, Yentl seems to address her prayer to both God and her beloved Papa who was the one who introduced her to Yahweh in the first place. Jacob is reassured in a dream that he is to continue the covenantal commitment between his grandfather, Abraham, and God. It is ironic that Jacob, a manipulator and a bit of a scoundrel, is probably escaping justice, while Yentl who has always lived within the tenets of her faith, is escaping injustice.

Justice is an embedded part of wholeness and wholeness is woven through every fiber of justice.  So our work for wholeness must be accompanied by our work for justice and our work for justice must surely include striving for wholeness.

No matter what the circumstances, I believe, we must all spend alone-time with God. The very nature of our relationship with God leads us toward or away from wholeness. Until we get in synch with God, we cannot be God’s champion of Justice.

Prayer: Papa, can you hear me? I want to be in synch with you. Make me whole as You move us ever closer to a just world. Amen. 

*From the movie Yentl: the song Papa, Can You Here Me? Lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman.

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 American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.