15 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."
God speaks these words to Jacob in a dream. When he awoke he named the place where he was Bethel, which in Hebrew means House of God.
This was one of my readings for this morning. Another was Psalm 90:1 “Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.” The devotion attached to that reading was titled “Where do you dwell?”
Most of us think of our church buildings as God’s House. We go there to worship God. We go there to be part of the Christian community. And right now we cannot go there. We have no idea when we will go there again. One of the most common refrains among Christians these days is “I want to go back to church!”
And God says, I am with you. I will keep you. I will bring you back. I will not leave you.
If we say that we dwell in God, and if we believe the words that God spoke to Jacob, our building is the least important part of our faith. I miss it. I miss the beauty of the stained glass and the old wood. I miss being with my congregation. I miss singing with everyone. But - the building is not necessary to my faith.
As I write this I am also watching the clock, because worship will begin in just about 30 minutes. I will worship from home. I will sing along with the Quarantine Qrew. I will listen to the Pastoral Prayer, and even though I wrote it, the voice of the reader is so beautiful that it becomes like new for me. I will watch myself preach - that’s kind of weird. Then, I will share the Lord’s Supper with all of you, listening as the Elder speaks the words Christians have used for centuries, eating my cracker and drinking my coffee along with you and whatever you are eating and drinking. I know that you are sharing that meal with me, and that knowledge blesses me.
Worship is just 45 minutes once a week. My faith is 24/7. It guides - or is supposed to guide - my words and actions all of the time. I don’t always get it right, but I can lean on God when things go sideways for me. And I can be assured that one day we will be back. We will worship together in person again. We will sing together again. We do not know when. I know this because God says:
I am with you. I will keep you. I will bring you back. I will not leave you.
Gracious God, you are our dwelling place. Even when you have no tent, no temple, no beautiful place of worship in which to live, we worship you where ever we are. Grant that we may wait faithfully and patiently for the time of our return, knowing in the meantime that every place is Beth-el, the House of God. Amen.
1 comment:
Thank you for the prayers that you post at the end.
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