The opening text will come from a book by Abraham Joshua Heschel (God in Search of Man - A Philosophy of Judaism). As you are able to see by the title, the language may be a bit dated and therefore, I will, when able, make the language inclusive.
God seems to be remote, but nothing is as close as (God) is. When we think (God) is close, then (God) is remote; when we think (God) is remote, then (God) is near… The bridge to God is awe.
…We have no nouns by which to describe (God’s) essence; we have only adverbs by which to indicate the ways in which (God) acts toward us.
It is always God who acts…and God is always acting on our behalf...for our well being…for our growth...for the new life that is available and ready for us to enter. Too often, we can be quite tempted to claim that God is our God – packaged as we like and working in a way that would be somewhat in agreement with how we think life – the world – and the cosmos need to be. And yet, in all that speculation for our own benefit, we miss out on the wonder-filled ways God engages us – for our God never stops engaging us. Notice that when we attempt to use adverbs to speak about our God, we are not at all in control of how our God works. Rather, we watch…we wonder…we are filled with awe.
Connection: Our use of language is important. The manner in which we speak about God says quite a bit about how we view our lives and how we go about our day. Listen to how God is addressed by others & one another. We may find out that we need to let go of some of our need to control our God – a futile adventure in and of itself. We may discover how our God steps into our day to be among us.
Come, Lord and dwell among us so that we may find our hope in you alone. Open our eyes to see how you engage us and invite us into new life within this day. Amen.
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