A Longing Soul

As the deer longs

 for streams of water,

so my soul longs for you, O God.Psalm 42:1

My neighbor, who has a touch for gardening, worked hard planting a delightful variety of flowers. They were a beautiful sight to behold!

 The flower garden, it turns out, was also a deer buffet. One morning about half a dozen deer showed up and enjoyed themselves devouring the buffet! I don't doubt that my neighbor would have preferred the deer "longed for streams of water" rather than her flowers.

 In this psalm King David complains about his exile and his distance from God's temple. In other words, he can't go to church. His soul longs for the renewal of God's presence because God felt distant, remote, absent. He asks if God has forgotten him and he wants to know where he can go to meet God. People are asking him, "Where is your God?"

 In times when we don’t go to church, or church is virtual, or seats are limited, we may experience the same longing in our souls. God can feel distant, remote or absent. It can feel as though everything about our faith is shrinking. If so, our tendency is to be discouraged and to start to think God is not involved anymore. That God’s kind of left town. It's easy to ask, in our journey of 2020 “Where is God?" In the pandemic, the economy, the hatred, violence, the campaign, “Where is God?”

 For me, just as the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for God, for returning to church. My soul longs for the presence of the family of God, hearing the Word and sharing at the Table, this is the longing of my soul

 But I know God is a living God. God is concerned about our life and world today.

 That's why I hope in God.

That's why I wait for God.

That's why I know God lives, hears, and answers us.

Genuine Love.

Let love be genuine;

hate what is evil,

hold fast to what is good.

Romans 12:9

Sojourner Truth was an African American evangelist, abolitionist, women’s rights activist and author who lived a miserable life as a slave, serving several masters throughout New York before escaping to freedom in 1826. After gaining her freedom, Truth became a Christian and, at what she believed was God’s urging, preached about abolitionism and equal rights for all, highlighted in her stirring “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech, delivered at a women’s convention in Ohio in 1851. She continued her crusade for the rest of her life, earning an audience with President Abraham Lincoln and becoming one of the world’s best-known human rights crusaders. 

In Romans, love is the dominant theme as Paul calls attention to love as the key moral norm for God’s people. Jesus had said that all the law and the prophets hang on two commands: love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

 

In Romans 12:9 Paul says the Christian the calling is to “let love be genuine”, and then shows what this love looks like. Generally, true love is summed up like this: Hate what is evil and cling to what is good

It seems to me that a revival of spiritual love and unity is urgently needed today in what has been called a bankruptcy of love. That is, the predominance of hate and evil appearing to be doing good. Paul encourages peaceful living as a way to cultivate godly love in all people. Therefore, Paul says, the love we are called to live out is not an emotional one, but one that comes from the transforming and spiritual rebirth of our minds, souls, and hearts. It is practical love in that it is experienced by both the self and the other; it is love lived out in ways that always cherishes others. This love seeks justice, forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace.

God's Promise of Hope

  

"Nevertheless,...I will heal my people and will let 

them enjoy abundant peace and security."

Jeremiah 33:6

"Were your parents liberal or conservative?" I was asked.

"Neither," I said. "They were too busy recovering from the Great Depression, living through WWII, and worried about communism."

Reflecting on the question and answer I realize how differently our society has evolved. Social tensions were very different. Employment, the Draft, the Atomic Bomb, and the Red Scare leading to the McCarthy investigations. 

Social tensions today arise around Black Lives Matter, White Supremacy, Police interaction with people, wearing pandemic masks, and conspiracy theories which sometimes result in death. 

I see these issues as signs of a broken relationship with God which are not part of God's will for humanity. This brokenness is called sin.

God called Jeremiah to speak to Israel and has little good news for his people. Jeremiah explains the disaster of Babylonian exile is God's response to Israel's pagan worship, faithlessness and rebelliousness making judgement inevitable. Therefore, Jeremiah warns of destruction to come if they do not mend their broken relationship with God. That destruction is Babylon's siege of Jerusalem.

But there is hope. Jeremiah buys a field as the armies of Babylon are surrounding Jerusalem. His purchase represents hope in God’s faithfulness to his people. Jeremiah often repeats God’s promise of hope.

God promises hope. In Jeremiah 33:6 God says, "Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security". In Jeremiah 33:8 God says, "And I will cleanse away all their sins against me and pardon their sins of rebellion."

God promises hope. In today's broken society, God promises hope because God is faithful to God's people. God will heal the pain and destruction in today's broken society. 

Where do you see God's promise of hope happening ?