We continue with pieces from “Holy People” by Gordon Lathrop.
By our reckoning, this ancient name – “the holy people” – is a sort of short-hand for “God’s assembly,” as that idea is known in the Hebrew Scriptures… As a figure of speech moving through time, the name evokes and stands for the story of God gathering the people of the exodus at Sinai and calling them “a holy nation,” God’s own “treasured possession out of all the peoples,” a people who are set aside – “holy” – in their hearing of God’s voice and who live in that holiness by keeping the requirements of the covenant (Exodus 19:5-6). “Holy people,” “holy church,” “all the saints” – such names then apply that story in faith to the present assembly gathered in the name of Christ, borrowing the language of the story to speak of Christian eschatology and make sense of the Christian meeting.
There is the grace-filled history that continues even among us as we come together for worship. The beloved of God gather in line with all those about whom we read when we pick up the Scriptures and are, at times, simply amazed by their lives. The “holy people” are not far off…they…we are in the room together in the midst of our worship and then as we go out to be the “holy people” present to and with the world everyday of our lives. What a line of hopefulness!
Connection: Take a look in the mirror before you leave for work or when you are simply whipped and taking a bathroom break in the middle of the day and remind yourselves whose you are…and the simple fact that no matter how you feel…you are God’s holy ones.
Lord of the Resurrection, when you bring new life, you bring it here and you bring it now and forever. Inspire us to step within the bound of the place you have already set for all your beloved. Amen.
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