Friday, 7 June, 2002

The lead piece is from "Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris. In this book she takes many of the words and images of the faith and attempts to put some reality and life to them.



GOD

Hope may be a kind of name for God, but my favorite is the one revealed to Moses when he is distracted from tending sheep on Mt. Sinai... "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

This is a God who is not identified with the help of a dictionary but through a relationship. One that demands great willingness to trust and to take risks... The next passage might be seen as the premiere of Jewish humor, a theological vaudeville routine. "What is your name?" Moses asks, and God says, "I Am Who I Am." Moses might as well have asked, "Who's on first?"



I was reading a pamphlet that is being handed out to warn college students about religious groups that come around and have a way of pressuring people into submission. They are cult like. They do not allow you to have open friendships with everyone and anyone. They pull you into their way and their people and then demand that you must be in their group or you will be damned. If our God is known through relationship, how can a group claim to be of God when they limit relationships. The Pharisees tried to pull Jesus aside and tell him he should watch out for "those" people with whom he was eating and "hanging out." But Jesus knew about being...and being to its fullest would always mean being in relationship...without bounds. Our God is without bounds and promises to never be detached from God's creation. Our God will be among us pursuing us with an unbounded love. Norris quotes Catherine LaCugna and it is an interesting piece to consider: "One finds God because one is already found by God. Anything we would find on our own would not be GOD."



Connection: Another definition of God by a 7th grader: "I find God through dogs because dogs are full of love." What does this love of God do to the face of your day and then...what does it bring to life in, with, and under your life with others?



Lord God you set our hearts on fire with your love and ongoing presence. As we come to see your power and grace and love unfold in the story of scripture, keep us mindful of how you continue to meet and greet us in this day and among those people who are around us this day. Amen