An Elder Pilgrim's Reflections

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...

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 Christia...

   "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 disast...