New People, New Places

By

 “Listen also to the immigrant who isn’t from your people Israel but who comes from a distant country because of your reputation— because they will hear of your great reputation, your great power, and your outstretched arm. When the immigrant comes and prays toward this temple, then listen from heaven, where you live, and do everything the immigrant asks. Do this so that all the people of the earth may know your reputation and revere you, as your people Israel do, and recognize that this temple I have built bears your name.”

- 1 Kings 8:41-43 CEB -
We’ve all been there. The new person. A new space. The incredible awkwardness of feeling uncomfortable and alone. While it is tempting to celebrate the season of fall by thinking only of the return of what is familiar, we easily can skip over how the fall brings new rhythms and new places in our lives.


Whether we ourselves have all the newness happening now or not, we know there are those around us that are entering into something new. From moving to a new home and city, starting a new school, or even just walking into a new and different class, we all have immigrants so to speak in our midst and potentially have some small sense ourselves of what it could be like to feel out of place. Of course, it could be very likely that you also have true immigrants in your midst as well.

The verses above are from King Solomon’s dedication of the Israelite temple in Jerusalem. This was a big undertaking that took several generations of hoping and planning to make happen. Definitely something to be proud of and write home about. Yet in what could have very much been Israel-only celebration, King Solomon dedicated a space for those that would be new – those that are in a state of transition – those that are immigrant.

What part of our faith opens us up to those who are entering into a new place and stage in life? How do we ourselves seek God while we are entering into new places and new spaces in our lives? How do we share the love we know from God with those who are different from us? As someone that has not so far removed relatives that were actual immigrants, I am so thankful we worship and serve a God that creates space for all of us, no matter how familiar the places we find ourselves.

To Read More: 2 Kings 8:22-30,41-43, Deuteronomy 24:17-21, Luke 10:25-37

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God's Overlook

By
Image
“Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these ‘nobodies’ to expose the hollow pretensions of the ‘somebodies’? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ.” - 1 Corinthians 1:27-30 The Message - As a person of smaller stature, I hate being overlooked. Some might argue that much of who I am is to stand out and be noticed. Yet no matter how great I think I am, the apostle Paul here reminds us that God has preferential consideration for those who are ‘nobody.’ God uses people who are lost, broken, and left out. Even if we are ‘somebody’ and think we have it all together, when we come before God we must recognize that our plans are silly foolishness compared to the work that God has for us. The trick of course is to not hate o
Read more

Light as a Feather

By
Image
 " And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them,  “If anyone would come after me, let him  deny himself and  take up his cross and follow me.  For  whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake  and the gospel's will save it.     For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?     For  what can a man give in return for his soul? " Mark 8:34-37   (ESV) There is a lot packed in these four verses from Mark. What stands out to me most through all this talk about losing or gaining our lives and our souls, is in verse 34 where we are told to “take up your cross”. This is an instruction I have heard many times through the church, but what does it mean to take up your cross? To me, taking up our cross is choosing to be a Christian everyday. The conscious effort to treat people a certain way, to rely on God, and to think about Him in our actions, decisions, and thoughts. It’s choos
Read more

Light in the Darkness

By
Image
 “Arise! Shine! Your light has come; the Lord’s glory has shone upon you. Though darkness covers the earth and gloom the nations, the Lord will shine upon you; God’s glory will appear over you.” - Isaiah 60:1-2 CEB - Darkness is a real thing. Not only as we get to the winter months where it might be dark before you get home from your afternoon or evening activities, but we know darkness on a personal level sometimes.  Darkness is that voice in us that makes us doubt ourselves. Darkness is that feeling that no one else knows what you’re going through. Darkness is cold isolation and separation.  Yet we know through the birth of Christ that God’s light breaks in upon us. The love of God that comes in Jesus finds us just as we are, just where we are. God’s love warms up the coldest isolation and lets us see ourselves for the beautiful creation God made us to be. One of my favorite images is the sharing of the Christ candle we do at our Christmas Eve services.  Something a
Read more